Chapter 116 First Encounter with Cholera

In fact, in Wang Mengying's eyes, malaria is not a serious disease. He himself said that he followed the idea of ​​febrile disease expert Ye Tianshi in treating exogenous diseases. When he saw malaria, he classified it according to damp temperature, summer heat, and evil. Then use the method of treating exogenous diseases to "clear the source" and it will be cured. "For forty years, there is no evidence that malaria is difficult to cure." (For now, the government will definitely send Wang Mengying to Africa for medical assistance) However, no one thought that a bigger crisis was about to hit the world.

At that time, the population in the south of the Yangtze River surged, trade exchanges were frequent, and merchant ships gathered in various ports, creating a prosperous scene. However, if we look through the literature, we will find that the environment at that time was also a mess. A large number of people are flooding into the city, and there are not so many houses (house prices are rising too fast), so everyone builds them temporarily, and the living environment is a mess. The toilet is just a big bucket. When it is full, it will flow into the river when it rains went. The river water is used for drinking and cooking. Of course, the water here is also used for flushing toilets (this is still the case in some places in the south of the Yangtze River).

Hangzhou was not much better. There was no concept of public health at that time. According to literature records, each family swept out the leftovers such as dead fish and leftovers from the house and left them alone, walking in the narrow alleys. Walk back and forth avoiding garbage. This was the general situation at the time, but what caused the crisis was another very distant thing. In 1817 AD, a large-scale cholera epidemic occurred in Calcutta, India. This epidemic was unprecedented and caused countless deaths. After several years, the cholera virus traveled across the ocean with merchant ships and came to the Jiangnan area with poor sanitation.

The soldiers are pressing the border, Wang Mengying, as a soldier, has no choice but to fight. What is cholera? I don’t know if you have any idea. Modern epidemiology tells us that cholera is a severe intestinal infectious disease caused by Vibrio cholerae. It is listed as a Class A infectious disease in my country today. Severe diarrhea accompanied by vomiting can cause dehydration, electrolyte disturbance, acid-base imbalance, and circulatory collapse. It is an infectious disease that can quickly lead to death. Cholera is still an infectious disease that is strictly guarded against around the world today. In 1991, when it broke out in the Americas, 400,000 cases were reported.

The modern medical system can prevent the spread of cholera through sanitation and epidemic prevention facilities, such as clean water sources, but there is still no good way in terms of treatment, only supportive treatment such as rehydration, antibiotics can only be used as an auxiliary treatment, and now drug resistance has emerged strain. In the summer of 1837 AD, cholera began to spread in Hangzhou. Wang Mengying received reports of cholera patients one after another. One morning, a man knocked on the door of Wang Mengying's house in a hurry. After Wang Mengying opened the door, she saw the man's flustered face and asked what was wrong.

The man replied that his wife started to suffer from diarrhea last night, and then her voice became hoarse and she became dizzy. When Wang Mengying heard these symptoms, she immediately realized that something was wrong. Although she didn't know what the disease was, it was very critical up. So he set off immediately, covered his nose and hopped left and right through various garbage dumps in the alley, and came to this family surnamed Shen. When I got to the room, I saw that the patient was curled up on the bed, clutching his stomach, in excruciating pain.Check her pulse again, it is a stringy and thin pulse, and the two chi pulses seem to be absent.She was very thirsty, but whenever she drank water she would vomit, and the muscles in her legs were as hard as stones from cramps.

Wang Mengying felt a chill in her head. This syndrome should be cholera, but why is it different from the cholera in the past? (Note: The word cholera was also used in ancient Chinese medicine, which refers to a gastrointestinal infection with vomiting and diarrhea. At this time, cholera is a deadly infectious disease.) So Wang Mengying gave this new disease a name , Calling cholera to turn its tendons. what to do?I've never seen this kind of disease, but if I don't treat it, it will be dangerous to see the patient like this. Forget it, I have to treat it if I haven't seen this kind of disease. Let's follow our usual principles and treat based on syndrome differentiation.

Wang Mengying judged that this was "summer dampness in the body, blocking the air mechanism, declaring the surrender without power, and chaos and rebellion." What is hindering the normal operation of her body? Is there moisture?Then remove the humidity, and the heat?Then remove the heat and let her body recover its own ability, wouldn't it be enough?So Wang Mengying created a prescription himself, called Canshi Decoction. The prescription is composed of: late silkworm sand, raw coix seed, soybean yellow roll, aged papaya, Sichuan Coptis chinensis, pinellia chinensis, scutellaria baicalensis, Tongcao, Jiaoshanzhi, Evodia.

This prescription, clearing heat and dampness, is an important prescription for treating dampness and heat, and it is now included in the textbook "Prescriptions" of traditional Chinese medicine. After the medicine was boiled, the patient drank it and stopped vomiting.At this time, Wang Mengying asked someone to rub the patient's cramped leg with shochu. Then the patient did not have diarrhea anymore. In the evening, he drank half a dose of medicine. The patient actually slept soundly at night. The next day, he just felt very sleepy. Wang Mengying prescribed some conditioning medicine , the patient is cured.

Wang Mengying finally let out a long breath, it's so dangerous! However, before he could rest from his fatigue, the knocker came again. This is a young woman from a rich family who was sick, and also had vomiting and diarrhea. Wang Mengying hurriedly followed the servant to the patient's home. When she saw the young woman, she was very thin, her tongue was red, and her eyes were red. I am thirsty and want to drink cold water. The pulse is strong on the left and slippery on the right. Wang Mengying judged that this person's body is usually hot in the liver and stomach, and now it has an evil heat from an external infection. Motherwort, phellodendron, papaya, loofah, coix seed and other medicines, after taking one dose of medicine, the patient will stop vomiting and diarrhea, and after taking another dose, the disease will be cured.

Then as soon as Wang Mengying returned home, the knock on the door rang again. Wang Mengying treated a large number of patients in a short period of time, and he wrote part of his treatment records into the book "On Cholera". At this time, Wang Mengying was also very tired, because everyone saw that he treated The characteristic of the disease is to adjust your body to a normal state completely according to the person's physical condition, because everyone's condition is different when they are sick, so he has a prescription for each person, basically there is no repetition, and every day It is also adjusting the medicine according to your physical condition, adding and subtracting, which puts very high demands on the doctor, and requires constant consumption of brain power and thinking, without any mistakes. However, illness does not give you time to rest at all. Often, the sound of knocking on the door rings just after you close your eyes. In short, this battle exhausted Wang Mengying, but he also accumulated experience in treating such critical illnesses. As time passed, the epidemic was finally subsided. However, diseases are cunning, they began to mutate, and more virulent strains came from overseas. After a few years, they will come back. In future battles, Wang Mengying will face more severe tests and will Lost his wife and a daughter forever. In this battle, it is worth mentioning that an old friend of ours, Comrade Zhou Guangyuan, the leader of Wang Mengying when he was in Wuzhou, after working in Wuzhou for a period of time, he felt that it was safer to go back to his hometown and stay by Wang Mengying’s side , So he retired from his leadership position and settled in Hangzhou. Unexpectedly, this Comrade Zhou was so unlucky, he caught up with the plague when he returned to Hangzhou, and was also infected with cholera. The time of onset was in the evening, and I started to have vomiting and diarrhea, leg cramps, and I took some medicine by mistake, which made it worse. When I called Wang Mengying the next morning, I saw that the old leader's pulse was fast. No more, sunken eyes (this is a typical sign of cholera after dehydration), ears are deaf, limbs are cold, sweating, voice has become hoarse (this is also a typical sign of cholera), fat on the body The meat disappeared again (it seems to have disappeared several times, but fortunately, Leader Zhou replenished it quickly), Wang Mengying knew in his heart that this was already critically ill, and it was not too late, so he immediately "asked Mrs. Leader Zhou quickly poured it down, and then prescribed a prescription for invigorating qi and removing dampness, and then fried it and drank it. (Wang Mengying judged that Leader Zhou still lacked yang energy, so he supplemented his yang energy to allow the body to recover by itself) After drinking a dose of medicine, Leader Zhou's symptoms began to ease, so Wang Mengying adjusted the prescription. After about ten days of conditioning, Leader Zhou appeared in front of people in good spirits again. When I was looking at this medical case, I couldn't help but sigh, our leader Zhou is really full of disasters, how did you catch up with him? Since then, Leader Zhou has strengthened his belief that he must stay by Wang Mengying's side, otherwise he would not be able to figure out what would happen. But people are not as good as God. Several years later, Hong Xiuquan sang God songs all the way to call. Wang Mengying fled back to his hometown in Haining. Leader Zhou was besieged in the city. As a result, he fell ill again and died soon. Wang Mengying wrote sadly in a book: I heard that Leader Zhou passed away, and his family has no news, and I don't know what happened to his mother and wife. In another book, it is clear that Wang Mengying has found the family members of Leader Zhou and treated his mother and wife, and the medical records have been recorded. This is a touching friendship. In the most difficult stage of Wang Mengying’s life, Zhou Guangyuan, as a leader, helped him. Later, Wang Mengying saved Zhou Guangyuan’s life several times. Zhou Guangyuan also helped Wang Mengying publish a book later. And he left his own pen and ink in Wang Mengying's book, but in the end, the two still went their separate ways, leaving Wang Mengying to continue to treat his family. In fact, Zhou Guangyuan's medical case is just a small point in Wang Mengying's vast medical case, but I can see the warm human feelings in it. In the turbulent and disaster-ridden years, personal fate is insignificant, but the feelings between them are sincere.