Surgery Godfather-Chapter 1404 - 1057 Accident_2

Half an hour later, Yang Ping began to feel his body heating up, and the nurse hurriedly took his temperature, finding that he was starting to have a low fever. The nurse measured his temperature every half hour, and in addition to using an ear thermometer, she also used a traditional mercury thermometer to measure the armpit temperature for accuracy.

Yang Ping’s temperature gradually rose, about one degree every two hours, and by the evening, it had reached 42 degrees, sometimes even exceeding 42 degrees.

Under the high fever, Yang Ping’s body would intermittently shiver violently, feeling extremely uncomfortable, almost like his body was tearing and recomposing. In his semi-conscious state, he felt his body suddenly become very large, then very small, like a balloon scaling up and down. Now he understood how strong Sisi’s will was.

Although confused, Yang Ping was still able to maintain a slight sense of awareness and did not completely lose consciousness.

Under the high fever, his heart rate also began to accelerate, which was actually the most dangerous part, as the heart could easily collapse under the high load.

Various equipment, including ECMO, were already prepared, ready to rescue him at any moment. Zimo Song, Zhiliang Xu, and Xia Shu were all by his side, taking turns to watch over him, guarding him 24 hours a day.

After 3 days, Yang Ping’s high fever began to slowly subside. Throughout the process, he hadn’t completely lost consciousness, even at the most severe times, he maintained a blurred awareness.

Three times a day, his blood was drawn and sent to the Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory for examination, but they called to ask: Was there an issue with the experiment, was there a mistake in the process? Why hadn’t the virus titers gradually decreased, instead, they increased before decreasing again, finally stabilizing at a baseline.

This was completely illogical. The injected virus was supposed to be unable to replicate; with each virus dead, the amount should reduce. This had been the case in the first three experiments.

Why did the virus titer curve this time look like it was of a live virus capable of replication?

To confirm, the nurse drew several more vials of blood from Yang Ping, and to avoid any issues during transport, Lu Xiaolu accompanied by two doctors, transported these blood samples together to the lab.

The test results surprised Yang Ping and everyone involved in the experiment. The virus had not been cleared by the immune system; instead, its numbers had increased. Could it be that they had successfully replicated in the body? How was that possible, as the replication gene in the virus had been knocked out.

Professor Zhang Zhiwei, trying to solve this puzzle, immediately sent the virus to the Genetics Laboratory for gene sequencing.

Indeed, the viral gene sequence turned out to be complete, meaning that the knocked-out replication gene had been fully restored, which was impossible, defying current biological laws.

This puzzled Yang Ping greatly. There were two possibilities: one, the virus might have indeed self-repaired itself in the body, restoring the replication gene; the other possibility is that during culture, virus samples without knocked-out genes could have been mixed in, these viruses having replication capabilities, while other neutered viruses would have died under the assault of the immune system, but these viruses not only survived through replication but also proliferated massively.

The experiment had unexpectedly turned problematic; the cause could not be determined immediately. The current priority was to clear the virus from Yang Ping’s body, as it would definitely be a big issue otherwise.

The experimental team was anxious now. Yang Ping carrying the virus equated to him infecting a completely new viral disease. If the immune system couldn’t eradicate these viruses, they would remain in his body for life.

However, Yang Ping found it strange that these viruses showed no reaction in his body at present. Did it coexist with his immune system somehow?

With this question in mind, Yang Ping had the nurse draw blood from him again, then sent the samples to the Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory for observation, while he himself dared not leave the isolated ward in the independent hospital area. With the virus’s infectiousness still undetermined and unsure through what route it could be transmitted, without conclusive evidence from the virus laboratory, Yang Ping could only remain in isolation.

Soon, the analysis conclusion from the virus laboratory came out: the virus was not infectious because they were very fragile, dying within seconds outside human blood and bodily fluids, unable to survive in an external environment, including air.

This at least put Yang Ping’s mind at ease a lot. If it wasn’t contagious, then it wouldn’t pose a danger to others, and any danger would only be to himself.

There’s another very special phenomenon; the virus, extracted from Yang Ping’s body and cultured externally, showed a shedding of the K factor by the second generation, meaning it would turn into a normal virus, devoid of the K virus’s capabilities.

Professor Zhang Zhiwei believes that the K virus inside Yang Ping has now mutated, and it has become an independent variety that can only survive long-term within Yang Ping’s body.

To verify this conclusion, Professor Zhang Zhiwei decided to use experimental monkeys for some tests, injecting them with blood from Yang Ping that carried the virus. Miraculously, these viruses lost their ability to replicate inside the monkeys and were gradually killed by the immune system.

These viruses, it seems, could only survive inside Yang Ping’s body. Could they have reached some sort of tacit understanding with Yang Ping’s immune system? This phenomenon born out of the experiment not only piqued the interest of Yang Ping himself but also that of Professor Zhang Zhiwei.

To examine if this surprise finding was reproducible, he experimented with monkeys, but without exception, none of the viruses elicited any reaction inside the monkeys – they all perished, even those that hadn’t had their replication genes knocked out.

It appears that Yang Ping proceeding to clinical trials directly was correct because the monkey’s immune system is entirely different from the human immune system. Especially through the evolutionary process, the viruses humans encounter are utterly distinct from those the monkeys encounter in the jungle, resulting in completely different responses to some new viruses.

The virus inside Yang Ping’s body was likely caused by a mutation of extremely low probability. If it’s a mutation, then replicating this low-probability event is impossible.

Professor Zhang Zhiwei also developed a strong interest in the virus inside Yang Ping, as many significant scientific research breakthroughs historically occurred from accidents, such as the serendipitous discovery of penicillin.

Since the virus inside him wasn’t contagious and temporarily didn’t cause any negative effects on himself, Yang Ping wasn’t too worried and decided to research how to eliminate it when he had more time later on.

He hadn’t gone back these past few days and called Xiao Su to reassure her.

Yang Ping now was curious about what would happen if the virus inside him were injected into another human. From conjecture, it seemed it would no longer provoke a fierce immune response and could coexist with the human immune system.

But there are risks involved; the viruses would remain inside the body, and the negative impacts that might arise from this are currently unknown.

"How about I give it a try?" Professor Zhang Zhiwei was eager to test it because theoretically and clinically, the virus could cause a high fever but wouldn’t be life-threatening. The two volunteers who participated in the experiment were safe and sound, and Yang Ping even looked pretty spirited now.

"Trying it out is also fine."

Having experienced it firsthand, Yang Ping was now very confident about the virus’s nature; it wouldn’t cause any serious trouble.

The famous old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, Mr. Li Ke, was extraordinarily adept at using the toxic Chinese herb, aconite, to treat complex and severe cases. Most doctors wouldn’t dare use it casually or in large quantities, but Mr. Li did, and he successfully treated many difficult diseases with aconite.

Why did he dare? Because he had tested the poison on himself, personally taking aconite to see what reactions it could cause based on how much was ingested. In doing so, he had thoroughly grasped the characteristics of aconite, making it a tool easy for him to use.

Under the premise of ensuring certain safety measures, Yang Ping agreed to let Professor Zhang Zhiwei try it too.

PS: Indeed, the previous Chapter was a bit chaotic, and this one isn’t great either; things will gradually improve later on, thank you! It’s not ending soon, there are still a few major events left to unfold.