I Am Diagnosed as a Medical Titan

Chapter 171: Chapter 133: The Whistleblower

Back at the hotel.

Jiang He was already up and getting dressed.

On this quiet night, where something more might have happened, his thoughts were instantly frozen by Zhou Guanglin’s words.

’Autumn of ’08, the Canton Fair, a Mexican who flew in from America, an unusual case of severe respiratory illness...’

It was hard not to jump to that conclusion.

Shen Yu’s cheeks were still flushed, but her eyes now held a look of concern. ”Dr. Jiang, what’s wrong?”

Jiang He buttoned his shirt and turned to her. ”I have to go to the hospital.”

Shen Yu propped herself up, the blanket slipping down to her waist. ”It’s so late. Can’t you go tomorrow?”

Jiang He shook his head. ”No. If this is what I think it is, it needs to be dealt with immediately. We can’t delay by even a minute.”

Hearing this rare, serious tone from Jiang He, Shen Yu was now wide awake.

She didn’t ask why again. Instead, she threw off the blanket. ”Then I’ll go with you.”

As she spoke, she started to get up to grab her clothes nearby.

”No!” Jiang He said. ”You stay in the hotel. Don’t go anywhere!”

Shen Yu was startled and stared blankly at Jiang He. ”...What on earth is going on?”

Seeing the stunned look in Shen Yu’s eyes, Jiang He’s heart faltered.

He hadn’t meant to be harsh with her; he was afraid.

’If this really is Patient Zero for H1N1, then the respiratory department at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 has just become the eye of the storm, the most dangerous place in all of Yangcheng.’

Just stepping into the hospital would carry the risk of infection.

Especially Shen Yu... If she got infected, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Jiang He softened his tone and explained the situation as concisely as possible. ”There’s a patient with an unusually high fever and signs of severe pneumonia. I suspect it’s not a common cold, so Affiliated Hospital No. 1 is very dangerous right now.”

After listening, Shen Yu asked anxiously, ”Then what about you? If it’s so dangerous, will you be okay going over there? Are you sure you’ll be safe?”

Jiang He reassured her, ”Don’t worry. I know exactly how to handle hospital infection control protocols. I’ll take care of myself.”

Shen Yu pressed her lips together.

In that moment, she really wanted to go with Jiang He.

But she knew that in the face of a medical crisis like this, not only would she be of no help, she would only get in the way.

So she could only suppress her worries, nod obediently, and let go of the idea.

”Okay, then I’ll wait for you at the hotel.”

Those words.

Brought memories of his past life flooding back.

Back then, whenever he got a barrage of life-or-death calls from the ER late at night, and he was hastily putting on his white coat to leave, Shen Yu would always be standing in the entryway. She would straighten his collar and say softly, ”Honey, come back soon. I’ll be waiting for you at home.”

Overlapping timelines, unchanging concern.

If he could, Jiang He would have thrown away his crutch right then and pulled the girl before him into a fierce embrace.

’I really, really long for this kind of peace and happiness.’

But... he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing about something like this.

When the avalanche of a new era was about to hit, when the sparks of disaster were about to ignite the city, he had no right to indulge in this land of gentle comforts.

As a reborn person, and as a doctor, he had to charge into the storm and save everyone.

Jiang He said, ”Lock the door, try not to go downstairs, and wait for my call.”

With that, he turned and pushed the door open.

Leaving the land of gentle comforts, he walked without hesitation into the cold night wind.

...

「1:00 AM.」

The Inpatient Department of Respiratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital No. 1.

”Dr. Jiang!” Zhou Guanglin came up to meet him. ”You’re still injured, I can’t believe we dragged you all the way out here so late...”

”Where is he?” Jiang He got straight to the point.

”In the private room at the very end of the hallway,” Zhou Guanglin said, pointing.

Jiang He walked to the nurses’ station. ”Give me an N95 mask and a pair of gloves.”

The nurse on duty recognized River God at a glance and, without a word, immediately turned to get him a set of gear.

Jiang He put on the mask and gloves and made his way down the hall on his crutch.

Along the way, his tense heart relaxed slightly.

Because it turned out he had underestimated the professionalism of Affiliated Hospital No. 1, and he had underestimated the Yangcheng medical system after the trial of ’03.

Outside the hospital room at the end of the hall, a conspicuous yellow quarantine tape had been put up.

A procedure cart by the door was fully stocked with hand sanitizer, protective suits, and medical waste bins.

The room’s door was shut tight, and the blinds on the observation window had been lowered.

’The hospital has taken some protective measures. That’s good.’

Ke Zheng was just coming out of the room. Seeing Jiang He, he stopped. ”Jiang He?”

Jiang He replied, ”Dr. Ke.”

Ke Zheng asked in a gentle voice, ”What are you doing here? Did Director Yang call you?”

”I heard there was a severe respiratory case with unusual circumstances. Could I see the medical chart?”

Ke Zheng nodded. ”Sure.”

Normally, Jiang He was just a third-year medical student. No matter how good his surgical skills were, he wouldn’t be qualified to interfere with a severe case in the respiratory department.

But everyone in the hospital knew that Jiang He now had a pass, specially approved by the hospital director, granting him access to review severe case files.

Ke Zheng took out a chart folder and handed it to Jiang He.

Jiang He opened the chart.

Ke Zheng stood to the side and began to explain. ”The patient is Mark, 42 years old, a Mexican national. On admission, his temperature was 39.5 degrees Celsius, accompanied by chills, muscle aches, and a severe dry cough. We did a complete blood count on the first day: white blood cell count was 2.1, lymphocyte count was 0.8, both below the normal range. We immediately ran a respiratory viral antigen screen and nucleic acid tests. The nucleic acid tests for SARS and highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) were both negative. The rapid antigen test for influenza A virus was positive.”

Jiang He flipped to the imaging report.

”On the second day of admission, scattered ground-glass opacities appeared in both lungs. This afternoon, his condition progressed rapidly. His blood oxygen saturation dropped to 88%, and imaging showed multiple patchy consolidations in both lungs—a classic presentation of severe viral pneumonia.”