Seeing Gao Jun's anxious expression, Zhao Heng could understand. After all, in the Anesthesiology Department, not everyone admired Gao Jun, but Wen Shen's support for him was evident to everyone.

"Teacher, after investigation, I found that the patient had a residency history in Dali a month ago, and over there, there is a popular local snack. The patient's brain edema might be related to this."

Zhao Heng said slowly.

"Residency history in Dali? Local snack?"

With Zhao Heng's explanation, Gao Jun was completely baffled and couldn't imagine any connection between these things.

"Old Gao, raw skin is raw pork."

Seeing Gao Jun's confusion, Xu Man Ni couldn't help but explain.

This kind of local snack, unless someone has traveled there, they wouldn't really know about it.

"What? Raw pork? Raw pork can be eaten directly?"

Gao Jun was shocked. He had only heard of eating sashimi and raw beef, not raw pork. Regardless of sanitation, pork as a type of white meat is just not suitable for raw consumption, and the taste wouldn't be good!

"Specially selected pork is still okay to eat raw."

Xu Man Ni thought for a moment and said.

The raw skin eaten by the Bai people in Dali is made from pigs that are specially selected.

"Are you saying this patient has a pork tapeworm infection?"

With rich clinical experience, Gao Jun immediately reacted after Zhao Heng and Xu Man Ni's explanation.

"Yes, Teacher, this patient's brain edema is likely caused by a pork tapeworm in the brain. Under anesthesia, the body enters a semi-dormant state, causing the tapeworm to become active and secrete products that directly lead to the brain edema."

Zhao Heng nodded and said.

"Such a situation is extremely rare, but not impossible."

Gao Jun pondered Zhao Heng's words before speaking.

In clinical work, one must have the mindset of making bold hypotheses and verifying them carefully.

"Shouldn't we do a test to find out?"

Xu Man Ni suggested.

"Yes, that's right. Little Zhao, let's go find Old Wen right now."

Without delay, Gao Jun said decisively.

Thus, Zhao Heng and Gao Jun headed back to the ICU once more.

A crowd had gathered at the ICU entrance at some point, seemingly looking for trouble.

The large ICU entrance was made to look like a marketplace.

Zhao Heng shook his head slightly and entered with Gao Jun.

Wen Shen was still by the patient's bedside, not leaving for a moment. His face was dark, and his mood was exceptionally heavy. He couldn't understand how a routine pre-surgery anesthesia could lead to the current situation.

Upon seeing Zhao Heng and Gao Jun, Wen Shen just nodded, too exhausted to even greet them.

"Old Wen, Little Zhao has found a possible cause for the patient's brain edema."

Gao Jun said directly and crisply upon arrival.

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, Wen Shen shot up in surprise, knocking over a chair with a clatter in his haste.

"You found the cause?!"

Wen Shen rushed to Zhao Heng's side, anxiously asking.

"Yes, Teacher Wen, upon investigation, I found that the patient had a residency history in Dali a month ago. On her Weibo, I found photos suggesting she consumed 'raw skin,' a local snack of raw pork in Dali. Therefore, it's reasonable to suspect that the patient's brain edema is likely due to pork tapeworms infesting the brain."

Zhao Heng explained simply and smoothly.

"Raw skin? Raw pork? Pork tapeworm?"

Hearing Zhao Heng's words, Wen Shen kept repeating these terms, his mind racing, suddenly filled with energy, unlike his prior gloomy demeanor.

After a short while, Wen Shen suddenly pulled out the patient's medical record, flipped to a page, scrutinized it, then raised his head with bright eyes and said, "That's right, I wondered why the patient's eosinophils inexplicably elevated—this must be due to the pork tapeworm infestation."

"Conduct a test, a DNA dot-blot test immediately!"

Wen Shen murmured to himself again.

Quickly, Wen Shen took a sample from the patient, which was sent to the lab via rapid processing.

The test results would take at least an hour to come out, so Zhao Heng, Gao Jun, and Wen Shen waited together in the ICU office.

"Little Zhao, how did you think it could be a pork tapeworm infection?"

During the wait, Wen Shen voiced his curiosity.

He had been too excited earlier, but now that he had calmed down, Wen Shen felt quite curious about how Zhao Heng discovered the possibility of a pork tapeworm brain infection.

After all, the surgery the patient underwent was a routine silicone filling procedure, with nothing more than standard anesthesia. The patient not waking up post-operative and developing brain edema was already peculiar. From any angle, it's hard to associate it with a brain infection caused by pork tapeworms.

In search of the true cause of the patient's brain edema and to prove that Wen Shen's anesthesia procedure was not the issue, the hospital had already conducted a joint consultation with all department head experts, yet they found nothing.

So how did Zhao Heng discover it?

This was the aspect that made Wen Shen extremely curious.

Wen Shen's question also piqued Gao Jun's curiosity as he looked at Zhao Heng intently.

"It's like this: since the hospital already convened its experts for a joint consultation, all necessary checks were completed. Adding more tests wasn't necessary. Moreover, I didn't believe my skills surpassed those experts. Therefore, I thought of exploring other aspects about the patient to see if there's anything we didn't notice."

"Then, I found the patient's Weibo and discovered her residency history in Dali and her consumption of raw skin, a local snack. This led me to think of cases of brain edema caused by pork tapeworms infesting the brain."

Zhao Heng explained his discovery process methodically.

"Little Zhao, you truly are a genius with clinical thinking."

After pondering Zhao Heng's words for a while, Wen Shen earnestly looked at Zhao Heng and said.

Brain edema from pork tapeworm infestation is exceedingly rare, a case that wouldn't have been discovered had Zhao Heng not conducted a thorough investigation of the patient.

Given the patient's current critical condition, such a cause might only be revealed in a future autopsy.

But even then, that discovery would not be certain.

Therefore, Zhao Heng's discovery essentially saved Wen Shen's professional career.

"Old Gao, you found a great student."

Wen Shen said with admiration, finally understanding why Gao Jun, who had never taken on a student, made an exception for Zhao Heng and treated him so well.

If he had such a student, he might cherish him even more than Gao Jun!

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