Chapter 408: Princess Syndrome (2)
Su Yun, Chang Yue, and the others were busy preparing for surgery. On the other hand, Zheng Ren had nothing much to do during this period. He started examining the patient’s scans that were put up on the film viewer.
Since the occurrence of Rapunzel Syndrome was rather rare, he should take this opportunity to study it since there was nothing he could do except to wait for the surgery.
This was the privilege of a superior medical officer. Most chiefs would request their subordinates to call them to the operating table after they had finished lining up the sterile sheets.
Zheng Ren did not have that kind of luxury, nor would he be that pompous.
The emergency department was already short-handed at the moment.
After a while, they received the case file and Chang Yue started to write medical notes. The gastric tube and urinary catheter were set aside, prepared. They were only waiting for the patient to complete the preoperative assessment so that they could start the surgery.
“Chief Zheng, are you busy?”
While the staff from the emergency ward were preparing the surgery orderly, a cheerful Chief Sun walked in.
“Oh, Chief Sun,” Zheng Ren smiled and greeted, “We have a case of intestinal obstruction. We’re in the middle of preparing to operate.”
Chief Sun’s eyelids started twitching. Recently, the traffic of general surgeries decreased significantly because most of them were dealt with by the emergency department.
However, he did not mention anything about that. Instead, the smile on his face grew, and he said, “Chief Zheng, I’m here to show you the peritoneal loose body you diagnosed the other day.”
Chief Sun reached for his phone and showed Zheng Ren the pictures he took.
The specimen looked like a giant goose egg. After closing up, Chief Sun dissected the ‘goose egg’ and the boundaries of the egg white and yolk were very clear. If the person who saw it did not know anything about medicine, to them, it would look like it belonged in somebody’s kitchen.
Zheng Ren had seen it during the operation, but Chief Sun showed him the final diagnosis from pathology and gave a clearer description of the specimen sections.
“Chief Zheng, you’re really good at diagnosis,” Chief Sun praised him while affectionately patting his shoulder.
“Haha,” Zheng Ren laughed dryly and gave him a quick glance before returning to the scans on the film viewer.
Chief Sun felt a little insulted.
He was trying to get on his good side, but Zheng Ren gave him the cold shoulder.
‘You really think your diagnostic skills are great?’ he thought.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
However, he was far too cunning to express his anger. He just followed Zheng Ren’s gaze.
“This is a typical intestinal obstruction. Why are you looking at it, Chief Zheng?” Chief Sun said after glancing at the scans.
The images and the reports of the patient all showed that it was a typical condition; nothing from the scan stood out.
“Oh, this intestinal obstruction is caused by Rapunzel Syndrome,” Zheng Ren answered briefly. “I wanted to study it since it’s quite rare–to reduce the possibility of misdiagnosing it in the future.”
“Ra…what syndrome?” Chief Sun was stunned.
F*ck, what did Zheng Ren say?
Rare disease? Chief Sun regretted right after he asked. He quickly redirected his focus to the scans and tried to look for indicative signs for that syndrome.
“It’s called Rapunzel Syndrome.” Zheng Ren also had a good memory, but he was busy working part-time to earn a living when he was in school. Therefore, he did not have the luxury to visit the library to read journals.
“The patient has a mental and physical disorder where they can’t resist the urge to eat their hair. Since hair is indigestible, it forms a gastrolith in the intestines and causes blockages,” Zheng Ren gave a simple explanation while he continued to observe the scans, his hand under his chin, trying to search for other indicative features.
Chief Sun was totally lost.
He had never heard of Rapunzel Syndrome. Eating hair? Why did he never encounter something like that after so many years of practice?
Nevertheless, he buried these questions and observed the scans with Zheng Ren.
“Lil Fugui, can you come here for a moment?” Zheng Ren called out.
“What’s the matter, Boss?” Professor Rudolf Wagner rushed toward him enthusiastically.
“Are there any typical characteristics of Rapunzel Syndrome in imaging?” Zheng Ren asked.
“Boss, you’re so funny.” Professor Rudolf Wagner pointed at the scans. “The images can only differentiate the density of the fecalith that was causing the obstruction, but the difference is too small to be detected. Surgery will be more ideal as a diagnostic method.”
Zheng Ren nodded.
The professor’s opinion was similar to his.
He would proceed with the surgery then.
Chief Sun was perplexed. Did Zheng Ren get a conclusive diagnosis? Why was he so confident when he mentioned it to him, yet still asked the professor for advice?
“Chief Sun, please excuse me,” Zheng Ren said to Chief Sun with a smile when he heard Su Yun call him to go into surgery. “I’m going in for surgery now.”
“I’ll come with you,” Chief Sun said. “I’ve never heard of Rapunzel Syndrome.”
Chief Sun was used to being on the losing side. He had given up on competing with Zheng Ren long ago.
Even though Zheng Ren was younger than him, his surgical skills were much better.
He had a lot of time on his hands since there were not many general surgeries these days, so he decided to observe the operation.
If it was a confirmed case of Rapunzel Syndrome, he would go back and research it so that he could boast during the annual conference of general surgery.
Zheng Ren did not refuse his request. There was nothing wrong with a chief of the general surgery department observing a surgery.
Chang Yue had already completed the preoperative procedures. Zheng Ren took the case file and headed to the operating room.
Suddenly, Chief Sun called out, “Chief Zheng…”
“Chief Sun, please call me Little Zheng. I’m not comfortable with you addressing me as Chief Zheng,” Zheng Ren said with a laugh.
“Sure, Little Zheng. I heard that you went to the Secondary Hospital to perform a few TIPS surgeries?” Chief Sun casually inserted this question on the way to the operating room.
“Hmm,” Zheng Ren answered. “I’ve done almost ten surgeries.”
“…” Chief Sun stumbled in surprise, but he quickly caught up with Zheng Ren.
It being a rare disease, Chief Sun had no idea what Rapunzel Syndrome was.
However, diseases like decompensated cirrhosis with clinical symptoms of portal hypertension, hematemesis, and ascites were the most common cases in general surgery and gastroenterology.
A few years back, they would need to perform porto-azygos disconnection.
Due to a lack of fibrinogen and the high risk of porto-azygos disconnection, the rise of TIPS surgery in the interventional field had replaced this common procedure from general surgery.
Chief Sun sighed when he thought about how Zheng Ren even managed to master the most difficult procedure: TIPS surgery.
“Little Zheng, I’ll be straightforward with you. I have an old mate with serious liver cirrhosis and ascites. His condition is way beyond control,” Chief Sun said. “Can you tell me who you learned TIPS surgery from? Can you give me a referral so that I can help my friend transfer to Imperial Capital or Sorcery Capital to receive surgery from your mentor?”
“Learn?” Zheng Ren asked. He was caught by surprise. He was not paying attention to Chief Sun’s rambling. His mind was occupied with the Rapunzel Syndrome.