Chapter 296 - Three blood vessel brothers (1/2)
Zhang Fan read over countless medical reports on his first morning in the hematology department. He almost finished the entirety of the last two years’ worth of medical reports in hematology.
The other doctors in the department, particularly the rotation doctors, were really curious what Zhang Fan was doing. They were really envious of how fellow rotation doctor Zhang Fan didn’t have to do any work at all. However, they then saw that Zhang Fan was sitting at a computer for an entire morning without even moving. They were really impressed by this! They kept sneaking glances to see exactly what Zhang Fan was doing.
This was simply human nature. Nobody would be curious about what someone unknown was doing. However, they would all wonder what someone well-known was doing. This was just far too common. Maybe it was human nature to admire the strong?
The majority of patients in Chasu City Hospital’s hematology department had anemia. There were all sorts of different types of anemia. These patients were mostly younger women. There were also a few patients who had purpura for various reasons. The cause of the purpura would be unknown even by the time that such a patient was either discharged or even died.
The biggest trait of the hematology department was that most diagnoses were uncertain. The preliminary diagnosis written on medical report would always have a question mark at the end. Even the final diagnosis would still have a question mark. This wasn’t because of any particular rule. These were real question marks because the patient’s vitals and the available laboratory examinations didn’t support any currently known diagnosis.
A medical report which didn’t have a confirmed diagnosis would be considered a failure. However, there really was no helping it. Doctors in the hematology department could only make their best guesses! This wasn’t because hematologists were irresponsible. Countless basic blood diseases were impossible to diagnose. They also had unknown causes.
Graduate student Zang Bing was a rotation doctor currently in the hematology department. He had a master’s degree in nephrology. Graduate students would have it much easier compared to undergraduate student rotation doctors. Graduate students would only need to rotate through a few departments which were related to their main field of study.
Graduate students would have already signed a contract with the hospital when they were hired about what department they would be permanently assigned to in the end. That was why graduate student rotation doctors felt significantly less pressure. Not only that, graduate students were still considered quite valuable in the year 2011 in China. The hospital would even pay for their housing expenses, which reduced their financial pressure as well.
Zang Bing was really energetic. He was writing a medical report on the computer next to Zhang Fan’s. When Zang Bing saw how Zhang Fan hadn’t moved for the entire morning, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Doctor Zhang, this won’t do with how you’re acting. You’re giving us so much pressure. You see, before you joined the department, the rotation doctors were still chatting and laughing. But since you haven’t moved for the entire morning, we don’t dare to get up, either!”
“Oh! Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? I’ve never studied hematology before. I’m also not a graduate student. That’s why I was so absosrbed in my studying. The diseases in this department are truly complex.”
“Hey! You’re overestimating us graduate students. To be honest with you, having three extra years as a graduate student is just working as a slave at a large hospital for three years. There’s nothing grand about it. As for the diseases in the hematology department, I think that even doctorate degree students would have trouble, much less graduate students!” Zang Bing kept typing his medical report while also chatting with Zhang Fan.
Zhang Fan studied the hematology department’s diseases for the entire morning. He roughly categorized them into three different types, based on diseases for red blood cells, white blood cells, and blood platelets, which were known as the three blood vessel brothers. The most important cells in the blood were these three types. Of course, there were also other cells in the blood, but these three were understood the best. The other types of blood cells still hadn’t been researched enough to be understood well!
Blood was everywhere in the human body. Blood circulatory system was incredibly complex. Describing how blood worked in detail would be at the length of a thesis. Not only would normal people not understand such a thesis, even a doctor who wasn’t a hematologist likely wouldn’t understand it, so let’s just go with a simplified explanation of blood.
Red blood cells were just like shipping workers inside the body. They would transport oxygen to every part of the body, and then take away the carbon dioxide.
White blood cells were like the defenders of the human body. They would attack and kill any invading germs or viruses.
The blood platelets were like fixers. They would happily travel through all the blood vessels and then joyfully fix anything that had a problem with it.
A certain king of England had a certain genetic disease from inbreeding. His blood coagulation factor had a problem, which meant that his blood wouldn’t clot and he would have major bleeding if he wasn’t careful! This was no laughing matter at all. Blood not clotting properly meant that if your lover accidentally kissed you too hard during a moment of passion and caused your tongue to bleed, it would be possible to bleed to death just from such a minor injury! That was the scariness of having a blood coagulation factor problem.
Anemia was actually caused by a lack of red blood cells. If one’s body didn’t have enough red blood cells, then the body would lack oxygen, leading to dizziness, an uncomfortable sensation, and discomfort in many parts of the body. There were many different types of anemia too.
Young women were the most susceptible to anemia. A young woman who didn’t eat enough, leading to insufficient nutrition, and a young woman who had heavy bleeding from periods were two of the most common anemia types. Treating anemia wasn’t something that could be easily done just with some medicine. Treating anemia would be a very long and gradual process.
For instance, if a young woman was anemic due to heavy bleeding from her period, and she didn’t have any gynecological disease, then one of the best methods for treating her anemia would be to have her eat more animal livers, dark leafy greens, and tofu.
On the next morning, the hematology department held its daily morning meeting where the department’s work was arranged. Director Li Qing then clapped her hands after arranging the work, and told all the hematology department personnel, “I have something to tell everyone. This is Zhang Fan, Doctor Zhang. I think that everyone already knows who he is already. He’s going to be on rotation in our department for one month.
“Doctor Zhang, how about you say something?” Director Li Qing said to him slightly teasingly.
Zhang Fan hurriedly smiled and waved his hand.
“Alright, since Doctor Zhang won’t say anything, let’s begin today’s work. Ruan Yuan, you team up with Doctor Zhang.”
“Okay, Director!” Doctor Ruan replied in a clear voice. Ruan was a relatively rare last name in China. Ruan Yuan had just turned 30 years old. She had also just been promoted to attending physician. She had gotten married two years ago, but she didn’t have any children yet. She was a hardworking and pretty woman. Her husband was a government secretary, although he wasn’t a government leader’s personal secretary.
“Doctor Zhang, let us begin the patient checkups, then?”
“Sure, Doctor Ruan.”
Since it wasn’t Monday, there was no need to do a major departmental checkup on all the patients. The hematology department had fewer patients than most departments, so Ruan Yuan also had few patients. She only had three patients in total. Two of her patients had anaphylactoid purpura, while one had anemia due to iron deficiency.