Chapter 593: A Father’s Plea: The VIP Child in Crisis

Hospitals fear being picked apart just as much as anyone.

No matter if it’s surgery, medication, diagnostics, or ward care, there are always places someone could find fault.

But when facing a super VIP patient, the hospital is forced into a weak position. Beyond doing everything possible to cooperate and provide the best service, there simply isn’t another choice.

Of course, if the hospital higher-ups get stubborn and want to flirt with disaster, that’s a whole different story.

This little girl was only five years old and had been running a fever for nearly a month, spending eight days at the Provincial Children’s Hospital.

She was admitted for fever, abdominal pain and bloody stools.

Honestly, it’s rare for a child this age to have blood in their stool.

Given her age, doctors in the Provincial Children’s Hospital checked for genetic diseases, but found no relevant family history.

The volume of blood in her stool was alarmingly high. When she was admitted, she was already severely anemic and close to shock.

Doctors at the Provincial Children’s Hospital gave her an emergency blood transfusion.

At the time, her blood pressure was only 81 over 35 mmHg—dangerously low.

Ordinarily, even in an average family, a child this sick would have gone to the hospital much sooner. But this Health Bureau boss’s family was unusual—the child was from his first marriage.

He was always busy at work, so taking care of the girl fell almost entirely to her stepmother and a nanny.

Now that something had happened, the stepmother definitely couldn’t shrug off responsibility.

How they handle that is their family business.

On admission, her physical exam showed a temperature of 39.6 degrees Celsius, a pulse of 110, respirations at 28 per minute, slightly confused mental state, and signs of severe anemia.

With her blood pressure that low, it was obvious her anemia was critical.

When the specialist examined her, they found her skin and sclera weren’t yellow, there were no rashes or bleeding spots, and her superficial lymph nodes weren’t enlarged. Her neck was soft and her trachea was centered.

Her heart rhythm was regular.

Listening to her lungs didn’t turn up anything abnormal either.

Her abdomen was soft, but in the lower right, you could feel a cord-like mass almost 10 centimeters long and nearly six wide. Just touching it made her cry out in pain.

Seeing this, Zhou Can’s first suspicion was an intestinal tumor.

The lower right abdomen is where the ileocecal region’s located.

The specialists checked further—the girl’s hemoglobin was only 36 to 85 grams per liter.

They ran multiple blood and stool cultures, all negative.

Seems they were checking for malignant bacteria in her gut.

A human’s intestines are home to countless types of bacteria and toxins. Normally they’re harmless, even helpful, for digesting food.

Like how earthworms help break down organic matter in soil for plants.

But none of these tests found the real issue, so the provincial experts started checking antinuclear antibodies and rheumatoid factors.

Rheumatic diseases have always been some of the trickiest to diagnose.

They’re like ghosts—doctors struggle to pin them down.

And they can cause all sorts of symptoms.

During diagnosis it’s easy even for seasoned physicians to make a mistake. These days, whenever doctors can’t figure a case out, anything remotely resembling rheumatic disease means they’ll test for it.

Unfortunately, no big discoveries there either.

Next, they checked for Widal and Weil-Felix reactions.

All the results for typhoid H and O antigens, as well as paratyphoid A, B, and C, and Proteus bacteria, came up negative. At this point, the specialists were probably scratching their heads.

Sure enough, they seemed a bit lost—the next tests were for hepatitis B antigens, potassium, sodium, chloride, CO2 binding capacity, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, serum protein electrophoresis… basically everything possible.

They were literally running every test they could.

That just proves something: if Western medicine depends on this shotgun approach to diagnosis, checking everything, it’s a sign the doctors aren’t that skilled.

A truly excellent doctor only orders the essential tests.

Not a single one more than necessary.

Still, this little girl was a super VIP. With no diagnosis, the specialists’ all-hands-on-deck approach was totally understandable.

The higher the patient’s status, the more cautious the doctors.

It’s like the imperial physicians treating emperors or royal consorts. Their heads were always at risk if they made a mistake.

Society is more civilized now. At least doctors don’t get beheaded for a wrong call anymore.

But if a doctor bungles the case of an important patient, it’s perfectly normal for their career to be ruined.

So Zhou Can completely understood the experts’ state of mind.

Having gotten nowhere with labs, the team moved on to chest and abdominal x-rays. Still nothing.

They did a bone marrow biopsy. The granulocyte-to-erythrocyte ratio was low, iron inside the cells was lacking, and there were no abnormal cells.

Honestly, that bone marrow sample might as well have not been taken.

It didn’t offer any real answers for the diagnosis.

After admitting the girl, it was clear that while they needed to find the cause, her condition was much too critical to wait around. Plus, her father was watching every move.

The top priority was treating her symptoms and keeping her alive.

This is actually standard clinical practice.

Some tests just take days, and if you wait for the results before giving meds, the patient might not make it that long.

So, before figuring out the real illness, doctors at the Provincial Children’s Hospital gave her blood transfusions, stopped the bleeding, and treated infections—basically tackling every symptom they could.

The current suspects included hookworm disease, Crohn’s disease, lymphoma and intestinal tuberculosis.

Judging by the treatment, the doctors seemed to lean toward intestinal tuberculosis.

Many of her symptoms lined up with that condition, plus intestinal TB is pretty common in this country.

Scans had basically ruled out the possibility of an intestinal tumor.

At first, everyone had hoped it was an intestinal tumor.

After all, you could clearly feel a massive, cord-like lump near the ileocecal region.

But after days of antibiotics and steroids, the girl’s illness kept coming back. Her temperature could be kept in check with meds, and the bleeding seemed to improve too.

But the moment treatment stopped, the symptoms came right back.

Which meant the true cause still hadn’t been found.

Zhou Can started calmly piecing together all the possible causes. Listing every disease matching the symptoms and eliminating them one by one—this is how doctors track down tough cases.

Just then, a stern middle-aged man with a broad face and prominent ears stepped into the consultation room.

It was clear he looked worn out.

Having a daughter badly ill for days with no improvement would put anyone under huge strain.

“My name is Lin Jinzhi. My daughter’s name is Lin Nuanxi. I can’t thank all you directors, experts, and nurses enough for coming so late tonight. But my little girl is truly in danger, and we can’t delay any longer. No matter the outcome, I’ll always remember the kindness you show today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

He finished with a deep bow to everyone in the room.

No doubt about it—this man handled himself like a true leader. He knew exactly how to motivate people and manage emotions.

Just a few words and a bow were enough to make every healthcare worker in the room determined to save his daughter.

And their impression of him would only be strengthened.

“My daughter was born to my late ex-wife. Back when I was at my lowest, she married me. For work, we never had kids for a long time. We only had Lin Nuanxi after things stabilized. But during childbirth, she suffered a massive hemorrhage with amniotic fluid embolism and died, leaving me alone with a newborn daughter. My girl is my entire world. Please, I beg all of you, do whatever you can to save her. If you need anything from me, just ask. I’ll cooperate with every step of her treatment.”

Lin Jinzhi vowed his support once again.

Zhou Can had figured Lin Jinzhi was just another successful man who traded up after getting promoted.

He didn’t expect the story behind it all.

Turns out his wife died from postpartum hemorrhage and amniotic fluid embolism.

He’s had to play both father and mother—not easy at all.

It was only natural for him to remarry for both emotional and practical reasons.

Who could’ve known the second wife would turn out to be so toxic.

If only the child had been taken to the hospital earlier, things might’ve gone differently.

With lots of diseases, especially malignancies, early treatment is always best.

Take cancer—here, people see it as a death sentence, but in many developed countries, regular health checks mean it’s caught early and treated like it’s no big deal.

With surgery and medication, many can be fully cured.

Everyone hopes one day there’ll be a medicine for cancer, making it as easy to treat as a cold.

That may actually happen, but it takes time.

Until then, regular checkups and early treatment are the best protection.

As Lin Jinzhi glanced around, he slowly took out a heart-shaped paper peach from his pocket.

“This was my daughter’s birthday gift to me. She said, ‘Daddy, I know you’re always busy, but I really hope you can spend more time with me. Whenever you look at me, you always smile so happily. Happy birthday!'”

Even the formidable Health Bureau boss’s lips trembled as he read his daughter’s words.

Nothing matters more than emotion.

Even money and work can’t compare. For the people we love, we’ll pour everything into them without complaint.

That’s the power of love.

Everyone listening felt their hearts moved as well.

A couple nurses and a few female doctors had to wipe away tears.

“Do you know if the amount of blood your daughter vomited was large? When did she first start coughing up blood? And how many times has this happened so far?”

Zhou Can was the first to ask questions.

He wasn’t looking for attention—he simply needed to gather details to help diagnose the girl.

When Lin Jinzhi looked up and saw the first question came from a young doctor like Zhou Can, he looked just a bit disappointed.

Even so, he answered.

“The vomiting wasn’t much—she started coughing up phlegm with streaks of blood this morning. I can’t say exactly how many times it’s happened.”

So the bleeding wasn’t as severe as suspected.

Zhou Can thought it might be a side effect from medication or the illness spreading from the lower to the upper digestive tract.

Or maybe it had reached her lungs.

Coughing blood usually points to a lung problem.

Conditions like lung cancer or pneumonia often include that symptom.

“Is your daughter still coughing up blood now? I mean, are there still traces of blood in her phlegm?”

Zhou Can pressed on.

A slight frown crossed Lin Jinzhi’s face.

“Sometimes there’s still blood in her sputum. I really appreciate your dedication, but I suggest we let the more senior experts ask questions—they’ve got far more experience and are more likely to find out what’s wrong with my daughter.”

Clearly, he felt Zhou Can was asking too much and worried about taking time away from older experts.

People generally believe the older the doctor, the stronger their skills, the richer their experience.

“Alright.”

Zhou Can’s face stayed calm and he asked nothing more.

Dr. Tang Fei wanted to explain that Zhou Can, though young, was very capable. But more people had started to ask questions, so she let it go for now.

“Director Lin, what kinds of foods does your daughter normally eat?”

“She’s mostly cared for by her nanny and my current wife. I’m so busy with work I often get home really late. I’m honestly not sure.”

“Does she eat a lot of snacks? With such a young child having a major intestinal disease—and no genetic risks—it’s usually something that came from what she ate.”

“Hmm… she really does eat a lot of snacks. I usually buy her treats just to see her happy. She’s got lots of cavities because of all the sweets, actually.”

…

Zhou Can just sat quietly, still going over every potential cause in his head.

Half an hour later, the specialists had asked most of their questions.

They launched into a few rounds of discussion.

Dr. Tang Fei took the lead with her summary.

“Based on what we’ve discussed, the main suspects are: intestinal tuberculosis, typhoid, Crohn’s disease, myeloma, or either intestinal lymphoma or other aggressive intestinal tumors. But personally, I think intestinal TB can be mostly ruled out. Given Nuanxi’s overall condition, there are no signs of tubercular toxemia, her ESR isn’t accelerating, there’s no relevant family or past medical history, and her situation is way too severe for TB. So for now, that’s off the table.”

Dr. Tang Fei didn’t become chief of pediatrics for nothing—her skills and knowledge are top-notch.

She’s no mere pretty face, either.

In several pediatric fields her talent truly stands out.

Her only shortcoming may be surgical ability.

Since surgery requires technical precision and physical strength, few women make a mark there.

Only a rare few have outstanding achievements—and even then, mainly in obstetrics and gynecology.