Chapter 772 – The Healing Touch

"Long-term bed rest and poor appetite causing malnutrition. Bed rest leading to pulmonary infection and eventually cold-triggered pneumonia. Hypertension causing dizziness, blurred vision, and lethargy." Shi Naoren looked over the records and remarked casually, "He probably has constipation too?"

"Exactly," Liu San nodded. "Do you think we should arrange a hospital consultation? We can't take X-rays or run blood tests at his house. The thing is, his family won't agree to hospitalization..."

"No need to bring him here for consultation. Liu Dalin's condition is complicated, but not hard to treat," Dr. Shi said. "It's within our capabilities. Your treatment approach is correct."

"I think we also have to pay attention to nutrition," said Lan Yangyang from Gastroenterology. "The scholar looks quite haggard. Malnourishment is detrimental to his recovery. His family shouldn't be poor, by rights."

"Landlords don't eat much better—just a bit more refined grain." Liu San had seen what so-called landlords actually ate when he made rounds at the joint sanitation-board and Runshitang clinics in the countryside. They ate little better than peasants: maybe they were full, maybe the rice ratio was slightly higher, and they consumed a bit of fish or meat. For an ordinary peasant, a dash of fish sauce or shrimp paste counted as "having meat." Protein intake was seriously inadequate.

After reviewing Liu Dalin's case file, the group agreed that his illness and its causes were obvious. Treatment wasn't complicated.

The plan: inject antibiotics first to tackle the pulmonary infection, while also injecting Danshen solution to lower blood pressure. Then reinforce nutrition and relieve constipation. Nurses would train Liu family servants to wipe down the master, turn him in bed, clean his mouth, and teach them how to prevent bedsores. Once daily-care standards improved, the master's mental state would improve significantly. Rehabilitation exercises would be arranged, and combined with herbal regulation and acupuncture, his overall health should rise dramatically.

Regarding antibiotics, everyone agreed that locally produced oxytetracycline and kasugamycin weren't appropriate for this bacterial lung infection, and intravenous drip might carry too many toxic side effects. Using stockpiled penicillin injections was more prudent.

"Don't forget to have Zhang Ziyi do a skin test!" Shi Naoren specifically reminded Liu San.

"That's standard procedure—no need to mention it."

"Our work has gotten sloppier. Many steps that should be taken are now skipped," Shi Naoren said.

Liu San took the prescription Shi Naoren had written, retrieved the controlled medications, placed them in a special medicine case, and left.

By the time Liu San returned, Zhang Ziyi had already taken the trainee nurses and helped Liu Dalin bathe, then cleaned his mouth with dental floss. Her intuition had been correct: due to prolonged immobility, the scholar already showed early signs of bedsores. She cleaned, disinfected, and dressed each one. Throughout, she not only worked but also instructed the trainee nurses. The full-body care was both swift and gentle, leaving the trainees and the attending maids wide-eyed—this female Councilor's bedside skills were first-rate!

News of Zhang Ziyi's nursing and the slight improvement in the master's spirits quickly reached the mistress and the Liu family's close relatives. They murmured among themselves. Whatever their views on whether Australians were barbarians, the sight of a female elder unhesitatingly bathing and medicating a stranger—such actions truly embodied "a healer's heart is a parent's heart."

When Liu San returned to the Liu residence, Zhang Ziyi had already tidied everything. Even the windows were open. The maids and servants who had been scurrying about aimlessly had been shooed out and now waited on the veranda.

The room that had been dark, stuffy, and stale now enjoyed sunlight and fresh air. Zhang Ziyi's care had revived the moribund-looking scholar—he seemed slightly more alert, no longer hanging on by a thread.

Liu San told her the treatment plan. Zhang Ziyi asked, "Penicillin via IV drip or intramuscular injection?"

"Given the patient's history of hypertension, let's go with intramuscular."

"This vial is 400,000 units. Based on conditions in this time-space, I'd say 40,000 units per dose is sufficient," Liu San said. "Distilled-water intramuscular injection. 80,000 units per day. Start with three days."

"I'll do the skin test first," Zhang Ziyi said. "We should worry about allergic reaction."

"If there's an allergic reaction, switch to oral erythromycin."

When Zhang Ziyi took the syringe and needle from the sterilization case, the maids and servants peeping through the window caused a stir. Injections, as a form of Australian medicine, were already widely talked about. At first, people had thought it was a variant of acupuncture; only later did they realize it literally meant pushing liquid medicine into the body. Natives found this deeply mysterious—especially the fine needle, somehow made hollow. That was truly beyond comprehension.

While doing the skin test, Zhang Ziyi continued to explain the key points to the trainee nurses. The skin test came back normal—no allergic reaction. Liu San was relieved. The first penicillin injection was administered.

Everything went smoothly, though the Danshen injection had Liu San on edge. Although he had made it according to the book, Chinese-medicine extracts used as injectables carried inherent risks. Modern medicine's understanding of herbal pharmacology and side effects was still incomplete. In the old time-space, there had been inexplicable deaths from herbal injections—and those were products of proper, modern pharmaceutical factories. His was a cottage-industry product, and due to the scarcity of cases, only Phase I clinical trials had barely been completed.

I really need to get oral Danshen dripping pills and ginkgo-leaf preparations developed, he silently noted for his next R&D push.

"Now we wait for the drugs to take effect." Liu San looked at the still-slumbering master. "Take the junior nurses back. I'll stay and keep watch. If anything happens, I can handle it immediately."

"Heh heh, what can you handle?" Zhang Ziyi asked. "Can you give an injection? Can you use an aspirator? See—you can't. In an emergency, writing a prescription and fetching drugs will be too slow."

Liu San was a little embarrassed. "If you stay here, what about Old Yang?"

"It's fine. I have night shifts every week. Does he come to keep me company every night?" Zhang Ziyi laughed it off.

Steward Zhao, seeing they had stopped working, guessed the treatment had reached a pause and hurried over to ask whether they needed to fetch herbal medicine or if there were other orders.

Liu San thought: if he didn't write a prescription and send them for herbs, the Liu family would be uneasy. Fortunately, his head was full of modern Chinese-medicine formulas for invigorating blood, clearing stasis, calming the spirit, and opening the orifices. He selected one and wrote it out, asking Steward Zhao to have it filled.

"Yes, I'll send someone to the pharmacy at once!" Zhao took the prescription but didn't go to the pharmacy yet. Instead, he went to the main hall and presented it to the mistress and several close relatives, giving a detailed account of the diagnosis and treatment.

The mistress was a woman and knew nothing of medicine; she couldn't say much. The relatives, though they found Australian medicine a little frightening, couldn't find fault.

"Can this medicine be taken?" The mistress looked to the relatives.

Steward Zhao, thanks to his son and grandson, understood Australians better than most natives. He knew the liquid injected into the master was the real cure; the prescription was almost incidental. But his status didn't permit him to say so directly.

The one reviewing the prescription was the mistress's maternal cousin—also a scholar, with some knowledge of medicine. The herbs mainly served to "invigorate blood and dispel stasis." Nothing unusual. Yet the approach differed markedly from the "warm and pungent to unblock blockages" approach earlier doctors had prescribed.

"This differs from the previous doctors' methods," he mused. "But since we've asked him to treat, we should follow his method."

They sent someone to Runshitang to fill the prescription. The mistress instructed Steward Zhao to offer Liu San ten taels of silver as a consultation fee. When they heard Liu San and the female elder intended to remain in the study courtyard, watching through the night, everyone was deeply moved. They ordered two more side chambers prepared for their rest and assigned servants to attend them.

Penicillin proved tremendously powerful in this time and place. By that evening, after the first day's injections, Liu Dalin's temperature had begun to drop, and his blood pressure showed signs of normalizing. Liu San was greatly encouraged.

Early the next morning, servants reported to the mistress: the master's fever was gone, and he was fully conscious. It seemed he was cured. The whole Liu household rejoiced. The mistress came in person to offer thanks. Those who had harbored doubts about Australian medicine were now thoroughly won over—they had never seen such immediate results.

Liu San and Zhang Ziyi endured a cartload of flattery before finally explaining that the master's illness was not yet fully cured; it would require long-term treatment.

After three consecutive days of antibiotic injections, Liu Dalin's pulmonary infection was essentially healed. To consolidate the effect, two more days of injections were administered.

With the life-threatening condition treated, the next step was rehabilitation. Liu San wrote several more herbal prescriptions for Liu Dalin to take long-term. Though not as effective as dedicated cardiovascular drugs, they could help control his condition.

Zhang Ziyi then took charge of training several Liu household servants in nursing care, including bedsore prevention. Meanwhile, Liu San had Fu Wuben visit Liu Manor daily to perform acupuncture using the "brain-awakening and orifice-opening needle technique" he had taught him, combined with rehabilitation exercises—all to help Scholar Liu regain bodily function.

Shi Naoren was counting on the master to become a living advertisement for Australian medicine.

(End of Chapter)