The Enhanced Doctor

(Thanks to Dou Happy for the encouragement with the monthly ticket)

"How is the inquiry going outside?"

Liu Banxia came to the edge of the isolation area and asked.

"Useful information is close to none," Chen Xuehai said.

"They were having a company team-building event, and this year it was somewhat special, so they decided to have a barbecue in the yard. It started out fine, but not long after the first patient left, someone started feeling unwell."

"Do you think there might be a problem with their food?" Liu Banxia asked.

"I don’t think so. There were several grills, and everyone was gathered around, cooking and eating together. Plus, all of them ate the food. If it were food poisoning, more people would definitely be affected," Chen Xuehai said.

"How about inside? Have the patients provided any useful information? They should have more direct feelings, right?"

Liu Banxia shook his head. "There’s nothing much. They just said they were eating fine, and then started feeling unwell. Since they were closest to us and it looked serious, they drove straight over here."

"The symptoms are a bit confusing now. You should urge the lab to quickly provide us with some useful information. For now, all we can do is try our best to improve the patients’ breathing quality."

"Cultivation takes time. What kind of bacteria could it be? Oh, Chief Director Zheng, you’re here," Chen Xuehai said halfway, noticing Zheng Huiling, the deputy chief director, walking over.

"What’s the current situation? The leaders from the Health Construction Commission will arrive soon," Zheng Huiling asked.

"There are currently twelve patients. Four have been intubated. We’ve given them bronchodilator medications, and the patients all exhibit symptoms of acute respiratory distress," Liu Banxia said.

"We are also verifying relevant information with the patients’ colleagues outside, but none of it is valuable. However, it seems we can basically rule out airborne viruses or food poisoning," Chen Xuehai said.

"Everyone was eating barbecue in the yard, and they all had the same food. If it were an airborne virus, more people would probably show symptoms."

"How are the patients who were intubated? Can they hold on?" Zheng Huiling asked.

"The situation is still unclear; the symptoms are progressing too rapidly," Liu Banxia said with a wry smile.

"All of them have rapidly dropping blood oxygen levels, and even with intubation and oxygen, the effect is not very good. The key now is to determine the patients’ cause of illness..."

"Beep beep... beep beep..."

"Teacher Liu, another patient’s blood pressure and oxygen levels are dropping rapidly," Su Wenhao shouted.

Liu Banxia couldn’t concern himself with anything else and ran over directly.

"Blood pressure 60/40, heart rate 140," Su Wenhao said anxiously.

"How should we handle this, with diltiazem?" Liu Banxia suddenly asked.

"No, although diltiazem can stabilize the heart rate, it will lower the blood pressure even more," Su Wenhao quickly said.

"Get an ice bag."

Liu Banxia said, pressing on the patient’s carotid sinus.

Su Wenhao was startled. Just now, he was also thinking of pressing the carotid sinus to control the heart rate. However, pressing it would also lower the blood pressure, and with the patient’s blood pressure already so low, how could they handle it?

But then he noticed that when Liu Banxia was pressing, his fingers were moving like a telegraph operator, rapidly pressing at a high frequency.

"Director Liu, the ice bag is here."

At this time, a nurse also came running with an ice bag.

"Place it on the patient’s face."

Liu Banxia said, without stopping the pressure from his fingers.

The nurse didn’t hesitate for a moment and immediately placed the ice bag on the patient’s face.

After three or four seconds, Liu Banxia withdrew his hand and stared at the electrocardiograph.

"Okay, the heart rate has come down, but the blood oxygen is still low. Intubate and get them on a ventilator."

After about ten more seconds, Liu Banxia removed the ice bag.

"Remember, for patients with low blood pressure and tachycardia, ice bags on the face can be somewhat effective. But the time duration can’t be long, control each session to within twenty seconds."

"If it’s too long, it will also lower the patient’s blood pressure due to the cold. All our medical interventions need to be used cautiously. This includes pressing the carotid sinus, which demands a high degree of sensitivity in the hands."

Su Wenhao nodded seriously.

He knew that only Liu Banxia could do it; if it were anyone else, they might not be able to feel the carotid sinus pulsation pressure and thus couldn’t adjust the force.

"There’s another patient who needs intubation. I don’t even know now whether to intubate all of these patients to ensure airway protection," Liu Banxia moved back to the edge of the isolation area.

"What were the results of the examination inside?" Zheng Huiling asked.

"The symptoms are not explicitly indicative, and the ages at which they manifest are also unclear. The oldest patient is over fifty, and the youngest is in their twenties," Liu Banxia said with a wry smile.

"So this also increases the difficulty in diagnosing the illness significantly. I’ll go back and ask again; maybe there are details they overlooked."

"Director Liu, try to be as detailed as possible," Zheng Huiling said.

Liu Banxia nodded.

After turning back, Liu Banxia took a look and chose the youngest guy.

In his view, the young man is strong and should be able to hold on a little longer; maybe he could provide some useful information.

"How are you feeling now?" Liu Banxia asked.

"Cough, cough, cough... It’s still hard to breathe; even with the oxygen mask, it doesn’t feel quite right."

The young man coughed a bit first, then replied.

"Try to recall, did you notice anything unusual at that time?" Liu Banxia asked.

"There was nothing unusual; we were just having a barbecue," the young man replied.

"Did you see the first patient when they started to show symptoms?" Liu Banxia continued to ask.

The young man nodded, "I saw it. Sister Qu said she felt a bit uncomfortable. She already had some cold symptoms. Brother Zhou took her to rest for about five or six minutes, then he said he’d take her to the hospital."

"We were joking at the time, saying Brother Zhou should take good care of her. But unexpectedly, after a few minutes, some of us started having trouble breathing too. Cough, cough, cough..."

"Then think again, did you have any food preferences while having the barbecue? Did a few of you eat more of certain types of food than others?" Liu Banxia asked again.

The young man shook his head, "We ate the same things, cough, cough, cough... There was a lot of smoke from the barbecue, and the wind was swirling. We joked that we had to chase the tail of the wind."

"Hey? I remember now, maybe because we were together? Yes, yes... indeed we were all together while the others were under the eaves."

Liu Banxia frowned; instinctively, he felt this was crucial information. But it was still a bit vague — could it be that those outside were exposed to a virus?

"One last question, did you smell anything unusual or something irritating?" Liu Banxia asked.

The young man thought for a moment, then shook his head, "Just the barbecue smell, nothing else."

"Alright, get some rest," Liu Banxia nodded.

"Teacher Liu, the intubated patients are showing signs of atelectasis," Xu Yino whispered.

"Keep monitoring; the blood test results aren’t conclusive. The culture results..."

"Beep, beep-beep, beep, beep-beep..."

Liu Banxia hadn’t finished speaking when the ECG monitor of another patient started ringing madly again.

And this patient’s condition was more severe, with pink frothy sputum oozing from the corner of his mouth.

"Pulmonary edema, 20 units of etomidate, 100 units of succinylcholine, administer and prepare for intubation," Liu Banxia said.

Xu Yino didn’t hesitate and immediately tore open the intubation kit.

"Teacher Liu, you do it; there’s vomit, and I can’t see clearly," Xu Yino shouted after opening the patient’s jaw.

Liu Banxia didn’t delay, directly taking over from Xu Yino.

Indeed, there was a lot of vomit from this patient, but there was no time for suctioning now — he had to rely on his sense of touch.

The only guide was the faint vibration of the patient’s tracheal ring. Anyway, he couldn’t see what he was doing clearly, so Liu Banxia simply closed his eyes.

The movements couldn’t be too fast to prevent undue harm to the patient. Yet, they couldn’t be too slow either, or the patient would be in danger.

Everyone was nervously watching, not just the medical staff and patients in the isolation area but also Director Chen and the Health Construction Commission leaders outside were focused on him.

Liu Banxia exhaled deeply and pulled out the stylet, "Connect the balloon first, let’s check the breathing."

Ding! Emergency intubation task completed

Received 300 experience points, Glory Points +20 points

This task is rated as perfect, received 500 experience points, Glory Points 10 points +40 points, 1 solidification stone

Everyone also breathed a sigh of relief; at least the intubation was successful, and the patient’s vital signs could be temporarily maintained.

"Teacher Liu, that was awesome," Xu Yino said while pressing the balloon.

"When you press the balloon, what do you feel?" Liu Banxia asked.

"Hmm... It feels like the patient’s inhalation power is weak, as if both the exhaled and inhaled air are minimal," Xu Yino thought for a moment and said.

Liu Banxia frowned slightly, aligning with his judgment.

The symptoms shown by these patients all suddenly present with breathing weakness, but not like respiratory muscle paralysis.

Could it still be related to the lungs?

But regardless of what kind of pneumonia it might be, how could it cause such significant damage so quickly?

The patients were all very healthy before; it happened so suddenly.

Could the possibility of internal causes be ruled out, and instead, external factors caused the current symptoms?

What kind of damage or intrusion could cause acute respiratory distress in the patients?

If it were a virus, there wouldn’t be so many "survivors."

The recent pulmonary edema patient is only in his thirties, and the nearby patient in his forties is still using an oxygen mask.

Thinking deeply, Liu Banxia frowned, "Director Chen, get me a fiber optic bronchoscope."

Upon hearing his words, Chen Xuehai was momentarily stunned, then hurriedly headed towards the ENT department.