"A person should be able to identify their own body, which parts belong to the body and which parts don't... But this leg, it's not right... It's not real, I don't feel it's there, I don't feel like it belongs to me."
These are not the words of a group of patients who suddenly appeared in Dongzhou today, but a description of his own symptoms by a patient with somatognosia more than 30 years ago.
Somatic agnosia, a rare neurological syndrome, is almost the opposite of "phantom limb syndrome." More than 80% of amputees can still feel their lost limbs for a long time after the wound has healed. Some even have "phantom limb pain", where the patient feels that the amputated limb is still there, and pain occurs there.
The existence of these situations proves from the side that the nervous system directly restricts the ability of human beings to perceive their own bodies.
It is not the body itself, but the nervous system, which determines how many limbs a person feels and how the limbs are in condition.
However, what is the mechanism of this nervous system? How does it play these roles in the human brain
For a long time, the medical community has been trying to study it clearly, but there has been a lack of scientific and reasonable explanations.
Now, Gu Jun is also unable to explain to the patients and colleagues what is happening now.
In the isolation ward area on the 9th floor of the Mental and Psychological Building at the base of Dongzhou Tianji Medical Department, there are already 37 independent wards inhabited by a patient with "alternative hand syndrome". Their painful cries continue to rang out in the corridor , There are also some delirium words born of being tortured.
In less than a day, 37 patients have been treated in various hospitals in Dongzhou, and there may be more patients who have not yet been diagnosed or sought medical treatment.
They all showed the same symptoms, all of them had pain for no reason in the right upper extremity, quickly lost recognition within 3-hours, and the pain intensified, and there were many vascular blockages in the affected limbs, which were relieved by giving thrombolytic drugs, but the patient's The pain was even worse. In addition, from the beginning of agnosia, the patient is eager to remove the affected limb through amputation.
Alternative hand syndrome is the symptom of seeking amputation, which is very similar to another very rare delusional disorder:
Body integrity identity disorder, bodyintegrityidentitydisorder.
People who unfortunately lose a limb due to an accident will always miss the time when their limbs were healthy, but biid patients are just the opposite. They always yearn for a certain limb to be amputated, which does not belong to them and is not born with them. , or they suddenly don’t want it anymore, it doesn’t matter whether this is called a disability, they think this is normal, and only by getting rid of the affected limb can they realize a truly complete self and happiness.
Usually the affected limb is one of the four, but sometimes there are two, three or even four.
In order to achieve this goal, if the doctor disagrees with the amputation operation, biid patients often resort to self-mutilation behaviors that patients with body agnosia do not have, such as crashing a car, freezing their legs to necrosis with ice water, or even self-amputation. There have been cases.
This mental illness has not been recognized and named for a long time, and its pathology is still a mystery for the time being. Whether it is a mental illness caused by purely external factors or a brain dysfunction caused by nervous system disorders, there are only hypotheses.
At present, the most effective treatment method for biid, the method that can relieve the pain of patients and improve the quality of life of patients is to amputate the patient.
When Gu Jun came to the outside of one of the wards, the team next to him also stopped, looking at the patients inside through the glass window.
The patient is Zhou Yibao, 21 years old, a third-year student at Jihua University. He is the first patient to seek medical treatment for heterohand syndrome discovered so far.
Li Ruiquan, the emergency doctor who was seeing Zhou Yibao at that time, noticed the abnormality and notified the hospital to report it to the Tianji Bureau immediately. After that, things developed quickly. The Dongzhou Tianji Bureau received reports from many hospitals. Come here for isolation and treatment.
Why them? What is the pathogenesis? What do these patients of all ages and genders have in common? Is heterohand syndrome contagious
The Ministry of Medicine is still trying to figure out these issues.
As for the treatment, the medical department can't come up with too many solutions. Even if the biid is indeed caused by neurological abnormalities, there is no evidence of neurological abnormalities anywhere.
Therefore, lobotomy and nerve damage, which are used to quench thirst with poison, are not applicable. Besides, instead of destroying the brain and causing unknowable and irreversible damage, it is better to perform amputation. After all, losing a hand can still lead a high-quality life, and it can install prosthetics.
To deal with ordinary biid, the usual means are cognitive behavioral therapy, aversion therapy and other psychological treatments, but the effect is not great.
The psychological group has already tried these methods on patients with heterohand syndrome, and has also injected tranquilizers into some patients. Zhou Yibao is one of them.
This situation is very similar to that of heterosquamia patients who feel that the affected skin area has been suffering from itching,
Patients with different hands are tortured to the point of going crazy by their own rejection of the other hand.
Of course Gu Jun knew that this was not an ordinary biid, it was not something that happened naturally, it was the force of negative selection, the black goat cub...
After thinking about this, Gu Jun opened the door of the ward when his heart was in a mess.
Suddenly, his own right hand felt an inexplicable shock, as if he had sensed something.
"Ah..." The patient Zhou Yibao, who was fixed on the hospital bed, saw the group of medical staff in protective clothing walking in, and immediately shouted even more excitedly, his eyes were bloodshot, "Quickly amputate my leg, cut it off!" Drop this hand, it's not mine, it's really not mine..."
The patient's right upper limb was especially reinforced, because to promote blood circulation, the bound area was not large, that is, the upper arm, elbow, and forearm were all clasped with iron cuffs.
This not only prevents the hand from being out of control, but also prevents the patient from self-harming. The back of the hand that the patient stabbed with a pen has already been treated.
Looking at the strange hand wrapped in white gauze, Gu Jun seemed to have hallucinations flashing in front of his eyes, as if he was dissecting the huge severed limb of a black goat cub beside the dissecting table. someone else...
At this time, the patient's other hand pulled suddenly, and the iron cuffs clanged loudly, and the iron cuffs seemed to be about to break.
"Cut it off, cut it off..." The patient suddenly became even more frantic.
Gu Jun clenched his right hand, like he did when he was by the stream in Shidong Mountain, to suppress the inexplicable movement.
Uncle Dan and the others next to him were also very helpless. They had gone through the routine procedures for dealing with abnormal forces, but failed to achieve any results.
But the Department of Medicine doesn’t have much time left. Patients are affected by painful stimuli, heart rate, blood pressure and other indicators are in the dangerous zone, and the test results of liver and kidney and other organs are not optimistic, and the effect of dissolution and anticoagulation on the affected limb is constantly declining. If this continues, the patient will be sent to the emergency room at any time.
"Ah Jun, do we have to consider amputation?" Uncle Dan asked in a low voice.
It is not a method, but an experimental treatment. Maybe the patient will still experience phantom limb pain after amputation of the affected limb, or the limb may be cured.
They are doctors from the Tianji Bureau, and many clinicians are too. Many times they are incapable of curing patients, but they can work hard to make patients survive and survive better...
Gu Jun took a deep breath, and he didn't say a word for a long time, and there seemed to be strange sounds in his ears.
You will have many opportunities for surgery, surgery, will you still have surgery...
"I suggest trying artificial coma on the patient first." Gu Jun said in a deep voice, there is a demon somewhere, you can't follow the devil's will, otherwise there will be no good results, "Also, I think To observe a right upper limb amputation for other causes."