Chapter 2467: Entering the PICU

In the blink of an eye, a few days passed. According to Student Zhang Desheng, Taotao’s diagnosis was confirmed as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and chemotherapy was initiated. It was unexpected to see that Student Zhang, who dislikes pediatrics, repeatedly visited this child in the hematology department over the past few days. It cannot be ruled out that while visiting the child, he was also helping Student Xie monitor the Zhang family’s activities.

Little Aunt Zhang occasionally shows her face in the emergency department but doesn’t dare to directly approach Dr. Xie like she did last time. Making a family’s psychological reliance on a doctor disappear is not easily achievable.

Compared to Taotao, Zhu Xing’s condition is much more critical, and the condition has not been alleviated well. This situation is consistent with the attending physician’s expectations. If a suitable heart cannot be found for a heart transplant, this child is unlikely to leave the hospital alive.

That afternoon, Cao Zhao led a group of students to the PICU to observe the children’s condition. Student Pan Shihua took leave from Senior Luo to join two surgical colleagues to study rare cases.

Following the teachers, the students put on disinfected slippers as they formally entered the PICU ward for the first time.

PICU is not NICU; the beds are the same size as those in an ordinary pediatric ward, not the common incubators in neonatal units. Each bed is almost like a small emergency bed. Beside the bed are placed equipment such as a ventilator and suction device. As mentioned by Student Xie last time, severely ill children may be on cardiopulmonary support devices. The beds are separated by partitions with curtains. Some children, like adults, have tracheal intubation or tracheostomy. At regular intervals, nurses need to suction these children’s secretions.

Here, you can often see various life-sustaining machines connected to a child’s small body, highlighting the fragile state of sick children, making them much more heart-wrenching compared to adults.

Every day, there is an hour of family visiting time in the inner corridor of the PICU. Family members can stand in the inner corridor and greet their sick children through the glass window, seeing the children’s condition firsthand.

Mother Zhuxing stands among the family crowd, looking at her swollen-faced son lying on the bed, with tears falling.

Full-body edema is a common manifestation as heart failure progresses to total heart failure.

The doctor came to the bedside to examine the child’s edema, then checked the nurse-recorded temperature chart, which has the total intake and output of the child’s body over twenty-four hours.

Critical care medicine is an independent discipline, and doctors in the ICU have their own specialization, distinct from other specialists. Once these pediatric patients enter the PICU, they are under the care of PICU doctors. The treatment plan for patients here is primarily determined by the PICU doctors. Nonetheless, ward doctors, who continue to be the patients’ attending physicians during hospitalization, will regularly visit the children, discuss their condition with PICU doctors, and jointly negotiate further treatment strategies. Because the children hospitalized in the PICU are using it as a transitional period, the goal is to transfer them back to an ordinary ward or surgery.

Usually, when ward doctors come, the PICU doctors on duty follow along to discuss the child’s condition together.

Before long, Xie Wanying and the group saw Senior Yoo arrive.

Yoo Minghui, upon seeing her junior disciples, waved her hand and smiled, but the smile significantly cooled when she saw Cao Zhao’s face.

The students recalled Teacher Cheng’s lesson last time, not daring to be too familiar with Senior Yoo.

Cao Zhao’s fingertips flipped through the child’s medical records, noticing that the case history had thickened considerably.