Great doctors start with pediatrics

"To make a long story short, the child's name is Lin Duoduo. She was born deaf and mute, but she is usually very lively and loves to laugh."

The pediatrician looked at the medical records on his phone and spoke rapidly: "A week ago, things suddenly changed. He stopped talking, eating, and drinking, and had nightmares and screamed all night. We checked his blood routine, biochemistry, abdominal ultrasound, EEG, and even rechecked his hearing. All the indicators were normal, and there were no signs of any physical illness."

Zuo Zhenxing frowned: "Have you had any injuries? Have you argued with other children? Or seen anything scary?"

Logically speaking, he is not a doctor who diagnoses this type of disease.

But looking at my own students...

Zuo Zhenxing felt he could at least pretend to be someone else.

"I've asked them all, and the parents said no."

He Wenzhe sighed: "The child's parents work in another city and come back once a week. Seeing the child in this condition, they also took leave and stayed with him for three days, but his condition did not improve."

We suspect it might be separation anxiety, acute stress disorder, or an eating disorder. The psychiatric consultation is scheduled for next Tuesday.

But the child won't even drink water now. We saw that the child would become dehydrated if this continued, so we had no other choice but to come to you.

"I'm sorry, Director Zuo, we know we shouldn't have added a number for you, but the sign language interpreter isn't here today..."

As he spoke, the pediatrician winked at the parents behind him.

Duo Duo's mother, whose eyes were already red, choked up and cried out, "Doctor, please, please think of something! Duo Duo has never been like this before. She only drank one sip of water yesterday. How can her body take this? Please, I beg you!"

Duo Duo's father, standing beside her, clenched his fists and lowered his head, looking as if he were ready to kneel down and beg for mercy at any moment.

Duoduo remained silent, nestled in her mother's arms, as still as an unperturbed little rabbit.

Zuo Zhenxing's brows remained furrowed.

An inexplicable illness.

But seeing the family's reaction, the pediatricians did their best to maintain appearances.

Zuo Zhenxing quickly said, "It's alright, it's for the child."

"Then I'll ask from my perspective."

"I'm not sure about the impact of separation anxiety and other mental illnesses, but does the child have a history of autism spectrum disorders?"

"Autism spectrum disorder symptoms worsening?"

The pediatrician looked at Duoduo's parents.

Duo Duo's parents quickly shook their heads: "Autism? No, no, my child used to do very well in school and was very cheerful."

"Then let's ask from a surgical perspective."

Zuo Zhenxing asked, "Is it possible that the pain is there?"

"Could it be a hidden physical pain? For example, a toothache or abdominal pain, because deaf and mute children cannot express it, so it will manifest as emotional abnormalities."

"Dr. Zuo, we've done a full range of tests." The pediatrician scratched his head. "The child's parents are very anxious. They asked us to order an ultrasound and an MRI. We had to go to several departments just to get a prescription."

"But we didn't see a doctor for our toothache."

Zuo Zhenxing's eyes lit up: "This is a breakthrough."

Zuo Zhenxing opened his mouth towards Duoduo.

Unexpectedly, Duoduo quickly retreated, too frightened to come out.

Duo Duo's mother explained, "We take our child to the dentist regularly, and there haven't been any problems. Cavities shouldn't develop this quickly."

Zuo Zhenxing fell into deep thought.

The logic chain is broken.

All other test results showed no abnormalities.

The most likely dental problems have also been ruled out.

Generally speaking, in this situation, a consultation with a pediatric psychiatrist is the only option.

But unfortunately, there's no sign language interpreter today.

Seeing Duoduo's frightened appearance, everyone in the clinic felt uneasy.

What pediatricians least want to see is when a child's illness goes undetected by their tests.

Because if the test can't detect it, it means that the child's illness and condition are beyond the knowledge of these doctors.

There are more than 50,000 diseases in the world, of which more than 7,000 are rare diseases. Moreover, these rare diseases are often grouped into a single sequence for classification and organization, with multiple similar symptoms being grouped together.

Therefore, diseases that doctors cannot diagnose are often suspected to be rare diseases.

Rare diseases are mostly incurable and occur primarily in childhood.

Similarly, there are situations that doctors cannot understand when it happens to sick children, which often makes doctors feel powerless.

Laurent raised his head.

A red glow appeared above Duoduo's head.

The red light was faint, yet it flickered.

It's like a signal.

Judgments derived from "prediction".

Occasionally, it will emit a black glow.

Laurent rarely saw the dark light in children who appeared to be healthy.

"I'll do it."

Laurent spoke up: "Although I am still a medical student, my judgment is not accurate, and I will need to trouble the two teachers in the future."

Zuo Zhenxing and Laurent nodded repeatedly.

Laurent looked at Dodo's parents: "Has the child learned sign language before?"

"She has studied it, and there are schools that offer special education for her."

It sounds like she might be in the same school as the boy from before.

But for this reason, Laurent frowned.

His medical knowledge was limited, but his legal knowledge was profound.

If the child's condition is not caused by an illness, it is very likely due to experiencing something that has caused them to be in a state of shock.

According to various social statistics, people with disabilities are more vulnerable to harm than "normal people" across all age groups.

Therefore, Laurent did not relax at all, no matter what the problem was.

Laurent slowly squatted down.

His gaze did not meet Duoduo's.

In the original owner's memories, the orphanage had many children on the autism spectrum.

Sometimes looking them straight in the eye can startle them.

Therefore, Laurent lowered his gaze and looked at the rabbit in Dodo's hand.

She didn't smile, to avoid Duoduo misunderstanding.

Laurent simply raised his hand, pointed at Dodo, and gave her a thumbs up.

Dodo trembled, but held the rabbit tightly and did not respond to Laurent.

The consultation room fell silent instantly; everyone held their breath, afraid of disturbing Duoduo.

Laurent didn't move, but simply maintained his gesture, waiting patiently.

A full minute passed.

Duoduo timidly raised her head and gave Laurent a thumbs up.

Laurent relaxed a little and said to the girl, "I won't hurt you."

The girl hugged the rabbit tightly, and after a long time, she nodded silently.

Laurent continued, "Are you feeling unwell?"

The girl's response was still very slow.

Finally, as if making up his mind, he shook his head.

If you're not feeling well, then there must be another reason.

Although the possibility of illness could not be ruled out, Laurent changed the subject:

"Can we chat?"

Duoduo watched Laurent's gesture.

He looked up at his parents, who were watching him with concern.

He loosened one hand, holding the little rabbit doll in one hand, and made a hand gesture with the other.

"Can."

"Then let's talk about your mom and dad."