Chapter 1471: Chapter 590: Hospital Forensic Scientist, The Truth Behind the Cause of Death Emerges
Now that the person is dead, trying to determine the cause of death without an autopsy will undoubtedly greatly increase the difficulty of diagnosis.
Zhou Can already finds diagnosing the living occasionally challenging, and diagnosing the dead is a first for him.
Faced with Qin’s gaze full of expectation, Zhou Can ultimately chose to give it a try.
"I’ll give it a shot! But as you know, once a patient is dead, it’s impossible to provide many meaningful diagnostic data, so please don’t hold out too much hope."
Zhou Can took on this difficult task.
After a person dies, all symptoms disappear, key reference points like blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, and body temperature all vanish.
This is very unfavorable for diagnosis.
The only option left is to make a comprehensive inference through some nursing records left by the patient before death, scans, described symptoms, and then combine these with symptoms at the time of death and some manifestations after death.
"I understand this! We’ll do our best, and if it doesn’t work out, and the family doesn’t accept our opinion, then we’ll have to suggest they go through judicial procedures, an autopsy!"
Qin nodded his head.
Director Shi from the Hospital Infection Office gave Zhou Can a meaningful look.
"In the past, whenever our first group encountered such deceased patients, we could almost always quickly determine the cause of death. After Old Song left, this capability of the first group was interrupted. Now that you have taken Old Song’s place, I hope you can develop more in this direction."
Zhou Can was full of curiosity about this Old Song whom Director Shi mentioned.
"Who is Old Song?"
He casually asked.
"A ward doctor with rich clinical experience, who later joined our Quality Control Department. He started as an ordinary member of the fifth group and eventually joined the first group."
When Director Shi mentioned Old Song’s past experiences, it was filled with admiration.
From his words, it was not hard to discern that there is actually a hierarchy among the five groups in the Quality Control Department. The first group should be of the highest standing, while the fifth group is the lowest.
As for the team leader Zhong Hui who once opposed Zhou Can, it’s unclear which group he belongs to?
Being able to become a team leader, and with the Medical Department’s Director Xin Wanshan showing him much respect at that time, his status must not be low.
Now Zhou Can and Zhong Hui are colleagues in the same department, and if they meet, he wonders if the other party would feel awkward?
But the events of those years have long passed, and Zhou Can is not one to hold grudges.
He certainly won’t cling on.
He has just started working in the Quality Control Department, and there are sure to be many hospital leaders keeping an eye on him. If he were to enact revenge on those who once suppressed him right after assuming his post, it would only ruin his bright prospects.
"After Old Song joined the Quality Control Department, considering work requirements, he self-studied forensic medicine and even went for a time to the police criminal investigation team for further studies. Upon returning, he displayed an extraordinary talent in forensic medicine. Moreover, his forensic research direction is different from criminal investigation; he specifically researches the causes of death of patients who died from clinical treatment. As long as there was a patient death in the hospital, he could be called over for an examination, and he would often quickly determine the cause of death."
"Initially, families did not trust the conclusions he provided. But after applying for an autopsy, it was almost identical to Old Song’s inference. Later, Old Song became the hospital’s version of a forensic expert. Not only would patients who died in our hospital look to him for cause of death analysis, but even outside hospitals would invite him at a high price to help when needed. Your clinical talents are quite prodigious; you could also learn from Old Song and further study forensic medicine. Now that you’ve joined the Quality Control Department, you should naturally put your heart and soul into doing this job well."
Director Shi is vigorously encouraging Zhou Can to take the forensic development path.
And it’s the hospital’s version of it.
It’s hard to evaluate whether the intention is good or bad.
Zhou Can has his own dreams; he simply cannot give up the pursuit of his dreams for a job in the Quality Control Department.
What people fear most is being half-hearted.
Moreover, he believes that being a clinical doctor has a much more promising future than being the hospital’s version of a forensic expert.
Forensics is about determining the cause of death for patients.
Clinical doctors save the living, rescuing vibrant lives, and relieving patients of pain. This is undoubtedly much more meaningful than being a forensic expert.
"Thank you, Director Shi, for your suggestion, I will consider it carefully."
Zhou Can replied with a diplomatic phrase.
He did not waste any more time and started picking up the patient’s medical records and test reports to examine them closely one by one.
In fact, he had already looked it over when outside.
It’s just that this time he’s examining more meticulously.
And the focus is somewhat different.
When examining in the ward, the main focus was on determining whether there were any irregularities in the diagnosis and treatment process by the medical staff in the Digestive Internal Medicine department. Now it is about finding the cause of the patient’s death.
Before hospitalization, the patient had a routine stool test, and the fecal occult blood test was negative.
This indicates that gastrointestinal bleeding can basically be ruled out.
However, before the patient died, he suddenly vomited a large amount of blood and his abdomen was distended like a drum. These indications suggested a strong likelihood that the patient suffered from gastrointestinal bleeding.
And with high probability, it was an upper gastrointestinal bleed.
"Did the patient have a bowel movement before death?"
"No! He already had difficulty with bowel movements and required an enema, after which a nurse had to manually extract it."
The attending physician responded.
Nursing is an absolutely respectable profession; they are more like unsung heroes who silently contribute. When a patient’s illness is cured, the credit goes to the doctor, and nurses are rarely mentioned.
However, the various care and medication administration during a patient’s hospital stay are all handled by nurses.
Only a few medications are administered by the ward doctors.
Nurses are more like wise ministers, whereas doctors are the kings.
When it comes to manually removing a patient’s feces, if male nurses are available, it’s generally done by male nurses. However, male nurses are a scarce resource, and many departments simply don’t have male nurses.
