Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: But Whose Corpse Is This? (1)
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Today, the ward was peaceful. A space dominated only by screams, chaos, destruction, and death.
Still, things were stabilizing. We'd send the cold patients home as soon as the sun rose. The ones injured in the swordsmanship tournament might need another day or two.
No. The leg injury patients could go home once we made plaster casts, but the ones who'd had their spleens removed would need a few more days.
"How are the patients doing?"
"They're stable. We're just checking to make sure there's no inflammation at the surgical sites."
"None?"
Estina nodded. She had a curious look on her face.
"By the way, Professor. How did you figure out what disease those trauma patients had and how to treat it?"
How did I figure it out? I had to know what the disease was to treat it. What other way is there? Estina tilted her head, and after some thought, I opened my mouth.
"This was back when I was in university."
"Yes."
"The professor taught us that you can distinguish snake species by the shape of their fangs."
"Ah, I see."
"So, one of the students in class said something like, 'Do we really need to know how to identify snakes to be doctors?'"
"Right."
"I don't know either. I can't distinguish snakes by their fangs or heads, or mushrooms just from their descriptions. How is anyone supposed to memorize all that?"
But that's not the point.
"Still. In your career, won't you ever see a patient bitten by an unknown snake species? You never know."
It might happen, or it might not.
"What I'm trying to say is this."
"That we have to know everything?"
The professor who taught me said:
- You don't have to know it all.
- But if you don't, someone might die.
"It's not your fault if a patient dies, and no one can memorize every little detail. But if knowing one more thing lets you save one more life..."
It's not some emotional plea; it's just reality. You have to know. If you don't, you figure it out. There's no other choice.
"Ah."
"You have to memorize the common diseases and the ones you're likely to see. If blood pressure drops after trauma, it's internal bleeding, and the usual causes are ruptured liver or spleen. The spleen is under the left ribs. And the spleen is removable."
That was my thought process.
"That's tough."
"It is."
No helping it. You do what you can.
"Take me right now. I didn't think to make a blood pressure monitor in advance, so I struggled without a way to check it this time."
To be precise, I hadn't considered that we could make one here. But without a way to measure it, it was inconvenient.
"What's blood pressure?"
"What?"
Estina looked completely baffled. I knew she was aware there was no blood pressure monitor, but I hadn't realized she didn't even know what blood pressure was.
Wait a minute. Then what theory do they believe here? What did they think before the principle of blood circulation was discovered?
I knew, but I couldn't recall exactly.
Did they think it was produced in the heart or something?
"Come on, what else would blood pressure be? It's the pressure of blood passing through the vessels."
This was another thing I'd overlooked.
Internal bleeding, dropping blood pressure, loss of consciousness due to low blood pressure. None of it makes sense without understanding that blood 'circulates'.
Estina, not knowing this, must not have understood my reasoning at all with the last patient: internal bleeding, dropping blood pressure, loss of consciousness.
It must have all sounded like nonsense during the surgery.
After pondering for a while, I spoke up.
"Estina. Where do you think blood comes from and where does it go?"
"Uh, well. Blood is made in the liver and spreads throughout the body, right?"
Ah, I remembered.
Before the discovery of blood circulation, scholars followed Galen, the Roman physician and philosopher from antiquity, believing blood spread out and was consumed.
It doesn't make sense to us, but back then, without a way to observe capillaries, tissues must have looked like sponges absorbing blood.
Thinking absorbed blood was consumed wasn't entirely illogical.
You just need better tools to see it's not true. Evidence like calculating blood flow volume or observing capillaries under a microscope...
This is a problem. The academic world hasn't even gotten over the germ theory shock yet. If I hold a conference or call professors now, they'll just rant about germs. No other way around it.
I'll have to teach as many people as possible in faculty classes and present quickly.
Suddenly, my workload exploded.
"Let's head out somewhere later."
"Where?"
Once my ward patients stabilize a bit. I think I have the materials needed for the next class.
It's finally time to bring out 'that'.
"Wrap up the ward work quickly and let's go."
"Yes."
The swordsmanship tournament isn't the priority right now.
Once these two inpatients stabilize. I need to quickly teach Estina what blood pressure is and make a blood pressure monitor.
Medical research requires cadavers.
It's unavoidable. No one who hasn't dissected a corpse can properly dissect a living patient. Prescribing medicine for something you've never seen is problematic too.
They're not just for learning by dissection either. Experiments often require them.
A famous example: the US military used donated cadavers to test explosive protective gear, which made the news.
Anyway.
"This... whose corpse is it?"
"I don't know either."
"Where did it come from?"
This is the Academy's underground dungeon.
A cadaver lay on the table in the underground dungeon. Estina and I, wearing plague doctor masks, looked down at it.
"They were selling it at the execution grounds."
"You can just buy one?"
I nodded.
"Why so many questions? They were selling it, so I bought it. I don't know the details either."
"No, corpses being bought and sold? Of course I'd have questions."
I'd brought it just in case it might be useful. Apparently, preservation magic had been cast on it for the past few days.
"Nothing suspicious, right?"
Honestly, I wasn't sure if it was legal. Even if imperial law is a mess, buying a body like a mattress seems off.
Maybe because they're doctors?
"Anyway, let's take a look."
What I'd brought to the basement: several buckets of water and jars of alcohol.
I planned to remove the organs, preserve them in alcohol, and use them as teaching tools.
The important thing is organ structure and function.
"Let's open it up."
I picked up the scalpel. Using a cadaver in the lecture hall next class might be tricky. Would the students have to come down here?
That seems weird too.
For now, focus on teaching and convincing Estina. That's the priority.
I picked up the saw first.
"Estina. Do you know where the heart is?"
"In the center of the chest."
"Right. From here to here are the ribs, so we'll saw through the ribs and open it up to take out the heart. You take the other side, cut gently."
Estina dry-heaved but started sawing from the collarbone. In modern hospitals, they used sternum shears.
Crack, crack. The sound of ribs breaking.
"Ugh..."
Cadavers weren't easy to obtain in modern hospitals, but here, money made it simple. That's a plus.
The downside:
Cadavers in modern hospitals were perfectly preserved, but this one wasn't. Blood pooled inside everywhere, and nerves and tissues were already decaying or altered, so delicate structures might be hard to see.
Anyway. The chest cavity opened. I finished with iron shears and fully exposed the lungs and heart by opening the front of the ribcage.
"Here's the heart. Take it out."
Estina took the scalpel, cut the major blood vessels, and carefully removed the heart.
"Rinse it in water now."
Pooled blood makes structures hard to see. Estina silently washed the heart. Dark red clots fell away.
"Structure and function. Remember?"
"Yes."
"How many holes?"
"Uh, there are four big ones."
Correct. Holes connecting to the aorta, vena cava, pulmonary artery, and pulmonary veins. The vena cava is divided into superior and inferior, but four big ones.
That's the key.
The heart isn't just where blood leaves. It's also where it enters. Blood isn't consumed; it circulates through the body unchanged.
"What can you tell from the heart?"
"Uh, I still don't really know."
Estina slowly rotated the heart.
"Okay. What's the texture like?"
"Uh, it's really firm?"
Behind the plague doctor mask, Estina's eyes narrowed. She didn't seem to grasp what I meant. Hmm, let's take it slow.
"Hand it here."
I took the heart from Estina. Let's see, start with the aortic valve.