Chapter 133: Daily life in pediatrics
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Luckily for Zhang Fan, he had been rotated to the pediatrics department in summer. The pediatrics department would have far more patients in winter, the season for illnesses. But even though it wasn’t the peak season right now, there were still so many children who came for treatment.
He Fang had graduated from medical school in Rock City. She had also cried back in the day as she had been forced into pediatrics. But after several years here, she became truly impressed with Director Tang Liuhong’s medical skills and way of treating others. He Fang did her best to learn from the director, and calmly concentrated on her work. After several years, He Fang was now one of the top pediatricians among the younger doctors in the department.
Originally, He Fang was going to be sent out on a study program, but that had been delayed due to her recent pregnancy.
For Chasu City in summer, the most common problem that children came to the pediatrics department for was diarrhea. So many children all coming up to the doctor with lean and haggard looks was really heartbreaking.
Children’s immune systems were weaker that adults’. Children also wouldn’t know as well how to defend themselves against becoming ill. If their parents didn’t pay attention, children would often stuff themselves to the point of overeating. And since China currently had a one child policy, most families spoiled their only child far too much. Parents would be afraid of their children not eating good enough and not growing up properly, so they would constantly feed their children, which would weaken the children’s stomachs. More illnesses was thus the result of having all those extra vitamins!
Zhang Fan was now working together with He Fang. She was a really nice person. Since she needed to breastfeed her child, her husband would bring her all of her meals from home. Shao Hua’s father was now busy overseeing the new apartment home’s renovation, Jingshu was learning how to drive a car at driving school, and Shao Hua had to work. Zhang Fan no longer asked for his food to be delivered to him, as that would be too much work for Shao Hua’s mother.
Whenever He Fang and Zhang Fan worked the same shift together, He Fang would always ask her husband to bring an extra meal just for Zhang Fan. He felt awkward about eating it, and the food wasn’t really to his taste. However, He Fang knew that Zhang Fan wasn’t a local from the border province. All the veteran doctors had previously been newbie rotation doctors before as well. No matter what, she always made sure to bring extra food for Zhang Fan.
The food that He Fang’s husband prepared for her was extra nutritious as she was a breastfeeding mother! This made Zhang Fan really feel awkward about eating it. He Fang’s husband would sit down next to them and watch in satisfaction as Zhang Fan and He Fang ate. He felt that only by having a good appetite would his wife produce breast milk, and be able to properly feed their pudgy son all the breast milk he wanted!
Later this afternoon, a patient from a smaller city arrived. The patient was a six-month-old boy. One week ago, he started having diarrhea for no apparent reason. He had stool which was loose and yellow. He would poop for six to seven times per day, or even up to 10 times a day at most. The stool was often accompanied by sticky fluids, and traces of blood. However, the stool was only loose but not watery. There was no purulent discharge, no obvious stench, no out of the ordinary crying, no vomiting, no fever, and no abdominal distension.
The local city hospital had already treated the boy for an entire week, but nothing improved. The parents then took their son to a women’s and children’s hospital. The doctor there looked over the local city hospital’s treatment and found that the local city hospital had already used all of the correct commonly prescribed medication for young children’s diarrhea. The doctor didn’t know what else to do, and didn’t even let the child stay at the hospital, instead simply telling the parents that they should take their son to the pediatrics department of Chasu City Hospital.
All checkups on the child came back normal, except for the minor amount of bleeding in the child’s stool. Zhang Fan looked at the young child. The child didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore. His lips were slightly dry, and he was waving his arms around, looking for his mommy! His eyes had also lost the shining luster that they should have had.
Zhang Fan also checked the medical information and saw that the local city hospital had indeed used all of the proper medication for treating diarrhea in young children. Nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary. Just what could this be? Zhang Fan did his best to think about how to diagnose this. Although he had also read through pediatrics textbooks many times before, the textbooks would only provide him with the foundational basics. Zhang Fan was still extremely lacking in actual experience regarding pediatrics.
“Let’s keep him here at our hospital for observation for the time being. You should stop breastfeeding your son,” He Fang informed the mother. He Fang then told Zhang Fan, “Provide the child with some fluid infusion to make up for the fluids that he’s lost. No other medication will be needed for the time being. Also, prescribe amino acid milk formula for the child.”
The young boy’s parents were especially anxious, since their son had already been having diarrhea for more than a week by now. Their local hospital had been helpless to cure it, and even the women and children’s hospital wasn’t able to do anything. But now that they were at Chasu City Hospital, the doctor didn’t even prescribe any medicine? The parents were now speaking with anger in their voices. “Doctor! Our son has already been suffering from diarrhea for more than a week. Could you please have one of your experts take a look? This can’t go on for any longer!”
The mother’s eyes were really red, and the father’s face was bright red from anger. Their emotions were running really high. Doctor He Fang, who was a mother now, really empathized with what they were feeling. This was why she didn’t mind the parents’ tone. “No need to worry. Your son’s issue is relatively minor. He has allergic proctocolitis. This will likely heal on its own as long as you stop breastfeeding and change to feeding him amino acid milk formula, which is hypoallergenic. He probably also won’t be able to drink milk in the future.”
“I’ve been breastfeeding my son ever since he was born! He’s already six months old, and this has never happened before! I think that you misdiagnosed him!” The mother felt that this doctor had misdiagnosed her son.
“Please trust in me. I have more professional knowledge than you do. I’m also a mother as well. You should hurry and have your son hospitalized here for observation for two days. Your son should soon stop having diarrhea once he switches to amino acid milk formula.” He Fang spoke in a normal tone, without slowing or hurrying. She gave off a sense of strength, that she was knowledgeable and experienced. Her words managed to calm the parents’ anxiety.
Zhang Fan nodded to himself as he watched from the side. He Fang’s tone, attitude, and body language all gave the parents a subconscious feeling of guarantee and reassurance. Although He Fang hadn’t made any verbal promises, she managed to calm down the highly emotional parents with her tone.
Zhang Fan kept replaying He Fang’s words, tone, and even speed at which she said her words. This was another facet of medical skills. Often times, a doctor and patient would have a poor relationship due to how they spoke to each other, rather than a misdiagnosis or other medical reasons.
Typically, two family members would come with a child for treatment on average. Some even had three family members with them. There were even those whose entire families came to see the doctor with the child.
Zhang Fan finally finished writing the medical reports for the day at 1 am. He was now reading through an encyclopedia that He Fang owned. This encyclopedia contained all pediatric illnesses.
Zhang Fan was no longer satisfied with only learning knowledge from textbooks. There were far too many seriously ill children at Chasu City Hospital, since this hospital was the largest and best hospital in the local area. Zhang Fan was incredibly busy every day during his first week in pediatrics. There was far too much knowledge that he still needed to learn.
Although he was only in the general pediatrics department, children ranging in age from three months old to thirteen years old would all come to this department. The newborns department was for those younger than three months.
There were some parents who would even drag their children to see the doctor for minor things such as their child having a poor appetite today or for something as simple as grinding teeth at night. This only added on to the pediatricians’ workload.
It was now late in the night, and finally quiet in the pediatrics department. Zhang Fan and He Fang were working the night shift together. He Fang had already gone to rest. Zhang Fan intended on studying his textbooks for another hour before sleeping. He didn’t need as much sleep due to the System strengthening his body.
Nurses were still walking around in the hallways, as they were busy taking temperatures, changing IV drips, and so on. The nurses in the pediatrics department would typically be rather young. Slightly older nurses would be unable to handle the workload, especially during the night shifts. A flowery young woman would often look like she had suddenly aged by five years after a single night shift in pediatrics!
“Clang!” The door to the pediatrics department was suddenly pushed open with great force. Zhang Fan turned around and saw six adults carrying a young boy. “Doctor, hurry! Our son has a high fever, and is even beginning to twitch! Hurry!”
He Fang instantly got out of bed. For night shifts, the doctors would only be able to take small naps. Uninterrupted sleep was something that they could only fantasize about.
Zhang Fan touched the boy’s forehead. It was burning to the touch. The young boy was also constantly twitching.
“How long has the child been twitching for?” He Fang inquired.
“Ten or so minutes. This afternoon, he had a high fever, and we gave him some fever medicine. But now, he’s suddenly started burning up again in the middle of the night. Please hurry and think of something, doctor!” The child’s mother was crying as she said this.
“Intramuscular injection of phenobarbital sodium. Take his blood for a fast blood test. Rectally administer paracetamol. Use physical means to lower his temperature. Give him low-flow oxygen delivery.” He Fang immediately began to issue medical commands. She then told the child’s parents, “You should immediately begin the hospitalization procedures. Your son’s breathing is rather hurried. Hospitalization will be required for treatment.” As she said this, Zhang Fan had already begun filling in the necessary paperwork.
Half an hour later, the blood test came back with the results. The young boy’s level of white blood cells and neutrophils were elevated.
“It’s an infection! Antibiotics will be necessary. I will go inform the parents about their son’s condition. You write the medical report,” He Fang told Zhang Fan.
One hour later, the young boy’s body temperature was now under control. He rested on a hospital bed while receiving an IV drip. Young children didn’t know how to fake being sick. Painful was painful, comfortable was comfortable. Some time later, the boy’s body temperature returned to normal, and he became more energetic. His parents had gotten rather exhausted since they had stayed up through the middle of the night.
But at this moment, the IV drip’s needle suddenly became displaced, causing the boy to cry loudly in pain as the needle hurt him.
In the general pediatrics department for night shifts, there would typically be one veteran nurse on duty together with two young nurses. The veteran nurse was currently treating a child patient in another patient room.
Little Li, a newcomer nurse, was called by the parents into their young son’s room.