I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Whose corpse is this (2)

Whose corpse is this (2)

Death, corpses, and the healer.

Sometimes I think about it. In that countless people come to the hospital to die, and in that we send them off to the afterlife. We are not much different from the Grim Reaper.

Sending people off to the afterlife. Today’s work is an extension of that. Today, it’s not a patient but someone who has already died.

Autopsy.

Istina tilted her head.

“Istina. I told you before, structure and function are closely related. Check the entrance of each blood vessel. See that split over there?”

He was talking about the valves located at the points where the major blood vessels connect to the heart.

“Yes, I see.”

“Then, Istina. Which direction do you think those structures would prevent the blood from flowing?”

Istina touched the valve with her gloved finger. She still seemed unsure.

“Wait a moment. This structure. Since it opens inward, it prevents the blood from going out, and this one opens outward, so… Ah!”

Blood only moves in one direction.

“Do you understand what it means for blood to flow?”

“It’s fascinating.”

There are things you can’t figure out unless you see them for yourself. Similarly, if you properly understand the structure of the heart, you can accurately know its function.

If you touch an artery, you can tell it’s thicker than a vein, and if you put your finger in the valve or pour water through it, you can understand why the valve is one-way.

The heart is quite fascinating to touch. It’s one of the strongest muscles in the body, never resting for a single moment while alive.

Anyway.

There are two holes where liquid comes out and two holes where it goes in. You can infer from the structure that the heart is not a place where blood is made or sent, but where it circulates, right?

I handed the heart back to Istina.

“Do you see the four chambers in the heart? Two small chambers where blood comes in, and two large chambers where blood goes out.”

“Yes, I see.”

“Open it. You need to see inside too.”

Istina took the knife and opened the heart. The opened part was the left ventricle. The mitral valve and the aortic valve were revealed. The important thing is the direction.

Of course, the two valves are in opposite directions.

“Can you see? The mitral valve is structured to allow liquid to enter. The aortic valve is structured to allow liquid to exit.”

When you open the left ventricle, you can see the structure of the mitral valve. The leaflets of the mitral valve are connected to the inner wall of the left ventricle by thick, ligament-like structures.

This means that the force exerted is strong.

“So, to put it simply, the heart only lets out as much blood as it takes in.”

“Hmm.”

“The claim that blood is consumed may seem reasonable, but when you actually open it up, it doesn’t make sense.”

“Is that so…”

That’s the current academic consensus.

It’s because the concept of experimental medicine hasn’t been properly established yet. It seems more accurate to say that tissues ‘consume’ blood.

But that’s not actually the case.

“When you feel the pulse or see a big wound, you know, right? Blood doesn’t just pool; it flows vigorously.”

The blood that leaves the heart returns to the heart. There may be minor changes in components like nutrient and waste exchange, but the principle doesn’t change.

“So, blood travels through the blood vessels all over the body. If you put the heart back into the thorax-“

Not all the connective tissues have been removed yet, so it’s not clearly visible. Well, it took me several hours to do this during dissection practice.

There’s no way I can do it in a few minutes now.

It can’t be helped. I touched the aortic arch with my fingertip. Istina watched my fingertip.

“Can you see here?”

“Yes.”

“The thick, elastic blood vessel at the top is the aorta, which sends blood throughout the body. The blood vessel that returns blood from the whole body on the right side is the vena cava. This one has low blood pressure, so the vessel is thin, and it’s divided into the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava.”

Still not very visible. I wiped the tip of my glove with a tissue, then tore away the surrounding connective tissue mixed with blood from the superior vena cava with my hand.

“Can you see?”

“Ah… Yes, I can.”

“Follow the blood vessels. The blood goes out to the whole body, and when it comes back, it enters the right atrium, then into the right ventricle like this. From the right ventricle, it goes to the lungs and then back to the left ventricle where it started.”

Istina raised her hand to scratch her head, but when I tapped her hand, she realized the problem and lowered it again. Her gloves were covered in blood and bodily fluids, so she shouldn’t touch her head with them.

The environment is quite poor.

When I did dissection practice at the hospital, I was fully equipped with disposable plastic gowns, face shields, masks, and gloves.

Our equipment now is rather crude.

“Careful.”

“Yes.”

“So, the professor’s theory of blood circulation is that the blood circulates throughout the body and lungs, right? Following the path of the major blood vessels?”

It’s a bit different.

“Pulmonary circulation and systemic circulation hardly mix with each other except at the heart. But yes, that’s the conclusion.”

“I think there will be more backlash than the bacterial research we did last time. It’s unconventional, like a machine with liquid moving through tubes.”

“Really?”

“It’s hard to accept. The established theory is that the human body is a continuous entity where the balance of its components is crucial, right?”

I think I heard that.

There was a classical theory that imbalance among components causes disease.

Four elements, four humors. Terms like sanguine and melancholic originate from this way of thinking.

“So, you’re saying we might have to confront the academic world again?”

Istina shook her head.

“Rather than that. It seems like the discussion will be more heated than when we debated the germ theory. The germ theory had practical and demonstrable results in the Lapis territory right away, but…”

This time, it’s not the case.

However, the academic world cannot ignore experimental evidence. There is plenty of evidence to prove that blood actually circulates.

Let’s think about it a bit more.

The academic world has not yet recovered from the impact of the germ theory. Most of them are still struggling with microscopes and dyes.

Suddenly saying, ‘Everything you know about blood circulation is wrong!’ is not feasible. Even if we do, it’s questionable whether anyone would pay attention and try to prove or disprove it.

“Still. I think the professor is right this time as well. The professor was looking for blood pressure, which means there is a way to quantify the speed of blood in the body, right? That means…”

“Huh?”

“It seems like you are talking about something that is completely unknown with the current level and equipment of the academy.”

“I’m not sure if it’s that much.”

“To you, professor, it’s just common sense, like making bread from flour, right?”

I don’t think blood pressure is something completely unknown. However, it is true that there are things that the academy or the current academic world cannot even imagine.

It can’t be helped, but new theories about blood will also need time to spread and be verified. The academic world is not infinitely flexible.

If I publish another paper within a few weeks, there will definitely be people saying, ‘Another nonsense? Persistent, persistent.’ There were such people last time too.

I should wait at least a few more days.

The problem is that the cholera paper is not being published quickly. Isn’t it usually the case that papers that can save patients immediately are distributed quickly?

I was thinking about how to explain it.

“Do you remember when you took the patient’s pulse last time?”

“Yes.”

Istina nodded.

“If you feel the pulse of the jugular vein, you can estimate the blood pressure in the patient’s veins. You can also gauge the range of blood pressure by checking if the pulse is detectable at the wrist.”

The maximum height at which the pulse is felt in the jugular vein is the central venous pressure expressed in terms of water height.

Feeling the pulse at the wrist means that the systolic blood pressure is above 80.

By the way, doctors usually check the pulse at the neck. Specifically, the carotid artery pulse is the fastest and most accurate to detect.

The two methods mentioned earlier are very rough ways to measure blood pressure, but it’s better than not having a clue. Even for that patient who had their spleen removed.

You can’t remove the spleen without clear evidence. It’s right to check one more thing.

Phew.

“Let’s wrap it up. Istina, clean up the body as much as possible, and put the heart in an alcohol glass jar. We’ll preserve it and take it to class.”

The body we just dissected had many issues, such as blood coagulation inside due to poor preservation. The structures were not clearly visible.

Will we be able to get a fresher corpse next time? I want to take it to class.

As a change of perspective, instead of bringing the corpse, why not have the students come here? We could get a new corpse and hold the class in the underground dungeon… I need to think more about it.

Splash!

With the sound of water splashing, the donor’s heart was placed in the glass jar. Ah, come to think of it, it’s not a donor this time.

Should I call them a body contributor?

Istina had a troubled expression, but she now held the glass jar with the heart in both hands.