"Doctor, could you have made a mistake? My wife and my mother eat the same things every day. If it were food poisoning, my wife wouldn't be fine," Wang Dagui said to Chen Fan, trying to explain.
Chen Fan glanced at the middle-aged woman who was writhing in pain and replied to Wang Dagui, "If you don't perform a gastric lavage, your mother will surely die. Furthermore, you'll need to sign a waiver stating that the hospital bears no responsibility for any complications that arise."
"You doctors! You want us to sign a waiver because we refuse a gastric lavage? Don't think I don't know what you're up to – you're just trying to shirk responsibility! Honey, we absolutely cannot sign this," the middle-aged woman snapped at Chen Fan, pointing at him.
"If you refuse, then you must follow the doctor's orders. Otherwise, the exit is right there," Chen Fan said, gesturing towards the clinic's entrance.
"You! You're threatening the patient's family!"
"You can think of it that way," Chen Fan replied calmly.
"Honey, maybe… maybe we should just do the gastric lavage," Wang Dagui said, wavering under Chen Fan's firm stance.
The middle-aged woman glared at Wang Dagui. "You ungrateful wretch! So, in the end, you still don't believe me!"
"No, no! Honey, how could I not believe you!" Wang Dagui's expression turned flustered again. He quickly grabbed his wife's arm, afraid she might try to harm herself again.
Just then, the previous doctor returned, holding several test strips for cyanide content.
Chen Fan took the test strips, pried open the patient's mouth, and placed a strip at the base of her tongue. After a moment, he withdrew it.
As Chen Fan and the doctor beside him saw the color of the test strip, their faces changed dramatically.
The strip had turned a deep blue, clearly indicating that the cyanide content in the patient's mouth had exceeded the maximum detectable range of the ordinary strip.
"Dr. Chen, it really is cyanide poisoning!" the doctor exclaimed in shock.
"Cyanide poisoning? You're saying my mother is poisoned? How is that possible!" Wang Dagui asked incredulously.
The middle-aged woman standing beside Wang Dagui also appeared extremely nervous.
"Dr. Chen, the gastric lavage equipment is ready," another doctor said, rushing over with a cart.
With time of the essence, Chen Fan didn't have time to move the elderly woman to an examination room for treatment.
Chen Fan took a tube, opened the old woman's mouth, inserted the tube, and began to pour diluted potassium permanganate solution into her stomach.
"Ugh!"
Soon, the old woman's stomach was filled with the potassium permanganate solution, and she began to gag.
Two doctors quickly turned the old woman to her side to prevent her vomit from blocking her airway.
Chen Fan placed a trash can next to the old woman, and soon, the ingested potassium permanganate was vomited out.
Seeing this, the middle-aged woman covered her nose and retreated a couple of steps, looking disgusted.
"Dr. Chen, why are there so many particles in the vomit? What is this?" the doctor asked, noticing the black particles in the trash can.
"Those are apple seeds," Chen Fan replied directly.
"What? Apple seeds?!" Both doctors were taken aback, appearing somewhat surprised.
The middle-aged woman also gasped, looking at Chen Fan in shock.
"I heard before that apple seeds contain a large amount of cyanide, and consuming them can lead to cyanide poisoning. Could this old woman have been poisoned by eating apple seeds?" one doctor wondered.
"That's correct," Chen Fan nodded.
"But Dr. Chen, the outer shell of apple seeds isn't digested by the human body, is it? Yet, the apple seeds in this old woman's stomach are all broken," another doctor pointed out.
"Yes, the old woman only has a few teeth. How could she possibly crush apple seeds? She probably struggles even to chew an apple," the other doctor added.
Both doctors had discovered something amiss.
Chen Fan, who was fully focused on performing the second gastric lavage on the old woman, looked up at the nervously sweating middle-aged woman. "This, you'll have to ask her why an old woman's stomach would contain the seeds of over a dozen apples, all of them crushed."
The middle-aged woman's eyes widened, and she suddenly pointed at Chen Fan, shouting, "Boy, what do you mean by that!"
Chen Fan ignored the middle-aged woman, as the old woman was already being induced to vomit for the second time.
Although Wang Dagui feared his wife, he wasn't foolish. With Chen Fan and the other two doctors speaking so plainly, how could he not understand their implications!
"Qiao Yan, why are there seeds from over a dozen apples in my mother's stomach? You must explain this to me today!" Wang Dagui demanded angrily.
"Wang Dagui, you've grown some balls! You dare to yell at me now?! Have you forgotten what you said when we got married? If you hadn't promised to treat me well for the rest of your life and never make me angry, I wouldn't have agreed to marry you, you ungrateful wretch! Have you forgotten all that!" Qiao Yan yelled, pointing her finger at Wang Dagui's nose.
"I'm asking you, how could there be seeds from over a dozen apples in my mother's stomach?" Wang Dagui's face darkened, and he glared at Qiao Yan.
Qiao Yan seemed to feel guilty and lost her earlier assertiveness. "How should I know? I'm not your family's housekeeper. Maybe, maybe she ate them herself."
"Qiao Yan, my mother only has three teeth left. She's so stingy she won't even get them fixed, wanting to save money for us. You're telling me our mother ate them herself? Do you think anyone would believe that!" Wang Dagui clenched his fists, tears welling up in his eyes.
His father had died early, and his mother had raised him alone, saving money to help him get married. He, on the other hand, had never given his mother a single good day. Thinking of this, Wang Dagui felt a surge of shame, believing he had failed his mother terribly.
"Slap, slap, slap!" Wang Dagui slapped himself hard across the face.
Then, with a thud, he knelt before the old woman.
If anything were to happen to his mother, he would never forgive himself.
"Mom, Mom will definitely be alright," Qiao Yan said, panicked, and quickly stepped forward.
"Get out! From now on, get out of my house. We're getting a divorce!" Wang Dagui pushed Qiao Yan away, his voice filled with resolve.
"Dagui, what… what are you saying? You want a divorce!" Qiao Yan was stunned. She never expected her usually obedient husband to propose divorce!
"Cough, cough, cough!"
At that moment, the old woman suddenly coughed violently and slowly opened her eyes.
However, the two consecutive gastric lavages had left her feeling weak.
"She's… she's awake!" The two doctors' faces lit up with joy at the sight.