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

Click, the phone hung up, and the entire emergency room fell silent for a moment. Zhou Wenyuan looked up at him.

"That child in the pediatrics ward?"

Zhao Guofeng nodded with a grim expression.

"Yeah, it just twitched again."

Several doctors nearby clearly knew about this, and one of the resident doctors couldn't help but speak up.

"It's been so many days, and they still haven't found anything?"

Zhao Guofeng didn't speak, but he pinched the bridge of his nose, his exhaustion almost written all over his face.

Gu Lin stood to the side without saying a word, but still subconsciously glanced at Zhao Guofeng.

His brow was furrowed, not from irritability or anxiety, but from a sense of helplessness that came from knowing the patient was deteriorating yet being unable to grasp the cause of the illness.

After Zhao Guofeng left, Chen Mu couldn't help but come closer.

"What's going on?"

The nurse next to me whispered:

"That strange illness in the pediatric ward has been hospitalized for almost a month, and they still can't find the cause. The whole pediatric ward is going crazy."

Chen Mu immediately became interested.

"What illness?"

The nurse shook her head.

"It's scary that you don't know. I heard it started with a fever, then convulsions, and then it got worse and worse."

"We've tested for infection, encephalitis, and metabolic diseases, but the results don't match anything."

Chen Mu felt a chill run down his spine.

"How old is that child?"

"Seven years old."

The nurse sighed after she finished speaking.

"She was a pretty young girl, and used to be very lively, but now she can't even get out of bed."

Gu Lin paused slightly as he recalled the many children he had seen in his previous life. Some diseases might be acceptable when they occurred in adults, but when they occurred in children, they always seemed particularly cruel.

At 8 p.m., Gu Lin changed out of his white coat and prepared to go home.

As soon as they reached the elevator, they saw Zhao Guofeng come out of the elevator.

The head of pediatrics had clearly run back; his hair was a bit messy, he was holding medical records, and two pediatricians were following behind him.

"What were the EEG results?"

"The director is out."

"Any new discoveries?"

"no."

"Have you had a follow-up MRI?"

"The retest showed no abnormalities, just like before."

Zhao Guofeng stood there for a long time without saying a word, and finally just let out a soft breath.

"Go to the ward first, then I'll see the child."

The elevator doors slowly closed, and Gu Lin stood there, watching the numbers jump up one by one.

7th floor, 8th floor, 9th floor...

Finally, it stopped on the floor where the pediatric ward was located.

Meanwhile, in the pediatric ward, the monitors emitted a regular beeping sound.

Lying on the hospital bed was a thin little girl, about seven or eight years old. Due to prolonged fever, her face was pale and almost bloodless, and she had lost a lot of hair.

She curled up in the blanket, looking like a listless little animal.

Beside the hospital bed, a woman was secretly wiping away tears. She hadn't slept well for many days, and her eyes were terribly red.

Hearing the door open, she immediately stood up, her voice filled with cautious anticipation.

"Director Zhao, have you found out?"

Zhao Guofeng looked at her, remained silent for two seconds, and finally shook his head.

"not yet."

The light in the woman's eyes dimmed little by little, and in that instant, the entire ward seemed to become heavy.

The little girl in the hospital bed gently opened her eyes, looked at her mother, and asked in a very soft voice:

"Mom, am I almost better?"

The woman burst into tears. She quickly turned her head away so the child wouldn't see, but her voice still trembled uncontrollably.

"It'll be quick, the doctors are all helping you."

"It will be fine soon."

The little girl nodded obediently, then closed her eyes again.

But no one knew that she had already quietly asked the nurse this afternoon.

"Sister, am I going to die?"

The nurse was stunned for a moment; her hand holding the IV set froze in mid-air.

The ward was quiet. It was getting dark outside. The little girl was huddled under the covers, with only her dark eyes showing.

Those eyes were so bright, so bright, that it was impossible to lie to her.

The nurse gently knelt down and tenderly patted her head.

"No, there are so many of us here to help you."

The little girl looked at her quietly, and after a few seconds, suddenly asked in a soft voice:

"Then why is Mom always crying?"

The nurse felt a lump in her throat and didn't know how to answer.

*

In the ward, Zhao Guofeng stood by the bed, reviewing all the test results again.

Complete blood count, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, electroencephalogram (EEG), MRI, metabolic screening, autoimmune antibody testing, genetic testing...

I had a huge stack of documents, and I looked up almost everything I could, but the answer was still shrouded in mystery.

The young doctor next to me asked in a low voice:

"Director, should we contact a higher-level hospital?"

Zhao Guofeng remained silent for a long time.

"Wait a minute."

When he said that, he actually had no confidence at all.

Because he knew that if the condition continued to worsen, it might not be in time to transfer to another hospital.

If even they can't find their way, going to a higher-level hospital might not immediately provide an answer.

The most terrifying thing is never being seriously ill, but not knowing what the illness is.

At one o'clock in the morning, in the emergency room, Gu Lin had just finished showering and was about to go to sleep when his phone suddenly vibrated. It was a message from Chen Mu.

Are you asleep?

Gu Lin replied with a question mark, and the next second, Chen Mu sent more than a dozen photos, all of which were the medical records of that child in the pediatrics department.

Gu Lin: "..."

Where are you from?

Chen Mu replied instantly.

[This was captured by the pediatric system. Would you like to take a look?]

Gu Lin stared at the screen for two seconds before finally clicking on it.

Half an hour later, the only sound in the quiet room was the click of the mouse wheel.

Gu Lin frowned more and more deeply because the medical records were far more complicated than he had imagined.

The onset is fever, followed by gradual cognitive decline, mood abnormalities, seizures, motor coordination disorders, and recently even transient aphasia.

It resembles encephalitis, yet it doesn't, because the cerebrospinal fluid is too clean.

For example, metabolic diseases may present with basically normal results in metabolic screening.

It resembles an autoimmune encephalopathy, but the relevant antibodies are also negative.

Gu Lin turned to the last page, his gaze pausing.

There was a very inconspicuous sentence in the medical record.

The child has experienced recurrent oral ulcers and occasional unexplained rashes over the past six months.

Gu Lin's gaze sharpened slightly, and his fingers remained on the keyboard for a long time.

Mouth ulcers, rash, fever, neurological symptoms...

These things seem fine on their own, but when put together... something just doesn't seem right.

Meanwhile, in the pediatric ward, the little girl developed a fever again.

39.9 ° C.

The monitor kept alarming, and the nurse rushed into the ward.

Her mother stood beside her, almost unable to speak from crying.

Zhao Guofeng arrived once again, and antipyretics, fluid replacement, and temperature reduction were all carried out in an orderly manner.

But everyone knows that these are just temporary solutions.

Without finding the cause, everything is just a delaying tactic.

After all that effort, my temperature finally came down a little by 3 a.m.

The ward fell silent again, and the mother stayed by the bedside, gently holding her daughter's small hand.

Just then, the little girl suddenly opened her eyes groggily, her voice very soft.

"Mother……"

The woman quickly lowered her head.

"Mom's here."

The little girl looked at her and suddenly smiled, a smile so weak it was heartbreaking.

"Can I go back to school after I get better?"

The woman bit her lip hard, tears welling up instantly, and she nodded frantically.

"Yes, of course."

"Don't you love drawing? When you get better, Mom will buy you new colored pencils."

The little girl nodded happily, then contentedly drifted back to sleep.