“It’s the Cerulean Needle Technique. The heat will stimulate the acupuncture point further and activate the patient’s immune system. Additionally, arrange for a massive blood transfusion. We need to replace all of his blood as it is most likely contaminated. However, the usual procedure won’t suffice, so we need to take extra precautions,” Roxanne commanded, prompting the doctors in the emergency room to start working immediately.
The staff rarely saw their boss in action, and hence, they were taken aback. Traditional medicine seems profound. Roxanne’s diagnosis was accurate, so the patient’s respiratory system was stabilized once they began treatment. Gradually, the rest of his vital signs stabilized as well.
After a bout of strenuous work, Roxanne was covered in sweat. Madilyn kept wiping her sweat away, but the result of her efforts was limited. Only after Roxanne made sure that the patient could survive did she let the doctors take over.
Roxanne found herself burning up when she walked out of the emergency room, so Madilyn brought her back to her air-conditioned office to cool down. Lucian brought a glass of warm water for his wife. “It must have been tiring for you.”
“I’m fine. It’s not that tiring, so don’t worry. I’ve performed emergency treatment like this many times. This isn’t even one of the top ten most tiring moments for me,” Roxanne confessed. Sure enough, the frightening episodes she had encountered back when she was in Epea were far direr than what just happened.
Right then, a thought popped into her mind, and she pursed her lips somberly. “Madilyn, bring the patient’s blood to the lab to find out what kind of virus this is. Also, tell the doctors who had been in contact with the patient to not wander anywhere while we wait for the results. If it’s contagious, all of us who have been there might have been infected.”
When Madilyn heard Roxanne’s worries, she froze for a few seconds before saying, “I’m sorry, Roxanne. I forgot about that. D*mn it! I’l send the blood to the lab right away!”
Madilyn then made a call and relayed Roxanne’s instructions to the staff in the emergency room and the lab. Upon hearing that, Lucian furrowed his brows and grabbed Roxanne’s hand in concern.
Roxanne smiled at him and reassured him, “Don’t worry. It’s just a possibility; it doesn’t mean it’ll happen. Even if it does, we’ll just identify the virus and treat it accordingly!”
However, as soon as she said that, Roxanne suddenly felt her throat itch. In order to not worry Lucian, she gulped down two mouthfuls of water to stop the urge to cough. Alas, as soon as Madilyn hung up and turned to Roxanne to talk to the latter, she coughed twice.
Instantly, she paled and looked at Roxanne nervously. Roxanne grimaced. I’m such a doomsayer! “What’s wrong, Madilyn? Do you have a cold?” Lucian stiffly queried, his heart skipping a beat.
Madilyn shook her head. In the next second, Roxanne also coughed subconsciously. Lucian frowned as he asked grimly, “Darling, don’t tell me you’re right.”
The lab was slow to deliver the result, for it was a new type of pathogenic bacteria that had never been recorded. As it turned out, it was not a virus-it was a pathogenic bacterium.
The result stunned Madilyn and Roxanne. Nevertheless, Roxanne managed to recollect herself swiftly. There were many things they had to work on instantly, so they had no time to waste.
The first thing they had to do was to lock down the entire building where the emergency room was before contacting all of the people who had entered that building that day to tell them to stay in the building.
Secondly, they had to contact the Centers for Disease Control to convey the gravity of the situation. Thirdly, all of the emergency room staff members had to be sent to different rooms for standby so that they could find out whether or not they had been infected by the bacteria.
“What’s next is that the lab personnel will do their best to find out more details of this bacterium while all infected doctors and nurses will be given antibiotics. If any of their symptoms abruptly worsen to the point their lives are in danger, please come to me right away so I can perform acupuncture on them,” Roxanne uttered, her expression somber.
Madilyn nodded and immediately informed the management-level employees of the hospital about Roxanne’s arrangements. It was a race against time. Frankly, incidents like these often happened in local hospitals.
As the director of the hospital, Madilyn, naturally, knew the standard operating procedure like the back of her hand. “It looks like my acupuncture can stabilize the condition for now,” Roxanne said to Lucian, seemingly consoling him.
For a moment, Lucian was thrown into a daze. He suddenly realized he often underestimated her capabilities. Her small frame was a shell for the immense power she had. “So do you need medicine now? Do you feel unwell?” Lucian worriedly asked.
“I’m fine. I don’t need medicine for now. It’s unlikely that a new kind of pathogenic bacteria like this can cause serious symptoms so quickly. For now, my symptoms are just like a cold. Also, medicine won’t be good for the baby.” Roxanne relaxed her tense expression and stood up to hold her husband’s hand.
Lucian nodded, trusting Roxanne’s judgment. Right then, he, too, felt an itch in his throat. His heart lurched. Is this pathogenic bacteria so contagious? I didn’t even come into contact with the patient; only my wife and Madilyn.
Nevertheless, Lucian tamped down the urge to cough and quickly drank some water to soothe his throat. He didn’t want Roxanne to be worried. Time ticked away. Soon, Madilyn rushed back to the office to inform Roxanne about the current situation.
As it turned out, the patient they administered emergency treatment on earlier had a large amount of the same pathogenic bacteria in his blood. That was what caused the failure of multiple organs.
Nonetheless, his condition had stabilized because of Roxanne’s acupuncture and the full- body blood transfusion.
“So far, none of the ready-made antibiotics are working. Almost all of the doctors and nurses in the emergency room had been infected, but their symptoms are mild. However, we’ll need to speed up the development of a drug targeting this bacterium if we want to stop it from spreading,” Madilyn said to Roxanne.
However, Roxanne furrowed her brows.. “Madilyn, where did this patient come from? There aren’t any records of this pathogenic bacteria in the country. Let’s try posting this case to the international forums to see if anyone can recognize it. Perhaps this has appeared before; just not in our country.”
Before Madilyn could register Roxanne’s words, Lucian figured out what conclusion his wife had come to.
The expression on his face turned grimmer as he added, “What Roxanne meant is that we need to look into that patient’s details. Maybe this isn’t an accident. Maybe this is planned.”
Madilyn froze. If Lucian shared the same notion with Roxanne, then that was a highly likely scenario. In other words, someone with evil intentions had deliberately sent that patient to the hospital to cause chaos and spread the disease.
“But why would someone do this?” Madilyn wondered out loud, confused and shocked. Roxanne narrowed her eyes. “There are two possibilities for this. One is to ruin our hospital and make us suffer alongside the patient. They might be aiming to kill us as well.
Another is that this pathogenic bacterium might exist in other countries, but as there are no recorded instances of this bacterium in our country, we don’t have the necessary drugs for treatment. Eventually, we’ll get the drugs from overseas, but by then, our hospital will already be embroiled in a major case. Our reputation will suffer, and soon, the hospital will shut down.”
“Is that why you’re asking us to find out more details about the pathogenic bacteria on the international forums?” Madilyn deduced, impressed by how her good friend was capable of making swift judgments despite the dire circumstances..
Roxanne nodded. Right then, Lucian said to Madilyn, “You might be the target.”
Madilyn inhaled sharply at that. “You’re the director of the hospital, so you have a heavy weight on your shoulders. If things take a turn for the worse, not only will you lose your job as the director, but you might even be held accountable for the incident by the law. The same would happen for Roxanne. After all, she’s still the head of the hospital.”
A moment of rumination had made Lucian figure that the person behind this would not dare to mess with his wife directly. After all, hurting his wife would be akin to making an enemy of him. Therefore, the only possibility was that they were after Madilyn instead.
“Regardless of everything, our best option right now is to find out from the international forums whether or not people overseas have encountered this pathogenic bacterium before. I’ll quickly contact my friends who used to work at the Epean lab as well. Madilyn, let’s hurry.”
Roxanne held back the urge to cough and quickly grabbed her phone to start making international calls while enduring the discomfort.
Meanwhile, Lucian mulled over the matter for a while before calling Cayden. He asked the latter to check the details of recent flights and the staff members of various airlines in hopes of finding any traces of the severely ill patient’s tracks.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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