Chapter 480: The Mystery of the False Pregnancy

“The fetal heart rate matches the mother’s heartbeat? That’s almost unheard of!”

Even though most of them weren’t OB-GYN specialists, working in the emergency department meant they’d often see all kinds of pregnant women. Usually, the mother’s heart rate is much lower than the baby’s.

“Dr. Zhou, do you think what we heard as the fetal heartbeat was just the mother’s?”

Yang Chan asked, suddenly realizing something.

“That’s probably it! I’ve seen a case like this before—it was a pseudopregnancy. The fetal heart rate you measured was likely just her own pulse.”

【Pathology Diagnosis EXP +1. Bonus: Pathology Diagnosis EXP +100.】

That was quite a haul—he’d just earned 100 points of pathology diagnosis experience.

Getting that much pathology diagnosis EXP was no small feat.

Luckily, he often got called in for consultations, and as long as he made the right call, he’d usually earn a decent chunk of experience.

Right now, his pathology skills were steadily climbing toward level 6.

Pharmacological reasoning was lagging far behind, though he wrote plenty of prescriptions every day. Lots of chances to use meds.

But most were routine drugs. Each prescription only got him a point or two in pharmacological reasoning at best. Rarely did he get a big reward like with pathology diagnosis.

Figuring out this pregnant woman’s pseudopregnancy was no easy feat.

Stuff like this was just bizarre—most people had never even heard of it.

Zhou Can had heard that there’d once been a woman admitted to a hospital, supposedly about to give birth. Her water broke, there was no time for tests, so they rushed her straight to the delivery room. But in the end, she only passed a massive amount of yellowish fluid—no baby at all.

After checking, they realized her body was just mimicking a pregnancy—there was never a fertilized egg.

Later, her family accused the hospital of stealing her baby, called the police, reported it all the way to the health department, and even took it to court. The hospital felt incredibly wronged.

Who would insist on more checks when the mother’s water had already broken—there just wasn’t time.

Following protocol for urgent care, they drew her blood and sent her in for emergency delivery.

The bloodwork was to determine her type and screen for infectious diseases.

Ironically, that blood sample ended up being the key evidence proving she’d never been pregnant.

Whether or not a woman’s pregnant isn’t only checked by ultrasound—color Doppler can help too.

But a blood test for hCG is also an accurate way to diagnose pregnancy.

Once a woman’s pregnant, her blood’s hCG level shoots up fast.

Checking hCG can confirm pregnancy and help catch things like ectopic pregnancy.

Because ectopic pregnancies are different, their hCG test results won’t be quite the same as a normal pregnancy. An experienced doctor can spot the difference right away.

“What pseudopregnancy? How could my belly be fake?”

Despite her multiple injuries and a broken right leg, the patient was fierce as ever.

The moment Zhou Can suggested she was faking, she glared and barked at him in anger.

…

“Doctor, you must be wrong. My girlfriend spent her first three months throwing up constantly, and now her belly’s huge. There’s no way this is a false pregnancy!”

Her boyfriend, who looked just as lost, quickly rushed to refute Zhou Can’s diagnosis.

“If you’re doubtful, run an hCG blood test. We can also do an abdominal sonogram.” Zhou Can replied to both of them.

Because of the car accident, both were migrant workers in the city.

Neither of their families had arrived at the hospital yet.

“Fine, go ahead. But if it proves I’m really pregnant, you owe me an apology!”

The woman was especially aggressive.

When faced with tough patients like her, Zhou Can always preferred to keep his distance.

“Class Monitor, if there’s nothing else, I’m heading back to the OR. Don’t send her to the labor ward until you’re sure about her case.”

That was his honest advice.

If the trauma caused her uterus to contract and she got rushed to OB, things could get messy.

In Zhou Can’s eyes, Yang Chan was still a rookie doctor.

She was the type who, in emergencies, might go too far trying to help the patient. In today’s harsh medical world, softhearted doctors and nurses rarely lasted long.

“Go on, then!”

She shot him a resentful look, clearly unhappy about him wanting to leave so quickly.

With her brains, she’d probably long since noticed Zhou Can was deliberately avoiding her.

But love is never that simple.

Especially as she got older, with family pressuring her to settle down, it only got worse. Problem was, none of the men she met could compare to Zhou Can.

Back in school, he used to chase after her, but she always thought he was just another spoiled rich kid.

Now, with years of social experience and a more mature outlook, she finally realized how much she regretted letting him go.

These days, Zhou Can wasn’t just wealthy—his medical skills had also earned him a great reputation in the hospital.

And his ethics were top-notch.

There was also that time he stood up for frontline staff, challenging the Security Department and protesting the hospital’s neglect of staff safety—after that, he became nothing less than a hero in her eyes.

But whenever her family pushed her to go on blind dates, she couldn’t help judging every guy against Zhou Can—and none ever measured up.

…

After his midday surgery, Zhou Can headed to the cafeteria for lunch, where Ma Xiaolan started gossiping about the pregnant woman.

“Did you guys hear? That pregnant woman from this morning’s car accident wasn’t even pregnant! The nurse chat says this was a first. Dr. Zhou figured it out before anyone else!”

Ma Xiaolan always looked for ways to get on Zhou Can’s good side, subtle or not.

To put it in cruder terms, she was a bit of a schemer.

Still, her intentions weren’t bad. She acted tough and sharp-tongued around others, but at heart she had a kind side. Zhou Can often noticed out of the corner of his eye, she’d show real compassion in certain moments.

“Which nurse group chat is that? Am I in there?”

Qiao Yu—hearing about the strange case for the first time—immediately got curious.

“It’s our ER nursing group chat, number one. You’re definitely in it!”

…

Ma Xiaolan scrolled through the chat as she replied.

Qiao Yu checked too—and sure enough, the nurses were all talking about it.

“It really happened! Judging by that woman’s belly, I’d never have guessed she was faking. The world is truly full of surprises. Dr. Zhou, tell us how you figured it out!”

Qiao Yu turned her bright eyes on Zhou Can.

“Honestly, it wasn’t that special. The woman’s ultrasound showed a shadowy mass bigger than ten centimeters—supposedly a gestational sac. But there was no fetus. OB and our ER both checked for a fetal heartbeat and said they heard one. But when I realized the heartbeat matched hers, I started to suspect pseudopregnancy.”

Zhou Can grinned, sharing his diagnostic process with everyone.

It was a way to add to their clinical experience.

“Did you end up doing surgery?”

Yang Zhi—usually quiet and reserved for a middle-aged man.

Unlike many married men who fool around, he never hit on the younger female staff—doctor or nurse—in the department.

Not that he was totally oblivious to romance.

More than once, at dinner gatherings, he’d amuse everyone with off-color jokes—he definitely had his moments.

“Nope. She didn’t believe our diagnosis and asked to transfer to another hospital.”

Ma Xiaolan answered.

The woman had syphilis and HIV—let’s hope the new hospital’s staff were careful.

If a patient wants to transfer, Tuyu Hospital can’t stop them.

People have the right to choose where to get treated.

…

After work, Zhou Can finished dinner at the cafeteria and hurried over to Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Maybe he was just tired, but he kept feeling like someone was watching him.

It was a nagging sense—almost like a chill down his spine.

Sure, he’d offended a few people in his job, but that came with the territory.

Some family members would ask weird questions or make impossible demands—there’s just no pleasing everyone.

And some patients, after surgery, had great results but still insisted the doctor messed up and even claimed new problems popped up.

There was no way to talk sense into certain people.

They were all stubborn and irrational, convinced they were always right.

Sometimes when Zhou Can got fed up with these difficult patients, he’d just tell them, “If you think we mishandled your case, you can apply for medical arbitration. If it’s our fault, we’ll never avoid responsibility.”

Sometimes you just had to push back against these types.

If you stayed silent, they’d only think you were weak and try to take it further, making scenes on the ward and flooding admin with complaints.

Sure, maybe sometimes surgery did cause new issues.

Or maybe they just wanted to get out of paying the bill.

Either way, logic rarely worked on them.

…

There’s an old saying: you’ll never wake someone who’s pretending to sleep.

Zhou Can had dealt with some real troublemakers back during residency—once the hospital agreed to reduce their bill, they instantly quieted down.

On his way to Cardiothoracic Surgery, he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling, but didn’t look back.

If he was really being tailed, glancing back would only tip them off.

Maybe tomorrow, if he had free time, he’d visit Security and check the surveillance tapes.

After reaching Cardiothoracic Surgery, his first stop was the ward to check on the patient with hemopneumothorax.

The patient was doing better—clear improvement on all fronts.

Even the bubbling in the water seal bottle had slowed down.

Looks like the bleeding was under control, too.

Still, there was a tiny bit of blood.

But the patient’s left lung sounded stronger, which was a good sign.

If things kept improving, the patient might recover and leave without surgery.

Leaving the ward, Zhou Can went back to the doctors’ office to log into his account on the hospital intranet.

Director Xue, Associate Director He, and a few others had recommended more challenging cases—seven this time, which wasn’t bad. He’d once handled up to eleven tricky cases at once.

Some were new cardiothoracic patients, some had post-op complications, and some just couldn’t get a solid surgical plan.

Those were the main three types.

Zhou Can both liked and dreaded these cases.

Anything that stumped senior doctors was going to be tough. Even with all his talent and guidance from Dr. Hu Kan, solving these always took everything he had.

Sometimes, there just wasn’t an answer.

In those situations, they’d have to gather the whole department—or even experts from other specialties—for joint consultations.

Still, cracking these tough cases offered big rewards.

He’d boost his clinical skills, sharpen his experience, and sometimes earn huge experience point bonuses.

It should be noted, though—not every tough case meant a big reward.

Some cases were tough for others—but easy for him.

Those only netted him about ten bonus EXP at best—sometimes he got nothing at all.

Others gave nothing at all.

Near 7:20, a nurse hurried in to drag him away.

“Dr. Zhou, they need you in the OR! Anesthesia’s done and they’re ready to start.”

“On my way!”

No choice but to hurry over.

He slipped on his scrubs and entered the OR—Director Xueyan and the rest were ready to go.

The first case of the evening was the patient transferred from Xinxiang Hospital, with an infected chest wound and sternal osteomyelitis.

They’d have to remove the artificial material, debride the area, and reconstruct the chest wall.

No small task.

There were plenty of tricky technical challenges along the way.

If the lead surgeon wasn’t up to it, they might even need help from orthopedics.

“Zhou Can, we’ve all been waiting on you! Time to get started.”

…

Director Xueyan beamed at him.

It was clear she was finally moving past her divorce. He hoped she’d find someone good for the next chapter of her life.

Fate was often unpredictable like that.

Good women end up with lousy men, decent guys meet heartbreakers.

Only if you meet the right person at the right time do you get a chance at real happiness.

Divorce rates were climbing these days, which wasn’t all bad.

People learned to appreciate a good marriage. But Americans always topped the charts on divorce.

They’d end things the moment they were unhappy.

Sometimes it was something as small as arguing about where to put the toothbrush.

Compared to those Western countries, things in China were still better.

“No problem. Sis Yan, Directors, keep an eye on me and I’ll handle the rest.” Zhou Can smiled, then glanced at the anesthesiologist. “Oh hey, Director Feng, you’re here too!”

“Director Xue was nervous something might go wrong and insisted I be here to supervise.”

Director Feng hadn’t come alone—he brought two of his trainees.

Zhou Can wasn’t his only student. Compared to the full-timers, Zhou Can was basically an amateur anesthesiologist.

“Let’s get started and aim for an early finish. I heard your surgical speed almost rivals Master Yi Yidao now.”

“You got it!”

Zhou Can nodded with a grin.

He scrubbed in, slipped on sterile gloves, and took his place at the head of the table. Zhou Can quickly snipped out the sutures from Xinxiang Hospital.

His suturing now was at the level of a junior chief—he could spot mistakes in the prior closure at a glance. Of course, he kept those to himself.

The patient’s sternal incision was infected and the bone was necrotic—best solution: surgically remove it and rebuild the chest wall.