After some time, the patients all ended the clinical experiments and were discharged one by one.
The first phase clinical trial showed amazing efficacy and was a great success.
Dr. Zheng sat at his desk, looking at the experimental report, and fell into deep thought.
A bold idea suddenly came to me.
Since it stimulates neural stem cells and repairs brain tissue, can other brain damage diseases also be treated by taking this medicine?
For example, a vegetative state? A terminal disease more familiar than Alzheimer's disease.
Speaking of vegetative people, people know more about them in movies and TV series, or in TV dramas.
People often get into car accidents and become protagonists and supporting characters in a vegetative state. A series of sad and touching dramatic events have occurred around this disease, which has made this disease widely spread and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Of course, vegetative people in TV dramas often wake up with nothing wrong with them except classic amnesia.
But in reality, the chance of waking up from a vegetative state is very slim.
This disease has now become a global problem.
Generally speaking, there are three typical reasons for patients to become vegetative, namely stroke, hypoxic brain disease and trauma.
Among them, car accidents account for the largest proportion of traumatic injuries, and the age of patients is getting younger. The hope of waking up is actually very low, far not as high as on TV.
Although the medical level has developed rapidly and many patients on the verge of death can be rescued, the current medical level is not developed enough, leaving the patients in a vegetative state.
This is an international problem for which there is currently no better treatment.
And surrounding this issue, should we continue to save people? Or give up? If we continue to save him, how should we save him?
All this makes ethics, medicine and humanities full of dilemmas and paradoxes.
Many people tend to confuse vegetative state with death. In fact, the standard of death is brain death, and there is a difference between brain death and vegetative state.
Brain death refers to the permanent loss of function of the brainstem or the central nervous system above the brainstem. It is irreversible and permanent. The patient is unable to breathe on his own. The standard for declaring death is based on this frame of reference.
The brainstem function of a vegetative person is normal, but the patient is in a coma due to severe damage to the cerebral cortex or a sudden state of inhibition. The patient can breathe and heartbeat on his own, and also has brainstem reactions.
Therefore, in people's eyes, a vegetative state is like falling asleep, but it can't be woken up.
It's like falling into a dream from which I don't know when I will wake up.
Most of the family members think the same way. They all feel that it is possible for people in a vegetative state to wake up, and they are unwilling to give up as long as they have the ability.
In fact, a vegetative person with brain trauma has a 50% chance of recovery within three months, which drops to 20% at six months, and to 10% at six to twelve months.
It is almost impossible to regain consciousness after 12 months, and it is basically defined as a permanent vegetative state.
As for the possibility of waking up? It does exist, but there is no specific probability. It is very metaphysical.
Maybe you can wake up tomorrow, maybe you won't wake up in your lifetime.
In fact, some vegetative people often suddenly regain consciousness after being in a coma for more than ten years. After examination, it is found that the brain damage has been repaired automatically.
But most patients can't wait until that time.
Because a vegetative state requires long-term careful care, the cost of care and treatment is also very high, enough to put many families into trouble.
The cost of ICU treatment for a vegetative person in a tertiary hospital is more than 3,000 yuan per day, and the first-year cost is nearly 1 million yuan. When the patient enters the care stage, the annual cost is about 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, which does not include family members’ missed work. Costs and Nutrients.
Even social institutions that care for vegetative patients charge high fees. For vegetative patients caused by trauma such as car accidents, if a third party pays, the monthly fee is 15,000 yuan; if it is self-pay, the monthly fee is 15,000 yuan. 7500 yuan.
For many families, this is a heavy burden that they cannot afford even if they lose all their money.
Alzheimer's patients can still be taken home to take care of them, and the financial pressure is not that great, but vegetative people need professional nursing staff, and financial problems are unavoidable.
After a long time, the family members found it difficult to bear the burden, so they had no choice but to give up completely.
Internationally, it is generally believed that the survival period of a vegetative state is only 1-2 years, but in China it is longer.
try{mad1('gad2');} catch(ex){} There is euthanasia abroad, but it is not allowed in China, but doctors can choose active treatment or passive treatment, and family members can also sign to refuse "intubation, medication, examination and rescue". This is actually just a different approach.
Dr. Zheng has met many such patients and knows how difficult it is to survive in a vegetative state.
In the past, he had chosen passive treatment countless times, handing in the consent form for refusing rescue, and then watched the patient's life disappear before his eyes.
This is a huge impact, crushing and reshaping of the outlook on life for any medical staff whose mission is to treat patients and save people.
Over time, even the most passionate person will become numb.
Dr. Zheng walked out of the office and came to the corridor. He lit a cigarette, skillfully blew out a smoke ring toward the window, and then let out a long sigh.
For more than ten years, I thought my nerves were already as hard as iron, but after seeing the miraculous efficacy of Sanqing brain regeneration drugs, I felt a wave of excitement in my heart.
He paced back and forth and hesitated for a while before taking his cell phone and making a call.
"Hey, Lao Xiang? It's me. There's something I want to tell you. You might be interested."
"Sanqing Pharmaceutical has released a new drug that can activate nerve regeneration and repair brain tissue. The clinical trial was conducted in our department, and the effect is very good, which is simply shocking."
"Originally, this drug was used to treat Alzheimer's disease, but after seeing such good results, I thought maybe it could be given to vegetative patients."
"Anyway, the brains are severely damaged. Maybe they can be treated as doctors. Maybe a miracle will happen."
When Xiang Yong heard this, he was very excited: "Is this true? That's great. The patients in our center are finally saved."
"There are many patients in your nursing center. I can explain the situation to Sanqing Group. Give it to the patients for a few weeks and try to see the effect. If it is effective, join the second phase clinical trial. If it is not obvious, forget it. .”
Dr. Zheng thought about it carefully and said.
In order to obtain satisfactory experimental data as soon as possible, pharmaceutical companies generally only apply for one indication to achieve the goal of marketing as soon as possible.
Of course, after the drug is on the market, if doctors find that it is possible to treat other diseases during treatment, they can also use it.
Therefore, Dr. Zheng plans to first see the effect of this new drug in treating vegetative patients. If the effect is average, there is no need to include it in the clinical report, lest the data be unsightly and slow down the approval process.
Just wait until it is on the market and then prescribe it to patients as an auxiliary drug to relieve the disease.
"No problem. I'll make preparations here first. After making arrangements with the family, I will send you the patient's information." Xiang Yong agreed in one breath.
As the owner of a vegetative care center, he has been waiting for this day for a long time.
He is a college classmate of Dr. Zheng and is also an excellent neurosurgery physician with a decent job and a decent salary.
However, while working in the hospital, he saw many patients who became vegetative due to accidents and diseases, and he had mixed feelings in his heart.
Perhaps because of his personality, he is more sensitive than Dr. Zheng. Dr. Zheng can numb himself, but he cannot.
Due to the shortage of beds in hospitals, vegetative patients are generally not admitted, and nursing homes are afraid of trouble and will not admit them, but it is difficult for their families to provide 24-hour care. Therefore, some vegetative patients face such a situation, some pass away, and some live in confusion. .
Doctors are supposed to treat illnesses and save people, even if they are terminally ill, they must do their best to save them. However, they are helpless and can't do anything for these vegetative people called "living dead".
As time passed, he couldn't bear it anymore and made a crazy decision.
Five years ago, he resigned from a tertiary hospital in Haishi, mortgaged a house, sold another house, raised more than 5 million yuan, and founded a vegetative care center in the suburbs of Haishi, near Kunshi. .
During the establishment process, he also encountered many difficulties, such as site selection, fund raising, qualification certification and other issues, which took a long time.
After a difficult opening, the daycare center welcomed its first resident.
A young girl who became a vegetative state due to a car accident had been sleeping for 2 years when her parents sent her here.
The nursing and medical expenses in the past two years have consumed almost all the family's savings.
In order to get good care for their daughter, the parents found Xiang Yong through a doctor's introduction.
Here, the parents finally got a moment of rest, and the patient's arrival also opened up the nursery center's reputation.
try{mad1('gad2');} catch(ex){}More and more family members of vegetative patients found him and sent their relatives to day care centers.
Every vegetative person has his or her own story. Some suffer brain trauma due to a car accident, while others suffer from sudden cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage.
These diseases and accidents left them in a vegetative state, sleeping in this quiet and remote place.
They received professional care, and their families were relieved of their worries and were able to return to normal life and work with peace of mind.
This is what Xiang Yong wants to see most after practicing medicine for many years.
He always believed that caring for a vegetative person was actually comforting a family.
Vegetative people also have the right to survive. The purpose of establishing a vegetative care center is to help vegetative people live in the most decent way.
This is a very meaningful thing for both vegetative patients and their families.
Of course, the ideal situation is for the patient to wake up as soon as possible.
Xiang Yong also knew that this was too whimsical and could only place his hope in the future, hoping that the development of science and technology could be realized in the near future.
However, he never expected that the day when his dream would come true would come so quickly.
****
Haishi, a vegetative care center in the suburbs.
Dr. Zheng distributed the medicine bottles in his hand to the nursing staff one by one and explained in detail to the family members.
"After I contacted Sanqing Pharmaceutical, they agreed to my clinical experiment. Since it is difficult for people in a vegetative state to swallow the medicine, they changed it to intravenous injection, and the dosage was adjusted accordingly."
"Of course, the reasons why each patient becomes a vegetative state are different, the degree of brain damage is also different, and the recovery progress may also be different. It still needs to be analyzed based on the specific condition."
"Obviously, the treatment plans for cerebral infarction and vegetative state caused by car accidents are different, and the damaged parts of the brain are also different."
"Every patient needs to find out the cause of coma and carry out active and effective treatment based on the cause."
"There are several patients participating in the experiment. In fact, they are not completely comatose, but are in a state of slight consciousness. Their eyes can open on their own. If the object is swayed back and forth in front of their eyes, the patient's eyeballs can follow."
"Such patients are more likely to recover and have more available treatments."
"A kind of electrical stimulation of the brain and spinal cord to induce awakening is now popular. Electrodes are placed above the spinal cord through minimally invasive surgery, and pulse currents are used to stimulate spinal nerves, increase cerebral blood flow and brain metabolism, and activate the ascending brainstem reticular system."
"This kind of surgical treatment has a good awakening effect on long-term coma patients. It can not only improve cerebral circulation and shrink ischemic lesions, but also stimulate the cerebral cortex and promote patients' consciousness."
"It's just that the timing of the surgery must be timely, and there are not many patients who are suitable for it, so not everyone can use it."
"This new drug is an innovative result of regenerative science and neuroscience. It has excellent curative effects. The strength of Sanqing Pharmaceutical is obvious to all. Please relax, maybe a miracle will appear in the next moment."
After hearing this, the family members who were watching showed expressions of joy and anticipation, nervously watching their loved ones taking medicine.
After all the patients had finished the medicine, their families breathed a sigh of relief.
Next, it depends on the efficacy.
Two weeks later, Xiang Yong rushed into the ward excitedly.
"What? Several patients in deep coma have improved and entered a state of minimal consciousness?"
He stepped forward, held up his finger, waved it in front of the patient's eyes, and observed carefully.
"Yes, the patient can already open his eyes. Although he has not yet regained consciousness, his eyeballs are already tracking."
"Pinch the patient's skin lightly and stimulate it to a certain extent, and the patient's limbs will have a weak reaction."
"Great! This... this medicine is really... amazing."
Xiang Yong was already dancing with joy.
"In this way, even if they don't wake up completely later, these patients in a minimally conscious state can be treated with some neuromodulation methods."
"Let's go and see those patients with milder conditions."
With that said, he turned and walked into another ward.
As soon as we entered, we saw family members making love calls.
Xiang Yong couldn't help but nod secretly. This family was quite capable and took good care of him.
Then he looked at the patient, and was about to take a closer look, when suddenly the corner of his eye glanced at him, and he suddenly choked on his breath, with a shocked expression on his face.
He was shocked to find that the patient's fingers were trembling slightly.
