Come on, Dr. Wu

Chapter 286 Mass Hysteria? (Seeking monthly votes)

Meilan is suitable for poisoning caused by nitrite, aniline and cyanide.

The results of toxicology tests do not come out so quickly. Even if they are expedited, the best time for treatment will be missed. Therefore, when faced with a situation like poisoning, most people will choose to combine medical history collection with experimental treatment.

Especially for drugs like Meilan, it basically will not endanger the patient's health due to incorrect use, so experimental treatment can be carried out first. If the patient's symptoms are relieved, it should be poisoning, and you can just continue to treat it according to this idea.

"What did you eat for lunch? Or, is there any pollution where you worked today?"

These are the main sources of poisoning. One is the food that enters the mouth, and the other is the environmental pollution that enters the lungs.

They are housekeeping workers and they work for the same housekeeping company. Both of these are very likely.

They must have eaten together, and as for work, according to the emergency doctor, they were all doing housework in the same home, so it is possible that they were exposed to gas pollution together.

However, Wu Xiaofu also felt that the latter was unlikely. After all, this was an ordinary resident's home, not a chemical factory. At most there would be some formaldehyde, but it wouldn't be this serious.

To be honest, if it was really formaldehyde volatilization, it would not be easy to make a person like this in a short period of time. At least, as of now, Wu Xiaofu has never seen such a thing.

"It's just a normal working lunch. We ate like this before and everything was fine. As for the pollution, we are just doing housework in the residents' homes. Their houses are not new and not too choking. I don't know why it became like this.

How is Sister Zhang? I was right next to her. She suddenly started vomiting and then fell down. I wanted to pull her up, but when I saw her vomiting, I vomited too. My body started to feel weak and I didn’t dare to move anymore. ”

Ah!
When she saw Sister Zhang vomit, she vomited too!
Wu Xiaofu was startled and he quickly asked other people. As a result, the replies from these people were almost the same.

So, Sister Zhang was the first one to vomit, and the others vomited one after another after they saw or heard Sister Zhang vomiting and falling down.

At this moment, Wu Xiaofu suddenly felt that it might not be just a matter of poisoning, there might be other reasons.

These are actually very important and must be figured out as soon as possible.

Unlike previous surgical injuries, if the patient is really poisoned, even if the surgery is done perfectly, the patient will soon have problems due to the influence of the toxin.

Therefore, if you want to save a life, you must know whether the patient is poisoned during the operation. If the patient is really poisoned, you must cooperate with detoxification treatment at the same time as the operation.

"Hysteria!"

This word suddenly appeared in Wu Xiaofu's mind. Perhaps it could be said to be poisoning, but it was not physical poisoning, but mental poisoning, a physiological disease.

Moreover, if so many people experience this situation at the same time, it is probably not just ordinary hysteria, but may be a rare form of group hysteria.

What is mass hysteria?
Mass hysteria refers to a psychological or mental disorder caused by the mutual influence of certain mental stress-related factors among many people.

The main characteristic of this disease is that it will produce mutual influence among people. For example, in schools, churches, temples or public places, some people witness a person becoming ill, and because they do not understand the disease, they also develop fear and tension and develop the same symptoms.

This is very possible given the workplace and time that these domestic workers previously worked in.

Sister Zhang suddenly vomited and fell from the building, landing on a billboard. Her abdomen was pierced by the billboard and her life or death was unknown. Seeing this scene, the other housekeeping staff instantly became nervous. This was probably the first time they had seen such a scene.

In particular, they had probably done this before without taking any safety precautions and worked outside the window. At that time, they were afraid that Sister Zhang would push them, and they were terrified and extremely nervous.

They don’t know what’s wrong with Sister Zhang, but out of fear, they will most likely be affected and develop the same symptoms.

Thinking about it this way, Wu Xiaofu felt that it was more and more possible.

Wu Xiaofu reads a lot of different books and knows that mass hysteria is rare, but there are many examples, such as the case in Country M.

One morning on November 1998, 11, the sirens of ambulances rang out incessantly in a middle school in a state in the United States. One hundred students and faculty members of the school were sent to the hospital one after another, including a parent who came to pick up his child.

When the doctor asked them about their specific conditions, the symptoms they described to the doctor were almost exactly the same. They all said that they smelled a special odor, and then they experienced fatigue, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and even shortness of breath.

The police thought that there was a hazardous gas leak in or near the school, so they immediately sealed off the school and invited relevant experts to take samples of the school's air, water and surface objects.

But the results were unexpected. All the test results were negative and no suspicious substances were found.

That would have been fine, but in the hospital, doctors and nurses formed a joint treatment team and began to diagnose and treat the patient, conducting poison tests, vomit tests, blood tests, etc. However, after the examinations, they found that the results were all normal.

Even these patients basically have no other problems except these almost identical symptoms.

There is no other way, the hospital can only find the cause and provide symptomatic treatment.

After 5 days, all 100 patients recovered, and careful examination revealed no obvious sequelae.

There's no way, we can't just drag it on like this.

So the school decided to resume classes, but who knew that on the day of resumption, another 71 people showed the same symptoms. The school had no choice but to sound the alarm again and send these 71 patients to the hospital.

My goodness, in just one week, nearly two hundred people had problems. How could the state government not realize the seriousness of the problem? It hurriedly asked for help. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control naturally took it seriously. After all, such a strange thing was likely a political event and should not be underestimated.

At that time, some people thought of the biochemical crisis.

The government immediately sent someone to the state, and the experts began to conduct a more comprehensive physical examination on the patient. They also collected blood and urine samples from the patient again to check for possible toxic compounds and chemical pesticides one by one. This time the scope was wider, covering almost all known possibilities.

At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency of Country M also organized experts from all walks of life to begin a detailed inspection of the air quality around the school, the pollution discharge of surrounding factories, and the school’s own building materials, water supply, sewage discharge, and garbage disposal systems. The scope of this inspection was obviously larger.

Even the soil and geological conditions around the school were tested by drilling samples.

After all, there are rumors that there is a chemical factory built during the war under the school, and a large amount of harmful substances are buried inside.

However, neither the testing of human samples nor the examination of the surrounding environment revealed any obvious abnormalities.

So what exactly caused so many students and faculty members of this school to encounter such a situation and be hospitalized twice for the same symptoms? It caused an uproar in public opinion and many different opinions.

However, environmental pollution factors have been basically ruled out. With such a large effort, there can't be any omissions. After all, this is a gathering of experts from all walks of life. Since it is not an external factor, could it be a problem with the patients themselves?

After all, there are other people in the school who have not had any problems and are doing fine. Those patients who have been discharged from the hospital seem to be fine as long as they don't return to school and don't contact those people before.

The term "spiritual pollution" already existed at that time. After all, the United States was relatively advanced in scientific research.

That was also the first time that the concept of mass hysteria was clearly put forward.

“These are examples from abroad, and there are also examples from home.”

After asking about the patient's condition, Wu Xiaofu urgently called together doctors from relevant departments and put forward his own ideas. It was obvious that many people had never heard of the term mass hysteria.

Wu Xiaofu quickly began to explain by giving examples, so that they could understand the concept and seriousness of mass hysteria.

"On April 2010, 4, 23 students from a primary school in a county in Gansu Province developed dizziness, weakness in the limbs, fatigue, stomachache and other discomfort symptoms over the next 68 days. Some students with milder symptoms were kept in the local county health center for observation and treatment.

More than 10 patients with more serious symptoms were transferred to the provincial capital for emergency treatment. However, the Gansu Provincial Hospital conducted repeated examinations on these 10 patients and was unable to detect any harmful chemical substances such as "organophosphorus" pesticides, heavy metals, etc. in their bodies.

At this time, the results of the on-site investigation conducted by environmental experts came out. However, the school was surrounded by villagers' houses and there were no chemical plants at all. At the same time, no one used pesticides around the school, and no villagers in the surrounding areas showed such symptoms. There was no problem with the water quality, and the air quality was also very good.

This is strange. With so much investment, the reason is so difficult to find out. Could it really be related to the rumor at the time that there was something dirty in the school?
Stop joking. The concept of mass hysteria has been around for a long time. Once objective factors have been ruled out, there will naturally be an authoritative organization to characterize the incident."

So that's how it is. After hearing what Wu Xiaofu said, everyone understood a lot. However, as doctors, they may be able to follow the clues and think of ways to treat the physical problems, but as for the mental factors, they are not psychologists, so to be honest, their help will not be too great.

How to treat it? Should we send the patient to the surgery department right now? This is the question. Most likely, mental factors will not affect the patient's surgery, but what if?
After all, this concept actually has many things that doctors like them cannot understand. Who can know the key impact? Now that the cause has been found, if the patient has problems on the operating table because of it, it will be another troublesome matter.

"Doctor Wu, since you have explained it so clearly, how should we treat this mass hysteria? In other words, should we take these into consideration during the operation?"

These are what they are most concerned about. This is the first time they have encountered such a situation. As for the operation, they don’t need to worry too much, after all, it is Wu Xiaofu who will do it. But what if they encounter the same situation in the future? They must strengthen their knowledge reserves.

"What is 'mass hysteria'? It is actually the psychological effects of people, such as suggestion, illusion, suspicion, placebo effect, etc., which will have a significant impact on body functions.

Well, this effect can be positive. For example, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao's "seeing the plum tree to quench thirst" directly relieved the soldiers' thirst and allowed them to hold on for a long time. This effect only disappeared after they no longer saw the plum tree and reached their destination. In other words, most hysteria does not need to be treated, but can be relieved with time.

Of course, this impact can also be negative, such as the two examples I gave you, or the one we are facing now.

When a potentially poisonous psychological effect affects a group of people simultaneously or successively, some of the psychologically fragile or sensitive people in the group, without being exposed to any toxic substances, develop some kind of psychogenic reactive group poisoning symptoms under the strong harmful suggestion psychological effect.

At this time, it depends on the severity of the patient's symptoms. If the condition is serious, symptomatic intervention must be carried out, because psychological and mental factors will also have a huge impact on the patient himself. Without intervention, more serious problems may arise.

Of course, in ordinary situations, the symptoms can be alleviated with time.

In my opinion, the conditions of these patients are all good. We just need to observe those in the hall. As for the patients in the emergency room, they should be sent directly to the operating room. The surgery cannot be delayed.

Also, contact the housekeeping company as soon as possible and ask them to temporarily stop letting people in the company provide similar housekeeping services. Especially for the housekeeping staff who heard the news, no one can guarantee whether similar things will happen again.

If it was just ordinary vomiting and dizziness, it would be fine, but if there was an accident like falling from a high altitude, it would be troublesome. "

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement and began to take action.

Wu Xiaofu went directly to the operating room. After the patient had been irradiated with the machine, the position of the iron rod had been basically determined. The surgical plan had been decided before the discussion of mass hysteria. Yuna and Wu Xiaofu performed the operation.

Wu Xiaofu has performed many operations of this type. He performed major incisions, separated the wounds, removed the iron rods, stopped bleeding, protected the blood vessels around the wound, and anastomosed the severed large blood vessels.

Damage the liver and perform direct resection.

However, when Wu Xiaofu was performing the operation, the situation outside did not calm down. Instead, it became more and more serious.

The domestic service staff of a company are basically in one group.

Nowadays, as long as the news is known to a second person, the speed at which it spreads is almost unimaginable.

The existence of mobile phones allows a message to be transmitted quickly from one place to another.

This housekeeping company is a large one, and after the news spread, many other housekeeping service workers who were working saw the news on their mobile phones, either directly or indirectly, and a chain reaction soon occurred.

Soon, more than twenty domestic service employees of this housekeeping company in Donghai were sent directly to the hospital.

It could be the First Affiliated Hospital of Donghai or a nearby hospital. However, no matter which hospital it was, this was already a mass incident. The government quickly paid attention to it and set up an investigation team.

Among these domestic service workers, several actually heard the news while they were working outside the window. Fortunately, they took protective measures, otherwise, they would have followed in Sister Zhang's footsteps. No, it might have been even worse.

The Chinese people still love to gossip. Not long after, the internet has been buzzing with news.

Even the patients in the emergency hall of the First Affiliated Hospital were photographed, and many media began to rush in.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urgently mobilized a group of experts to begin an investigation.

The hospital contacted the housekeeping company and conveyed Wu Xiaofu's words to them, but how could they listen? It was mass hysteria. Many doctors might find it a bit outrageous, let alone the company leaders.

If you really don't work, who will be responsible for the lost money?

Who is responsible for the loss of reputation due to breach of contract?

Therefore, this company only agreed on one hand, but on the other hand, it did not even care about the spread of the news, let alone stopping the work.

However, as the matter continued to ferment and more and more people encountered problems, the company also panicked.

However, the problem had become more serious at this time. In addition to the twenty or so people who were sent over later, there were still people being sent over sporadically.

It is obvious that the subsequent domestic service workers were not like Sister Zhang and her group. They all had problems and were admitted to the hospital. However, some of them had poor psychological qualities or weak psychological defenses and were obviously affected.

After the investigation team entered the First Affiliated Hospital, they began to understand the situation.

After all, the First Affiliated Hospital was the first place to receive these patients, so it was the most meaningful for the investigation. At this time, the hospital also told them Wu Xiaofu's speculation. After hearing the concept of mass hysteria, the investigation team was somewhat silent.

Wu Xiaofu is now considered an authority, so naturally some people are willing to believe what he says. However, with such a big matter, belief alone is not enough to make people feel at ease.

Therefore, the investigation team also began to organize human and material resources and started testing patients.

At the same time, housekeeping companies are also inspected, especially the canteen aspect.

Not to mention, there do seem to be some problems with the cafeteria, but they should not be the main factor in this illness.

Wu Xiaofu had just finished the operation and walked out of the operating room when he was greeted by the investigation team.

After hearing what the investigation team said and their findings, Wu Xiaofu became more certain of his own assumptions; it was indeed mass hysteria.

Nowadays, most of the patients sent to the hospital are concentrated in housekeeping companies.

These people were so easily affected by the news, and it was obvious that they all had one thing in common, which was empathy.

"Doctor Wu, since you were the first to deduce the cause, do you have any way to solve the problem?"

This is the main purpose of the investigation team.

Today, because the number of cases of this mass hysteria incident has exceeded 30 and the social impact is huge, the main problem now is not only to cure the disease, but also to eliminate these impacts as soon as possible.

Especially when it is not ruled out that other people may also be affected by this mass hysteria and experience the same symptoms.

You know, some people have been speculating whether some country has sent unknown biological and chemical viruses to the East China Sea. This is mainly due to the exaggeration of some people with ulterior motives and those who just want to watch the fun and take advantage of the popularity without caring about the impact of the incident on the country and the people.

As a result, there are some price fluctuations in the East China Sea. Some outrageous people actually think that it is the end of time and have started hoarding supplies.

This is just the beginning and the incident has only been going on for a few hours.

If this incident lasts longer, it will be disastrous. Although these impacts can be easily eliminated if the government is willing to put in a lot of effort, the point is not these, the point is to solve the problem from the root.

The first is to quickly define this incident and let more people know about the concept of mass hysteria. The second is to cure the patients as soon as possible and prevent more patients from appearing. Only with these evidences can the so-called rumors be refuted.

The first person the investigation team thought of was Wu Xiaofu, who proposed the mass hysteria. Especially since Wu Xiaofu was also a well-known psychologist in Donghai City. However, Wu Xiaofu was undergoing surgery, so they could only mobilize other psychologists to provide treatment.

However, the effect is quite weak.

At the very least, it is impossible to make the patients' symptoms disappear in the short term, and they all said that perhaps these patients will recover and heal on their own.

But can this wait?

How many days does it mean? Also, what if it still hasn't recovered after a few days?

What if it gets worse?
What if there are other patients?

Most of the leaders of the investigation team are not doctors. What they want is not these vague answers, but a real solution to the problem. They don't even want to postpone the problem until tomorrow, let alone a few days.

Seeing that these psychologists could not solve the problem quickly, they had no choice but to block Wu Xiaofu again.

Wu Xiaofu, who was in the operating room, had already received a call asking if other doctors could take over his operation first, and Wu Xiaofu would come out to try to solve other patients' problems first. When Wu Xiaofu heard that the situation was serious, he did not refuse.

However, the main part of the operation was almost finished, and Wu Xiaofu said he would give it another half an hour and then hand it over to Yuna.

However, he really did not expect that these people would block him at the door.

"Doctor Wu, since you were able to discover the problem first, you must have a way to solve it, right?"

(End of this chapter)