Chapter 1017: 687 How can they all use rhinoceros horn_2
Du Heng gave a soft acknowledgment and, after a moment’s thought, took out part of his teaching plan from his bag. "Teacher, please take a look at this. It’s the class content and time allocation I designed based on my understanding. Let me know if there are any issues."
Li Jianwei put down his teacup and slowly reached out to take the teaching plan.
However, just as his hand was halfway there, the sudden ringing of his phone from his pocket made him retract it. "Wait a moment, let me take this call first, and then I’ll look at it."
After glancing at the screen, Li Jianwei cheerfully answered the call. "Well, hello, Director Ge! How is it you have time to call me today? If I remember correctly, you haven’t called me once since I stopped providing you with information. You never go to the temple for nothing, so tell me, what’s the matter?"
Li Jianwei teasingly spoke to Director Ge and waited for his response.
But as the voice from the phone continued, the smile on his face vanished.
As soon as the voice on the other end finished, he asked urgently, "How is the child now?... Okay, okay, we’re together. We’ll come over right now."
Finishing his sentence, Li Jianwei hung up and grabbed his bag. After tightening the lid on his teacup, he tossed it into the bag. "Xiao Heng, come with me to the hospital."
Upon hearing this, Du Heng went through the same motions as Li Jianwei, merely adding the step of packing his teaching plan. "Teacher, what happened?"
As he walked with his bag, Li Jianwei said, "I remember telling you that Director Ge and his team were planning to use your treatment approach for that child and were also going to try traditional Chinese medicine, right?"
Du Heng followed Li Jianwei with his bag. "Yes, you mentioned that. Did something go wrong with the treatment?"
"A few days ago, a child with a severe illness was brought in—uh... the kind that’s already in the middle to late stages. Their conventional treatment was no longer effective, so after discussing with the parents, they gave the child Chinese herbal medicine this morning. However, two hours after taking the medicine, the child developed a high fever that wouldn’t subside, became unconscious, and experienced rapid breathing."
Du Heng was taken aback. This situation was precisely what he had worried about most when Li Jianwei had discussed the matter with him. Unexpectedly, it had actually happened.
"What about now?"
"Director Ge just said that the child has been resuscitated," Li Jianwei said seriously. "But at the same time, the child’s condition is very bad; their physical condition is worse than before. By the way, when the child was brought to them, he had already shown signs of generalized weakness and infection."
Du Heng quickly thought of possible countermeasures, but without seeing the pediatric patient first, many of his ideas seemed like grasping at flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water—somewhat unrealistic.
Upon arriving at the hospital, they met the others and, bypassing small talk, directly entered the ward.
When Du Heng saw the pediatric patient in the bed, his eyebrows furrowed sharply.
Li Jianwei had relayed earlier that the child had been resuscitated.
But now, the child still needed an oxygen mask to breathe, the high fever had not subsided, and there were signs of swelling all over the body. This prompted Du Heng to take a few extra glances at Director Ge and Deputy Director Cai.
"President Du, this is the current situation. What do you think...?" Director Ge looked at Du Heng with hopeful eyes after fully describing the patient’s condition.
Du Heng had an urge to turn around and leave; this felt like a complete setup.
However, seeing the pitiful state of the child in the bed and the young parents on the verge of collapse, Du Heng gritted his teeth and approached the child.
After a thorough examination, Du Heng had a clear understanding of the situation.
The condition of the child before him was fundamentally the same as that of the abandoned child he had treated earlier. In both cases, pathogenic heat toxin was rampant within the body, having already permeated the exterior, interior, and the triple burner, leading to a syndrome of heat entering the ying level and disturbing the blood.
However, there was a difference: the child in front of him was in a more severe condition than the previous one.
Time was critical now, and it was difficult to determine whether the child’s condition had naturally progressed to this state or if it had been suddenly aggravated by Director Ge and his team’s incorrect medication.
But regardless of the cause, the treatment plan would now have to be different from the one for the previous child.
For this child, the absolute priority was not to enhance stomach qi, but to halt the progression of the illness.
After Du Heng finished his examination and quickly formulated a treatment plan in his mind, he turned and looked seriously at Director Ge. "Director Ge, for this child’s treatment, if I outline it now, will my instructions be followed?"
Director Ge didn’t hesitate at all and said directly, "President Du, you have experience in treating this disease. We will definitely follow your instructions."
"Alright, then." Du Heng took a deep breath and stated, "Prescribe Rhinoceros Horn and Rehmannia Decoction and Clearing Plague and Defeating Poison Drink. Use a heavy dose of raw gypsum, 500 grams, with other dosages unchanged. Decoct and administer frequently, two small spoonfuls each time, at ten-minute intervals."
Director Ge had said he would listen to everything Du Heng said, but when Du Heng announced the prescription, he immediately looked at Deputy Director Cai. As a practitioner of Western medicine, he didn’t understand Du Heng’s prescription, so he could only place his hope in Deputy Director Cai, who specialized in the integration of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine.
However, he had clearly overestimated Deputy Director Cai’s capabilities.
At that moment, Deputy Director Cai’s mind felt like it was running a fighter jet’s engine, trying desperately to recall what Rhinoceros Horn and Rehmannia Decoction and Clearing Plague and Defeating Poison Drink were and what they were used for.
Soon, Deputy Director Cai recalled these two prescriptions.
The mnemonic for Rhinoceros Horn and Rehmannia Decoction states: ’Rhinoceros horn, rehmannia, peony, and moutan; for rising heat in the blood and stomach, and rampant fire evil. It treats macular eruptions and yang toxins, or add Chinese honeylocust and scutellaria to clear liver fire.’ It is a heat-clearing agent with the effects of clearing heat and detoxification, cooling the blood, and dispersing stasis.
Well, this is appropriate.
The Clearing Plague and Defeating Poison Drink, as per its mnemonic (which includes Rehmannia, coptis, scutellaria; moutan, raw gypsum, gardenia, licorice, lophatherum, radix scrophulariae; rhinoceros horn, forsythia, peony, anemarrhena, and platycodon), acts to purge fire, detoxify, and nourish yin. It clears both qi and blood and is primarily for clearing heat and detoxification. This Clearing Plague and Defeating Poison Drink and the previous prescription had broadly similar effects.
That was also suitable.
But whether the combination of the two prescriptions was still suitable, Deputy Director Cai became a little unsure.
Because he had never used them this way before.
And both prescriptions included one medicinal ingredient: rhinoceros horn.
Rhinoceros horn has a cold nature and a taste that is bitter, sour, and salty. It cools the blood, clears heat, and detoxifies. It has been called ’the treasure of things, the treasure of the country.’ This substance is the horn of a rhinoceros. Rhinoceroses are now endangered wild animals, so rhinoceros horn has become very precious, much like pangolin scales—every bit used means less remains. Moreover, the "Pharmacopoeia" had actually removed rhinoceros horn from its list of standard medications, meaning its use was now technically illegal.
What made Deputy Director Cai even more uncomfortable was the use of raw gypsum.
Raw gypsum is pungent and sweet, slightly cold, and affects the lung and stomach meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat and purging fire, relieving restlessness and thirst, and promoting astringency and tissue regeneration. But the 500-gram dosage made him shiver. Because this substance is extremely cold, excessive consumption could easily damage yang qi, and the prescribed dosage was typically fifteen to thirty grams. Although it could be increased as appropriate, increasing it more than tenfold was something he wouldn’t even dare to imagine.
He had known from studying Du Heng’s previous prescriptions that Du Heng liked to use large, even excessive, doses of medication. But it hadn’t seemed so obvious just from reading them; at most, the numbers were just a bit bigger. But when this number was actually presented to him, and he had to make a decision, he realized the true weight of such a figure.
But the situation was what it was; for the change in the child’s condition, he bore an inescapable responsibility. Since he didn’t understand, and Du Heng had experience and had apparently never made a mistake, he gritted his teeth and decided to accept it.
However, there was one thing that couldn’t be accepted and had to be clarified. "President Du, our hospital... we may not have any rhinoceros horn. If you’re looking for rhinoceros horn now, you might have to try some of those small private clinics to see if they have any stock."
Du Heng had indeed overlooked this issue before, but he soon thought of a solution. "It doesn’t matter if there’s no rhinoceros horn. Moutan, puccoon, and flea can be used as substitutes."
