Chapter 387: Chapter 387: Heavy Metal Poisoning

After a day of seeing patients at the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the consultation room was still bustling.

Many people had heard that he was holding consultations here.

They came in droves.

Li Xu saw all sorts of patients, including a fair number of tumor patients who had come seeking him out by reputation.

For these patients who had been given a "death sentence" by Western medicine, Li Xu mostly used conservative treatments to strengthen their core and cultivate their qi, doing his best to activate their innate vitality and give them a glimmer of hope amidst their suffering.

For many conditions, the system provided no information.

All he could do was his best.

The next day, he was seeing patients at his own clinic.

Another crowd had gathered outside the door.

Li Xu saw his patients in an orderly fashion.

After a while, it was a mother and son’s turn.

The mother was in her thirties, dressed plainly, with a somewhat haggard look on her face.

She tightly held the hand of a boy who looked to be about seven or eight years old. The boy was pale and frail, his head bowed, too timid to look up at anyone.

"Dr. Li, hello. I’m here for my son."

The mother, Zhang Yue Mei, placed the registration slip on the desk, then helped her son sit down on the chair in front of Li Xu.

Li Xu gave a gentle smile and gestured for the boy to extend his hand.

He first asked about his symptoms. "Little fellow, what’s bothering you?"

Liu Chao mumbled a few words indistinctly.

Li Xu couldn’t hear him clearly and turned to look at Zhang Yue Mei.

Zhang Yue Mei quickly picked up the conversation. "Dr. Li, my son has been complaining about stomachaches recently, especially at night. Sometimes the pain is so bad he breaks out in a cold sweat, and at its worst, it becomes a cramping pain. He’s not eating much and he’s lost weight. His grades used to be so good, but now he can’t concentrate and his performance has dropped drastically. His teacher has already called me several times."

As Li Xu listened, he carefully observed the boy’s complexion.

It was indeed pale, completely devoid of color.

He reached out, gently placing his fingers on Liu Chao’s wrist to feel the child’s faint, weak pulse.

"Open your mouth and let me see your tongue."

Li Xu prompted.

The boy obediently opened his mouth.

The moment Li Xu’s gaze swept over the boy’s tongue coating, his brow furrowed.

He wasn’t looking at the color or thickness of the coating; instead, his attention was captured by a bluish-black "line" along the edge of the boy’s gums.

The line was very fine, right against the gums. While not immediately obvious, it was clearly visible.

That bluish-black gum line was just too conspicuous.

Any doctor who wasn’t a complete quack could basically identify this symptom as a classic sign of a specific type of ’toxic evil’ invading the body.

An unsettling suspicion surfaced in his mind.

Li Xu’s expression turned serious. He asked, "Has the child come into contact with anything unusual? For example, playing with sand? Or have you had any renovations done at home?"

Zhang Yue Mei shook her head, looking blank. "No, we haven’t done any renovations, and we don’t live near any construction sites. Besides school, he usually just plays at home. Oh, and he goes to the nearby mall in the evenings and on weekends."

Li Xu placed his fingers on the boy’s pulse again, concentrating.

The pulse was deep, fine, and taut; the tongue coating was thin and white; the tongue itself was pale. Add to that the lead line on the gums he had just seen, and the symptoms Zhang Yue Mei described—abdominal pain, cramping, loss of appetite, declining academic ability... all the signs pointed in the same direction.

"Your son’s condition isn’t a common stomachache, nor is it a simple spleen and stomach issue."

Li Xu said in a solemn voice, "My preliminary diagnosis is that the child may have been afflicted by a ’toxic evil,’ which in Western medicine is called ’heavy metal poisoning.’ Judging from his symptoms, the most likely culprit is lead poisoning."

Hearing this, Zhang Yue Mei was stunned. "Lead poisoning? How is that possible? Dr. Li, are you sure you’re not mistaken? We’re very careful about hygiene, and he doesn’t play with lead pencils or anything like that..."

She couldn’t accept the diagnosis.

Lead poisoning sounded terrifying. ’How could this happen to my child?’

"I’m not mistaken."

Li Xu’s tone was certain. "The bluish-black line on the edge of the gums is known in medicine as a ’lead line,’ and it’s one of the classic signs of lead poisoning. Combined with the child’s abdominal pain, lethargy, and declining academic ability, the symptoms are all highly consistent with lead poisoning."

"However, a TCM diagnosis for heavy metal poisoning isn’t as directly persuasive as the scientific instruments of Western medicine."

This kind of diagnosis needed more objective evidence to be convincing to the family.

Li Xu didn’t rush to prescribe medicine. He said to Zhang Yue Mei, "I suggest you take your son to a major hospital right now for a professional examination. Specifically, you need to get his blood lead level checked. If it’s confirmed to be lead poisoning, it must be treated promptly."

Zhang Yue Mei was already in a panic.

Hearing Li Xu’s advice, she said instinctively, "Go to a major hospital for a test? Okay, okay... no, wait. We’ve already been to the hospital for tests."

As if remembering something, she quickly pulled a stack of reports from her bag and handed them to Li Xu.

"We went to the Second Hospital several times before because he kept complaining of a stomachache, but the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. A few days ago, I was still worried, so I took him for a full check-up. These are the test reports from the Second Hospital."

Li Xu took the reports and began to look through them carefully.

Complete blood count, urinalysis, liver and kidney function, abdominal ultrasound... there was even a "toxicology screen." The list of tests was very comprehensive.

However, when he saw the results of the various tests, his brow furrowed once again.

All of the reports clearly stated: "No abnormalities detected in any indicators."

The toxicology screen, in particular, stated in no uncertain terms: "No elevated levels of heavy metals such as lead or mercury detected."

"This... How is this possible?"

Li Xu stared at the reports in disbelief.

The bluish-black line on the boy’s gums was clearly visible.

A diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine relies on the "four diagnostic methods": observation, listening and smelling, inquiry, and palpation. The lead line on the gums, the pulse, and the patient’s symptoms all unequivocally pointed to lead poisoning.

And yet, the results from the Western medical instruments were all normal.

Li Xu fell into thought.

’There’s absolutely no way I misdiagnosed this. The lead line is such a classic sign; it’s nearly impossible to get it wrong.’

’So where did the problem occur?’

He suddenly remembered the Second Hospital’s history.

The Second Hospital had a sordid history involving organ matching.

"I don’t trust these test results."

Li Xu shook his head. "I suggest you take your son to a different hospital tomorrow and have his blood lead level tested again. The City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine would be best."

"Huh? Dr. Li, what... what are you trying to say?"

Zhang Yue Mei was bewildered. "The Second Hospital is a major hospital, too! They have advanced instruments. How could their test results be wrong? Are you... are you maybe not good with children’s illnesses?"

She was starting to doubt Li Xu’s medical skills.

In her eyes, a test report in black and white was far more reliable than a TCM doctor’s traditional examination.

Li Xu understood Zhang Yue Mei’s feelings, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch the child be misdiagnosed.