exhausted
"A new king of clay has been born! Let's congratulate Kunimitsu Tezuka on his triumph once again!"
Amidst the excited commentary, Kazusa leaned against the cement wall, looking down at the screen as Tezuka lifted the Musketeers' Cup, the French Open champion's prize.
Her hair, which she had just washed yesterday, was still smooth, and a strand of hair fell beside her face, making her expression even more gentle.
"Didn't you get enough last night? You should really show your Tezuka player that look on your face." Lin Tang, sitting opposite Kazusa in the same position as her, leaning against the wall with her forehead and shoulders, teased her friend who was watching the awards ceremony video again. "Skipping breakfast? Is this your new way to relax?"
"Hmm, my boyfriend is quite handsome." After the video ended, He Zou put away her phone, showing no embarrassment at her friend's teasing.
She took the dry bread Lin Tang handed her, tore it open, and mechanically took a bite. The hard bread made it difficult for her to swallow.
It's not that she doesn't eat, it's just that she's had a poor appetite lately.
Looking at Lin Tang, who was happily biting into his bread without any problems, He Zou shook his head self-deprecatingly, realizing that he had overestimated himself and needed to work on his adaptability to the environment.
It was thanks to Lin Tang's company that she could have survived.
Noticing her friend's face was starting to puff up from staying up late, Kazusa frowned and said, "Tangtang, don't work overtime today. Go back to sleep after breakfast."
"I know." Lin Tang shrugged and said helplessly, "Actually, I don't plan to work overtime every day."
He Zou and she exchanged a glance, and both sighed at the same time.
Unlike their clinical internship at Heidelberg University, there are now things they can't ignore, causing their sleep and rest time to become shorter and shorter.
The rainy season in Massabit continues, or rather, the entire East Africa is shrouded in heavy rainfall.
Earlier reports indicated that changes in ocean circulation this year could lead to abnormal global climate.
From the blizzards that swept across Eurasia at the beginning of the year to the heavy rainfall that has now covered East Africa, seemingly unrelated climates have all been affected by the marine environment.
Compared to the various disaster relief efforts and reports about the blizzard at the beginning of the year, and the longing for the beautiful snow scenery, the disaster brought by the heavy rainfall in East Africa seems so insignificant, with vibrant lives being lost silently.
After the malaria outbreak, Massabit's only hospital was quickly overrun.
I don’t know if it’s also due to the abnormal climate, but this year’s virus strains are extremely virulent, and the rate at which artemisinin needed for treatment is being consumed is twice as fast as expected.
With the hospital overcrowded, many more people unable to receive medical care gathered outside the hospital walls, and Director Oluka had a temporary treatment area set up there.
Even so, the stronger men used their strength to occupy the well-ventilated and shady areas, while the weak, especially women, were pushed to the edges.
They sat in silence, their eyes vacant, the children in their arms either eerily quiet or crying and convulsing due to high fever.
They dare not compete, dare not fight, as if their needs and lives should naturally be relegated to the back burner.
"The situation is worse than expected." Lin Tang looked out the window, his usually lazy voice becoming heavy. "We're starting to run out of medicine, which makes distribution even more problematic."
The oral rehydration salts I brought to the temporary treatment area this morning for seriously ill children have already been taken by their fathers.
After swallowing the last piece of bread, He Zou leaned wearily against the wall, closing her eyes to rest. Hearing Lin Tang's words, she whispered, "At times like these, they're more inclined to preserve their 'labor force'."
This is their rule of survival.
Mentioning this, Lin Tang's eyes flashed with anger: "That child could have been saved."
"yes."
Unfortunately, it was discovered too late, and it developed into cerebral malaria. Perhaps with the preventative medication they provided, there's always a way to save him.
Limited prevention, delayed diagnosis, and inadequate facilities—each of these factors is potentially fatal.
A correct diagnosis here seems to only provide a clearer picture of death.
This helplessness left them somewhat frustrated.
“By the way, Melodia,” Lin Tang said, perking up, “I asked Dean Oluka to collect a liquid sample earlier, and I took some time last night to process and observe it. It’s true that the insect load is too high.”
"That's why the drug's window of action is so short."
"Yes, this also proves that your model design direction is correct. Before drugs can take effect quickly, finding a way to buy time for the brain is of immeasurable value."
Upon hearing this, He Zou looked at his friend, somewhat stunned.
"So you have to keep going." Lin Tang tilted his head and smiled at her, revealing two cute little tiger teeth.
The idea is simple, but the difficulty lies in needing hundreds or thousands of clinical experiences and redefining the surgical procedure before she can find a way forward.
For a third-year student, this sounds like a fantasy, but Tangtang, who always wanted to relax, specifically asked for samples to observe for a long time, just to tell her that she could do it.
He Zou's eyes crinkled as he said, "You'd better keep it up."
"Before you cheer up, make sure you're in good health." Lin Tang straightened up and stretched. "I need to go back and get some sleep, or I'll really die from overwork."
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.
"Cerebral malaria".
In the cramped intensive care unit, Dr. Oluka straightened up, looked at Wanjiku who was in a state of severe mental impairment, shook his head helplessly, and drew a somber conclusion based on his rich clinical experience.
Working non-stop for many days made the old man's eye bags even heavier, and his white coat looked somewhat empty on his thin body.
He Zou and Lin Tang stood at the foot of the bed, heads bowed and silent.
Even in hospitals with well-equipped ICUs, cerebral malaria is a highly challenging battle, and for Massabit, who was unable to undergo brain surgery, it was a clear death sentence.
They had seen many cases of cerebral malaria in the past two weeks, and when Wanjiku was brought in with a high fever and convulsions, they already knew the answer.
Within hours, the young woman who had placed her hopes on Kazusa will die, along with her unborn child.
Seeing Oluka shake his head, Wanjiku's husband suddenly widened his eyes, grabbed Dr. Oluka's shoulders, and shouted, "Can you save the child?!" His finger traced a line in the air from top to bottom. "Can't the doctors here cut open the abdomen like this and take the child out?!"
He had seen people wearing the same white coats as them doing this in sheds set up outside the tribe, and that child survived healthy!
The tribe's original beliefs forbade this practice. The body was sacred and must remain intact to enter the afterlife; a cesarean section was seen as a form of physical destruction, and once cut open, the soul would not find peace after death.
But as long as the child is saved, it doesn't matter whether Wanjiku's soul can find peace.
A fully formed child dying in the womb is a curse! It must never happen to their family!
He Zou and Lin Tang understood.
He stepped forward, pinched the nerve on the back of his thumb forcefully, and took advantage of his pain to remove his hand from the elderly Dr. Oluka.
Lin Tang, with a cold face, extinguished his hope in Swahili: "No."
The man was instantly enraged by their equally cold gazes.
They're lying to him. Their youth and womanhood make their words utterly unreliable. They simply know he can't afford the exorbitant medical fees and are unwilling to treat him!
After recovering, Dr. Oluka, with his gray hair, straightened up and took a step forward, shielding He Zou and Lin Tang behind him. Looking at the angry man, he shook his head heavily once again: "He can't be saved."
A pregnant woman suffering from cerebral malaria requires at least two simultaneous resuscitation efforts. While stabilizing the mother's vital signs, a cesarean section must be performed in an extremely short time. Not only do they lack the necessary equipment, but they also lack the doctors capable of performing the surgery.
Oluka has helped many people in the tribe over the decades and is highly respected and considered a trustworthy local doctor.
Upon hearing this, the man's anger froze. Then, as if he had been fooled, he spat on the ground and said viciously, "He was perfectly fine when he was brought to the hospital. Now he's going to die in your hospital. You can deal with it yourselves!"
He said he wouldn't see a doctor and slammed the door as he left.
His angry roar echoed down the corridor: "What are you still looking at? Come back with me!" Then came a dull thud as something fell to the ground.
Lin Tang frowned and walked outside.
In the corridor, Wanjiku's child, Ertapan, was getting up from the ground with a pained expression.
Because there was little flesh on her arms, there was no fat or muscle to cushion the fall, resulting in a large abrasion on her forearm from which blood gushed out.
After getting up, she carefully protected the few wildflowers in her hands, smiled at her with her dark eyes, and carried a sleeping child on her thin back, probably her younger brother.
Lin Tang stared expressionlessly at the petals still glistening with dew on her dirty little hands, and his lips twitched unconsciously.
Under the expectant gaze of the other party, Lin Tang turned and left quickly. After a while, he returned with heavy, angry steps.
Having just finished her night shift, she looked terrible, and her angry expression was quite frightening. Ertapan looked at her with some fear, huddling against the wall to protect his younger brother.
Lin Tang sighed, squatted down, took out the gauze and medicine he had just retrieved from his pocket, and held out his hand to her: "Give me your arm."
In this place, at this time, a wound infection can be fatal.
—
As evening approached, dusk deepened.
Lin Tang had already gone back to sleep, but the father of the two children, fearing they would be "infected," came back and forcibly dragged them away.
Only Hezou, who had come over during his spare time, was in the ward.
She held Wanjiku's gradually cooling hand, feeling the last throbbing of the fetus in her womb.
Then, everything fell silent.
Two more lives passed away quietly before her eyes.
He Zou's gaze quietly fell on a few small yellow flowers stuck in the cracks of the simple hospital bed.
Several hours passed, and the flowers had withered.
Wanjiku never regained consciousness and naturally never saw their beautiful appearance.
He Zou walked unsteadily out of the simple ward; she had to go and inform...
Who should we notify?
Her family has abandoned her.
Standing in the dimly lit corridor, Kazusa suddenly felt incredibly tired, probably because she hadn't had a proper rest in a long time, and she even started hallucinating.
"Guoguang..."
How could someone I saw on the screen this morning suddenly appear here?
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