Top-tier doctoral supervisor, reborn as a first-year graduate student in standardized residency trai

He forcefully suppressed the thought; it wasn't enough. Elevated ferritin levels alone were far from sufficient for diagnosis.

If I were to say it now, it would be no different from gambling.

Gu Lin slowly exhaled and reopened the examination form.

One page, two pages, three pages—he began to reorganize all the materials.

Meanwhile, in the hematology consultation room, several department heads were discussing bone marrow smears.

"There is no clear evidence of leukemia."

"What about lymphoma?"

"Not supported."

"Infect?"

"It doesn't seem like it either."

"Ugh, this is really difficult."

Outside the ward, the sky gradually darkened.

The woman sat on a bench, clutching the payment slip in her hand.

She has lost count of how many times she has checked her bank card balance.

Thirty-eight thousand six hundred and twenty-seven yuan.

This is all the savings our family has accumulated over the years, money we've saved for our son's future schooling.

The money was saved to repair the house in my hometown, and to prepare for any unexpected needs in the future.

Now it's slowly turning into numbers on the bill.

She lowered her head, and a tear fell onto the payment slip with a thud. The old man next to her gently patted her shoulder.

"Don't cry, it will be alright."

The woman covered her face, her shoulders trembling slightly.

"Dad... if something really happens to him..."

"What should we do about Yangyang...?"

The old man fell silent. This farmer in his sixties had never been afraid of anything in his life, but at this moment, he couldn't utter a single word.

In the hospital room, the man looked at his wife through the glass and slowly closed his eyes.

No one knew that at that moment, he had already begun secretly writing his will.

Meanwhile, Gu Lin looked at the test results on the screen and suddenly spoke in a low voice.

"Chen Mu".

"Um?"

"Help me look something up."

"What?"

Gu Lin's gaze slowly fell on the ever-increasing ferritin levels, his voice very soft.

"Diagnostic criteria for HLH".

Chen Mu abruptly stopped.

In the office, the air seemed to fall silent for a moment as Chen Mu looked at Gu Lin with a complex and shocked expression.

"You don't really think it's HLH, do you?"

Gu Lin shook his head.

"I have no idea."

"But I want to know if I'm wrong."

Meanwhile, in the hematology department office, the atmosphere had become extremely tense.

Li Jianguo rubbed his temples, feeling exhausted after several days of consultations.

The patient was transferred to the hematology department last night, but the condition is still progressing. The high fever persists, and the blood count continues to decline. However, the cause of the illness remains shrouded in mystery.

"Doctor, should we perform another bone marrow aspiration?"

A young doctor next to him spoke up, but Li Jianguo shook his head.

"It's not very meaningful; I've seen everything I needed to see."

"And if this continues, the patient may not have any more time."

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and the nurse on duty walked in.

"Director, the patient's family would like to ask about the situation."

Li Jianguo remained silent for a few seconds before finally standing up.

"I'll go."

Outside the ward, the woman stood somewhat reservedly at the door, clutching the payment slip tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white from the force.

The old man sat beside him, silent as a stone.

Upon seeing Li Jianguo come out, the two of them stood up at the same time.

The woman's voice trembled.

"Doctor, have you found the results?"

Li Jianguo paused for a moment, then finally shook his head.

In that instant, the light in the woman's eyes dimmed noticeably, as if her last glimmer of hope had been taken away.

She forced a smile.

"It's alright, just do your best."

But as she spoke, tears began to fall uncontrollably. She quickly lowered her head to wipe them away, as if she didn't want to cause trouble for the doctor.

Li Jianguo felt very upset. In all his years as a doctor, what he feared most was not patients causing trouble, but family members like this.

They don't even complain or blame; they just wait quietly for a result, even if that result isn't necessarily good news.

In the ward, Wang Jianjun was leaning against the headboard, holding his phone with the screen lit up, displaying a photo.

The little boy in the photo has a silly grin on his face, is missing a front tooth, and is holding a small, tan-colored dog in his arms.

That's his son, Yangyang.

He is five years old this year.

Wang Jianjun stared at the photo for a long time, then suddenly clicked to record a video. The camera wobbled slightly, pointing at him.

He forced a smile.

"Yangyang, Daddy's been a bit busy lately. What if Daddy's not home anymore...?"

His voice suddenly stopped, Wang Jianjun lowered his head, his eyes gradually reddening. After a long while, he continued speaking.

"You must listen to your mother."

Study hard.

"Don't be like your father in the future."

"He spends every day basking in the sun on the construction site."

After he finished speaking, he turned off the video with red eyes, and the ward fell silent again. No one knew that this was the seventh video he had recorded today.

-

At 9 p.m., Chen Mu returned to the emergency room carrying a bowl of instant noodles.

As soon as I entered, I found Gu Lin still sitting in front of the computer, the screen filled with test results.

"Still not gone?"

Gu Lin didn't even look up.

"Soon."

Chen Mu walked over, just about to speak, when he suddenly froze.

Because there was a piece of paper in front of Gu Lin, covered with writing.

High fever, splenomegaly, decreased levels of all three blood cell lines, elevated ferritin, abnormal coagulation, and impaired liver function.

Then, at the very bottom, Gu Lin circled three words with his pen.

——HLH.

Chen Mu's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"Gu Lin".

"Um?"

"What if that's true?"

Gu Lin remained silent for a long time, so long that Chen Mu thought he wouldn't answer.

Then, he spoke softly.

"If that's true, then this patient still has a chance."

The office quieted down, and the night deepened outside the window.

Upstairs in the ward, a man was secretly writing his will, a woman was silently weeping in the corridor, and an old man was squatting in the stairwell smoking.

Unbeknownst to them, at that very moment, someone had already pierced through the fog and seen the answer that had been almost entirely overlooked.

The truth is only a few pieces away from being fully revealed.

The next morning, during rounds in the hematology department, Wang Jianjun's condition had deteriorated again.

Hemoglobin continued to drop, platelet count fell to dangerous levels, high fever persisted, and the person became increasingly weak.

After the ward rounds, Li Jianguo looked extremely pale.

No one spoke in the office, because everyone knew that time was running out.

Just then, the new test results came back.

Triglycerides increase, fibrinogen decreases.

When the resident doctor handed over the results, Li Jianguo was suddenly stunned, because the two results did not match the discussion yesterday at all.

He frowned as he flipped through the medical records, feeling more and more that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Meanwhile, in the emergency room office, Gu Lin was looking at the A4 paper on the table, a hint of fatigue in his eyes.

Chen Mu sat down with a glass of soy milk in his hand, and he noticed that more and more words were circled on the A4 paper on the table.

High fever, splenomegaly, decreased levels of all three blood cell lines, surge in ferritin, elevated triglycerides, and decreased fibrinogen.

Gu Lin paused, then slowly wrote at the bottom:

It meets the HLH-2004 diagnostic criteria.