Chapter 213 Posthumous Residence
With his distinctive sideways movements, Kraft immediately recognized the patient's identity. Before the two punctures, this person was still sitting in the consulting room, asking if there was any possibility of treatment.
He mumbled, trying to squeeze out a few words in short, sharp breaths. Despite enduring the pain and exerting all his strength, the breath he exhaled was still as thin as a gossamer, and it was difficult to even pronounce it correctly.
Kraft quickly came to his side and listened carefully to what was said. However, what struck his ears was not the description of the illness, but the words "church" and "cemetery".
"I need you to tell me what happened and how I feel now!" the confused doctor shouted, trying to bring the person back from his unknown mental state.
"No cemetery."
Now that he finally knew what he was talking about, Kraft, dumbfounded, asked the young man who helped him to help him, and moved him to half-lying on the bed, so that this guy who had prematurely asked about the real estate issue after his death could calm down.
"Who are you?" The other person's enthusiastic look doesn't sound like they are just meeting each other. They should at least know each other.
"This is my father. He suddenly became like this on the road just now." The young man looked at the doctor anxiously. He was at a loss for words for a moment. He pressed the side of his chest to imitate what he saw. It seemed that the patient had sudden chest pain while walking. No matter how far you went, you were sent back again.
[Hell, I’m not an emergency room worker]
He urgently recalled the posture he used when meeting the patient again, and subconsciously leaned to protect his right side, consistent from front to back. Like an exacerbation of a pre-existing disease.
"A lot of hemoptysis?" David asked from the side. He opened the patient's lips and found no blood filling the mouth.
It doesn't look like it. Even if one of the involved blood vessels happens to be ruptured just at this moment, it shouldn't be like this. Kraft simply fished out the knife from the box, cut open and tore off the top, and casually pulled off the pendant that was in the way, observing the condition of the entire upper body.
The chests on both sides were obviously not symmetrical. The right side that should have been restricted in breathing was now fuller. The trachea was not in the middle, but slightly curved and offset to the left. The jugular veins on both sides were full and bulging under the skin.
In most areas of most of the lung fields on the right side under the earpiece, the breath sounds have completely disappeared, just like after puncture and air infusion, but the range is much larger, so large that there is no room for the lungs to relax.
"Pneumothorax."
"But didn't we perform artificial pneumothorax on him?"
"Then guess why it's called 'artificial' pneumothorax."
The chest is a closed space. In addition to piercing the chest wall from the outside to allow air to enter, of course there can also be another situation - air leakage from the inside.
"His lungs are broken." The lungs that have been eroded by tuberculosis have formed various lesions and structural damage, and even invaded the pleura in this case, like an aging skin bag.
When the patient exercises vigorously, such as walking for a long distance suddenly, and takes a deep breath, the weak spot can no longer withstand the increased air pressure and suddenly bursts, and the air inhaled into the lungs flows into the chest along the breach, and in turn Compresses the lungs.
The case at hand was obviously not an ordinary pneumothorax in terms of speed of progression and severity. A large amount of gas accumulated in the chest cavity in a short period of time, reaching the point where it was about to be fatal.
【Tension Pneumothorax】
When the breach is ventilated but not completely ventilated, a very special valve structure may be formed.
The air can enter the chest when inhaling, but cannot be squeezed out along the opening when exhaling. It operates like a one-way valve, causing it to only go in but not out.
This process of inflating the chest is uncontrolled. As we all know, people will die if they don't breathe, and each breath aggravates the condition, makes breathing more difficult, and gradually increases the pressure in the chest.
The increased pressure compresses not only the lungs, but also everything else in the chest, including the heart. Blood that cannot return fills the blood vessels, causing visible bulging veins.
"Needle, leather tube." Craft took out the remaining half of the bottle of alcohol, poured it onto the right side of the patient's chest without hesitation, and poured clean water into the empty bottle.
David handed over the leather tube with the needle connected and watched him insert the other end of the tube into the water bottle, "Do you want anesthesia?"
"Hold him!" Congratulations to this patient for becoming the second person to challenge anesthesia-free chest puncture. I hope he can have the willpower of the old Duke. Now he has no time to hold an ether bottle and slowly inhale anesthesia. Of course, considering the emotions of the patient's family, Kraft kept explaining with both hands, "There is air in your father's lungs, and it is now pressing on his heart and lungs. I have to use a needle to release it. This will be a little bit... Pain.”
The young man who hadn't realized what Kraft was about to say was already frightened by the sudden illness and nodded in agreement.
The next second, Kraft's hand was pressed to the desired position, fixing the skin, and the needle penetrated, "Don't be nervous, it will be fine soon."
Obviously, not everyone in this world can bear pain calmly, especially the pain of a thick needle piercing the chest wall. The patient struggled reflexively, but luckily Kupp lived up to his expectations and suppressed him without letting the needle deflect. shift.
This time the puncture can be much bolder. The lungs have been compressed very small, and the chest wall is full of air. With skilled techniques, the puncture can be done quickly and accurately.
The water inserted into the catheter boiled and a series of large bubbles appeared. The high pressure in the chest found an outlet, and the gas surged out along the catheter.
As rapid as the onset of symptoms, the patient's condition improved visibly within a few minutes.
His breathing gradually turned from depressed and rapid to steady, his consciousness also recovered from the ignorant state of lack of oxygen, and he felt around his neck.
Craft found the pendant next to the pillow, an old-fashioned double-winged ring, and thrust it into his hand. The patient clutching the amulet spoke his first complete sentence after waking up.
"I don't want to be buried there."
"No, you're lucky to have survived." Kraft wrapped the puncture point with a wet cloth to seal it and handed it to David to fix it.
I am indeed very lucky. If a blood vessel were broken by the way and it evolved into a hemopneumothorax, there would really be no place to cry. No one has the ability to open the chest to find the bleeding spots and stop the bleeding. Kraft might have been able to find the bleeding point by cheating, but there was nothing he could do.
"Then when can I pull this out?" Seeing my father turn back from the door of heaven with an iron needle stuck in his chest was a bit scary.
"It's very early. Before he stops leaking, this thing has to be tied. Once removed, it will be like before. I suggest hospitalization. Well, stay here for a few days for observation." It's time for artificial pneumothorax. I did something that I shouldn’t have done, and I treated my pneumothorax on my own.
To be honest, Kraft didn't think the patient's prognosis would be good. He might develop pleurisy, empyema, trauma and infection within a few days, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. You can only put it under your nose, and you can make money every day.
"David, please give me black elderberry juice, three times a day. Make it thin and let the family members feed it slowly. Don't choke."
During this period of time, he had no choice but to gain some understanding of "primitive internal medicine" and was able to skillfully prescribe the medieval version of isatis root, perhaps with a little vitamin C.
The situation had almost calmed down. Before leaving, Kraft became a little curious about the cemetery issue that was on the patient's mind. "What did he mean when he said 'church' and 'cemetery' just now?"
The young man explained: "My father has been devout all his life and wants to get closer to the Lord, but now it seems that it is more difficult."
"Does it matter?"
"It's like this, Professor, you may not be aware that it is difficult for us tuberculosis patients to be buried in church cemeteries and ordinary cemeteries." David came closer and explained.
"Why?"
David avoided the crowd and lowered his voice: "The church's view is that the Great Plague will be passed down. They believe that people with severe infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and syphilis, are unclean and can generally only be placed in specific cemeteries. Compared with the church, the conditions are indeed a bit worse.”
"All infected people?"
"Most of them, if you have a special status, you can be accommodating."
"I see. Is that so?"
(End of chapter)