Chapter 795: Not Only Did He Enter, But He Entered

"Dr. Ji Xiang." After Dr. Merz learned that he had a self-limiting disease and did not require surgery, his pain seemed to ease significantly. He pondered for a moment and asked, "Do you know if Wembanyama just spoke with Zhenni Basi on the phone?"

"I know. Auntie Zhenni only called Wembanyama after consulting with me," Ji Xiang replied very casually.

Auntie Zhenni!

Dr. Merz felt puzzled by Ji Xiang's description. Listening to Ji Xiang's words, it sounded as if he were very familiar with Zhenni Basi.

"!!!"

"It's just that little matter. Whether Victor Wembanyama can fully recover after surgery is a question, and it's also a huge gamble."

"Then how did you answer?"

Dr. Merz asked subconsciously.

The moment the words left his mouth, Dr. Merz regretted it. Zhenni Basi could call Wembanyama directly; did he really need to ask what Ji Xiang had said?

A sense of frustration welled up in Dr. Merz's heart; he didn't even hear what Ji Xiang said next.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Merz had connections with team doctors from many sports teams.

But that was as far as it went.

Matters within the medical field were naturally handled by contacting team doctors. Dr. Merz had never received a call from a team owner, whether from the NBA, MLB, or NFL.

Finally!

Dr. Merz knew why his abdomen had suddenly started to hurt.

When Wembanyama received the call from team owner Zhenni Basi, his own blood pressure had already spiked.

Subconsciously, he realized that this Great Demon King had already begun to gain the favor of the team's management. So, in that instant, his blood pressure had surged.

He had not only entered this field, but he had also... entered.

No matter how the young Great Demon King rampaged, he was fundamentally unable to stop him.

He had even just walked into his own domain, and by simply doing something, he had already exceeded the limits of what he could achieve in a lifetime of effort.

The Great Demon King didn't even contact the team doctors; he actually... Dr. Merz suddenly remembered that the Great Demon King actually called Zhenni Basi "Auntie."

"Dr. Ji Xiang, are you familiar with Ms. Zhenni Basi?"

"I'm not familiar with her. My mother and Zhenni Basi have a good relationship, so the call came directly to me." Ji Xiang shrugged, making a regretful expression.

Dr. Merz felt he had heard an incredible secret.

Zhenni Basi was the eldest daughter of the Buss Family. Although this family wasn't particularly prominent, and the best asset they had on hand was the Lakers, they were still billionaires with assets over a billion.

"You've seen Victor's situation, Dr. Merz." Ji Xiang maintained a steady pace with the stretcher and said blandly, "Setting aside your bias, do you think Victor can recover to his original level?"

"I don't know yet." Dr. Merz didn't want to admit defeat just yet, even though he knew the answer.

"Dr. Merz, your eyes are clouded by bias." Ji Xiang smiled slightly. "We are doctors. Medicine is an evidence-based science that can be replicated with high probability. If you didn't have bias, you should be able to see that Wembanyama's recovery speed is very fast."

Dr. Merz curled up silently on the stretcher. As Ji Xiang's words reached his ears, his stomach hurt more and more.

In fact, from a professional perspective, looking at Victor Wembanyama's recovery, Dr. Merz knew his recovery speed was extremely fast, much better than the results of the previous surgery.

In truth, Dr. Merz felt that the Great Demon King's surgery was indeed done exceptionally well; the only problem was that he hadn't understood it.

"If you could be more objective, you wouldn't have had a spike in blood pressure after hearing the news, leading to omental infarction. Actually, omental infarction is fine; if it were a coronary artery blockage and it couldn't be resuscitated, we would have to contact Massachusetts now and tell them the sad news.

By the way, do you cremate over there? We all cremate. It seems impossible to send back a complete corpse. If it were such a terrible situation, Dr. Merz, I would truly feel sorry for you."

Dr. Merz felt a wave of chest tightness; his left anterior descending artery seemed to have already begun to spasm.

He had just changed his opinion of the Great Demon King, and he had already unleashed a sharp weapon to deal him a fatal blow.

Did omental infarction have anything to do with him knowing that Wembanyama and Zhenni Basi were communicating?!

Although he was grumbling in his heart, Dr. Merz quickly tried hard not to think about unpleasant things.

His own body was more important; staying alive was more important.

As for that lucrative surgery...

As this thought crossed his mind, Dr. Merz felt a pain in his heart. It wasn't just the left anterior descending artery; even the circumflex artery seemed to start spasming, unable to provide enough blood to the heart to maintain its beat.

This terrified him. Omental infarction was one thing, but a Myocardial Infarction was something else entirely.

It didn't matter how much money he could make; when truly facing a life-threatening Myocardial Infarction, Dr. Merz still felt that it was good to be alive.

"Calm down, there are many things you cannot change." Ji Xiang didn't notice that Dr. Merz's heart had started to hurt; he followed calmly beside the stretcher, persuading him softly.

As for the effect of the comfort, Ji Xiang didn't care.

The level of Circulation Interventional Surgery at the Second Affiliated Hospital was quite good. If Dr. Merz really had a sudden Myocardial Infarction, the possibility of saving him was not low.

After sending Dr. Merz back to the ward and arranging his hospitalization, Ji Xiang was about to leave when he was pulled back by Zhao Zong.

"Dr. Xiao Ji, there is something I would like to ask."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Assuming Dr. Merz doesn't have surgery, how long will it take to get better? I heard you talking to the Patient about the cause of the omental infarction; it seems to be related to blood pressure and emotions. Which possibility do you think is greater?"

Ji Xiang smiled slightly.

Zhao Zong's intentions were clear as day.

"If it's an omental infarction, we can only write a Gegan baodao. Leave it to me," Ji Xiang said with a smile. "The citations for the article might not be many, and the impact factor will be relatively low. You don't mind, do you?"

"Ha, no problem, no problem. I haven't reached the point of worrying about impact factors yet." Zhao Zong laughed heartily.

He was very happy, quite happy. Ji Xiang was as generous as the legends said; he gave away an SCI article as easily as speaking, without a hint of hesitation.

"That's fine then."

"Dr. Xiao Ji, thank you, thank you." Zhao Zong had gained a huge advantage and thanked him immediately.

"You're welcome. It's also because you, Teacher Zhao, are lucky and alert," Ji Xiang said, calling it as it was. "If it were someone else, they would have already been taken up for Appendicitis surgery. How could they have diagnosed an omental infarction?"

"What if they had operated?" Zhao Zong continued to ask.

"If they had, they might not have seen the infarcted omentum. Anyway, removing the appendix doesn't have much impact. Some patients recover very slowly after surgery and have constant stomach pain; I suspect it's not the surgery's fault, but a misdiagnosis where an appendix without inflammation was removed."

Zhao Zong broke into a cold sweat.

Ji Xiang's words stirred up many memories for him.

Over so many years, the number of Appendectomy surgeries performed by the hands of Zhao Zong was not small, and the situation Ji Xiang spoke of was one Zhao Zong had experienced many times.

In the past, Zhao Zong had never paid attention to it, but having experienced so much, Zhao Zong was very clear about what kind of Patient would have more or less problems after surgery.

That was why he had subconsciously refused the surgery.

Ji Xiang's words awakened the dreamer, and Zhao Zong was stunned for a long time.

"Zhao Zong, are you thinking of a post-operative Patient you once treated?" Ji Xiang asked.

Zhao Zong nodded blankly.

"Don't think too much about it. Up until now, the pathogenesis of omental infarction has not been determined, so even if it were cut out while being treated as Appendicitis or Cholecystitis, it would just be cut out."

"Just think, over a hundred years ago, Patients with Tuberculosis didn't just take all kinds of poisons; there was also electrotherapy. Many people were literally shocked to death by electricity. Wouldn't you say that's miserable?"

"And now? The prices of Isoniazid and Rifampicin for Tuberculosis treatment can't exactly be called affordable. I'm even worried that if the prices drop any further, no pharmaceutical factory will be willing to produce them."

Ji Xiang was rambling just like Zhao Zhe.

"Every era has its own problems. We can't solve Cancer now, but perhaps 100 years from now, Cancer will be just as easily treatable as Tuberculosis."

Zhao Zong's expression became much more peaceful. Although what Ji Xiang said was sophistry, it comforted Zhao Zong.

"Zhao Zong, your Clinical experience is truly high." Ji Xiang gave a thumbs up.

His attitude when speaking to Zhao Zong was completely different from how he was with Dr. Merz.

If Dr. Merz saw this scene, he would probably have all three coronary arteries blocked, with no chance of even being resuscitated.

"Although you haven't encountered omental infarction before, just relying on your subconscious to suggest the Patient get a CT scan is already very impressive."

"Psh, what's so impressive about that." Zhao Zong felt a bit embarrassed by Ji Xiang's praise.

"Of course it's impressive!!" Ji Xiang said earnestly, "Teacher Zhao, I'm not joking. Let's think about it this way: if it weren't Dr. Merz who was sick, but an ordinary Patient, the likelihood of getting a CT scan would be very high, right?"

"Yeah, at the time, a strange foreigner was babbling away, and I was a bit flustered. There was no way to communicate; otherwise, I would have thought when I graduated that I would definitely not go to the Pediatrics Department," Zhao Zong said.

"After the CT scan, you would be able to discover that there is a problem with the omentum."

Ji Xiang looked at Zhao Zong, and seeing that he was about to speak, he smiled and interrupted.

"Zhao Zong, don't be modest. I'm sure you've already thought of what I'm about to say. You discovered there was a problem, and while you indeed didn't know where the problem lay, this matter would remain in your heart. The next time you encounter a similar Patient on Ultrasound, you would definitely have the Patient go for another CT scan."

"At most three times, and you would definitely discover the pattern within it."

Zhao Zong was stunned.

Ji Xiang's words were not flattery, but a logical deduction of what would happen next.

His words were not exaggerated, and the probability of it happening was extremely high.

But could he really summarize omental infarction himself? Zhao Zong lacked some confidence in himself.

"I estimate that as long as there is an accidental opportunity for you to see a similar report and connect all these things together, you will absolutely never misdiagnose it again in the future."

"You might even become an Expert in the related disease."

"Summarizing experience from scientific practice is, in itself, very impressive."

Hearing that Ji Xiang had already elevated it to scientific practice, Zhao Zong broke out in a cold sweat.

He didn't even know he was this awesome!

"Zhao Zong, I'll go talk to Dr. Merz for a few more words, explain the things he needs to pay attention to and cooperate with, and then I'll head back first."

"Mm, mm, mm, thank you, Xiao Ji."

"Psh, no need for formalities."

After exchanging a few polite words with Zhao Zong, Ji Xiang went to see Dr. Merz and then left.

Zhao Zong remained immersed in confusion, unable to pull himself out.

Before Ji Xiang spoke, he had only felt dejected, and when Ji Xiang finally mentioned misdiagnosis, his palms were full of cold sweat.

Recalling his own misdiagnoses and mistreatments over so many years, he had originally felt incredibly guilty.

However, after Ji Xiang said that, Zhao Zong felt much better, and there was even a faint trend of his self-confidence inflating.

Sitting quietly in the Duty Room to recover for a long time, Zhao Zong felt as if he had had a dream and hadn't fully woken up yet.

"Lao Zhao, your Nurses don't know how to insert a urinary catheter! Every time they ask me for a consultation, it's a pain!"

The Urology General Manager, Wu Zong, pushed the door open and entered, looking very unhappy.

"Ah!"

"Ah what? Every time it's a male Patient, you say there's Prostatic Hyperplasia. You don't even look at the Patient before requesting a consultation." Wu Zong was quite displeased.

Chief Resident Zhao rubbed his head and pulled Wu Zong to sit down.

"Laowu, don't be angry. I won't ask you for consultations in the future. I'm busy on this side; the Nurse in the operating room just makes a phone call and asks for your consultation off the cuff."

Hearing his explanation, Wu Zong's mood seemed to settle a bit.

He fished a cigarette out of Zhao Zong's White Uniform pocket, shook one out, and then stuffed the whole pack into his own pocket.

"Laowu, Ji Xiang did his Standardized Residency Training with you at the beginning. Tell me, what impression do you have of him?" Zhao Zong didn't say a word of nonsense and eagerly lit the cigarette for Wu Zong.

"What? Ji Xiang?"

"Yeah, you're really lucky. Doctor Xiao Ji is sentimental; you haven't published few SCI articles recently, have you?"

Speaking of this, Wu Zong was overjoyed, holding back from laughing out loud.

"That's for sure, who do you think I am!"

"Tell me about it."

"What happened?" Wu Zong asked curiously, "Don't you go pining after Xiao Ji. I heard from the Director that Xiao Ji's provincial natural science project needs to be done, so he definitely won't continue rotating. Your Gastrointestinal department isn't a good department either; we clear the sewers, you scoop the dung, we're both the same, Xiao Ji won't look highly upon it."

Zhao Zong recounted what happened today, especially the words Ji Xiang said to him at the end, repeating them basically word for word.

Wu Zong listened blankly, and in the end, looked at Zhao Zong with the gaze one would use for an idiot.

"What kind of expression is that?"

"Lao Zhao, are you stupid?"

"What's wrong?"

"Xiao Ji is obviously just playing with you, and you actually took it seriously? Is your IQ damaged from smelling too much biogas? Why do I feel like there's something wrong with you?" Wu Zong burst into laughter when he saw that Zhao Zong had really taken it to heart.

"I think what Xiao Ji said is right." Zhao Zong didn't think so, however; he took out a pack of cigarettes, opened it, lit one for himself, and took a deep drag. "If it weren't for this, I reckon I could have figured out a way in a few years."

"Stop talking nonsense," Wu Zong said with disdain. "Watching someone carry a load is easy; carrying it yourself breaks your shoulders. Do you think doing academic research is really something we can manage?"

"Why can't I manage it?"

"Too busy, no time at all. Being a Resident Chief is as tiring as a dog; when you lie on the bed, you don't even have the energy to think about dying. If you have that time, wouldn't it be better to get some sleep?"

Hearing this, Zhao Zong felt a sense of shared sorrow.

"Once we aren't Resident Chiefs this year, we'll have to figure out how to lead a team. Whether the director gives us the opportunity, whether someone sabotages us—these are all issues. It's fine if you can successfully lead a team, but what if you can't?"

"Let's say you can successfully lead a team; how many beds will you be given? Do you need to achieve some results? What will you use as your results? Omental infarction? Not to mention whether the director will acknowledge it, the hospital won't either."

"You don't have a girlfriend yet, right? Are you afraid of being cheated on because being a Resident Chief keeps you away from the hospital? On one side, your career might be on the fast track; on the other is life. What if you do find someone and she gets pregnant in a few months? Tsk tsk."

Every word of Wu Zong's was like a knife stabbing into Zhao Zong's heart.

These words were very direct, very blunt, and very unpleasant, but they were the truth.

"If your girlfriend gets pregnant and stands there with a big belly asking you for a 660,000 bride price, will you pay it or not?"

"!!!"

Zhao Zong stared blankly at Wu Zong.

"Hahaha, that's why I say if Orthopedics didn't pay well, I wouldn't do it either," Wu Zong laughed. "Working yourself to death, you'd age five years early."

"..."

"Why bother?" Wu Zong said with a smile. "Being relaxed is better than anything; it's not like we can't survive. Let's keep talking: you paid the bride price, do you add the girlfriend's name to the house? How do you handle the wedding? And the endless prenatal checkups. Once the child is born, what do you do if you can't take care of them?"

"You're spreading anxiety."

"It's a fact," Wu Zong said. "So, at that time, would you still have the heart to remember omental infarction? Even if you did, I bet you wouldn't have saved your previous Medical Record."

At this point, Wu Zong raised his hand and tapped the table. "Lao Zhao, do you still have the various imaging data and Medical Record of the Patient you encountered before?"

Zhao Zong shook his head blankly.

"Exactly," Wu Zong said. "Here's a suggestion: while Xiao Ji is still here, be shameless and ask him for a favor."

"He already agreed."

"Then congratulations." Wu Zong wasn't jealous, because Ji Xiang had written more SCI papers for him, and they were of a higher grade.

"As for you doing scientific research, stop dreaming; you don't have the energy for it. Let me tell you one thing!"

Zhao Zong looked at Wu Zong suspiciously; seeing his formal expression, he couldn't guess what he was going to say.

"This isn't about Xiao Ji doing Interventional Embolization followed by Renal Cancer Partial Nephrectomy, you know that, right?"

"I know."

"I'm thinking of getting closer to Xiao Ji; there are many benefits. I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, that's how utilitarian I am!"

"Tell me the serious stuff."

"I asked around," Wu Zong said. "Because the Interventional Department started relatively late here, the first generation of interventionalists just retired, and the second generation is only now reaching retirement age."

Zhao Zong pricked up his ears and listened quietly.

"It's said that in all likelihood, between the ages of 45 and 50, the body and energy of those performing Interventional Surgery just can't keep up, and they age extremely quickly."

"Damn!" Zhao Zong was stunned for a moment.

"It's true, and I reckon the reason it's 45-50 is because Interventional Surgery was developed relatively late, and those who learned it back then didn't have the foundation from childhood."

"!!!" Zhao Zong knew what Wu Zong meant, because although Orthopedics doesn't take much radiation, you still get exposed when taking X-rays during surgery.

"Impossible, X-rays are scattered radiation, theoretically..."

"That's theory; I'm talking about facts," Wu Zong said. "Otherwise, do you think Xiao Ji performs surgery so smoothly and publishes SCI papers one after another, and I, having the advantage of proximity, am an idiot for not working with him?"

"I thought you were just thin-skinned, and I did think you were an idiot," Zhao Zong grinned.

"Pfft, me thin-skinned? How is that possible!" Wu Zong said. "After researching it, I discovered a series of patterns. For example, the incidence of thyroid nodules in doctors and nurses who perform Interventional Surgery is 20 percentage points higher than in ordinary people."

"The incidence of blood diseases is 15 percentage points higher, and there are others. As for the energy not keeping up, you can say I'm talking metaphysics, but... let's put it this way."

Wu Zong frowned and pondered very seriously for a few seconds.

"A vigorous and capable director of the Interventional Department in the Imperial Capital, who was in the Health Care Group, suddenly had an unexplained low-grade fever after working too hard and performing surgeries for 10 consecutive days."

"At the time, they thought it was a cold, checked their blood, took medicine themselves, but it kept recurring. Later, they couldn't hold on anymore, got a CT scan, and guess what the disease was?"

"Blood Tumor?" Zhao Zong answered nervously.

"Liver Abscess."

"Why? Parasites?"

"Everything you can think of, they thought of too. The specimen was sent to Chaoyang Hospital for examination; there were no parasites, it was just from being overworked."

"Why Chaoyang Hospital and not Peking Union Medical College Hospital or Peking University Third Hospital?"

"I can see you have no connections in the Imperial Capital. Chaoyang Hospital's parasite examination is the most comprehensive in the industry, bar none," Wu Zong said, showing off his erudition. "A perfectly healthy person, in their prime, at an age where in our Urology Department they could perform 3 Bladder Tumor Resection surgeries a day without getting tired, got a Liver Abscess just because their immunity dropped."

"Damn!" Zhao Zong cursed.

"I'm telling you, performing Interventional Surgery isn't a good job. For you, the radiation exposure is indeed low, but in every surgery, don't you have to step on the pedal a few times to see if the alignment is good? If you happen to do some Joint replacement surgeries, the radiation dose will be much higher."

"Having the energy to boost your own immunity while performing surgery and doing scientific research—is that something a human can do?" Wu Zong said. "If you don't want to live long, just say so."

"Xiao Ji was just being polite to you, and you actually took it seriously. I'm telling you, this kind of mentality is the worst."

"This is all just gossip."

"You don't know a damn thing," Wu Zong scolded with disdain. "There is a book from ancient times called 'The Sea of Learning from a Hundred Rivers', which is full of unofficial histories and gossip from that time. That's called the Sea of Learning, the Sea of Learning!"

"..."

"I hesitated for a long time, but I still didn't have the guts to go work with Xiao Ji. I know the future is bright, but I'm afraid of dying."

"Sigh." Zhao Zong was swayed and let out a deep sigh.

"Working like a horse or an ox is one thing, but then adding radiation exposure on top of that, tsk tsk."

"What about Xiao Ji?"

"He goes for a half-marathon morning run at least 6 days a week; he can tire his dog out until it's a puddle of mud. Xiao Ji has a good constitution, like a beast of burden—we can't compare. Besides, he's young now. Have you seen Lin Jiuze?"

"Uh..." Zhao Zong hesitated. He knew Lin Jiuze, but now that he tried to recall him, he didn't have the slightest impression.

"Professor Lin Jiuze looks successful, having received an offer from Massachusetts General Hospital at such a young age, but what's the reality? He's only just past thirty, and there are already gray hairs at his temples."

"!!!"

"I don't believe it when people say doing Interventional Surgery has no effect on the body. Your Orthopedics Department gets some radiation exposure too, so you should pay more attention yourself. As for Xiao Ji, just listen to what he says, but don't believe it. He's the best at making empty promises—huge ones!"

"Hahaha."

Wu Zong told Zhao Zong many more things, and the night gradually grew late.

Dr. Merz lay on the hospital bed; the pain in his abdomen was gradually improving, but he tossed and turned, unable to sleep at all.

(End of chapter)