Chapter 1222: [1222] It’s really troublesome
The newly admitted patient with angina needs further evaluation to rule out a heart attack, so they were sent to the emergency room for observation.
After greeting Doctor Dong, Xin Yanjun took the students back to the consultation room to continue seeing other patients.
The medical records on the desk seemed endless. She didn’t know how late she’d have to work tonight before getting any rest.
The patients coming to the emergency department weren’t necessarily all critical cases. Most of them could actually be resolved during daytime outpatient appointments. For instance, now that it was autumn, many were visiting for cold or fever symptoms.
A male patient came in, a young man in his twenties, complaining of a sore throat.
The doctor asked him to open his mouth and shone a flashlight inside.
Standing by her mentor’s side, Xie Wanying blinked: it was measles Koplik spots.
With widespread vaccination against measles, one consequence was that the onset age had shifted. It no longer occurred in childhood, but was delayed to adulthood. The outbreak season had also moved from autumn to the spring of the following year. This young man’s case of measles was expected yet somewhat surprising to the doctor.
The patient himself hadn’t considered that he might have measles. He just knew his throat hurt, hurt so much he had a fever.
“Doctor, I bought some medicine for my throat at the pharmacy, but it didn’t work. People told me that with such severe pain, it’s probably not pharyngitis but tonsillitis, and that I might need an IV drip. Is that right?”
No, you’re the opposite of that little boy—it’s measles.
Measles is an infectious disease. The consulting doctor felt a bit apprehensive. Thankfully, they were wearing a mask and gloves.
“You need to be admitted to the hospital,” Xin Yanjun immediately told the young man.
“Hospitalized? No way.” The young man waved his hands repeatedly. “I have no money for hospitalization, doctor.”
His clothes made him look like a migrant worker who had come to the city for labor. The doctor noticed this but knew that with his condition, hospitalization was non-negotiable. Leaving aside the risk of infecting others outside, the bigger issue was that adults with measles had a much higher risk of severe complications compared to children.
Now that the patient was running a high fever, the doctor had sufficient reason to suspect his condition might progress to critical severity.
“Do you have any friends? Can you contact your family? Which company do you work for?”
The doctor fired off questions one after another, but the young man only emphasized, “Just give me some medicine or an injection to bring down my fever. I need to return to the construction site tomorrow.”
“Which company do you work for?”
“I’m not staying in the hospital.”
“You can’t refuse! You have measles!”
At times like this, doctors couldn’t always back down. For an elderly woman, the doctor might consider postponing decisive action to assess the situation further. But if this young man were sent back, his condition could worsen rapidly within two days, and he could die.
The young man froze, seemingly unable to grasp why the doctor in front of him was more anxious than the patient himself.
Ignorance breeds fearlessness. For patients like this, they remain oblivious to how close to death they are until their condition deteriorates. They think they’re fine. But doctors, who’ve studied the relevant knowledge, seem to possess a predictive vision—able to foresee the patient’s imminent danger—and can’t help but feel panicked on their behalf.
“You must listen to me. Call your friend here immediately. I don’t believe you don’t have a single friend or fellow villager. Tell them that not admitting you to the hospital is a huge problem. The doctor isn’t lying to you,” Xin Yanjun said, flipping through the medical records in her hand with increasing urgency.
Someone passing by the consultation room paused, overhearing the conversation, and popped their head in to say, “Not admitting him?”
Hearing this voice, everyone in the room turned their heads.
It was Doctor Li Chengyuan. Xie Wanying recognized him as a senior from the cardiothoracic surgery department.