C66

When Li Zheng left the hospital, Xu Mingsheng’s temperature had come down and his vital signs were gradually stabilizing, so Chen Sufen and Xu Keqiang took his hand and thanked him again and again.

Li Zheng smiled and said that it was what he had to do. Chen Sufen looked at his somewhat disoriented look, and the helpless smile on his face, she certainly knew what Li Zheng was thinking. This child looked mature and stable, but inside still maintained a precious unguarded heart.

“Xiao Zheng, the weight of life is too heavy, don’t put it on your shoulders. Just go back and extract the antibiotics properly, and leave the rest to me. I am a doctor, I understand my duty.” Chen Sufen spoke solemnly.

Li Zheng was stunned, then smiled bitterly, “Professor, your words are too much.”

Li Zheng was engaged in drug research and development, how to use or not to use medicine was a doctor’s business, he had done all that he could do. Li Zheng left all eighteen of the medicines he brought to Mary’s Hospital, and then he and the professors left to go back and prepare enough antibiotics.

***

“Hey, what did the nurse call you guys out for?” This was a young man in his early thirties, white shirt and black pants, with a disposable mask on his face, he came to take care of his father, the old man just a few days ago, had gastrointestinal surgery, before he recovered he got infected with the drug-resistant bacteria, since yesterday his high fever hadn’t gone down.

In the 1980s, drug-resistant strains of infection were still very rare, especially this kind of large-scale infection, it was the first time in Hong Kong, so after the news of the closure of Queen Mary Hospital came out, the major newspapers in Hong Kong used a huge page to report this event, the report detailed the general knowledge of drug-resistant strains and the horror of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, so that the people of Hong Kong would understand that taking antibiotics frequently was also a dangerous thing. The story was a good one.

The young man knew that his father was infected with drug-resistant bacteria and was already prepared for the worst, which was why he hastily left his job and stayed at the old man’s bedside twenty-four hours a day.

The middle-aged woman and her daughter looked at each other, then turned her head and said with a smile, “Nothing, just some instructions to pay attention to some matters, our Old Yu can’t get surgery.”

The young man looked at them suspiciously, and didn’t think much of it. They were all family members of patients with the same disease, what was there to hide, he was probably thinking too much.

Just as time went on, he found that from time to time, there were patients’ families called out by the nurses, although the nurses were very subtle to walk to the bed next to the people called, but Zheng Cheng had done so many years of administrative work, how could he not see.

His suspicion reached its peak after a couple broke out in a violent argument.

“The nurses have said that Dad’s disease is very difficult to cure without this medicine, are you going to watch Dad die? He is not your own father so you are not anxious.”

“You’re not making sense, the nurse also said that this drug is toxic, there is a risk, the risk is also very big!”

“Three people died in one morning. You read today’s newspaper, the newspaper said this bacteria infection is very serious, I asked my medical students, in the current level of medical care, this is simply no rule of law, since there is a ray of hope, why don’t we try!” The wife’s emotions seemed very excited.

“Ah Fang ……”

“You don’t have to say anything, this is my father, I will go sign later!”

The young man, also known as Zheng Cheng, couldn’t help but frown, what were they talking about? What medicine? Why didn’t he know, seeing his father’s situation getting worse and worse, he couldn’t sit still.

Zheng Cheng walked out of the isolation ward just in time to see a young nurse holding a pile of paper and a middle-aged woman explaining something, the middle-aged woman couldn’t stop nodding her head and responding well.

“Fine, fine, I’ll sign, I’ll sign.” It was also fortunate that the media’s popularization of drug-resistant strains and Pseudomonas aeruginosa had made the hospital’s work a lot better, and the families of patients in despair were willing to try once they heard that their loved ones may have hope of being saved, even if the probability was even smaller.

With Chen Xuhua taking the lead and Chen Sufen sitting in, the front-line specialists at Queen Mary Hospital quickly screened patients who could receive the drug injections. They were conservative in their screening criteria, choosing patients who were young, resistant and free of other serious diseases to try first.

To maximize risk avoidance for the hospital, they had nurses explain the risks of drug injections in detail one-on-one and signed a waiver agreement on a voluntary basis. Although the agreement itself lacked legal validity because the carbapenem antibiotics didn’t pass the biological test, it was better than nothing.

“Nurse? Please ……” Zheng Cheng frowned and spoke.

The nurse and the middle-aged woman saw him approaching and immediately stopped talking, and the nurse seemed to turn the page of the top paper without thinking.

“Mr. Zheng, may I help you?”

Zheng Cheng’s eyes swept over the paper in the nurse’s hand and said with a smile, “I saw that you’ve called a lot of family members to talk, so I came out to see if I had to pay attention to something as well.”

“Ms. Chen, go in first.” The nurse said to the middle-aged woman, and then turned to Zheng Cheng to talk about Mr. Zheng’s condition and related matters to pay attention to in detail, so that no one could see any difference.

The first batch of screened patients were formally injected with carbapenem antibiotics not long afterwards, all the front-line experts of Mary’s Hospital, including the president of Mary’s Hospital, Mr. Adolph, vice president Chen Xuhua, Chen Sufen and the rest of the department heads, they all looked grave, looking at the clock ticking on the wall, the atmosphere in the office was almost frozen.

There was a knock on the office door and Mr. Adolph said in a loud voice, “Come in.”

Wang Jing came in through the door, carrying a thick pile of information, “All the antibiotics left by Mr. Li Zheng have been injected, here is the waiver signed by the family and the patient’s medication record.”

Dean Adolph rubbed his temples, “Oh God, I really don’t know if I made the right decision, may the Lord bless these poor sick people to be healthy again and also bless his devout believer to keep his job.”

Chen Sufen flipped through the medication records and nodded to Wang Jing, then she stood up and clapped her hands, “Everyone take your positions, according to Old Xu’s experience, the next few hours will be the toughest time of the battle.”

The people nodded, and then took their respective patient information and left quickly.

Within the next few hours, the atmosphere in the isolation ward became tense all of a sudden, as the nurses and doctors looked at the patients who were injected with the antibiotics.

Most of the patients had severe side effects after the carbapenem antibiotics were injected, but fortunately, with the example of Xu Mingsheng in front of them, the group of doctors and nurses were still calm and collected.

The family members of the patients who were injected with antibiotics were nervous, but the families of those who were not injected slowly came around. Especially in the afternoon, when the temperatures of the dozen or so patients who took the lead in injecting antibiotics came down, the rest of the patients’ families began to speculate.

“Did they use some kind of medicine? We have to use it too! It’s not like we don’t have money? Why should they be given it first!”

“Yes, yes, we want the medicine too!”

The emotional family members of the patients converged together and blocked the door of the doctor’s office.

“Wang Jing, has the blood test report come out yet? First send the patient whose condition is under control to the observation ward.” Chen Xuhua said.

He then got up and walked to the office door.

“Quiet, everyone be quiet and listen to me for a moment.”

“Hello, I am Chen Xuhua, the vice president of Mary’s Hospital. I would like to clarify one thing here first, our hospital is not being biased, and the doctors have not received red packets from other patients’ families. You must have read the news papers in the past few days, this drug-resistant strain of infection is a very serious matter, even the most advanced medical level of the United States, also can’t cure the Pseudomonas aeruginosa infected people. We are lucky that one of our biopharmaceutical scholars in Hong Kong happens to be doing relevant research and he has developed a brand new antibiotic that is effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. But you may not be aware that the birth of a new drug requires countless experiments and improvements, a process that often lasts for years or even a dozen years, but life waits for no man!”

Chen Xuhua’s paused, glanced at the patients’ family who had quieted down, and continued, “When we at Mary’s Hospital were informed that this scholar had extracted the new antibiotic extract, he was the first to be contacted. However brand new drugs that have not been improved by experiment after experiment can carry huge risks when injected randomly. That’s why the first subjects we selected were young, resistant patients with no other major diseases. This is responsible for the hospital, and for the patients.”

A crowd of patients’ families immediately exploded.

“Risk, what risk? It’s better than waiting to die!”

“You don’t know, it says in that protocol that it is toxic, with the lab survival rate being less than three levels!”

“So low, huh?”

“Who says it isn’t, nurse also came to me, I didn’t dare sign!”

Seeing that the scene was under control, Chen Xuhua coughed dryly and said loudly, “Everyone, don’t worry, as long as the patients’ resists it, the hospital will arrange for the injection. Everyone go back quickly, the patients are still waiting for you to take care of them.”

Although the patients’ family were still apprehensive, looking at the doctor who hadn’t rested for several days, they left in twos and threes.

Chen Xuhua’s face was solemn, and he looked at Chen Sufen, “Teacher, is Mr. Li Zheng’s antibiotics available?”

Chen Sufen let out a bitter smile, “I called to ask, it’s a laboratory not a factory.”

***

In Li Zheng’s laboratory, everyone had been busy for days. They almost wanted to use both hands and feet, but it wasn’t so easy to extract the antibiotics.

All the professors of the medical school of the University of Hong Kong arrived, and even Su Changzhi had personally come down to help. Yes, Su Changzhi was in the medical school, but he hadn’t been in the laboratory for many years because of his poor health.

There were also assistants in the labs of these professors. Fortunately, there were still three labs vacant in Li Zheng’s lab, although these three labs were not P3 labs in the traditional sense, but things were urgent, so they could only settle for them now.

The entire Hong Kong University School of Medicine was like a giant machine, quickly running up. The Registrar’s Office also posted a notice suspending the relevant courses of the medical school for the next few days.

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3 Replies to “C66”

  1. ty

  2. thanks for the chapter

  3. It’s overwhelming to read such unity of people TT_TT thank you for the chapter

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