Chapter 786: Beating a Dog in the Water

Ji Xiang looked at Dr. Merz with a strange gaze.

"Young man, I haven't seen your surgery yet, so I cannot acknowledge your talent for the time being. But regarding this diagnosis of yours alone, I can clearly perceive the rawness and the lack of your clinical basic theory."

Dr. Merz smiled slightly; he did not reprimand him excessively, but instead carried a hint of concern.

This kind of invisible PUA was a greater blow to the spirit, and Dr. Merz knew it very well.

However, he did not want to stop at that, because Dr. Merz was worried that Ji Xiang was too young to understand.

"You must work harder, read more books, and study more; do not mistake ignorance for personality. Young people all like these things, and the students under me are just like you—it's truly hellish."

"When young people make mistakes, even God will forgive them, so don't be too concerned about a single diagnostic error. However, what I want to tell you is—persisting in an incorrect diagnosis is an irresponsibility toward the profession."

Ji Xiang truly did not know where the confidence of this Dr. Merz before him actually came from.

Meng Qingfei pulled Ji Xiang.

"Xiao Ji, come with me."

Meng Qingfei's voice was very low, but it was seen by Dr. Merz, who smiled and made an elegant gesture of invitation.

In his view, this should be a superior doctor expressing dissatisfaction with Ji Xiang, intending to take him to a place with no one around to lecture him.

"Young man, go accept your superior doctor's advice; be humble. In the emergency room, you will only bring more chaos."

"What is he saying?" Meng Qingfei, who only half-understood, asked after leading Ji Xiang out of the Emergency Rescue Room.

"He doesn't believe my judgment; he keeps saying I misdiagnosed and am an irresponsible doctor," Ji Xiang said indifferently. "Meng Laoshi, have you contacted the Echocardiogram?"

"I have," Meng Qingfei said while walking toward the Consultation Room. "You are really lucky. The doctor on duty for the emergency B-ultrasound today had something come up and found a friend to cover the shift, and it just so happens to be an Echocardiogram doctor."

Lucky, Ji Xiang scratched his head and looked at the Luck value on his attribute panel.

It was indeed a very important attribute.

If there is a chance, he must increase the Luck attribute.

"Can you finish prescribing the medicine before you go!"

The Family Member waiting in the Consultation Room said very unhappily.

"The one over there has already fainted." Meng Qingfei was unfazed; after a brief explanation, he asked while prescribing medicine for the patient, "Xiao Ji, why do you insist on doing an ultrasound of the blood vessels and heart?"

"I suspect the patient's diagnosis is Patent Foramen Ovale."

Meng Qingfei was stunned the moment he heard Ji Xiang's words.

Patent Foramen Ovale?

Patent Foramen Ovale is the most common congenital heart abnormality in adults. The foramen ovale generally closes in the first year after birth. If the foramen ovale of a child older than 3 years still does not close, it is called Patent Foramen Ovale. In adults, 20% to 25% of the foramen ovale do not close completely.

"But Patent Foramen Ovale usually doesn't cause any issues, and if it's particularly large... it still wouldn't have neurological symptoms," Meng Qingfei said, frowning.

"Research in recent years has shown that Patent Foramen Ovale is related to syncope," Ji Xiang said, "but the specific mechanism has not yet been determined."

"Can you two work properly! I'm here waiting for you to prescribe medicine! The fever is at 39℃, it's not like you're the ones burning." Hearing Meng Qingfei and Ji Xiang talking, and seeing Meng Qingfei's movements slow down a bit, the Family Member scolded them.

Meng Qingfei chuckled, "Xiao Ji, you come prescribe the medicine for him, I'll go take a look at the patient."

Ji Xiang was all smiles, bowing repeatedly to the Family Member to express his apology.

One does not hit a smiling face; although the Family Member was unhappy, they didn't say much more.

Ji Xiang had long been accustomed to this way of communication; the efficiency of himself and Meng Laoshi was indeed much worse than that of an unmanned intelligent hospital.

He did not blame himself for this; one era has one era's rules. Feel guilty for this? Ji Xiang wouldn't do such a boring thing.

Maintaining a smile to let the Family Member calm down and not cause trouble—that was Ji Xiang's goal.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ji Xiang saw Meng Qingfei not going to the Emergency Rescue Room, but heading straight in the direction of the Duty Room.

He's probably gone to look up the illness online, Ji Xiang thought to himself.

He hurried to prescribe the medicine for the patient, and after sending the patient away, he also prescribed a Tetanus shot.

"Young man, is your teacher just as dissatisfied with your diagnosis as I am?" Dr. Merz stood at the door and said with a smile after seeing Ji Xiang become free.

Ji Xiang felt that even the golden hair on Dr. Merz's head was annoying.

"Humility, honesty, compassion, courage—these are all basic qualities that a doctor should have..." Dr. Merz was still rambling on.

"And avoiding insurance companies, striving for more opportunities for self-pay medical care, so that the numbers in your credit card get bigger and bigger, right?" Ji Xiang looked at Dr. Merz and asked.

This question was like a knife, stabbing directly into Dr. Merz's heart.

His smile froze instantly, and his entire face stiffened.

"Dr. Merz, this is not your area of expertise. My suggestion is the same as before; you should still call an Expert in the relevant field at Massachusetts to ask about the specific situation."

After speaking, the corners of Ji Xiang's mouth lifted, "Don't tell me that in Massachusetts, you don't have a single friend. How pitiful, to be so old and yet not even have a friend."

"How is that possible!" Dr. Merz clenched his hands into fists and raised them in anger.

"Then go ask. After getting a professional answer, you will be ashamed of your ignorance instead of standing here telling me useless nonsense. And you, if you don't go make that call, in 20 minutes you will regret having said so much."

Dr. Merz stared blankly at Ji Xiang; he couldn't understand why this young man was so full of confidence when speaking to him like this.

There were many talented young people at Harvard Medical School, and Lin Jiuze was one of the more representative ones.

But at Ji Xiang's age, they were all raw and ignorant; who would dare to communicate with a superior doctor in such a tough tone!

Perhaps... Dr. Merz thought of a possibility!

In the heart of the young doctor before him, he himself was not a superior doctor, but an ordinary doctor here to learn and observe surgery.

Dr. Merz was almost ignited by his own thought.

Negative labels like unruly, arrogant, and ignorant were nailed into Dr. Merz's perception of Ji Xiang in his heart.

Dr. Merz also had a trace of doubt, but the Electrocardiogram report dispelled his misgivings.

It was definitely not a Myocardial Infarction, and coupled with the patient's typical neurological symptoms, Dr. Merz looked at Ji Xiang with a cold sneer.

Then let the facts speak for themselves.

"Excuse me." Meng Qingfei turned sideways and squeezed in through the narrow space between Dr. Merz and the door frame.

"Xiao Ji, get ready to look at the Echocardiogram." Meng Qingfei no longer hesitated.

"Did you find it?"

"I just wrote a few things online, it wasn't very detailed, so I called a classmate of mine. He told me a few things, but time was tight, so I didn't listen carefully," Meng Qingfei said hurriedly. "You all wait a moment, there's an emergency in the Emergency Rescue Room."

Seeing that the patients waiting outside the Consultation Room didn't seem to be in critical condition, he gave a brief instruction and pulled Ji Xiang along, walking quickly to the Emergency Rescue Room.

The Ultrasound Doctor had already arrived.

"Old Meng, you really are getting more cunning with age," the Ultrasound Doctor said while applying Coupling Agent to the patient. "It's hard to associate neurological symptoms with the heart, so it's right to rule it out. But as an Emergency Department doctor, how do you know about such cutting-edge things?"

"Who do you think I am!" Meng Qingfei tilted his head back proudly, without a shred of guilt or embarrassment.

"Impressive, let me take a look." The Ultrasound Doctor began to move the probe over the patient's heart area on their chest.

Their skill level was very high; in less than 1 minute, they began to locate and measure.

"A 1.3 Patent Foramen Ovale, there really is one! Let me tell you, Old Meng, it's only because you were lucky enough to catch me; otherwise, if the director were here during the day, we'd have to perform an esophageal ultrasound to diagnose it."

"Is it that difficult?"

"That's right, I'm very good!" The Ultrasound Doctor began to record. "Old Meng, remember to send me a copy of the patient's data."

"You want to write a paper?" Meng Qingfei's eyes lit up.

"Yeah."

"Forget it, with your level, you won't be able to get it published for a year or two. I'll handle it, how about you be the second author?"

"Oh, Old Meng, you're getting more and more generous!" The Ultrasound Doctor didn't insist; after all, what clinical doctor is actually willing to write papers?

Besides, Meng Qingfei had already published two SCI papers in the last six months—and those were SCI!

"Xiao Ji, you write it." Meng Qingfei pushed the work directly onto Ji Xiang.

"Ah, okay!" Ji Xiang agreed without hesitation. "Let's publish it in the *Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery*."

The Ultrasound Doctor was a bit disappointed. While recording the data, they asked, "Which backyard journal is that? Old Meng, you should do it, get me an SCI publication."

"What are you thinking?" Meng Qingfei said. "The *Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery* is the second-highest impact factor journal in Cardiothoracic Surgery."

"Impact factor!" The Ultrasound Doctor's hair almost stood on end.

"It seems to be around five-point-something, I forgot the exact number."

The Ultrasound Doctor was stunned for a moment, but then seemed to remember something and handed the things they had recorded to Ji Xiang with both hands.

"You must be Dr. Ji! I haven't watched the show, and I haven't seen you around, sorry about that."

"Teacher, you are too kind." Ji Xiang said he was being polite, but his attitude was genuinely courteous.

"Tsk tsk, if you're the one writing it, the paper will definitely be fine." The Ultrasound Doctor patted Ji Xiang on the shoulder with a smile.

The Emergency Internal Medicine Doctor was a bit anxious. "What are you all chatting about? The patient is still..."

"Neurological symptoms caused by Patent Foramen Ovale will resolve on their own, usually in 1-2 hours, and there are no sequelae," Ji Xiang explained. "Just send them to Cardiac Surgery or the Circulatory Internal Medicine Department for surgery afterward. There's no use in us being anxious, let's just wait and see."

"Send them to Circulatory," Meng Qingfei concluded directly.

Ji Xiang wasn't interested in where the patient was sent. He looked up and scanned the room, seeing Dr. Merz standing in the corner, staring blankly at the image on the Echocardiogram machine.

"Dr. Merz, this is what you called a definitive diagnosis." Ji Xiang walked over and waved the Echocardiogram report in front of Dr. Merz, as if waving an Electrocardiogram.

Dr. Merz stared blankly.

Ji Xiang knew their training was very strict, one could even say harsh; Dr. Merz would certainly be able to understand the Echocardiogram image.

"Humility is a virtue," Ji Xiang teased. "I hope you have friends in Massachusetts who have already told you the true diagnosis."

"This is impossible," Dr. Merz muttered.

"Should I trust the Echocardiogram imaging, or should I trust the cross-specialty diagnosis of a Sports Medicine doctor? Dr. Merz, if it were you, what would you choose?" Ji Xiang continued to mock.

Dr. Merz was weeping internally.

The knight had already fallen the moment they charged, falling before the Great Demon King without any surprise.

At this very moment, the Great Demon King was covered in black Qi, stepping on the knight's head, showing off his martial prowess.

And he himself was that unlucky fellow who had fallen before the Great Demon King.

Dr. Merz listened to Ji Xiang's mockery, staring blankly at the image of the Patent Foramen Ovale on the machine.

The machine was turned off, and the Ultrasound Doctor pushed it away, not forgetting to joke with Ji Xiang and Meng Qingfei before leaving.

"Dr. Merz, humility is a virtue. I think you should keep it in your heart instead of just saying it with your mouth. Treating ignorance as a personality trait isn't something only young people do. But God will forgive the young; as for an old man of your age, it depends on God's mood."

Ji Xiang hadn't forgotten about Dr. Merz, and threw out one last sentence as he left the Emergency Rescue Room.

"!!!" Dr. Merz was completely dumbfounded, nearly spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Xiao Ji, you don't seem to be very polite to Dr. Merz."

Back at the Surgery Department Consultation Room, Meng Qingfei asked with a chuckle.

"Well, Dr. Lin Jiuze applied to be a professor at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Merz cast a dissenting vote."

Meng Qingfei covered his head.

These kinds of messes are everywhere.

But Dr. Merz was actually relentless, coming all the way from Massachusetts General Hospital to the Second Affiliated Hospital, traveling thousands of miles to "hunt down" Lin Jiuze.

No wonder Xiao Ji had such a big opinion of Dr. Merz.

"Xiao Ji, this is the first time I've seen you hold such hostility toward a doctor. Speaking of which, you really aren't polite; what level are you in 'Zu'an'?" Meng Qingfei laughed.

"It's alright, I wouldn't call it extreme hostility."

Meng Qingfei recalled Ji Xiang's past.

This young man looked very easygoing, but in reality, he was very sharp when encountering injustices.

But it had nothing to do with him.

Meng Qingfei thought back to Dr. Merz; perhaps due to the principle of loving the house and its crow, he also felt that Dr. Merz was very annoying.

"The paper will be fine, right?" Meng Qingfei asked.

"It should be, I'll write it myself," Ji Xiang asked with a smile. "Meng Laoshi, do you want to be listed as the first author or..."

Meng Qingfei laughed, "Of course, sell it!"

Xiao Ji was truly understanding; Meng Qingfei had lost interest in publishing papers, and at his age, he didn't want to climb any higher, nor did he have the opportunity, so he was even more interested in selling the first authorship.

"Xiao Ji, we'll split the money earned fifty-fifty."

Ji Xiang thought for a moment, "Alright."

Meng Qingfei was slightly taken aback, but then he laughed even more happily, "Let's go, let's go have a cigarette."

There weren't many patients right now; in a while, after people finished eating and went home or to nightclubs, there would be more car accidents and fights.

Ji Xiang followed Meng Qingfei to the Duty Room and saw Dr. Merz standing in the hallway in a daze, but he didn't pursue Dr. Merz relentlessly.

There would be plenty of opportunities to beat a drowning dog, provided Dr. Merz didn't give up on trying to cause trouble for Lin Jiuze.

Arriving at the Duty Room, Meng Qingfei tossed a cigarette to Ji Xiang.

"I really don't know what that foreign doctor is thinking." Meng Qingfei lit his cigarette, took a happy puff, and said, "He thinks he has a diagnosis just by holding an Electrocardiogram."

"Cases where Patent Foramen Ovale leads to headaches and neurological symptoms are rare; perhaps he didn't think of it. After all, the medical community hasn't given a definitive explanation yet, it's just speculation." Ji Xiang gave a relatively fair assessment.

But that wasn't what Meng Qingfei was talking about.

"I had a classmate who returned to his hometown after graduation and became the head of the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department in less than 10 years."

"But he worked himself to the bone, ended up with a body full of ailments, had constant emergency surgeries every day, rarely ate breakfast, so unsurprisingly, he developed Cholecystitis."

"One day, he suddenly felt pain in his upper right abdomen, had an Ultrasound done, which showed mild inflammation of the gallbladder, and then had an Electrocardiogram taken, which showed nothing wrong. He asked a Nurse to prepare medication for him and had an IV drip in the director's office."

"The drip was fast, and the Nurse left after pulling the needle, seeing he was fine. Later, he didn't come home very late, and his family kept calling, but no one answered. The Nurse later received a call from his family and cautiously went to the director's office to take a look."

Ji Xiang didn't prick up his ears; he had already guessed the ending.

"He had already been dead for 3 hours, Myocardial Infarction." Meng Qingfei sighed, "Tell me, not even 40 years old, what a pity."

"The Electrocardiogram was fine?"

"Yeah." Seeing that Ji Xiang was sharp and asked exactly what he was getting at, Meng Qingfei felt a stir; he had originally intended to tell Ji Xiang, but now he changed his mind, "Xiao Ji, let me test you, tell me what happened."

"Following the chronological order, at that time he most likely had a standard 12-lead ECG done; in such cases, one must add posterior and right-sided leads, which is an 18-lead ECG."

"!!!" Meng Qingfei was stunned for a moment before giving a thumbs up.

"Xiao Ji, you even know this!"

"Hehe." Ji Xiang scratched his head; he had only heard it from the System NPC in the System Operating Room.

"That's why they say Electrocardiograms sometimes still have issues; in short, being careful and cautious is never wrong."

Ji Xiang knew that Meng Laoshi was sharing the problems he encountered in his Clinical practice with him, so his attitude was very serious.

"A few years ago, I encountered a university student, from our Medical University, a junior. He came in the middle of the night, saying his toothache was severe; at the time, the Internal Medicine Department doctor prescribed him Xinhuang Tablet."

"I have to say, this Xinhuang Tablet is really effective for some toothaches; I always feel there's an analgesic ingredient in it."

After a bit of idle chatter, Meng Qingfei continued, "A few hours later, he was sent back for emergency rescue, cardiac arrest."

"Myocardial Infarction? 20 years old?"

"Something like that. Ever since that incident... there were a few more rare cases of death caused by Myocardial Infarction, and Bai Chuzhang started requiring that no matter what patient comes in, we must mention doing an Electrocardiogram."

"Because of this, we've been scolded quite a bit."

"The Family Member must not have understood."

"Of course they didn't understand. I have a toothache, and you insist on me doing an Electrocardiogram; if that doesn't make me a heartless doctor, what does?" Meng Qingfei mocked himself.

"Just do it; if they don't want to, have them sign a waiver. It's better to go through the trouble and get scolded a few times than to have the patient die and the family come to cause a scene," Ji Xiang said.

As he spoke, he recalled that in the future hospital, the Intelligent System seemed to do the Electrocardiogram as part of a package.

He didn't even know when it was done; he figured Shen Ke must have glanced at it, saw it was fine, and didn't mention it to him.

"That foreign doctor... hahaha." As Meng Qingfei spoke, he laughed out loud first, "What is he doing coming here?"

"Who knows, he's probably here to watch the surgery for Wembanyama."

"He's really coming?!"

"Meng Laoshi, are you very familiar with Wembanyama?" Ji Xiang asked.

"Yeah, I've been watching him play. Now that the NBA is linked with Sports Betting, it's really not worth watching," Meng Qingfei said. "But Wembanyama's path is very similar to Yao's; when he first entered the NBA, he was like a beanpole, and later he built muscle to enhance his physical play."

"Think about it, you can build muscle, but the load is also great." Meng Qingfei said, shaking his head, "Is it likely he'll go back?"

"Meng Laoshi, you're so concerned about Wembanyama."

"I always feel that Yao was a pity back then," Meng Qingfei said. "If there hadn't been injuries, or if he were in today's small-ball era, Yao could have achieved even better results. So watching Wembanyama is equivalent to watching Yao, equivalent to returning to '08 or '09."

"You understand what I mean, right?"

"I think I understand." Ji Xiang smiled, "The surgery should be fine; I'll report to you after it's done."

"No, no, no." Meng Qingfei waved his hands repeatedly, "I can't accept you being so polite; it's already good enough to shamelessly tag along for some SCI papers."

"Meng Laoshi, you are really too polite." Ji Xiang thought to himself that he seemed to have a different perception of Meng Qingfei.

He still remembered that in one instance of Empathy, when he woke up from general anesthesia, the name he called out was Meng Qingfei.

Perhaps it was because he was his teacher in emergency medicine, who knows.

What Ji Xiang remembered particularly vividly was one time when Meng Qingfei saw a child going toward the Pediatrics Department, he kept pacing anxiously at the entrance.

You have to know, the first thing Ji Xiang learned about Meng Qingfei was that for a patient getting stitches removed after plastic surgery, he was the kind of person who would refuse to remove them regardless of whether the other party would complain, and would just send them away.

This contradictory personality only highlighted a certain charm.

"Let's not talk about this; Xiao Ji, your trip to Shanghai for surgery, did it go smoothly?"

Speaking of Shanghai, Ji Xiang told Meng Qingfei about how he suddenly couldn't perform surgery.

Meng Qingfei listened with great interest.

"Ha, I didn't expect you to have this situation too, Xiao Ji!" Meng Qingfei's eyes lit up, "I've had it too!"

The two began to exchange experiences about suddenly being unable to perform surgery.

Ji Xiang heard Meng Qingfei give several examples, and only then did he realize that the System NPC wasn't lying; similar cases were indeed not isolated incidents, but a relatively common phenomenon.

It is just like an illness; some have it mild, some have it severe.

"Xiao Ji, awesome!" After Meng Qingfei finished speaking, he gave a thumbs up, his eyes shining with a brilliant light.

"Huh?"

This "awesome" caught Ji Xiang off guard.

"The earlier this situation appears, the greater the future progress will be; you understand what I mean, right?" As Meng Qingfei spoke, he began rubbing his hands together. Without waiting for Ji Xiang to speak, he added, "It's what you guys like to call the dimensional wall; you broke through the dimensional wall this time. And how long have you even been a surgeon!"

"..."

"Awesome!!!"