Chapter 282: The greatest pity is losing hope

One’s emotions and living environment would be a great influence on any disease, especially autoimmune diseases. Although there was no data which could display how important the emotions and living environment were, these factors would indeed affect the patient’s desire to live as well as cooperation with treatment.

An autoimmune disease would start spreading very swiftly once the patient lost the desire to live or lost hope for the future. Even medical treatment might become no longer effective in that scenario.

After Wang Yan was diagnosed to have systemic lupus erythematosus, not only did her husband not console her, he even demanded a divorce. This only served to pour fuel on the fire, cutting off her hope for the future—a truly heartless move by her husband.

Wang Yan gazed listlessly at the hospital room’s ceiling from her hospital bed. She no longer cared one bit about her body’s condition. Although she did whatever the doctors told her to do, including taking medicine, she had no more will to live on at all.

Her condition originally hadn’t been severe, but then her lupus rapidly developed into severe symptoms. In the medical textbooks, it was listed that the #1 most important factor for treating systemic lupus erythematosus was to help the patient have an optimistic outlook. However, it was already quite good already that Wang Yan wasn’t trying to commit suicide in her emotional state.

Vice President Chen’s driver brought Zhang Fan over to the hospital. He immediately started running after he got off the car. When he arrived in the rheumatology department, he immediately took a look at Wang Yan’s current medical information sheets and inwardly exclaimed over how bad things were.

Lupus was capable of affecting many organs in the body, but usually this could be kept under control. But right now, thrombocytopenic purpura was occurring in her body.

“Things are looking bad. Cylindruria has also appeared!” Hu Jun exclaimed as he looked over Wang Yan’s medical information sheets.

“The medicine also isn’t having any apparent effect!” Zhang Fan sighed.

“I know. I checked your medical report on her already. The medicine you used for her is completely correct. Methylprednisolone (a hormone), gamma globulin, vincristine, and danazol. Yet, her blood platelets are still decreasing in number.”

“I’ll go take a look at her!” Zhang Fan put down the patient’s medical information sheets and went to her patient room.

Zhang Fan had especially arranged a single-person room for Wang Yan since her emotions were unstable, as well as because she was Shao Hua’s acquaintance. When he entered Wang Yan’s patient room, he immediately saw a completely listless woman with no signs of life.

Her lips were so dry that they were becoming chapped. She also had a blank expression. She didn’t react even when Zhang Fan walked over to her patient bed. “How are you feeling, Miss Wang?” Zhang Fan had to greet her in a soft voice.

“Oh, Doctor Zhang!” Wang Yan slowly turned her head and greeted him when she saw that it was Zhang Fan.

At this moment, Zhang Fan noticed that her gums were bleeding. Her teeth roots were already stained red. Blood slowly dripped out because she had opened her mouth to speak! Not only that, blood which was almost black started dripping out of her nose because she had raised her body to speak with Zhang Fan!

This blood slowly dripped onto her bed! She seemed to notice this as she gently wiped it away with her hand, which smeared some of her nose blood onto her face and mouth.

Wang Yan raised her head and gently smiled at the blood on the back of her hand. Zhang Fan actually felt a strong instinctive fear when he looked at Wang Yan who still had the red rash on her face combined with smeared blood and such a wretched smile, for he could sense the aura of death around her.

“Miss Wang, you shouldn’t sit upright right now. Come, you should slowly lie down. I will give you a checkup. This disease really isn’t that big of a deal. It will get better slowly as long as you take your medication on time.” Zhang Fan didn’t dare to let her do any sudden movements!

After Wang Yan lay down, Zhang Fan gave her a simple physical examination. He found that large patches of purpura had already appeared on her arms, chest, abdomen, and legs. This was a classical symptom of having low blood platelets.

Having thrombocytopenic purpura was like having a ticking time bomb in one’s body. A patient with such a condition might cause major internal bleeding inside their body with just a single sneeze! This really would be a frightening condition. It would be as if all the blood vessels in the body had been simultaneously exploded. Major bleeding would often be so vicious that no doctor could possibly save the patient in time.

Zhang Fan slowly and gently assisted Wang Yan to lie back down on the bed after he finished the physical examination. When he left her patient room, he immediately told the nurses, “Level one treatment for this patient. Classify her as being in critical condition. Contact her family members. Right now, no matter what, she’s not allowed to get off her bed! Change her food to a semiliquid diet.”

Both of her white-haired elderly parents arrived in less than half an hour. “Doctor, we’re Wang Yan’s parents. What exactly happened to her!?”

Wang Yan had left two phone numbers when she was hospitalized. One phone number was for her husband, while the other phone number was for her parents. But, when her husband picked up and heard that the hospital was calling him, he immediately hung up without saying a word. He then refused to pick up any more phone calls from the hospital!

“Please have a seat, Sir and Ma’am. It’s like this...” Zhang Fan hesitated because there really wouldn’t be any good news at all. Wang Yan’s current condition was incredibly severe. Things might get worse if her parents were unable to take the news!

Wang Yan’s father noticed Zhang Fan’s hesitation, so he said, “Doctor, please tell us. No matter what condition our daughter Yan is in, we can handle it. Just please save her! She’s had such a hard time!”

Murky tears started dripping from Wang Yan’s parents’ eyes. They were mentally prepared. Zhang Fan had no choice but to tell them since Wang Yan’s husband had refused to come. Zhang Fan was helpless about the situation. He would have to tell them the truth, no matter how cruel.

“Alright, it’s like this. Your daughter’s current condition is quite grave. She might suddenly have major internal bleeding at any time. If that happens, then, then... there won’t be any saving her. There’s two treatment plans that are possible now. The first is to continue using internal medicine to treat her. However, this will be highly risky. The second treatment is to perform surgery on her. This will also have its risks, but it will be slightly less dangerous than using internal medicine. However, this will require a splenectomy, which is the surgical removal of the spleen. You should hurry and discuss things immediately with your daughter. Time is of the essence right now.”

Normally, only a splenectomy would resolve the current situation since internal medicine treatments were no longer having any apparent effect. However, the human body was incredibly complex. There were no absolutes. The patient and their family members would need to make the decision on their own after receiving the doctor’s advice.

Even if internal medicine wasn’t effective today, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be effective tomorrow. Then again, it also still might not work tomorrow. The doctor’s job was to explain the risks clearly to the patient and their family members. Zhang Fan really preferred to do the splenectomy, although the decision wasn’t up to him. He simply felt that losing one’s spleen would still be far better than dying.

Currently, Wang Yan’s condition was extremely dangerous. To give an analogy, her body was just like a balloon that was resting on top of a bed of needles. The balloon might explode at any moment from too much movement. Not only that, this type of explosion would be impossible to predict or prevent. Blood vessels were everywhere in the body, which meant that major internal bleeding might occur almost anywhere. Right now, Zhang Fan could only ask that she quietly lie on the bed and reduce her movement as much as possible in order to prevent the possibility of major internal bleeding!

“Doctor, please help us convince our daughter. She, she...” Originally, the parents had a teary expression, but now they suddenly seemed awkward for some reason.

Zhang Fan felt like something was odd, but he had to tell them, “This is a matter for the patient and their family members to discuss. My recommendation is to take the surgical treatment option. You should hurry and discuss things with your daughter. Come sign the paperwork after you’re done discussing.”

“Sigh! Alright.” The parents supported each other as they slowly made their way over to Wang Yan’s patient room with difficulty. Zhang Fan felt that this was a little strange, but he didn’t pay it any mind. He busied himself with preparing the surgery paperwork and contacting the operating rooms.

Zhang Fan now had special authority. Normally, as he was currently in an internal medicine department, the patient would first need to be transferred to a surgical department, and the surgical director would make the decision regarding the surgery and contact the operating room.

Just as Zhang Fan was printing the surgery paperwork from his computer, he heard a loud crashing sound as glass shattered. He then heard Wang Yan’s voice shouting in despair. “Get out!”

Her voice was really loud! Zhang Fan immediately got up and swiftly rushed over!