Chapter 250 - One king and three queens will result in death! (1/2)

There were very few patients in the infectious diseases department. Plus, it was almost New Year’s. There were actually more doctors and nurses than patients. This would actually be a good thing. It would be for the best if things continued this way. Things would be even better if all hospitals no longer had any patients rather than being filled to the brim! This wasn’t about business! This author hopes that nobody in the world has to be sick, and that all medicine only needs to gather dust.

At the end of the morning patient checkups, all the other infectious diseases doctors went home after dealing with their patients since they weren’t on duty for today. Zhang Fan was scheduled for a 24-hour work shift today. Luckily, the infectious diseases department wouldn’t have any emergency surgeries to deal with. So, it wasn’t a big deal for only a single doctor to be on duty.

Right after Zhang Fan finished the afternoon checkups on the few patients in the department, a strange combination of people arrived in the department. A rather handsome young man came into the department, followed by three young women who were pulling on each other. None of them appeared to be very old. They all looked to be in the 18-20 age range.

The young man had a nice appearance. He had a cool hairstyle, white skin, slightly slender eyes, and a high nose bridge. However, he did seem to be slightly lacking in energy, and he mostly ignored the three women behind him.

The three young women behind him all appeared to be around the same age as well. However, they were wearing really heavy makeup that covered up their youthfulness. They had dark circles drawn with makeup around their eyes. Those who didn’t realize it was makeup would likely misunderstand that they had been hit by someone. They also had really bright red lipstick and colorful dyed hair.

“Doctor, I’m here for hospitalization!” The young man had a pleasant voice. Zhang Fan was currently typing the patients’ medical reports on a computer. He raised his head, and asked, “What’s the matter? Let me look at your hospitalization paperwork.”

Zhang Fan had originally been under the impression that only the young man needed to be hospitalized. Zhang Fan was then about to ask the three young women to leave since this was the infectious diseases department, after all. However, it turned out that all four of them needed to be hospitalized for the exact same reason: hepatitis B!

At a city hospital’s infectious diseases department, they would mostly only receive viral hepatitis patients. Patients with tuberculosis, typhoid, dysentery, and so on would usually be transferred to an infectious diseases hospital. After Zhang Fan looked over the patients’ medical information, he asked a nurse to arrange patient rooms for the four patients.

As for hepatitis B, maybe many people would think that it wasn’t really much of an infectious disease. Actually, this disease was truly troublesome. Most of the cases of cirrhosis early on in China had all been due to hepatitis transforming into cirrhosis. The next stage after cirrhosis would be liver cancer. That would be fatal! Meanwhile, in the western part of the world, cirrhosis was more commonly caused by alcoholism.

As for hepatitis B, it was actually different from hepatitis A. This disease was rather troublesome. First, it would be necessary to explain the liver’s functions. The liver would mostly transform nutrition into a substance that the body was capable of absorbing, along with providing detoxification and bile secretion. All of the protein in the blood was created by the liver. If your liver was in poor condition, then your body would start losing weight and your appetite would be lacking. A more severe consequence would be bleeding!

How to describe hepatitis B? To explain simply, there were two main types: one which was strongly infectious, and one which was slightly less infectious. How could hepatitis B spread to another? That would be by blood and body fluids. Those would make excellent carriers for the hepatitis B virus, which was capable of surviving for a very long period of time in the blood serum!

When Zhang Fan checked the patients’ medical information, “Oh my, it’s HBsAg+, HBeAg+, anti-HBc+, the most infectious type of hepatitis B.” After seeing this, Zhang Fan told the nurses, “All four patients have the most infectious type of hepatitis B. Be careful and protect yourselves!”

“Yes!” all the nurses in the department responded. Zhang Fan brought pen and paper with him to the patient room to ask the young man about his condition. In other departments, usually the patient would be summoned over to the doctor’s office to tell the doctor about their condition. However, that wouldn’t do in the infectious diseases department. The doctor would have to visit the patient’s room instead.

“What reason made you come get a checkup for hospitalization this time?” Zhang Fan asked the young man.

“Hmm, I kept feeling tired and lacking appetite. I also kept getting fevers. My girlfriends all have the same symptoms. My friend told me that my symptoms sounded like AIDS. He told me that in the worst-case scenario, my entire body would rot and I would die. That sounded too scary, so I hurriedly came here for a checkup. The doctor who diagnosed me told me that this isn’t AIDS, but I searched on baidu and found that this hepatitis B thing is similar to AIDS. Doctor, tell me, is this hepatitis B AIDS or not?”

“It’s not AIDS. How long have you been having your symptoms for?”

“About half a year. Doctor, if this isn’t AIDS, then can I not hospitalize myself then?”

“Oh! So you were scared by AIDS into coming here to get checked,” Zhang Fan said through his heavy facial mask. “Although hepatitis B isn’t AIDS, it’s equally fatal if it’s allowed to develop unchecked. What’s your current job? How old are you? Do you have any family history of illnesses?”

“I’m a freelancer. I’m 21 years old. My family members are quite healthy.” When the young man heard that it wasn’t AIDS, it was as if he came alive. He became far more energetic, and he started speaking rather glibly.

“You should lie down. I’ll give you a physical examination. Pull up your shirt.”

When the young man pulled up his shirt, Zhang Fan’s first impression was that he was really skinny. Zhang Fan could see his ribs quite clearly. The young man had a Buddha tattooed on his stomach. The Buddha’s mouth was on the bellybutton! When his belly was bulging, the Buddha would appear to be smiling. If he tucked in his stomach, the Buddha would appear unhappy. It really was a miraculous tattoo! Since the patient had a tattoo, Zhang Fan took a closer look. The patient’s stomach was filled with spider angiomas. Zhang Fan could only inwardly sigh and shake his head. The patient’s ignorance was truly scary! With a light touch, Zhang Fan could tell that the patient’s liver was really swollen. Zhang Fan checked the patient’s eyes and found icteric sclera.

“You should rest here and hospitalize yourself. Your disease is already in very severe condition.” Zhang Fan’s voice lowered significantly. The patient’s liver was so severely swollen despite his young age!

“Doctor, can you also have my girlfriends stay in the same patient room as me? We can even take care of each other this way!” The young man didn’t even realize that he already had half a foot in the grave. He was asking Zhang Fan a really naïve question.

“No. This is a hospital! You should properly focus on recuperating!”

Zhang Fan then left the young man’s patient room so that he could check up on the other three female patients who had come together with him.

When Zhang Fan opened the door to the next patient room, his eyes almost popped out in surprise. The nurse had arranged for two of the women to share a patient room, and gave the third woman a patient room to herself. Since all three of the female patients had the same hepatitis B strain, the nurse didn’t think that this would matter.