Plague Doctor

"How's his situation?" Once the video was connected, Elder Tong asked in a hurry. He was currently in Russia to manage some admin work related to GOA. Only higher-ups from Phecda were allowed to attend this meeting. After 2 years, the core membership of Phecda had changed. Some of the older generation retired for new blood to take their place.

"Not so good." Prof Shen and Prof Ma brought the bad news. After explaining some of the results, Prof Ma concluded, "I believe Ah Jun does not suffer from psychological trauma but it is cerebral damage that causes his kind of evasive symptoms common in PTSD victims." This news froze the air in the room.

"What are the chances that he'd injure his prefrontal lobe…" Elder Tong's face was red. Yao Sinian sighed. The others looked depressed. None of them liked this diagnosis for it was the worst possible result. They hoped for discovery of supernatural intervention or mental corruption as that would at least provide an opportunity for them to solve the problem. If not, they'd rather Gu Jun suffer from psychological PTSD. In that situation, it would be his psychological state that caused the change to his biological state. Therefore, a recovery of his psychology would reverse the problem to his biology. With medicine and therapy, as well as the mental barrier technique contributed by Deng Ximei, the problem would be solved slowly but surely. Of course, that was the optimal result they'd hope for in that case.

Current medical science cannot do much with regards to PTSD. There is no drug that is 100 percent effective against it. Most of the drugs prescribed are anti-depressants and sedatives. They mainly focus on the symptoms not the source. Therefore, the treatment efficacy is low. In fact, according to statistics, one third of PTSD victims will have to live with it for life. Half of these victims suffer from other mental disorders and suicide rate among PTSD victims is 6 times higher than normal individual. But at least this problem has a semi-reliable treatment solution and there is hope for recovery.

But for Gu Jun, it was the worst possible outcome. He did not suffer from psychological trauma but his PTSD was caused by cerebral damage. This was a problem that could not be cured. How could one reverse irreparable damage to the brain? That was not possible with current human medical technology.

"Is there any solution in terms of medicinal treatment?" Yao Sinian asked after a heavy sigh.

"Current medicine will not have much effect on his condition but we can try." Prof Ma sounded helpless too. PTSD was both the world's and Phecda's problem.

PTSD symptoms are generally grouped into four types: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, as well as changes in physical and emotional reactions. Medical treatment is to help alleviate these symptoms so that the patient could maintain a semblance of normal everyday life.

Gu Jun did not suffer from many of these symptoms so he did not need anxiolytic drugs. Instead he would be prescribed anti-depressant that contain levarterenol to see if it'd help to lower the avoidance symptoms and improve his neuroendocrinology. Brain damage required time and luck to recover.

"The patient needs to rest for quite some time for his brain to recuperate. Then we will conduct more stimulus tests in stages. We will also conduct examinations at regular intervals to observe the change to his brains. If there is sign of recovery, we might proceed with the trauma exposure method. Treatment on this patient cannot be rushed, the treatment time should be set for more than a year and we have to be prepared to face the possibility…" As unwilling as Prof Ma was, his responsibility was to report his findings clearly and expertly, "that the patient might not ever recover. His symptoms might worsen and he would have to rely on drugs for life. Within the imminent future, it is not advisable for the patient to interact with anything related to the supernatural and he should avoid any supernatural-related news in his everyday life."

Listening to the doctor's diagnosis, Elder Tong's face darkened further. But they knew Prof Ma was only saying this out of consideration for Gu Jun's health. After all, Ah Jun almost suffered from cerebral haemorrhage simply because he looked at a few pictures…

"Other than that, we are worried that…" Prof Ma continued, "This arrangement will cause him actual psychological PTSD."

"I've chatted with Ah Jun earlier." Prof Shen concurred, "In terms of the incidents at the Isla Salas y Gomez, he did not appear to suffer from any trauma, if anything, he appeared to have learned many lessons from it. However, he was incredibly depressed by the results today, that was plainly visible. If we force him into semi-retirement, we fear it might be traumatic to him, causing an exacerbation of his PTSD symptoms."

Everyone was silent. This situation would be a heavy blow to anyone. Gu Jun was only 22 years old, his future was bright and the world needed someone like him and the young man had his own life goal to pursue. But after doing everything right, despite his narrow escape from death, he had lost his unique ability, and would be essentially cut off from his work …

Among the 27 victims of Mutated Scale Disease who died, 9 of them committed suicide post-surgery. Most of them were celebrities like Xie Yiman. They were at the height of their career but lost everything overnight. In PTST terminology, the 9 patients' suicide was an acute stress reaction. Other surviving patients had less severe forms of it as well.

For now, Gu Jun only suffered from the symptom of avoidance but who could tell what would happen in the future. The functional change to one's brain structure could affect one's emotions. If Gu Jun's condition continued to worsen, there could be a negative impact on his emotions. This was traceable in many medical researches. When that happened, they would lose the Phecda Hero in every meaning of the word.

"We have to be prepared then." The leader of Phecda said, "During the next crisis, we need to have someone replace Gu Jun's position."

Gu Jun was given a long holiday but abnormal events would continue to happen. They could not rely on Gu Jun's ability to help solve those problems anymore. Actually when Gu Jun went into the coma, Phecda had already made the necessary arrangement. Gu Jun's existence had made life for Phecda extremely easy for the past two years but reality proved that they could not rely on him forever. Therefore, while he was comatose, Phecda had been busy training new talents. Their goal was to mold the next 100, 1000 Gu Jun's.

"I will try to request to have Wang Ruoxiang released back into our Spell Department again." Elder Tong grumbled, "I will also increase the training for Deng Ximei. They are wonderful talents. Wu Siyu has the talent but she does not have the drive. Phecda University needs to open its door for another batch of new recruits… And Ah Jun…" Elder Tong gave a long time. "It's lucky that the kid manages to survive after what he's been through… I'll go talk to him about the long holiday awaiting him. Sigh…"

The group was silent. Temporarily, that was everything they could do.