Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 45: Alien Infection
Ivan's clinic is located in the North Fourth District, not too far from Ke Lan's home. It took less than twenty minutes for Ke Lan and Asano Akira to arrive at the clinic.
Hound and Layton were a little further away, but they rented a car directly and were one step faster than Ke Lan.
When the two saw Asano Akira following behind Ke Lan , a hint of surprise finally appeared on their originally anxious faces.
"Asano Akira? When did you come back?" Layton rubbed his hands excitedly. His broken robotic arm was finally repaired, but judging from the degree of wear and tear on the parts, it should be just a second-hand item used for transition.
"Just now." Asano Akira's answer was exactly the same as before.
"Where's Zhuoligetu? Is he still alive?"
"He's alive, now in a public clinic in the East 9th District. He doesn't want to wear a prosthetic limb, and the waiting list for limb reconstruction surgery is a month." said Akira Asano.
"Well, it's good that you two are still alive. Let's not talk about this for now. Let's go and see how the doctor is doing." The Hound sighed and pushed open the door of the clinic first.
Ivan's girlfriend Natasha was sitting in the lobby of the clinic waiting for them. She was wearing the protective suit that Ivan used when he went out to explore the ruins. The size of the protective suit was several sizes larger than her body. She had to use tape to tie her sleeves and trouser legs tightly to avoid affecting her normal movements.
"As you said, I hid Ivan in the basement." Seeing Ke Lan and others coming in, Natasha quickly stood up - the place where she was sitting was the entrance to the basement.
"You haven't met Ivan, right?" Ke Lan asked.
Natasha shook her head.
"That's good." Ke Lan glanced at Natasha's fully enclosed helmet that looked like a bucket. The tube behind the helmet was connected to an oxygen tank.
"The infection shouldn't be airborne, otherwise we would have been infected long ago."
"Ke Lan, there's nothing wrong with you, right? I remember you helped Ivan before." The Hound added.
"I should be fine. Ivan had just been infected at that time, and it had not yet spread throughout his body. I did not directly touch his wound." Ke Lan said, taking out the prepared rubber gloves from his pocket and distributing them to everyone.
"Anyway, it's better to be careful... I'm not sure if Ivan's current 'arm' will be aggressive..."
The passage to the basement has been opened. Under the guidance of Natasha, Ke Lan and others walked down the stairs step by step.
The basement is also the clinic's operating room. The temperature inside is set very low, and even the glass walls of the sterile compartment are covered with a layer of white frost.
"I think... low temperature might be able to slow down the progression of infection..." Natasha stammered.
"I'm afraid it's useless." Ke Lan glanced at the vital signs monitoring device next to him. The numbers on it showed that Ivan's body temperature had reached an alarming 41 degrees Celsius.
The alienated cells have invaded his entire body, and his own immune system is losing ground.
Walking into the sterile compartment, Ke Lan saw Ivan lying on the operating chair in the previous video. His body was fixed by dozens of non-woven straps, especially his completely mutated arm, which was tied like a dumpling and tightly attached to the armrest of the chair.
There were two trachea stuffed in his nose, which were connected to a ventilator nearby, continuously pumping oxygen into Ivan's lungs.
"Well done." Ke Lan gave Natasha a thumbs up.
Being able to accomplish all this in such a short time is already much better than most people, especially in this situation where one is too concerned.
"...I need vascular clamps, a scalpel, scissors, tweezers...Oh, yes, I also need some hormones. I don't want dexamethasone, because that thing will suppress the body's own immune function. Do you have adrenaline?"
"Ke Lan...are you planning to cut off Ivan's entire arm?" asked the Hound.
"The infection has spread. It's too late to just cut off the arm..." Ke Lan shook her head, "But at least we have to understand the extent of the infection first."
Natasha quickly found the surgical tools, along with three bottles of epinephrine hydrochloride injection in brown light-proof glass tubes.
Ke Lan raised her hand to adjust the angle of the shadowless lamp, then carefully untied the straps around the alienated arm.
"Lairdun, use your mechanical arm to hold down this 'arm' for me . It may cause a stress reaction when I cut it." Ke Lan said, turning around.
"Okay." Layton nodded, and a pair of pliers extended from the front end of his mechanical arm, clamping the elbow and wrist of the alien arm respectively.
Ke Lan put on a mask, raised the scalpel, and stabbed down quickly!
Just as he expected, the entangled tentacles struggled violently, but they were too weak compared to the power of the mechanical arm. Ke Lan raised his knife and a tentacle about three centimeters long was separated from the alien arm.
"No blood vessels or nerve tissue were found... The bones and soft tissue of the arm were intact, but the muscles and fat had completely disappeared... The area below the elbow had completely transformed, and the tissue cells above the elbow had been severely invaded. Judging from the extent of the invasion, it is basically certain that the infection has spread throughout the body."
"Then... can he still be saved?" The Hound's face looked very ugly, while Natasha on the other side was already covering her mouth and sobbing.
"Not sure. I suspect his lungs have also become abnormal. He needs a thoracotomy, otherwise he won't survive tonight."
"Instead of letting him suffer so much, it is better to..." The Hound showed a trace of reluctance.
"There is a way, but..." Ke Lan hesitated, "Do the surgery first, I'll tell you later."
Anesthesia, disinfection, opening the chest cavity at the fourth intercostal space, then removing the mutated lung tissue , stopping the bleeding, connecting the artificial lung, and then suturing... The whole operation took more than three hours. However, after the artificial lung was connected, Ivan's breathing was obviously much steadier than before, and his vital signs also recovered from a critical state.
"But the problem is still not solved." Ke Lan took off his bloodstained gloves and exhaled a breath of air tiredly. "Old dog, do you still remember how we killed the mutant 'messenger' in that settlement?"
"You mean...flesh-eating worms?!"
"Yes." Ke Lan nodded.
"Are you planning to go to that underwater city?" The Hound reacted immediately. If he wanted to get clues about the flesh-eating worms, the only way, apart from the Security Bureau, was to get the video he had sent before.
"But first we have to confirm whether the corpse in the video is actually a parasite of flesh-eating worms, otherwise everything is just empty talk."
"Have you ever thought about the feasibility of the plan? Even if there are flesh-eating worms in the underwater city, it is an A-level relic in the initial evaluation. Do you know how many people will die in exploring such a relic? If everyone's lives are sacrificed to save Ivan, then I will never agree... I'm sorry, Natasha..." The hound shook his head at the girl.
"We don't have to enter the ruins. Judging from the information provided by Bartletti and the intelligence of the hunter network, no one has been able to enter the underwater city yet. In other words, the person in the video is most likely parasitized outside the ruins." Ke Lan said.
