Chapter 253: Folk Remedy

After the surgery, Ji Xiang wanted to send the Patient back to the ward, but Liu Zhuren waved a hand, "Doctor Zhao, you take the Patient back."

"You got it, Zhuren," Zhao Zhe replied.

He was an old Clinical Attending Physician, the kind of doctor who could even tinker with a partial Kidney Resection on his own, so Liu Zhuren felt quite at ease with him.

As long as Zhao Zhe wasn't nagging in his ear, that was fine.

That guy was just like the Tang Monk; once he started talking, there was no end to it.

"Xiao Ji, you performed that surgery really well." Liu Zhuren pulled Ji Xiang along to change clothes, looking at Ji Xiang as he spoke, "You must have assisted in many surgeries during your internship; your technique is skilled and impressive."

"It's alright. My teachers took good care of me and let me assist with quite a few," Ji Xiang said.

Liu Zhuren probed a few more times, but Ji Xiang ignored them all.

Liu Zhuren was quite interested in Ji Xiang's background, but he couldn't do anything about Ji Xiang saying nothing at all.

Liu Zhuren didn't force the issue either; take it slow. He understood the principle that curiosity killed the cat very well.

"Xiao Ji, let me tell you something." Liu Zhuren stopped prying and changed the subject, "Bai Chuzhang from the Medical Affairs Department copied the surgical recording of the Giant Hydronephrosis case, saying he wants to enter it into a surgical competition."

"A competition? Is he really entering a competition?"

Ji Xiang had heard about surgical competitions when he was in Yangcheng, but he had never participated in one. He had also heard about the urological surgery competitions within the province, but Ji Xiang didn't want to participate.

He didn't even have his Doctor's license yet, and the System hadn't even given him a task, so Ji Xiang didn't want to waste his energy on it.

"It's just messing around." Liu Zhuren was slightly dismissive, but he masked it very well, as if he were joking, "It's just young doctors trying to pad their resumes, getting together with their surgical recordings to compare whose surgery was done better."

"Oh."

"Our Surgery Department rarely had competitions in the past. Bringing a video camera into the operating room—whether it would cause an infection was another matter entirely. I saw it once when an Expert from Edinburgh came to the country to perform surgery; to improve the level of domestic doctors, it was filmed from start to finish."

"But, this kind of full-process filming involves the Patient's privacy, so you have to sign a lot of agreements; it's very troublesome. Plus, the hospitalization costs are fully waived, and if the level of the visiting Expert isn't high enough, the hospital leadership won't approve it."

Ji Xiang listened quietly as Liu Zhuren explained the ins and outs of surgical competitions.

"Later on, when we started using endoscopes for surgery, we generally wouldn't save the surgical recordings; it's a hassle," Liu Zhuren said, "But a very small number of surgeries are saved, so you don't have to apply to the hospital, and the Patient's signature is enough."

"Bai Chuzhang wants to take the Giant Hydronephrosis surgery to compete, this..." Ji Xiang was slightly hesitant.

It wasn't because of anything else, but rather that Ji Xiang felt that surgery only deserved an 8 out of 10.

After all, it was the temperament of a youth; competitiveness might be hidden very well, but it would still be exposed once there was an opportunity.

"If you aren't happy about it, I'll go tell Bai Chuzhang. Originally, it was also for Zhou Tianbo, that student of Gu Lao, to pad his resume in preparation for the evaluation of Outstanding Youth or some Changjiang Scholar. The more eye-catching things on a resume, the better."

"It seems like Changjiang Scholars don't need these," Ji Xiang said.

Liu Zhuren was taken aback; how did Ji Xiang seem more familiar with this than he was?

Liu Zhuren only knew about things like Outstanding Youth and Changjiang Scholars; such honors had nothing to do with him, a Director at a Provincial Hospital who was already quite old.

Those were things only middle-aged and young people in the Imperial Capital or Shanghai who aspired to become an Academician would care about.

Liu Zhuren didn't want to show his ignorance, so he said with a smile, "In short, it's just to pad the resume. Bai Chuzhang copied a surgical recording and took it over; he's probably just there to show support. He called me to ask for our opinion, what do you think?"

Ji Xiang remembered the first open-ended task the System NPC had arranged for him—the student from a poor family who didn't have money for Laser Stone Crushing.

Liu Zhuren had solved the hospitalization fee issue with a single phone call; it was clear that his relationship with Bai Chuzhang was excellent.

Asking him was also out of respect.

"I have no problem with it," Ji Xiang said.

"Are you going to participate?"

"I won't go," Ji Xiang said, "Teacher Wang said there are some surgeries at the Nan Ke Yi Yuan over the weekend, so I'm rushing over there to perform surgery."

"That works too. I'll handle the Patient's signature, so don't you worry."

Without realizing it, Liu Zhuren was already speaking to Ji Xiang like an Expert of his own level, without the condescension a Director usually has toward a subordinate doctor.

"Thank you for your hard work, Zhuren."

The two changed their clothes and returned to the ward to check on the Patient.

Ji Xiang knew what he was doing; it was verified by the System NPC. The Patient just needed to have the incision stitched up in a week, and the surgery would basically not affect their future life.

Around 3 PM, Ji Xiang was in the office writing a Medical Record when Wu Zong walked in and patted Ji Xiang on the shoulder, "Xiao Ji, you performed that surgery really well. Have you encountered similar situations before?"

"I've seen a teacher do it, but it wasn't caused by injecting Papaverine into the Corpus Cavernosum," Ji Xiang said with a calm expression, making it impossible to tell if it was true or not.

"Then what was the situation?"

"A student who, out of curiosity, took Sildenafil orally and had an erection for 28 hours," Ji Xiang said, "That Patient's duration was relatively short, but the one we received today had been nearly 144 hours; it's a testament to the Patient's good health that it hadn't completely necrosed."

"Tsk tsk, he even knew about things like injecting Papaverine into the Corpus Cavernosum. The key is, knowing is one thing, but he actually dared to do it. And not only did he do it, he even dared to inject an overdose," Wu Zong exclaimed.

"Ignorance, I suppose. The ignorant are fearless," Ji Xiang smiled.

"Wu Zong, have you seen anything similar?" Lu Kai asked.

Wu Zong looked Lu Kai up and down, and seeing that he wasn't holding a phone, he felt safe enough to start gossiping.

"Similar situations are rare. The weirdest one I've seen was a Patient who found some folk remedy from somewhere: 1 seal kidney, 50g of Cistanche, and 500ml of white liquor."

"Originally, drinking a little every day would be fine, but one day the Patient got drunk, went home, and had another round. As a result, he drank over a jin at home and finished off all the liquor that the seal kidney was soaking in."

"Did it actually work?"

"Either way, the erection wouldn't go down," Wu Zong said, "That surgery was relatively simple, and the Patient came early, less than 12 hours later. But he hadn't sobered up, so I didn't dare take him to the operating table immediately. I waited another 8 hours, and it wasn't until the sky was just starting to brighten that we started the operation."

"The operating room didn't yell at you?" Lu Kai laughed.

"Of course they yelled. The Circulating Nurse was slamming things around, taking her morning grumpiness out on me. But the Anesthesia doctor was actually quite interested; I think he even memorized the folk remedy."

"If it's useful, I'll memorize it too, just in case it comes in handy later."

"This recipe is said to have been used by Qi Jiguang for Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng drank this kind of liquor every day, and later on, he wouldn't wear a hat even in the dead of winter," Wu Zong gossiped with great interest, "But I always felt something was wrong with that."

A phone ringtone interrupted the gossip. Wu Zong answered the call, and after responding a few times, his expression began to turn ugly.

(End of this chapter)