Aunt Eileen was confused. Grete stretched out his hand to indicate the length of his forearm, then circled his left thumb and index finger together to compare the thickness:
"It's so thick, so long... it needs to be hollow..."
"Just listen!" Aunt Eileen waved her hand proudly: "Avril is so young. Besides, you watched her grow up!"
This... Gretel sweated profusely. He would never listen to someone's heartbeats against someone's chest again! If possible, never again!
Seeing his persistence, Aunt Eileen searched under the kitchen and took out a jet black hollow tube. She washed it and handed it over. Grete took it in his hand and looked at it. This thing was bigger than his entire arm.
It was long, one end was covered with carbon black, and there were many burn marks. It was clearly a blowtorch.
……All right.
Let’s make do with it for now, and then build a stethoscope when I have the chance...
Gretel calmed down, pointed one end of the fire torch at his ear, and put the other end against Avril's body. He said he was listening to the breathing sound, but the end of the fire torch was slowly moving until it reached the strongest point of the heart's apex pulsation. He pressed it firmly and held his breath to listen.
, moving from time to time, the more he listened, the more serious his face became.
There is a murmur in the apical area of the heart.
Moving to the left edge of the sternum and the pulmonary valve area of the second intercostal space, the diastolic murmur becomes clearer and is clearly a continuous mechanical murmur.
Moving to the aortic valve area, the murmur gradually weakened. The murmur in the tricuspid valve area was almost inaudible. After listening around the heart, it moved to the left subclavicle, and a clear mechanical-like murmur sounded again...
A continuous mechanical murmur can be heard during diastole in the second intercostal space at the left edge of the sternum and below the left clavicle. The conduction range is wide.
Combined with the previous dissociative cyanosis, weakness, fatigue, and seasonal cough, there is a high degree of suspicion...
Patent ductus arteriosus.
One of the types of congenital heart disease. In mild cases, there will be no symptoms throughout life, while in severe cases, it can cause pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and even death.
Grete closed his eyes hard. He patiently listened to his lungs to make sure there was no abnormality in the breath sounds, and put down the blowtorch. After thinking for a while, holding on to a glimmer of hope, he turned to ask Aunt Eileen:
"Aunt, sister Avril's body...have you seen the pastor? What did the pastor say?"
His serious expression obviously frightened others. Under the oil lamp, Aunt Eileen was stunned, forced a smile and sent Avril to sleep, and then sighed longly:
"The bishop said that Avril is just weak. She should rest more often and be careful not to catch cold... If she wants to be cured to the same level as ordinary people, she will need a very high level of magic, which he can't use..."
Do they just think they are weak?
Gretel was a little sad, but also a little relieved. No matter if you only knew these words, sometimes ignorance is also a kind of happiness... What can you do if you know that you have a congenital heart disease?
Heart disease has been a terminal illness for a long time. Heart surgery, and for a long time after the development of surgery, was a forbidden area of medicine. The Austrian doctor Theodor Beer, who was revered by later generations as the "Father of Surgery"
Roth, he placed such a "curse" on heart surgery:
"Performing surgery on the heart is a blasphemy to the art of surgery. Anyone who attempts to perform heart surgery will end up in ruins." (Note 1)
There is no life support means, no extracorporeal circulation device, and even the most basic hemostasis, disinfection and anesthesia. Under the current conditions, rashly performing heart surgery is tantamount to murdering the patient.
Instead of doing this, it would be better to let Uncle Karen, Aunt Eileen and the others just live like this without knowing anything.
Grete reluctantly convinced herself and turned her eyes to Avril again. After the coughing stopped, the little girl's face softened a lot. The light purple on her toes also faded and turned pink again.
In Grete's eyes, this pale pink was simply the most beautiful color in the world.
——Thank God! Cyanosis only occurs when I have severe coughing and lack of oxygen. I don’t usually have cyanosis!
With this level of patent ductus arteriosus, it can develop into pulmonary hypertension, severe heart failure and death. With good luck, you still have more than ten years!
Grete breathed a sigh of relief. He tried hard to suppress his uneasiness, comforted little Avril with a smile, chatted a few words with Uncle Karen and Aunt Eileen, and left. The door of the room was closed behind him, disappearing into darkness.
In an instant, Gretel closed his eyes and clenched his fists tightly.
Patent ductus arteriosus is treatable.
In his previous life, he had seen countless such patients with his own eyes, and had also referred such patients to his colleagues in the cardiology department.
This disease is not considered a terminal illness, and even treatment does not cost a fortune.
For children like little Avril, if they were in the past life, they would only need an interventional operation. Use an occluder to block the conduit between the aorta and pulmonary artery. The entire operation only takes one and a half hours. The heart sounds can be heard and return to normal the same day.
, and in a few days, you will be able to jump around.
But the operation is not easy--
It is necessary to have an electrocardiogram to determine whether the heart is defective, an X-ray examination to rule out other diseases, an echocardiogram to identify the disease, a cardiac catheterization examination to understand the pulmonary vascular resistance and shunt conditions, to rule out other malformations, and to confirm whether the patient is eligible for surgery;
There must be a guidewire with a maximum diameter of 0.88 mm and a minimum diameter of 0.45 mm. Under the guidance of X-rays, it must go all the way upstream along the patient's femoral artery until it is inserted into the heart;
There must be an occluder made of super-elastic nickel-titanium alloy, with a polymer biofilm inside, which is sent to the defect of the arterial catheter by the guide wire, and then the occluder is controlled to open and block the gap;
Of course, it is necessary to have a contrast agent that is of high enough purity and will not cause thrombosis when injected into the blood vessels. The blood flow direction can be displayed under X-rays to confirm whether the operation is successful...
Each piece, piece by piece, is the crystallization of modern medicine, modern industry, and top-notch high technology. From the industrial revolution to the electrical age and the Internet age, countless years of development of science and technology, industry, and medicine have completely filled the gap in life.
The ravine turns what was once a terminal illness into a commonplace.
But now, he, Gretel Nordmark, has nothing.
This is a different world.
There is no catheter guide wire occluder, no echocardiographic X-ray, no anesthesia, no blood transfusion, no imaging...
How can we snatch little Avril Lavigne's life back from the hands of death?
Divine magic is no longer reliable. The bishop said that it cannot be treated. Obviously lower-level magic cannot deal with congenital diseases. Magic, magic...
Can magic emit ultrasound? Can magic make an electrocardiogram? Can magic summon a thin enough guide wire to enter the human heart and treat defects?
Can magic... allow him to see the mysteries inside the human body?
Grete doesn't know. But he knows that starting from tomorrow, he will open the door to magic. As long as he works hard enough and has enough imagination, everything is possible!