Seeing that Zhong Chenglong couldn’t recall the three words even after a long time, Qin Jiang sighed. He already had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
Zhong Xiguo asked anxiously, “Dr. Qin, what illness does my son actually have?”
Qin Jiang looked at him and said, “Phenylketonuria.”
Both Zhong Xiguo and Zhong Chenglong were stunned.
What kind of disease was that?
Qin Jiang continued explaining, “Phenylketonuria is a relatively common metabolic disorder. But your son’s case is very rare.”
This confused Zhong Xiguo even more.
“Wait, Dr. Qin, is this disease common or rare?”
Qin Jiang went on, “It’s considered common because the prevalence isn’t that low. Quite a few people have it.”
“But it’s considered rare because most cases are congenital. You can think of it as a genetic disorder.”
“And for this type of genetic disorder, our country screens for it during infancy. So if your son had it, he should have been diagnosed right after birth.”
“The fact that he’s survived this long is a miracle. And the fact that he’s only now showing symptoms is an even rarer miracle.”
Hearing this, everyone understood.
So hospitals actually check for this disease right after birth.
No wonder many infants have their blood drawn immediately after being born—it’s specifically for tests like this.
Qin Jiang looked at Zhong Xiguo and asked, “So when Zhong Chenglong was born, the hospital didn’t run a full screening on him, did they?”
Zhong Xiguo said, a little embarrassed, “Back then, we had a midwife come to the house to deliver him. We didn’t go to a hospital or anything.”
Qin Jiang stared at him in surprise and said very seriously, “What era are we living in? Why are you still having a midwife deliver a baby at home?”
“If something went wrong, who would take responsibility?”
Back in ancient times, people used midwives because there were no medical facilities. They had no choice but to give birth at home.
But nowadays, even towns and villages have clinics and hospitals. There’s no excuse for using a midwife at home!
If you’re lucky, both mother and child survive. But even then, without proper sterilization, the mother could end up with chronic inflammation or gynecological issues for life.
If you’re unlucky and there’s a malpositioned fetus or severe postpartum hemorrhage, both mother and child could die!
At this point, Qin Jiang could only marvel at how fortunate Zhong Chenglong was.
People with phenylketonuria need to maintain a low-phenylalanine diet at all times. Otherwise, their condition worsens.
That’s the main treatment for this disease—dietary therapy.
But Zhong Chenglong was already in his twenties. That meant he’d had this disease for over twenty years without knowing it. He’d never watched what he ate. And yet he’d only started showing symptoms now.
If that wasn’t a miracle, what was?
Hearing Qin Jiang criticize him for using a midwife, Zhong Xiguo felt awkward.
“It’s just that we were really poor. We were afraid of going to the hospital, so we chose to have the baby at home.”
“But now that you’ve explained it, Dr. Qin, we understand. We’ll never do that again.”
Qin Jiang glanced at him.
“Are you planning to have a second child?”
Zhong Xiguo gave an embarrassed smile and didn’t say anything more.
He might want a second child, but given Liu Xiu’s situation, it wasn’t possible.
At her age, giving birth would make her an older mother, and that would be very dangerous.
Qin Jiang continued, “Like I said earlier, this is a genetic disorder.”
“And based on our test results, the reason he has this disease is because of you two.”
Qin Jiang looked at the couple. “You two are closely related by blood, aren’t you? How did you end up getting married?”
As soon as Qin Jiang said this, the live stream chat exploded with comments.
“What does Dr. Qin mean by that? Closely related by blood? Can a married couple be blood-related?”
“It’s best if a married couple isn’t blood-related. Otherwise, it’s consanguineous marriage—marriage between close relatives. I think that’s what Dr. Qin is implying—that this couple might be in that situation.”
“No wonder Zhong Chenglong has this disease. It’s all because of consanguineous marriage.”
“Is consanguineous marriage really that dangerous?”
“To the person above: Ever heard of Japan’s imperial family? They practice consanguineous marriage to keep their royal bloodline pure. Look up what’s happened to their children.”
The more ignorant and backward a place is, the more it favors consanguineous marriage.
There are two main reasons for this.
First is the belief in bloodline purity.
Some people think that what makes people different is their bloodline or genes—that these determine whether a person is superior.
This actually has some truth to it, since genes do have a huge impact on people.
Everything from appearance, body type, personality, and even organs is influenced by genes.
But thinking that consanguineous marriage preserves genetic advantages is completely wrong.
Consanguineous marriage leads to all kinds of genetic disorders, and the probability increases dramatically!
The second reason is environmental.
For example, in some remote mountain villages, there might only be a few dozen or a hundred people.
Because transportation is difficult and they rarely leave, they essentially live in isolation.
So when it comes time to marry, they have no choice but to choose someone from the village.
Over time, everyone in the village becomes relatives. The more intermarriage occurs, the more deformed the offspring become, and the bigger the problems get.
Zhong Xiguo clearly fell into the second category.
After Qin Jiang patiently explained everything, Zhong Xiguo finally realized the dangers of consanguineous marriage.
For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. He even felt like he couldn’t face Zhong Chenglong.
“This… this was caused by me?”
Zhong Xiguo couldn’t forgive himself.
After all, he had been very hard on Zhong Chenglong all those years, pushing him to get into college.
And even when his son’s health problems first appeared, Zhong Xiguo didn’t believe him. He thought Zhong Chenglong had picked up bad habits in the big city.
But after all that, the root of every problem was himself.
Seeing Zhong Xiguo’s reaction, Qin Jiang explained, “Don’t blame yourself too much. Phenylketonuria isn’t a death sentence, and it’s not that difficult to manage.”
“As long as Zhong Chenglong takes his medication on time and maintains a low-phenylalanine diet for life, there won’t be any major problems. He can definitely continue his studies.”
“And your son is already incredibly lucky. His intelligence isn’t noticeably impaired. In fact, you could say he’s smarter than average. That’s something to be grateful for.”
After saying this, Qin Jiang pointed to the QR code on the table.
“The total cost for this consultation and treatment is forty-six thousand yuan. After the discount I’m giving you, it’s thirty-one thousand. You can put it on a tab. Just pay four thousand for now.”
Zhong Xiguo kept saying thank you as he quickly took out his phone to scan the code and pay.
