Chapter 329: Tangled Diagnoses and Unraveling Truths

Finally nailing down the cause of the little girl’s illness, Zhou Can let out a long sigh of relief.

Whether out of a doctor’s responsibility, or pure sympathy for that thoughtful little girl, Zhou Can desperately wanted to crack this difficult case. Now, all his effort had finally paid off with a clear diagnosis.

It was his first official day seeing patients—now there’d be no regrets.

With that handled, he turned his attention to the next patient.

As the workday neared an end, the little boy with dusky blue lips returned after his echocardiogram.

“Doctor, can you please take a look at the results?”

This oddly confident mother was completely oblivious to the fact that her child might have a serious illness.

Zhou Can took the test report.

The right atrium, left atrium, and left ventricle were all enlarged—27mm, 29mm, and 37.5mm respectively.

Meanwhile, the right ventricle was noticeably smaller than the normal size, only 8mm.

To make things worse, the right atrioventricular valve and the right ventricular inflow tract were missing.

Let me explain the medical term ‘absence.’ It means something that should exist in the body but in fact does not—basically, a congenital absence.

‘Defect,’ on the other hand, means there was once an organ, but now it’s gone.

This boy had an interruption in the center of the right atrial septum (16mm), an upper ventricular septal defect (10mm), plus a narrowed pulmonary valve and outflow tract on the right side. The smallest inner diameter was just 3mm, the main pulmonary artery was 5mm, and the right and left pulmonary arteries measured 7 and 8mm each.

No wonder this kid’s whole body looked so blue!

His breathing sounded almost like a bellows.

Yet, his poor mother was still bragging about her son’s incredible lung capacity.

Plenty of kids find ways to trick their parents, but a mom fooling her own kid? That’s rare.

On top of all that, the boy’s aortic arch had a tube-like connection with his left pulmonary artery, about 4mm in diameter, with continuous blood flow detected.

“Doctor, what’s wrong with my son?”

Perhaps noticing Zhou Can’s expression turning more serious, the woman finally picked up that something was off.

Even with all her misplaced confidence, she couldn’t help feeling a little worried now.

“Based on the tests, your son has a congenital heart disease.”

Zhou Can looked the mother in the eye.

“What is congenital heart disease?”

She just stared, completely lost.

“It means heart disease from birth,” Zhou Can said, face serious, voice steady.

“That’s impossible! Doctor, could you be wrong? My son has always been fine—he’s almost four now! If he had heart disease since birth, how could it only be discovered now?”

She refused to accept the diagnosis.

“Take a look at other healthy four-year-olds—they’re running and jumping everywhere, right? But your son always needs to be carried. Also, his height and weight are below average for his age.”

Zhou Can kept his words gentle, not wanting to provoke her.

“I already told you my boy just doesn’t like to move. He’s born under a lucky star, a child of destiny! You’re too young to understand—a doctor like you can’t possibly know better than me. Forget it, I’ll find an older, more experienced doctor to see my child!”

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The moment anyone dared say anything negative about her son, she would instantly fly off the handle.

Mothers like this—one in a million.

Zhou Can didn’t bother arguing. He watched her storm away, test results clutched in hand.

If it were some other rare disease, a misdiagnosis might be possible. But with such clear-cut congenital heart disease? There’s no way the diagnosis was wrong.

No matter which expert she dragged her son to, the answer would be the same.

Just then, the triage nurse pushed open the door and closed it behind her.

“That last family member looked really mad—waving her sleeves as she stormed out. Did something happen?”

“Her son was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, but she says he’s some heavenly blessed child from the stars and called me too young to treat patients. Whatever—no matter the doctor, the test results won’t change.”

Zhou Can shrugged it off.

“Hehe, so that was it! Don’t let it get to you—there’s all kinds of family members out there. You’ll see even stranger ones over time. If you ever need help, just give me a shout. I sit right outside and can hear everything. Oh, by the way, I’m Zhou Yanqing.”

The triage nurse was worried Zhou Can might get into a dispute and be reported, so she came to check in.

“Thank you! Funny, we have the same surname!”

Zhou Can smiled and nodded.

“Haha, maybe we were family five hundred years ago—what a coincidence! I’ll be counting on you from now on, Dr. Zhou. See you later!” she waved as she left the consultation room.

…

Room 0 was usually vacant, but tonight it was serving as an impromptu isolation ward.

Only the sick grandmother and her granddaughter were inside.

“Grandma, do you think Uncle Zhou has forgotten about us?”

The girl’s illness was severe. After almost a whole day at the hospital with little progress and endless tests, her patience was running thin.

“No way. Uncle Zhou is just very busy. He’s seeing us and lots of other patients. Remember, just after four, he ordered a new round of tests for you—that means he’s working hard to figure things out. Some illnesses are complicated and hard to diagnose, so sometimes it takes a while.”

Her grandmother was truly patient and wise.

With a family like that, it’s no wonder the child turned out so well.

Outside, nurses were already changing shifts, but Zhou Can still hadn’t shown up.

Though she spoke calmly, the grandmother was starting to worry inside.

The little girl had fallen asleep beside her grandmother.

The nurses had told them not to leave the ward, worried they might be contagious.

Grandmother and granddaughter followed the instructions carefully.

By dinnertime, it started to feel like they’d been forgotten in their corner of the hospital.

Lights flickered on in the corridors outside.

Just as the grandmother began to feel anxious, a tall figure appeared at the door and stepped inside.

“Dr. Zhou…”

Grandma stood up, excited. The little girl woke up too.

“Uncle Zhou, you’re finally here! We thought you’d forgotten about us!”

Kids speak from the heart. Whatever pops into their head just comes out.

Zhou Can wore a mask, but the smile creased around his eyes gave him away—he was happy to see them.

“How could I forget my patients? I’ve been waiting for your test results. I can’t start treatment until I know exactly what’s causing the illness!”

Zhou Can cheerfully handed over the test reports.

“After several rounds of biochemical testing, we finally confirmed your granddaughter is infected with a new type of Bunya virus. This virus can be transmitted and is mainly spread by tick bites. Wild Bunya viruses are found in many vertebrates and arthropods—mosquitoes, ticks, sandflies—and can infect mammals, birds, even mosquitoes themselves.”

“The main transmission route is blood, though in rare cases, it can be airborne, but that risk is very low.”

At the end of his shift, the little girl’s pathogen test results finally came in.

Her blood sample produced serum, and from that, the new Bunya virus was isolated—confirming the diagnosis.

Getting to the bottom of this case was no easy feat.

For his effort, Zhou Can earned 100 Pathology Diagnosis points. Step by step, he was getting closer to Level 6 in Pathology Diagnosis.

If he could keep earning such high experience point rewards, in a few years he just might reach Level 6—on par with chief physicians.

At that point, he would truly be an expert.

One hundred thousand experience points sounded astronomical, but if he could diagnose one or two tough cases like this every day, he’d only need about a thousand to reach chief physician level.

Even diagnosing common cases netted him one point apiece.

Moderately tricky cases could give him ten.

So, in practice, he would advance even faster.

For a skill as hard to raise as Pathology Diagnosis, even two to three years—or four or five—would be fast. Compared to most doctors, his progress was like riding a rocket.

Grandma grew puzzled after hearing the diagnosis. “Xiaoya goes straight from home to school and back every day. How could she have been bitten by a tick? Those live in the wild, don’t they?”

She wasn’t questioning Zhou Can’s diagnosis—just stumped about where the tick could have come from.

After all, this was the capital city.

The sanitation was top notch.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you. Didn’t you faint recently? Judging by your symptoms, you might have it too. Do you have any pets at home? Cats, dogs, pigeons?”

Zhou Can suspected transmission had come from a family pet.

Cats and dogs are well-known to carry ticks.

In the countryside, people call them ‘grass crawlers’ or ‘mountain ticks.’ They’re flat, kind of like spiders.

They move more slowly than spiders, but are much more dangerous.

Ticks can release a neurotoxin that numbs the skin, letting them dig in and feed unnoticed. Their bellies bloat full of blood, swelling round like a drum.

If left alone, they burrow even deeper.

Trying to pull one off often leaves its head embedded in the skin.

So if you can’t pull it out, don’t force it. Go to a doctor instead.

If the tick’s head breaks off inside you, infection can easily set in.

“Uncle Zhou, my grandma had a white dog. It got sick and died a few days ago. She was heartbroken.”

That clue lit up everything for Zhou Can—transmission likely came from the dog.

If you cuddle your pet, or let it sleep with you, it’s easy for ticks to breed and spread. They can show up everywhere from the couch to your bed, eventually biting people too.

No wonder grandma’s eyes were swollen and red.

He’d thought it was out of worry for her granddaughter; now it seemed to be grief for her pet.

“But our white dog died several days ago—how could it still transmit the illness?”

Grandma brought up the dog, still grieving.

“The infection likely happened earlier, but obvious symptoms have only just appeared. Honestly, I suspect your dog died of the same illness.”

Zhou Can patiently explained.

“It’s my fault—I wasn’t careful! I saw the dog wasn’t eating much and looked listless, but thought it was just a simple cold. Two days later, it was dead. If I’d taken it to the vet, maybe it wouldn’t have died.”

Grandma didn’t care about her own health; she just blamed herself for not getting her dog help in time.

Some pet lovers treat their animals like their own children.

Zhou Can didn’t quite get it, but he understood.

After all, animals are humanity’s friends. Earth’s ecosystem depends on the harmony between people and other creatures. Dogs are loyal, protective, and beloved for good reason.

Seeing her about to tear up again, Zhou Can quickly spoke up: “The new Bunya virus is extremely difficult to detect. Even if you’d taken the dog in, most pet clinics don’t have the ability to identify it. Even our Tuyu Hospital—a top provincial hospital—struggled to find the cause!”

That eased grandma’s guilt a little.

Though she was still sad.

“You may have been infected too. It’s best to register, get a blood test, and check things out. Without treatment, this disease can be fatal. In your granddaughter’s case, her kidneys are already showing warning signs of failure. Four plus on her urine protein—that’s serious.”

Zhou Can tried to shift her focus.

Human lives are worth more than pets, after all.

The dog was gone—now, saving the people mattered most.

“All right, I’ll listen to you, I’ll do whatever you say. Thank goodness we found you, or both of us would’ve been in real danger!”

Finally, grandma realized the seriousness and let Zhou Can take over their care.

Zhou Can helped her register and drew blood for testing.

Her granddaughter was admitted to the Infectious Diseases Department.

The new Bunya virus infection was even more deadly than people imagined. There had been news—sometimes, in rural areas, people had caught the disease just by cleaning or dressing the deceased.

Not only family members, but even those helping dress the dead could get infected, along with their loved ones. Since the symptoms looked so much like the common cold, people in rural areas often ignored them.

Most wouldn’t even see a doctor for a minor illness.

By the time they did, things had often gotten much worse—sometimes too late.

This virus had been the culprit behind many bizarre and tragic deaths.

Thanks to Zhou Can’s timely diagnosis, at least two lives were saved this time. If he hadn’t caught the cause, and family members came to care for the pair, they too might have been infected.

It would have been a devastating blow to the entire family.

By the time he finished with grandma, it was already past 7 p.m.

Doctors really are busy people.

He hadn’t even eaten dinner yet.

There was still something else he needed to do. When he got to the doctor’s office, most of the physicians had left, with only two night-shift doctors still working.

Clearly, Director Tang Fei had gone home too.

Zhou Can decided to call and report everything. Many staff—including doctors and nurses—had been in close contact with grandma, especially when everyone had helped lift her onto a bed after her fainting episode.

The phone rang—and Director Tang Fei picked up quickly.

Before Zhou Can could say a word, she greeted him cheerfully.

“Dr. Zhou, did you just get off work? I reviewed your clinic performance today—you did really well!”

With that praise right out of the gate, Zhou Can felt a little embarrassed.

Still, it was obvious Director Tang was very satisfied with his work.

A successful debut—that was what Zhou Can hoped for.

“Thank you, Director! Sorry to disturb you, but I have something to report.” Zhou Can replied with a smile.

“It’s no trouble! If anything comes up, don’t hesitate to call me, all right? Never worry about bothering me.” Her attitude had shifted from the indifference of past days to genuine warmth.

“With your support, I’ll really take you at your word! Today, I treated a patient whose symptoms seemed just like a cold…”

He recounted the whole case.

“I already heard about it—Director Yan mentioned the case to me. I just didn’t realize it was a viral infection, let alone the new Bunya virus. I’ll notify everyone who came into contact immediately and make sure they’re protected. Thank you for your thoughtfulness, responsibility, and vigilance.”

Learning what disease it was, Director Tang took it very seriously.