vstars Chapter 276 Nitrogen Poisoning
Chapter 276 Nitrogen Poisoning
Moreover, the surrounding houses were all dilapidated and bare.
The woman led her to the stove.
"Look, this is what we usually eat. We've always eaten it well, and there's never been anything wrong with it."
Shen Aoning carefully looked around and found nothing particularly special.
This is strange.
She lowered her head in thought, and then turned her head and saw a bowl on the stove, filled with white powder.
She asked the woman, "What is this?"
The woman said embarrassedly, "I scraped this off the wall; I usually put some in my cooking."
"Can I take a look?"
The woman nodded.
She picked it up, looked at it, smelled it, and frowned.
"You haven't been eating this all these past few days, have you?"
“Girl, is there a problem with this? We’ve always used this for cooking. You know, people like us can’t afford salt, but we can’t do without it. This saltpeter has a slightly salty taste, which adds flavor to our dishes. It’s not just our family that eats it; many families eat it.”
"That's the problem. The reason your husband has such a bad stomachache and the medicine isn't helping is because he took this saltpeter. You can't take too much saltpeter. At best, you'll end up like your husband, and at worst, you'll fall into a coma and your life will be in danger."
"Then, young lady, what should we do about my husband? Is there any way to cure him?" the woman asked anxiously.
Do you have any eggs at home?
"How many eggs are there?" Families like theirs almost always keep a few chickens to lay eggs, and they can sell these eggs to supplement their income.
"Will we need this saltpeter for today's meal?"
The woman nodded.
"We need to induce vomiting first, and then feed him some egg whites."
"Will this... this be enough?"
"The body will take some time to recover, so you shouldn't take any nitrates for the next few days."
"No, no, thank you, miss."
Shen Aoning understood that if they weren't struggling financially, they wouldn't have scraped the saltpeter off the wall to eat as salt.
Shen Aoning sighed silently.
-
Upon seeing this, the group of scholars also sighed.
"That's so realistic! In Jin Kingdom, there are still such poor people who are still eating this saltpeter!"
“What can we do if we don’t eat? These are poor people who can’t afford coarse salt.”
“I see that many people in the countryside are still consuming this saltpeter, but I haven’t seen them get sick.”
"Of course you can't see it. Those who died from nitrate poisoning have probably already been buried."
"Don't say that. I saw that the clinic also has this saltpeter as medicine, and it works very well. It can be used to treat indigestion, jaundice, gonorrhea and other diseases."
"Didn't the storybook say that you shouldn't eat large quantities or for a long time, otherwise you'll get poisoned!"
"Hey, stop arguing. The reason why people are forced to consume saltpeter is because they are poor. As scholars, we should be concerned about the country and its people and try to find a solution to this problem."
But solving this problem is easier said than done.
The group remained silent, their eyes glued to the storybook, hoping to find answers within its pages.
-
After the doctor's visit, Shen Aoning was about to leave.
The woman was grateful and wanted to give Shen Aoning the two copper coins she had left for medical treatment.
Shen Aoning is a very principled person, and seeing that the rich family is poor, she would never accept their money.
So before they left, the woman and the man were extremely grateful to her.
Unexpectedly, the morning after Shen Aoning left, a large number of people were standing in front of her clinic.
She instructed the shop assistant to bring them inside.
Upon asking, I learned that the woman's husband had been cured by her yesterday, and they had heard that the clinic was offering free consultations for the next few days, so they came here early this morning for treatment.
Shen Aoning raised an eyebrow and told them to come for their consultations in order.
Most of these people have minor, insignificant illnesses, so it's alright.
She then discovered that most of the poisoning was from nitrate poisoning, but thankfully it was mild.
Shen Aoning explained the symptoms to them and told them to go home and eat egg whites.
Just as Shen Aoning was telling them to go home, a woman and a man carried them in.
Shen Aoning looked closely and saw that the man was carrying a little boy on his back.
The little boy lay motionless on the man's back, as if he were asleep.
Shen Aoning immediately noticed the problem.
At this moment, the woman suddenly knelt down before Shen Aoning.
"Please, Doctor Shen, save my son."
Shen Aoning quickly helped her up.
Then she directed the man to carry the boy to the bed inside the room.
The people around were also quite frightened by the scene, looking around and trying to see what was happening inside through the screen.
"Dr. Shen, my son started vomiting and feeling dizzy a few days ago, and today he fainted. I heard from Aunt Yang next door that my son's condition was similar to her husband's, except that her husband only had mild poisoning and you cured him! I tried feeding my son eggs using your method, but there's no sign of him waking up at all!"
The woman was crying her heart out, and the man standing beside her also had tears in his eyes.
Shen Aoning looked at the little boy upon hearing this.
The little boy's lips were already bluish-purple.
Shen Aoning suspected that the boy had taken too much nitrate.
But now is not the time to talk about that. Egg whites can indeed treat nitrous oxide poisoning, but only for mild cases.
Unfortunately, without modern medical equipment, there was no way to know whether the little boy's respiratory tract and nervous system had been damaged.
Moreover, the antidote for this type of medicine was not available in her medical space, and she was unable to obtain the medicine.
Then there's only one way.
Shen Aoning instructed the shop assistant to fetch the items.
They brought the things over in a short while.
The woman and the man only saw the waiter bring over a bowl of grayish stuff.
"Hold on tight, I'll force-feed him this medicine."
The woman and man nodded, helped the boy up, and Shen Aoning pinched his chin and fed him the food in one go.
"Now it's up to fate."
Shen Aoning gave the boy lime water to drink, which was a last resort. Lime water can neutralize nitrates, but when using lime water, you must pay attention to its concentration and dosage, otherwise it will cause him secondary harm.
Fortunately, the little boy woke up within half an incense stick's time.
The woman and man wept with joy as they embraced the little boy.
Those outside, seeing that the little boy had truly been rescued, admired Shen Aoning even more.
The boy's parents were moved to tears by Shen Aoning's kindness.
Now everyone watching outside knew that the little boy had been poisoned and fallen into a coma because he had ingested nitrates.
"Sigh, if we could afford coarse salt, why would we need to eat this saltpeter!"
"Eating a little less should be fine, right?"
Shen Aoning naturally took the gossip outside to heart.
Most of these people were simply poor, and it's surprising that this feeling of helplessness was even stronger in ancient times.
Even though these people knew that consuming this saltpeter was harmful to their health, they still had no choice but to eat it.
If this matter isn't resolved, how many more times can she save them?
-
"Sigh, this is so realistic. Shen Aoning has medical skills, but she still can't cure poverty!"
"It's so similar to the border of the Kingdom of Jin!"
"Don't worry, Shen Aoning has come up with a solution to this problem."
And the very thing that these literati lamented actually happened in Bianjing.
In a clinic in Bianjing, someone was carried in to see a doctor.
But the doctor at this clinic said he couldn't cure it.
"I've seen this situation far too many times, but I haven't been able to find a cure for it."
It means they shouldn't waste their time; they can only go home and wait to die.
Those who came to see the doctor or get medicine all sighed upon seeing this.
A perfectly healthy young man is about to die.
"Father, please let me try!"
Suddenly, a young woman standing behind the doctor spoke up.
"Why are you getting involved! Even your father can't cure this illness, how could you possibly help!"
The little girl grew up by her father's side and naturally learned medical skills.
Her father felt that it was useless for his daughter to learn this, since she would just stay in the inner quarters after she got married.
The little girl has two older brothers and one younger brother.
This doctor felt that his medical skills should be passed on to his son, so he taught his son a lot, while his daughter only let him get medicine.
The little girl pursed her lips and said unwillingly, "Father, you've already said you can only cure it, so since we're already at our wits' end, I might as well give it a try."
Her father frowned, about to refuse again.
Unexpectedly, the woman next to him spoke up.
"Yes! Yes! Please, you must save my man!"
This disease is quite common among the poor. Several families in her village are like hers, where the men die suddenly.
When her husband suddenly fell into a coma at home today, she knew that misfortune had befallen their family.
So she asked several of her uncles and cousins to help carry her to the city, hoping that doctors there could treat her.
To my surprise, several medical clinics I visited said they couldn't cure me.
She didn't want to give up like that, so she had several relatives carry her husband around Bianjing.
Now that we've arrived at this clinic, even the head doctor here says there's no cure.
The woman didn't want to give up, and that's when she heard the young girl behind the doctor say that.
She thought it made sense; since there was no cure anyway, she might as well try anything.
Upon seeing the man's appearance, the young girl guessed that he must be poisoned by gunpowder, just as described in Mr. Wuming's stories.
However, it is understandable why most of the patients in Bianjing recently are young and middle-aged men who are prone to this symptom.
The main reason is that the family relies on the men for support. Those who own land must work in the fields, which naturally causes them to sweat a lot and they need to replenish their salt intake.
They couldn't afford coarse salt at home, so they could only supplement their salt intake by consuming more saltpeter.
After the young girl had the man carried into the clinic, she explained this to the people inside.
The people inside the museum were stunned for a moment when they heard her speak so logically and clearly.
Even the little girl's father found it unbelievable and hurriedly asked her, "Where did you learn all this from?"
He spoke as if it were the most convincing thing in the world, leaving him completely stunned.
He had never heard of the idea that sweating from work requires salt intake, so consuming too much salt would make women more susceptible to poisoning than women!
"I read it in a book!"
The little girl didn't say which book she read it in, but her father assumed it was from a medical book and kept muttering that he had never seen it before.
The little girl naturally couldn't let her father know that she had read these words from Mr. Wuming's storybooks.
Her father had always disliked her reading these storybooks, considering them useless.
Upon hearing this, the woman standing nearby anxiously asked, "Then how can we treat this?"
The woman never imagined that her act of adding too much saltpeter out of love for her husband, and giving him almost all the food in the house because he was the pillar of the family, would end up harming him.
Following what she had read in a storybook, the young girl had someone prepare lime water for the man to drink.
It would take some time for the man to regain consciousness, so the men who had come with the woman carried him on the bamboo pole to a secluded corner of the clinic to wait for him to wake up.
Waiting is always anxious, and for a moment the group had no time to pay attention to the little girl.
Seeing that no one was around, the doctor pulled his daughter aside, his forehead furrowed in worry.
"Don't get involved in things like this again!"
"Why? Father, don't you believe me?"
"It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I don't trust this family. What if you fail to save their man and they try to hold you responsible for it?"
The little girl hadn't expected her father to think that way; she had thought...
"I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't think it through. I won't do it again."
The doctor sighed, "I don't mean to blame you. Saving lives is our duty as doctors. I've always wanted to protect you well and not let you go on house calls, which is actually a kind of harm to you. You will grow up eventually. Now I'm very happy that you've shown me your growth, so I can rest assured to let you go on house calls!"
The little girl never expected that her usually serious father would say such things to her, and her eyes immediately welled up with tears.
"father……"
Before she could say anything, a commotion suddenly broke out nearby. The father and daughter looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the man who had been unconscious had regained consciousness.
Not only was the man's wife shocked, but the patients, the staff, and even her father in the clinic who witnessed the incident all looked on with astonishment.
"My goodness, daughter! You actually managed to revive this man!"
The little girl scratched her head shyly.
"This is not my achievement; it is all thanks to Mr. Wuming!"
"Mr. Wuming? That name sounds familiar!"
No one knew that the news would soon spread throughout Bianjing.
Upon hearing this news, those suffering from nitrate poisoning felt a glimmer of hope.
The clinic was soon packed with patients.
The little girl did not show any favoritism; instead, she directly told others about the treatment method.
"For mild poisoning, eating egg whites is sufficient. For more severe poisoning, you can drink lime water."
"Lime water? Is it really safe to drink? Won't it burn someone to death?"
These people still associate lime water with something terrible.