(Thanks to Dragon Descent, Birch Forest 168, Jun Chengjun, Broken Flute, Rusty Sword, shyuqin, and Reader 160620115906100 for voting encouragement)

Liu Banxia was very concerned about this patient because he had a premonition that the patient's condition would worsen.

The bronchoscopic examination was not very clear and did not reveal any necrotic lesions; they only collected some fluid for culture. The medication was switched to cephalosporins, but the current effect was not very promising.

At a little past five in the morning, the patient's temperature rose again.

The infecting bacteria had not been identified, and all Liu Banxia could do at present was reduce the fever, which left him feeling quite helpless.

"Teacher Liu, I just listened again, and the moist rales in the right lung have also worsened," Xu Yino said.

Liu Banxia nodded, "From the current situation, it must be some type of special bacteria with a certain level of drug resistance causing the infection."

"We don't know yet if it's contagious, so let's move him back to a separate ward, and his mother needs to be well protected. Do a thorough disinfection of the ER and CT room that were used yesterday, and the ward he stayed in."

"Okay, I'll go do that right away," Xu Yino replied quickly.

Liu Banxia was very pleased; Xu Yino did not mention notifying the nurses, showing that she intended to handle the matter personally.

The situation with this patient was indeed very particular; oftentimes, bacteria causing upper respiratory infections or pneumonia can be somewhat contagious.

While wearing masks and gloves is fine for them, once they start admitting patients today, with more family members coming through, there will be certain risks for everyone involved.

It might not even be that potent of a bacterium, just undetectable at the moment.

Liu Banxia had run to the laboratory many times, but machine testing doesn't speed up just because someone is anxious. There was still no positive result reported, and waiting was necessary.

"Teacher Liu, perhaps you should have breakfast first? You've been up half the night," Li Hao suggested.

"Let's wait a bit longer to see if the patient's temperature can come down. If it doesn't, we'll need to research other antipyretics, we can't rely on the cooling blanket indefinitely," Liu Banxia said.

"Teacher Liu, what kind of bacteria do you think it could be? Should we try serological testing for luck?" Li Hao asked.

"It's hard to guess, it's definitely not the common ones, we've done the corresponding tests for those, all came back negative," Liu Banxia answered.

"You all should think it over; he has a long medical history, I think the bacteria have been in his body for a while. Could we dig a bit deeper into the past?"

"According to him, he's had frequent colds in the past two months. Does that mean he used to have similar symptoms which were just ignored because he was in better health then, causing the bacteria to lie dormant temporarily?"

"Teacher Liu, how far back do you think we should trace to be safe?" Xu Yino asked.

"Within six months perhaps, or he might have had occasional fevers that went unnoticed," Liu Banxia mused.

Yet even he found his idea a bit far-fetched, wondering what kind of bacteria could hide for so long, playing cat-and-mouse with the host, flaring up repeatedly.

Now the situation was like a dam breaking, unstoppable once it started.

From the way he presented at admission, the patient was in the early stage of the next phase of the disease yesterday, holding valuable reference significance, though nothing concrete was grasped.

Currently, it's confirmed that there's a certain level of lung infection in the patient.

Actually, he also wanted to perform a lumbar puncture on the patient to examine the cerebrospinal fluid, to see if the brain would be affected.

But the current signs weren't very pronounced, the patient was somewhat dazed intermittently, yet not showing neurological system effects.

It's merely the current high fever the patient couldn't adapt to, plus the lung infection affecting his breathing.

With ample preparation, the patient's fever was controlled with physical cooling methods after one and a half hours.

However, for Liu Banxia and the others, no one felt it was a success, knowing it was only temporary and that the condition might get more severe next.

Each flare-up was over 40 degrees high fever, which is definitely not a good sign.

"Banxia, why has that patient's condition become so severe?" Wang Huan hurriedly approached Liu Banxia, who was having breakfast in the cafeteria.

"We still can't determine what kind of bacteria infection it is; the culture hasn't shown positive yet, so probably some very particular bacteria," Liu Banxia explained.

"It worsened last night, and I saw no signs, so I didn't notify you. Now Xu Yino is communicating with the patient's mother to see if we can trace the patient's medical history."

"Do you think it's an infection that has been present for a long time, similar to Klebsiella pneumoniae?" Wang Huan asked.

Liu Banxia nodded, "When we admitted him yesterday, the patient only mentioned frequent colds in these two months, I feel it might have existed earlier, just overlooked."

"Because people have a broad understanding of colds, always thinking that fever, cough, runny nose, muscle soreness, these symptoms together, equal a cold."

"However, the patient's situation is quite special. When we received them yesterday, we were unable to clearly distinguish whether it was pneumonia or an upper respiratory tract infection."

"So my inference is that a symptom easily caused by this bacterium is fever, and as a young person, many times they tend to overlook simple fever."

"Let's see how the results turn out. We'll also try to get in touch with his classmates to see if anyone has similar symptoms. Their social circles are quite close, which may lead to related cases."

Wang Huan nodded, currently feeling quite troubled.

He agreed with Liu Banxia's judgment; even though he didn't experience the entire process last night, he could still piece this information together.

This kind of infection seems very ordinary, but if it truly flares up, it's not that simple.

Even though the lesion is currently in the lungs, if it can't be contained, and it develops in other organs, the patient will enter the countdown phase of their life.

Don't be fooled by the inflammation currently only being in the lungs; this could just be the first step of the bacterium invading the body.

Just after finishing the meal, Liu Banxia's phone rang; seeing it was Tang Feifei calling, he answered casually.

"Slept well? Don't rush, I'll come over after eight, get some food first." Liu Banxia said.

"Can I go out today? Simple activities should be fine, right?" Tang Feifei asked.

"Simple activities are fine, just don't exert yourself too much." Liu Banxia replied.

"You'll need to accept treatment for at least a while. Others have therapy every two days, but you should do it daily. Even if the effect isn't significant, there will be some."

"Yeah, actually today it feels much better, not as painful as yesterday." Tang Feifei said.

"No matter what illness, the first treatment is always the most effective. Recovery is gradual, like drawing silk thread." Liu Banxia remarked.

"Use a warm towel, leave it on for a while when you're free, it's very helpful at this stage. Want to check your thyroid as well? If so, I'll arrange it directly."

"I don't want to get blood drawn." Tang Feifei grumbled.

"Then I'll do a manual examination when I come up. It's like inviting an ancestor to cure diseases today. The more afraid you are of fatigue, the more you keep acting." Liu Banxia joked.

"Ah, Qiaoqiao just messaged me. I'll chat with Qiaoqiao." Tang Feifei said and hung up.

Liu Banxia felt a bit helpless; at this time, Qiaoqiao probably hadn't even woken up. Patients seem to have similar thoughts; they don't want to find out they have other diseases.

"Brother Wang, give some extra thought to our patient during the examination; the situation is too peculiar." Liu Banxia urged.

Wang Huan smiled wryly and nodded, "I'm also clueless."

The pressure is immense, yet the patient's symptoms need a clear diagnosis. Otherwise, the patient's current situation cannot be explained satisfactorily.

"Teacher Liu, the patient's mother really doesn't understand the patient's situation at all." Xu Yino approached.

"What about the patient himself? Is he conscious now?" Liu Banxia asked.

Xu Yino shook her head, "He's still affected by the fever; we've only managed to lower the high temperature a bit."

"If it really doesn't work, can we ask the patient's mother for permission to check his phone? Maybe search through social media and photo albums?"

"Uh... the main thing is, we don't know if there might be personal privacy in his phone. This is different from contacting family to check the address book; what if there's private information?" Liu Banxia frowned.

"But we don't have any other options at this point." Xu Yino said.

"Let's observe for a while longer; maybe the patient has already developed strong antibodies to fight off this bacterial infection." Liu Banxia suggested.

"We're just treating the patient. If we see something we shouldn't, even if the patient's illness is cured, there will be a lot of trouble later."

"By then, it'll be hard to say—our purpose was to find clues, but it could be seen as intentionally snooping into privacy. We're not an enforcement agency; the reason would be too far-fetched."

Xu Yino nodded, indeed this situation needs to be viewed from different perspectives.

Entering the patient's ward, Liu Banxia frowned; the patient was sweating profusely with a pale complexion, making him uneasy.

He quickly took out the stethoscope, continuing to examine the patient's heart and lungs.

"This is bad, there's noise in the heart. It might already have developed endocarditis; quickly do a heart ultrasound." Liu Banxia said urgently.

Xu Yino and the others were startled; they certainly understood what endocarditis signified.

This development he hadn't anticipated; the progression from pneumonia to endocarditis was incredibly rapid. It's only been a few hours!