episode_0164

Episode 164. Cat Suin (3)

****

I still felt uneasy about treating Daisy with confidence. She was different from humans in many ways. To fill in the gaps I didn’t know…

Let’s go find someone who might know.

Other professors might have seen Suin. They’ve lived in this world longer. I went to Professor Klaus’s lab.

“Professor Asterix. Hello.”

“Look at this.”

“What is it?”

A medical record was placed on Professor Klaus’ desk. The professor frowned, then put on his glasses because the writing on the medical record was too small.

“I’m sorry. Our graduate student writes really small. Maybe because he’s shy.”

“Youth is great.”

The paper for the medical records was turned over.

“I heard that a girl with a cat personality was hospitalized recently. Since they are different from humans, I was curious if the professor had any experience treating cats.”

“How many people are there?”

“Yes.”

The old professor thought about it for a moment.

“I have hardly ever treated a patient with a disability. They are not people who interact much with the mainstream society. It is hard to find a patient who comes to the Academy Hospital.”

“Well, I didn’t really feel that way. He just seemed like a normal kid who grew up.”

“There are people like that. Should we say that they have successfully integrated into human society?”

Back to the main topic.

“Do you know anything about the physiological characteristics of the water man? I took a small amount of opium painkiller and it froze me like a corpse and I was shocked.”

“It seems a little different.”

“My hypothesis is this. Cats seem to share cat traits. So they have a fast metabolism, don’t blink, and don’t eat food that cats can’t eat.”

Klaus nodded.

Smiling faintly as if he found it funny.

“Oh, right. Why are you asking me about something that Professor Asterix should explain?”

That was right.

Professor Klaus also didn’t seem to know much about Suin. Rather, I think I know better since I’ve seen it in person.

“I was curious about the professor’s opinion. I think it would be helpful to record the differences between population groups, because the differences are bigger than I thought.”

“But what does it mean when they say they put a tube in my chest cavity? Will that help me breathe?”

Let’s see if everyone finds that interesting.

“There are lungs in the thoracic cavity, and they are filled with air, right? When the diaphragm goes down, the lungs inflate. But if there is blood in the thoracic cavity, you can’t breathe. That needs to be removed first.”

“I came to the hospital with a hole, and they solved it by drilling another hole in my side.”

Professor Klaus chuckled.

“Location is important.”

I thought about that for a moment.

Since there’s already a hole in the side, why not just put the chest tube in there?

Of course, that’s not possible.

“The patient is lucky.”

“In what way?”

“If it were another healer, they would have just given him some painkillers and given up. But isn’t a punctured lung not an easy wound to survive?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s not the number of cats that matters. It’s the lungs… … . To put it in Professor Asterix’s favorite expression, I think we lack some understanding of the structure and function of the lungs.”

“Yes?”

Professor Klaus put his glasses down on the desk and stared blankly at me.

“I don’t really understand what you’re saying. Why can’t I breathe because of the arrow hole, but how can I breathe if I make a hole for the chest tube? It’s a bit incoherent.”

That was the problem.

“Ah. Right. You need to know exactly how the lungs work so you can figure out where and why to put a chest tube in… … .”

The process of breathing.

Negative pressure in the thoracic cavity, respiratory muscles, etc. Intuitively, if you move, you can breathe, right?

-You might think so.

Anything can be expressed and organized theoretically to provide a basis. A theoretical basis must be provided before one can wield a surgical knife.

“Then. The breathing process is not complicated, so I will prepare a special lecture and present it soon.”

I’ll have to check again.

It would be a good idea to check how far the current theory has developed and what people know, and then organize it into a paper and publish it later.

This is something I’ve never really thought about until now. The breathing process isn’t that hard to understand, right? It’s intuitive, and you can just try it.

That was the wrong idea.

A theoretical basis is needed.

In someone’s paper, it was said that negative pressure in the thoracic cavity is the core principle of breathing. If we can properly present this, we can provide treatment based on it.

“Is this a new discovery?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

****

Morning rounds time. There were a bunch of cats gathered in front of the patient’s room. Perhaps they were the family of Daisy, the patient I saw yesterday?

A roaring sound.

In front of the hospital room, seven members of Daisy’s family were gathered. They were all talking about something. They were moving their ears, making eye contact, or whispering something to each other.

I walked towards the forest of cat ears.

Thump, thump, thump.

It was a rather bizarre sight.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the gathered cat ears turned toward me all at once. I stopped in front of the group of cats.

“Did you come to visit me?”

“Oh, are you the professor?”

I nodded.

“Oh my. Thank you so much. I thought I would die without being able to move, but somehow I miraculously survived. I’m really, really grateful… … .”

The woman who I thought was Daisy’s mother knelt down, holding my hand. I helped her up again.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”

“I just thought he was dead. I never imagined that a child who was shot in the side with an arrow could be saved.”

“The hospital is originally a place where people come to live. You don’t need to worry too much.”

It’s messy because there are so many people. It’s even more messy because the moving cat ears distract the viewer. Compared to humans, that is.

“Will our child survive?”

“Yes. First of all.”

“Where are you hurt?”

“Move.”

Let’s start by cleaning up around the sickroom. I pushed the guardians to one side and then started explaining.

“The patient was hit in the side with an arrow, and his lung was punctured. I sewed up the wound and drained the blood so he could breathe. His current condition is stable.”

“Is that okay?”

“Yes. However, the patient will be very tired and will not be able to talk much. So don’t ask the patient to talk too much.”

Daisy’s mother nodded.

“Then… … . I’ll go check on the patient’s condition. Please step aside for a moment. It might get messy if there are too many people.”

Then, I used my hand to chase away the cat family. It took some time to drive away the cat family from around the hospital room.

“Please wait outside for a moment.”

****

Daisy’s condition was fine.

The area where the chest tube was inserted didn’t seem to be swollen. There was no infection, and he was breathing normally. He still complained of pain all over his body, but honestly, it’s strange that he doesn’t feel pain.

I went back to the lab.

“Istina. This patient reminded me of this. How much do you understand about the breathing process? Do you know how the lungs move?”

“Well, I guess it moves with muscles.”

I shook my head.

This is only half true. The muscles inside the lungs do not cause the lungs to breathe. The lungs are too fragile an organ to do that.

What if you tied a rubber band to the outside of a balloon? Would it work properly?

There is very little muscle inside the lungs. The respiratory muscles are responsible for moving the lungs so that we can breathe. The diaphragm is the largest and most representative.

When it comes to pork parts, it’s galmaegisal.

“Look.”

I roughly drew a square on the clipboard.

The thoracic cavity, which is the space where the lungs enter.

“First of all. Did you know that the thoracic cavity contains air instead of water? That’s why the lungs can inflate freely.”

“Oh, I guess so.”

Istina nodded. It’s hard to inflate a balloon underwater. It makes more sense for the lungs to be in air.

“Think about it, Istina. How do you think the muscles of the rib cage move the lungs?”

“Uh… … . Well.”

“Think about it. Why can the lungs move constantly even though they don’t have muscles?”

“Wait a minute. Lungs don’t have muscles?”

“Yeah.”

Istina tilted her head.

“Moves when other muscles move?”

“That’s right. Since the thoracic cavity is a sealed space, when the rib cage expands, the pressure in the thoracic cavity decreases, and then the lungs have no choice but to expand.”

“Oh… … .”

“What have you been thinking so far?”

That’s what’s important.

What did she originally think, and what misconceptions were prevalent in academia? Istina pondered the diagram for a long time.

“I just vaguely thought that you breathe by moving your body’s muscles. Can you breathe by consciously thinking about it?”

“There is no specific principle.”

Two ovals in a box, a tube connecting the ovals. A schematic diagram of the respiratory system. Istina applied red ink under one oval.

“Ah. That was the problem… …! The blood takes up space, making it difficult for the lungs to expand, so the water has to be drained from the chest cavity to breathe.”

Now I understand.