The Enhanced Doctor

Chapter 1155: Chapter 1155: Head Jerking Is Indeed a Symptom

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"One, two, three, transfer the bed."

"I’ll do the physical exam, also hook up an ECG. Then draw blood for a CBC and blood biochemistry."

After moving the bed, Xu Yino said.

"Doctor, please also do an alcohol test." The traffic police officer who had rushed over added.

Xu Yino nodded and started examining the patient.

Liu Banxia also came over; he needed to judge the patient’s condition, to see whether this quest meant the patient really had some other problem.

He just stared at the patient’s neck, but couldn’t see anything.

The patient’s neck was no longer doing that involuntary wobbling, and since the patient worked outdoors a lot, his skin was dark, so nothing could be seen either.

"Pupils show no dilation, laceration on the head, no obvious bleeding. Auscultation shows normal heart and lung sounds, abdomen soft, bowel sounds normal. Hmm... seems like the spleen is somewhat enlarged, push over the portable ultrasound."

Xu Yino said while examining.

The nurse next to them hurriedly pushed it over.

After applying couplant, Xu Yino began doing an abdominal ultrasound for the patient.

"The spleen shows signs of enlargement; at present it’s impossible to determine whether it’s primary enlargement or post-traumatic enlargement; the overlap with the steering-wheel imprint is high." Xu Yino reported while scanning.

"Liver size and shape are normal, capsule smooth. Parenchymal echogenicity shows diffusely increased and coarsened echoes, with uneven distribution of echo spots. Vascular display... is not very clear, course not very natural."

After speaking, she pried open the patient’s eyelids and checked the eyeballs.

"The eyeballs show mild jaundice. Combined with the liver ultrasound findings, add a liver and kidney function test. Now scan the gallbladder—shape is normal... kidneys... no obvious abnormalities seen."

"Do a head CT and an abdominal CT, that’s all. Teacher Liu, is that okay?"

Liu Banxia smiled and nodded. "What are you showing off for? Been putting effort into ultrasound lately? You’re not going to miss views like you used to?"

"Heh, absolutely. I think the patient’s trauma isn’t much of an issue. But the spleen is enlarged, and combined with the liver ultrasound findings, it might well be some liver cirrhosis." Xu Yino said.

"The scleral jaundice is very mild, plus the patient’s skin tone, so I didn’t identify the jaundice right away. But doing the abdominal ultrasound kind of made up for it, right?"

"The signs really are very mild; I was a bit farther away and didn’t see it at all." Liu Banxia nodded, giving his approval.

Xu Yino was secretly delighted; she really had been putting more work into imaging knowledge lately. Otherwise she wouldn’t have muttered such a detailed description today—it’s not like she was in the ultrasound department doing a formal report.

Liu Banxia, on the other hand, was a bit puzzled. From the current situation, the patient’s manifestations did lean toward cirrhosis. It might well be that the neck wobble he’d seen was just a normal kind of neural reflex.

"What does he do for a living?" Liu Banxia came up to the traffic officer.

"Delivery truck driver, also responsible for loading and unloading the goods," the officer said.

"He drove straight into a small convenience store, so we also have to see if he was driving under the influence. Fortunately, aside from some damaged goods and a broken glass door, no one else was injured."

"No wonder his skin is that dark. These days the guys delivering box trucks also handle the loading and unloading?" Liu Banxia asked curiously.

The traffic cop nodded. "Pretty much. For these small-goods delivery trucks in the city, it’s all done by the driver, but their pay is a bit higher than just regular drivers."

"It’s all about cutting costs, otherwise bringing another loader would cost a few thousand a month. Better to just give it to the driver; works out for both sides."

"That’s exactly how it is. It’s not like the old days; I remember back then drivers only drove, and didn’t care about anything else." Liu Banxia said with a smile.

"But the likelihood of drunk driving or drugged driving is very low; I didn’t smell any alcohol at all. Not sure if he was distracted or if some other illness caused it. There’s at least some degree of cirrhosis."

This also counted as a brief update on the patient’s condition; he was naturally chatty, and now he’d also picked up some information about the patient.

But this quest regarding the patient was giving him a bit of a headache now.

It might just be a reward of a few dozen experience points, and he was overthinking it.

He felt a bit helpless about that possibility.

Quests were triggered based on his own judgments; sometimes they were something impressive, other times they were trivial.

The key was whatever thought happened to be in his mind at the time.

On this point, he felt the system was a bit too "humanized." Useless quests didn’t need to pop up; sometimes it wound him up for nothing, and he ended up getting squat.

"Director Liu, Director Liu, that complaining patient’s family has filed another appeal; they won’t accept the last investigation result." Just as he was mulling things over, Wang Chao came running over.

"Sigh... I just realized I’ve been sighing way too much today." Liu Banxia said helplessly.

"Maybe it’s because they heard you’re going to be in charge of the department. Anyway, I just feel with them making such a fuss, the odds are they’re still after money." Wang Chao said.

"Whatever it is, the Medical Affairs Department has already taken over, so it has nothing to do with me anymore." Liu Banxia said indifferently.

"Understanding and accepting are forever two completely different things. I just kinda don’t get it—can’t they go ask someone who actually knows what’s going on? The hospital’s attitude is already that clear, there must be a reason for it."

"Who knows, maybe they really don’t have that much money to pay the medical bills. That last round of resuscitation wasn’t cheap." Wang Chao said.

Liu Banxia shook his head. As far as this matter was concerned, he no longer had any opinion at all, or rather, he had completely stopped thinking about this patient.

It wasn’t exactly disappointment. After seeing so many patients, this kind of thing was definitely not an isolated case, and he’d probably run into it again in the future.

"These next few days are really going to be rough. Our respected Officer Ma also has to work overtime." Wang Chao said.

"Bought a gift?" Liu Banxia asked with a smile.

"How could I not? I’ve figured it out now: if you don’t talk about money, feelings get hurt; if you do talk about feelings, your wallet really gets hurt." Wang Chao said pitifully.

"It’s not such a big deal. Your salary this month won’t be low. You’re the chief resident after all." Liu Banxia offered a bit of comfort.

"That’s all my hard-earned money. I don’t make it easy." Wang Chao said.

"Doesn’t matter. This time you’re helping out Xu Yino and the others as an extra hand, it’s not like you’re helping me. If you want perks, go ask them." Liu Banxia said lazily.

"How could I bear to bully them?" Wang Chao said irritably.

"You have to help do the work and they don’t even give you any perks—where are you going to find such a sweet deal? I’m Yang Bailao, you’re Huang Shiren. Last time you guys went for barbecue you didn’t even take me along."

Liu Banxia gave him a helpless look. "Was it me who didn’t take you? Weren’t you off being all lovey-dovey with Officer Ma?"

"How is that my fault? I booked that date ages ago." Wang Chao argued on principle.

The two of them were just chatting idly, treating it as a bit of relaxation.

This was their way of communicating, more or less matching their style. When they had downtime, they were a bit unserious, that’s all.

But as they chatted, Liu Banxia frowned. "Xu Yino, your patient still hasn’t had his CT done? How come there’s been no movement at all?"

Xu Yino, who was helping debride a patient’s wound, froze for a second. "Oh, right, I got so busy I forgot. I’ll call over there and ask. There aren’t that many patients this afternoon."

Once Xu Yino finished with the patient she was working on, she made the call.

"Teacher Liu, the patient had a bit of an issue while they were scanning his head. His neck moved, so they need to rescan. Maybe he was starting to wake up." Xu Yino said after hanging up.

Hearing that, Liu Banxia’s brows knitted together at once.

This situation really was a bit off. The patient’s neck movement might not be just a random occurrence; there could be something wrong.

And this kind of involuntary neck movement is more or less all due to muscle activity. It’s quite possible the patient might have other symptoms.

"Teacher Liu, what’s wrong? Something up?"

Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, Xu Yino ran straight over.

"Nothing much, I just feel like there’s a small issue. Have the blood test results come out yet?" Liu Banxia asked.

"Not yet, but I think liver cirrhosis is a sure thing." Xu Yino said.

"You can basically see it directly on the CT; that’ll be faster than the blood tests. We didn’t mark it as urgent, so we can’t just bump it up randomly."

"Sounds impressive. Add an extra dish for me tomorrow at lunch?" Liu Banxia asked.

"Teacher Liu, you still haven’t said it—does this patient have some condition I haven’t picked up on yet? I just feel like the look on your face right now is a bit unusual." Xu Yino said.

Liu Banxia nodded very frankly. "There are indeed some symptoms—his neck shaking. I saw it once when he was just brought in. This is his second episode of unconscious, involuntary movement."

"In this kind of situation, we have to think about what’s causing it. It’s not like he’d do this for no reason, right? Got any inspiration?"

Xu Yino frowned. "A neurological cause? Let’s wait for the head CT result. It’s really hard to say right now. Otherwise, how did he end up driving into someone’s shop? There might be an organic lesion."

"Anyway, we just wait for the results. Before the tests come back, everything is unknown." Liu Banxia nodded.

Right now he didn’t dare make any rash conclusions. Random guessing was useless; at most he could turn things over in his mind. A real diagnosis still had to be based on data and imaging findings.

But what he could be sure of now was that the patient’s current presentation really was a manifestation of disease. They could follow this lead to investigate further, which would let him complete his task while also uncovering the patient’s hidden health risks.

If the patient could wake up, that would be even better. At least then they could ask him a few questions.

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