The entire diagnostics department hurried to the maternity intensive care unit.
The children from earlier had now been sent here. One of the nurses who was caring for a child looked up and saw Elion returning.
When she saw Elion following House, her mouth fell slightly open and she said in surprise, "Are you really a doctor in the diagnostics department?"
Elion thought of a million things he could say, but he said nothing.
Cameron, however, noticed the interaction between Elion and the nurse, so she looked at him with some curiosity before whispering, "Do you two know each other?"
Elion also leaned closer to Cameron's ear and whispered, "We just met, and there was a small misunderstanding earlier because I was in the wrong place doing another doctor's job."
Hearing that they had just met, Cameron unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, a small gesture she herself was not aware of.
House, standing in front of them, completely ignored the nurses' greetings.
He took a medical chart from the side and began to examine it. After a moment, he frowned and said, "Elion is right. There is an unknown infectious disease spreading in the hospital."
Because in addition to the infant Elion had diagnosed, the child next to it had also developed a high fever for unknown reasons.
They had been born four hours apart, in the same delivery room.
The postpartum rooms were adjacent, making transmission entirely possible.
Foreman frowned and said, "But the high fever in this girl is due to an intestinal obstruction, while the boy's is also exclusively due to an intestinal obstruction. There's nothing in common between them, right?"
House looked at Foreman and handed him the X-ray.
"Look at it yourself. There's air in the intestines, so it can't be an intestinal obstruction. This is nothing more than a misjudgment by some doctors who are unqualified in their profession."
"Elion, go and check all the babies in the maternity ward. Pay attention to whether they develop similar symptoms; if so, isolate them as soon as possible."
"Also, Chase, go and inform the hospital director that I said the hospital has stopped admitting maternity patients, understood?"
Chase nodded and turned to head upstairs.
Then House said to the two people behind him, "I'll give both of them routine treatment first. I need to know the results of their tests and their response to the medication as soon as possible."
Not long after, Elion, after inspecting the entire maternity ward, discovered that there were six other babies with high fevers.
After bringing this result back to the diagnostics department, everyone felt the pressure.
Because in the recent diagnoses, all the babies showed symptoms of fever, low blood pressure, and an inability to maintain cardiac contractions.
If this trend continues, all the babies will die within a day.
This means that eight families will have to endure the pain of losing a child!
Now, the pressure to quickly identify the infectious disease had fallen on all the diagnostic doctors present!
Looking at the symptoms listed on the whiteboard in front of him, House turned his gaze to Elion, who had been the first to notice the symptoms.
"Where did these children come from, and what do they have in common?"
Having anticipated this, Elion began to guide House's train of thought:
"There are four postpartum rooms. There is no shared staff or equipment.
In theory, they shouldn't have been infected, but I noticed that there was someone in the hospital who had been in contact with all of them."
"What?"
"The woman who delivered the dolls, and I noticed that she wasn't wearing a mask or disposable sterile gloves as required."
"This means that it's very likely these babies are infected with an adult virus."
Hearing Cameron's "profound" remarks, Foreman could not help but retort:
"If it's an adult virus, why are only the babies affected, while their parents show no symptoms?"
"You also haven't explained why the lymph nodes didn't enlarge during the blood analysis. In addition, we've already given them ribavirin, which is an antiviral drug mainly used to treat viral colds, but they didn't respond at all."
"I think we should first consider a bacterial infection."
Elion shook his head and pointed out the most crucial issue: "If you believe this is a bacterial infection, then these children have no hope of survival."
"Bacterial cultures take at least forty-eight hours, and they can't wait that long—unless medications are administered separately, using the lives of other children as guinea pigs."
"But that is very risky, and some children will inevitably die. I still maintain my opinion that newborns' antibodies come from their mothers."
"That's why I suggest first drawing blood from healthy babies to serve as a control group. By analyzing which viral antibodies the sick baby's mother lacks, we can find the correct option among many viruses."
"In that case, we only need to perform blood tests on the eight mothers and the woman who distributed the toys." When Elion finished speaking in one breath, he unconsciously picked up his coffee, only to find it empty.
At that moment, Chase handed the coffee he was holding to Elion and said, "Yeah, that sounds good."
House was contemplating the feasibility of the method Elion had suggested.
Chase stood to the side, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. He realized that he could not find a reason to refute Elion's viewpoint.
Elion's approach is the fastest way to determine whether the babies have been collectively infected with a virus.
His method, however, requires gambling with the children's lives.
It is obvious which method is better and which is worse.
At that moment, House had already made his decision: "Go, go and draw blood from their mothers. I remember there was a healthy baby who was transferred to the fifth floor and hasn't been discharged yet. Go and draw blood from her."
"Only after ruling out non-viral infections should we proceed with any risky procedures."
Cameron was the first to breathe a sigh of relief upon hearing House's decision. After all, if they followed the suggestion she had given earlier, they could try using vancomycin to treat any potentially methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and use aztreonam to treat other causes.
Then they would have to notify the family to prepare for the loss of their child. This is the last thing Cameron wants to do; she hates bringing despair to others.
However, Elion's method effectively avoids this possibility.
Even if Elion's method does not work in the end and she still has to take the risk, at least she will have some time to cushion the blow and prepare herself mentally.
Now all she has to do is draw blood.
Seeing the relieved expression on Cameron's face, House's eyes flickered; he saw the vulnerability in Cameron's heart.
Of the three assistants, Foreman seemed to want to mentor Elion, Cameron wanted to look for flaws, and Chase had remained on the sidelines.
He looked around and realized that his three assistants seemed to be getting along well with the newcomer who had somewhat overshadowed the brilliance of these specialists.
After making his decision, House headed to the outpatient clinic; he still had work to catch up on.
As for the tests, they could be left to Elion and the other three.
It would not be too late for him to return and take control once the results were known.