Case Study: USE OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN HOSPITALS

A two year old child was brought to the hospital. The child had been vomiting for

several weeks and suffered from constipation. The parents were advised to let the child

undergo several laboratory tests. The blood showed low haemoglobin levels with 7

grams/100ml against the normal range of 14 – 16 grams per 100 ml. the red blood cells

count was also low with 3.3x1012 /liter against 5x1012 /liter in normal blood. These results

indicated anemia due to an unspecified origin. The x-rays also show that some opaque

material is present in the intestinal lining and also along the growth areas of the bones.

With all these information from the lab test results, the doctors were ready to

make a guess on what’s causing the child illness. They suspect that the opaque

material accumulated in the intestines and in the growth areas of the bone was heavy

metal substance and therefore the child was suffering from heavy metal poisoning.

The next step now is to check whether their tentative guess of the cause of the

illness is true. If there is indeed a heavy metal in the child, he may have ingested it. In

this case, the first thing to do consisted of asking the parents if there was any possible

way this could have happened. Upon interviewing the parents, the doctors learned that

the family lived in a rundown or dilapidated house that had peeling paint and that the

child had a habit of chewing on window sills and furniture. Since house paint can

contain significant amounts of lead, which is a heavy metal, this lent support to their

hypothesis of heavy metal poisoning, but this guess still needs further testing. The next

test was measuring the lead-levels in the blood, and it turned out that the child’s blood

had almost two and a half times above the normal concentration of lead in the blood.

The doctor’s hypothesis is now considered confirmed. As a final test, medical

treatment for lead poisoning was administered. If the treatment was successful, it will

prove the hypothesis is correct and most important of all, it will cure the child. The

treatment was done by giving the calcium EDTA intravenously. EDTA (ethylene diamine

tetra-acetate) is a chemical that removes heavy metals by binding with the heavy metal

tightly and carries it to the kidney for removal in the urine. One day after the EDTA

injection, a 25-fold increase in lead concentration was found in the child’s urine. A few

days later the poisoning symptoms disappeared, and after a week the child was

discharged from the hospital.

Guide Questions:

Listed below are the steps on how to scientifically investigate a certain phenomena. As you read the selection, write which part of the essay fits each step of the scientific method below.

1. Identifying the problem2. Gathering data about the problem3. Make a hypothesis4. Testing the hypothesis through experimenting5. Making a conclusion