My Medical Skills Give Me Experience Points

Chapter 1507 - 608: Unobstructed Lower-Level Neural Centers and Mysterious Massive Hemorrhage

Everyone who studies medicine knows that the knee-jerk reflex is one of the simplest types of nerve reflexes, involving only two neurons: sensory neurons and motor neurons.Thud!

After the small hammer hit the stimulus point on the knee, the child’s left leg bounced upward.

Zhou Can’s face immediately showed a look of joy.

The nerve center for the knee-jerk reflex is a lower-level nerve center, located within the gray matter of the spinal cord. However, while completing the knee-jerk reflex, the nerve in the spinal cord that connects to the brain will transmit this nerve impulse to the brain, making one feel the knee being tapped, thus causing the leg to perform a bouncing action.

This child’s body has high paraplegia, which means the nerves below the head and neck are theoretically blocked.

Zhou Can has now used a simple test to prove that the nerve center in the lower limbs is not interrupted with the brain, indicating that there is hope for treating this child.

Although only the lower-level nerve center was stimulated, it was enough to make him feel excited.

This is like feeling a patient’s pulse, which basically indicates that the patient has a heartbeat.

However, heart rate and pulse are not the same thing. Heart rate is the number of times the heart beats per minute. The pulse is the number of arterial pulses, also known as the pulse rate. When a large amount of blood enters the artery, it increases arterial pressure and causes the diameter to expand, allowing the arterial expansion to be felt in the body, which is what we call the pulse.

Under normal circumstances, the heart rate matches the pulse.

Some patients may have a heart rate higher than their pulse.

The nerve center is more complex than the pulse or heart rate. Now, having found that the child’s lower-level nerve center reflex is unobstructed, it indicates that the child’s nerve damage is not as severe as imagined.

After testing the child’s left leg, Zhou Can tested the right leg again.

The knee-jerk reflex was also present, but it was weaker in the right leg.

After multiple tests, he found that the knee-jerk reflex in the child’s right leg was indeed much weaker than in the left leg, but there was still a reflex response.

At this point, he was reminded again of the child’s stiff neck symptoms.

There was a noticeable softness on the left side of the neck and stiffness on the right side.

Everything seemed to suggest that there was a severe problem with nerve conduction on the child’s right side. Or, conversely, was the left side more severely injured, with the right side being unaffected?

At the very least, it provided him with a diagnostic direction.

The stiff neck indicated pain or other reactions in the neck, causing muscle tension. It’s like when a doctor examines a patient’s abdomen, a soft abdomen and a hard abdomen are two completely different diagnostic concepts.

A soft abdomen generally suggests no major problems.

In contrast, if the abdomen feels hard to the touch, it indicates severe pain in the pressed area of the abdomen, causing the patient to involuntarily tighten their abdominal muscles as a way to protect themselves.

This is a normal body defense response.

One thing must be clear first, whether it’s abdominal muscle contraction or neck stiffness, it’s the muscle exerting force, producing this effect after tightening.

Muscle contraction relies on nerve signal stimulation.

Without nerve signals, the muscle would merely be flesh, without any activity capability.

This is the main reason why Zhou Can was uncertain about the severity of nerve damage on the child’s right side.

He even wondered whether the constant tension in the child’s right neck muscles was affecting nerve conduction?

There were many diagnostic ideas to sort through, and many needed to be verified one by one.

Verification inevitably requires necessary auxiliary tests.

Although the patient had undergone many tests in the previous two hospitals, Zhou Can still felt it was necessary to conduct some additional tests at Tuya Hospital to determine the cause. Surgery might even be necessary to explore the issue.

Of course, many family members strongly resist when they hear about exploratory surgery, even refusing this type of invasive test.

Just like in clinical emergencies saving critically ill patients, it’s often necessary to perform tracheotomy and use invasive ventilators, but family members often resist. Many even miss the chance for rescue because of this resistance.

"Director Zhou, Director Zhou, there’s a patient in the operating room needing emergency surgery, Dr. Xu is unavailable, so they are requesting your assistance."

A nurse hurriedly ran over to ask Zhou Can for help.

Currently, only Dr. Xu and Zhou Can in the Emergency Department’s operating room are qualified for Level 3 or higher surgeries.

When it comes to saving critically ill patients, Zhou Can has even surpassed his teachers, having abilities that have exceeded Dr. Xu’s.

"Alright, I’ll go over right away."

The Emergency Department’s purpose is to save patient lives.

Now that there is an emergency surgery patient, this child with high paraplegia will have to wait.

Also, diagnosing this child’s condition is not something that can yield results in a short time.

"This child needs to be admitted to the hospital first. Once the cause is identified, treatment can be administered. Are the family members willing to have the child hospitalized here? Let me make it clear, our Tuya Hospital can only do our best; we can’t guarantee a full recovery."

Zhou Can’s gaze turned towards the family and the owner of the bouncy castle.

"We’re willing, we’re willing! Dr. Zhou’s intervention is extraordinary. The knee-jerk reflex test just now made progress; we’re very willing to have treatment here. Please keep my grandson’s condition in mind and help treat him when you’re not so busy."

The child’s grandfather seemed to have some insight.

He didn’t look down on Zhou Can for his youth.

Witnessing Zhou Can’s unique diagnostic techniques earlier, his confidence in Zhou Can only grew stronger.