Chapter 803: Medical Academic Overachiever Chapter 800: A Gift for Myself

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Protagonist:

Fang Ziye

Professor Wang Ou looked at Liao Jia's current state, his eyes narrowing slightly as he said: "The main driving force behind individual progress is desire, while the main driving force behind group progress must be a thirst for knowledge—the courage to admit one's own ignorance."

"Why are people so strange?"

"We can build airplanes and cannons, yet for this human body of over a hundred pounds, studied for so many years, I feel we haven't even pushed open the door."

Professor Wang's words were a bit dispirited, not suited to the current atmosphere.

Zhang Ziqian of the Urology Department said in a deep voice: "Professor Wang, regardless of whether the door has been pushed open, today we have at least pushed open a small door—and one that no one has ever pushed open before."

Mei Bin was responsible for monitoring; at this moment she may have noticed a relatively better trend, and said joyfully: "Professor Fang, there are occasional signals being conducted down, but I don't know if they are signals above the cerebral cortex."

Upon hearing this, Fang Ziye did not become overly happy, but after thinking carefully for a while, he suddenly clapped his hands.

Fang Ziye said: "Professor Mei Bin, do you think there is such a possibility: that after spinal cord injury, even if the channel is briefly disordered, as long as microcurrent stimulation is maintained, these circuits can actually recover?"

"Our human body would have such a self-healing function, but to stimulate the human body to activate such a self-healing function, continuous microcurrent stimulation is needed?"

"What I mean is, in chronic spinal cord injury, some potential pathways must have degenerated, but actually these degenerated pathways have a chance to regenerate within a period of time after the injury occurs."

"That is to say, spinal cord emergency injuries that have undergone microcurrent stimulation after emergency treatment will retain more function than untreated patients."

"Of course, it could also be less……"

In today's spinal cord injury research project, every step forward is a combination of theoretical storms, speculation, verification, operation, and ideas.

First replicate everyone's ideas into reality, reproduce the ideas through operation, correct the ideas through actual reactions, and revise the experimental plan.

This is scientific research, and it is scientific research of relatively deep involvement.

It is very dull and tasteless.

Outsiders looking at these would surely feel drowsy, but those involved in the situation would find it endlessly thought-provoking.

"This is hard to say; previously we only considered positive feedback, never negative feedback."

"If the acute phase of spinal cord injury is not suitable for microcurrent stimulation? Then what about our operation today?" Mei Bin instinctively said this far, then quickly corrected herself.

"But it doesn't matter; it's a clinical trial, after all—the results should be double-sided? Because this is not a verification trial, but an exploratory trial."

"Generally speaking, such a probability would be very small, right?" Professor Wang Ou was from Spine Surgery, so he also had some understanding of some things in Neurosurgery.

Some treatments are not suitable for the acute phase but suitable for the chronic phase; this kind of front-and-back contradiction is probably a bit deformed, right?

But reality is often like this.

After the scene was quiet again for three or four minutes, Mei Bin saw that the lower limbs, which originally had signal conduction, had increasingly weak electrical signal reactions, and the frequency was also getting lower and lower.

These results exactly confirmed Fang Ziye's most extreme speculation on this research project.

After spinal cord injury, patients who are already paralyzed can use microcurrent stimulation to repair closed potential pathways.

But for fresh spinal cord injuries, microcurrent stimulation not only will not repair the spinal cord pathways in the acute injury phase, but will instead accelerate their damage!

Fang Ziye immediately said: "End the microcurrent stimulation immediately! ~"

"Perform embedding surgery on the microelectrode and bridging electrode, administer internal fixation surgery for the lumbar vertebra fracture, and perform open reduction internal fixation surgery for the pelvic fracture!"

When Fang Ziye gave this order, the circulating nurse immediately pressed the switch of the current stimulator.

Along with the current stimulator being turned off were everyone's excitement, "happiness," and "expectation"!

Mei Bin's mouth opened and closed as she murmured: "Why would this happen? The frequency and current intensity of the microcurrent stimulation are both within the absolutely safe range, aren't they?"

Fang Ziye looked at Liao Jia and said: "Brother Liao, in our animal laboratory, to ensure that the spinal cord injury of the domestic rabbit model also belongs to the stable phase, we underwent at least one week of cold treatment."

"Perhaps, after the human body undergoes one week of 'cold treatment,' the potential pathways in the local spinal cord have already been reconstructed."

"Currently, our understanding of the potential pathways inside the spinal cord is still relatively superficial."

"Today, the conclusion our experimental results can reach is that, through the bridging electrode, electrical signals inside the spinal cord can be transmitted, and the bridging electrode can bidirectionally conduct electrical signals."

"However, the experiment still produced the worst effect we expected: the physical properties and biological characteristics of the acute and chronic phases of spinal cord injury are completely different."

Upon hearing this, Liao Jia also narrowed his eyes and said: "In that case, we can only activate the backup plan—that is, after the patient finishes other surgeries, then administer microcurrent stimulation after a period of time, to find a time point relatively suitable for microcurrent stimulation."

"Nowadays, the various current channels inside the spinal cord are quite active, and because the injury has caused disorder in the current channels, performing microcurrent stimulation at this moment would lead to local short circuits and the like……"

"Such short circuits are the main reason why some patients cannot produce lower limb sensations during the spinal cord shock phase, but after rehabilitation, patients can recover most of their functions."

"According to what Song Yi said after consulting professors related to physics, circuits can be interfered with!"

"With so many electrical signals in our human body being able to conduct one-on-one like this, it is actually a miracle of human-made things; the basic physical principles hidden within are very difficult to explain……"

According to the definition of physiology, inside our body, almost every moment various electrical transmissions are taking place, and these transmissions can be non-interfering and orderly, which cannot be simply analyzed by current physics and biology alone.

Treating spinal cord injury is already difficult; Fang Ziye found one of the treatment methods, and now wanting to treat it even better is even more difficult.

"Since we already believe that continuing microcurrent stimulation would be harmful to the patient's prognosis, let's not continue anymore."

"Professor Wang Ou, I'm sorry to trouble you to perform fixation between the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae."

"Professor Zhang Ziqian, I might have made you run a trip for nothing." Fang Ziye apologized to Zhang Ziqian.

Zhang Ziqian shook his head and said: "Not a trip for nothing; at least we witnessed that our bridging electrode sheet can be applied in clinical practice!"

"Logically speaking, since the material of this electrode sheet can be applied in the heart, then applying it inside the spinal cord shouldn't cause any special reaction, right?"

"The myocardium inside the heart also frequently has electrical currents passing through."

The stimulation amount of cardiac electrical stimulation is far stronger than the electrical signals inside the spinal cord.

……

At three twenty in the early morning, after Fang Ziye led the team to complete the open reduction internal fixation surgery for the pelvic fracture, he handed over the internal fixation device implantation surgeries for the other two small fractures to Lan Tianluo and his own student Feng Junfeng.

Emergency Internal Medicine!

When Fang Ziye saw Luo Tingzhu, she had already finished her IV drip, and at this moment her condition looked much better.

The slightly pale lip color now had blood in it, and he was also hungry; a bottle of Eight Treasure Porridge was still placed at hand.

"Sister Yutong, really sorry, your best friend's situation is still too complex; she may still end up paralyzed postoperatively."

"However, after we operate on her, some function might remain; we'll see later if we can salvage a portion of function back."

"But Sister Yutong, there's one thing you still have to explain to the family: the spinal cord is an extremely critical motor-control anatomy; once injured, it's impossible to recover to a normal person's state."

Huang Yutong herself studied medicine; although she wasn't in spine surgery, she knew the terror of spinal cord injury.

But Huang Yutong was very calm right now, thinking clearly: "Professor Fang, my best friend, is she injured that severely?"

Fang Ziye nodded: "Yes, lumbar and thoracic vertebrae both fractured; it's possible there was only one fracture when she was crushed, and the other fracture occurred after she fell to the ground."

"Since the spinal cord is already damaged, then we can only accept fate like this. I'll go see her later; with this kind of thing we've already done our best."

"It's just she still has two kids, right, her kids..." Huang Yutong started making phone calls in a fluster.

Only then did Fang Ziye turn and walk toward Luo Tingzhu, then looked at the infusion device — there were still many participating drugs inside — and said: "Mom, I'll send you back first; I'm enough here..."

Liang Xia heard this and said: "Wait a bit, Tingzhu isn't going to work today; with her situation she has to take leave, I'm definitely going back with her."

"Tingzhu will take a taxi; you still have surgery day today, you go rest first."

"You're a Deputy Chief Physician after all; you still have to be responsible for your own patients."

Fang Ziye looked at Luo Tingzhu; Luo Tingzhu was secretly laughing — it was very obvious these lines Liang Xia spoke were all taught to her by Luo Tingzhu.

Luo Tingzhu said: "Senior Brother, I feel much better on this side; afterward it's just taking medicine."

"No matter, I can take leave today; you can't cancel surgeries already arranged, right?"

"Then I'll go up and sleep." Fang Ziye thought a bit, felt he should go to the Director's Office to rest for a while.

Although, Fang Ziye of course has the right to cancel surgeries; he just has to report to Medical Affairs.

But Fang Ziye's current situation isn't that special; he definitely can't report with this reason.

"Senior Brother, you were gone so long, how was that surgery?" Luo Tingzhu thought a moment, still quite curious.

Fang Ziye heard this, shook his head, sighed: "I'll WeChat you later, it's not easy to explain clearly."

"Can only say the outcome we least wanted, the worst result, happened to occur."

Luo Tingzhu said: "Oh, okay, then Senior Brother you go rest first..."

After Fang Ziye left, Liang Xia asked: "Tingzhu, what were you two just talking about? What worst result?"

Luo Tingzhu replied. "It's Senior Brother's research project; the experimental result in the project, the worst result appeared."

Liang Xia's gaze flashed: "Project? Tingzhu, don't tell me it's still that project from last time? It's been three or four months, still not figured out?"

"The spine is just a pig's big bone section; why research it this long?"

Luo Tingzhu felt a pang in her heart, shook her head: "Mom, you don't think Senior Brother is still deliberately lining his own pockets, or dragging his feet every day wasting time, do you?"

"Forget three months; even three years, they might not necessarily be able to push this project to perfection."

"The spinal cord injury project corresponds to paralysis..."

Liang Xia never thought her son would do corrupt things; she just used to think that way — she felt many people doing research deliberately drag progress, ask the country for lots and lots of money, yet have no substantive breakthrough.

Many people feel: as long as there's money there can be results; money given but no results produced, that's lining one's own pockets...

March 23, Sunday.

Zhongnan Hospital New Campus, Trauma Surgery, Director's Office.

Fang Ziye watched as Ben Yuan's Publicity Department and a group of reporters walked in from outside; he was still slightly bewildered, but thinking of the mobile phone reminder text message he saw yesterday, Fang Ziye suddenly realized — this was the Provincial Science and Technology Channel coming to do an interview.

This time mainly to do a special interview report here, mainly letting Fang Ziye talk about his research journey.

The core theme is the research state-of-mind journey related to the CAA paper.

"Sorry, conditions here are rather crude; these teacups were all newly bought by me just yesterday; hope all leaders, all reporters will make do." Fang Ziye said with a smile.

Hu Qingyuan and the others went in and out preparing tea-making work.

Publicity Department Director Ma Qingsong said: "Professor Fang, actually the Provincial Science and Technology Channel's Reporter Long wanted to come do a special interview on you long ago; a year ago they wanted to come."

"Just we asked leaders for instructions; leaders couldn't agree; back then after all Professor Fang your work unit wasn't certain yet; this interview was only finalized Thursday; I sent you a message Friday..."

Reporter Long curiously smiled and asked: "Director Ma, you just seemed to say Professor Fang's work unit uncertain? What does that mean?"

Ma Qingsong heard this, took a slightly deep breath: "Reporter Long, to avoid this interview failing review, better not chat this deeply."

"Emphasizing this word is quite interesting." Ma Qingsong used a word as a coded message; Reporter Long understands if she can, forget it if she can't.

Then, Reporter Long began interviewing Fang Ziye.

"Professor Fang, I heard you're only thirty-one today, already an Associate Professor and Deputy Chief Physician; may I ask if you've had an understanding of your own titles?" Reporter Long asked.

Fang Ziye heard this, smiled and nodded: "Of course I have understanding; actually, Associate Professors at my age are fairly common, but Deputy Chief Physicians at my age are not too common."

"But the two combined together, it's quite uncommon."

Fang Ziye immediately followed with a detailed analysis: as long as there's sufficient research contribution, people getting Associate Professor at thirty are a dime a dozen.

And many medical students even if they work right after professional master's graduation, two years attending, five years Deputy Chief Physician, still need thirty-two or three; basically won't promote to Deputy Chief Physician at thirty-one.

And if it's after reading a PhD, then unless they PhD graduate at twenty-six and completed standardized training, otherwise impossible to have such an opportunity.

Unless the legendary exceptional promotion, freely cross-discipline choose supervisor, one year standardized training, three years lead surgeon...

Reporter Long heard this, smiled: "Professor Fang, so you getting such titles is the National Health Commission personally opening a back door for you?"

"Is such a back door easy to open?"

Fang Ziye touched his nose, half-smiling: "This question I can't answer well; if you're interested, go ask the corresponding leaders of the Provincial Health Commission." "Actually these weren't personally applied for by me; our unit and our school helped me apply; so I really have to thank these leaders."

"This time it's a causal thank-you, not just textual thanks."

To be honest, Fang Ziye previously being able to get the National Health Commission's special approval for Deputy Chief Physician application, really thanks leaders; just with Fang Ziye's own master's school's bit of influence, couldn't even report Fang Ziye up to the National Health Commission.

"Then it must be extremely extremely difficult; I heard your hospital's Director Ma say, just your hospital's exceptional title application needs very strong clinical ability, research output, to have a chance at an exceptional quota."

"And now it's getting more and more competitive."

"Professor Fang, is there some secret to you being this excellent?" Reporter Long asked.

Reporter Long's questions had all been meticulously designed, from Fang Ziye's professional title, to the difficulty of obtaining that title, to the secret of his success now — layer by layer, deepening step by step, not a scattershot approach of this here, that there...

The interview continued!

Roughly three hours later, the interview seemed to have reached the real face-to-face talk: "Professor Fang, are you saying that your team is currently exploring treatment for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury, and may enter the clinical trial phase?"

"Why was there no news about this before?"

Fang Ziye smiled and said: "Before, we were all in the basic research stage. As the saying goes, we can never pop the champagne halfway. Before there are truly valuable results, if we publicize wildly, it counts as malicious publicity."

"Right now, we actually hope some patients will be willing to participate in our clinical trials. If any meet the clinical trial selection criteria, we hope they can contact our team."

"Everyone can search for our laboratory online to find contact information. Our laboratory's name is the Hanzhong University Zhongnan Hospital Trauma Surgery and Materials Laboratory..."

Reporter Long asked: "Professor Fang, as far as I know, there are quite a few teams currently researching spinal cord injury."

"Our domestic Huashan Hospital, just recently, officially announced that through brain-computer interface, through robots, they enabled spinal cord injury patients to stand up and walk again."

"I wonder, are the technical means Professor Fang speaks of such high-end technical applications?"

Fang Ziye shook his head: "Huashan Hospital team's application direction differs from our team's application direction. We should be reaching the same destination by different paths."

"We adopt a relatively more traditional surgical approach, performing incision and microcurrent stimulation inside the spinal cord..."

Reporter Long followed up: "Professor Fang, I heard your team has done many large-scale projects, and quite a few of these are projects that many big experts in our Hubei Province couldn't pull off."

"Yet Professor Fang's team has done at least four or more. Professor Fang, you're still so young — in this regard, do you have any experience and tricks?"

Fang Ziye took a deep breath: "No tricks at all. It all relies on my good teammates!"

"Let me emphasize here: doing such large projects really has no tricks or experience. It all depends on teammates!"

"Without good teammates, don't even think about doing large projects. This is the truth."

Fang Ziye knew very well that his personal ability was already maxed out, but, being just one person, the workload he could complete was extremely limited.

A genius can be a good team leader, but cannot be an omnipotent super-generalist who covers every single thing perfectly.

A genius without a team is just a madman, merely a fool.

Even a genius who hasn't found his own positioning is nothing more than a mediocre 'talent'!

"It seems Professor Fang values his team members greatly. I wonder if Professor Fang would be willing to reveal them?"

"What I mean is, if Professor Fang isn't afraid of people poaching them." Reporter Long asked.

"There are quite a few. For instance, my good big brother, Professor Liao Jia; Professor Nie Mingxian; for instance, my good junior fellow trainees, Doctor Jie Han, Doctor Lan Tianluo; for instance, my wife, Doctor Luo Tingzhu..."

"Also my classmate, Doctor Song Yi; my student Hu Qingyuan..."

"That's already too many."

"As for the poaching you mentioned, of course I'm afraid. But whoever dares to poach, I dare to strike back..."

"Right, Reporter Long, can I run an ad through you?"

"Our team is severely short of people. Whether basic research, clinical research, or fringe niche directions related to medicine — all are severely short."

"If there are talents in these areas who also want to accomplish something, please definitely contact me. My email is..."

After the interview ended, Fang Ziye's mood was still quite refreshed.

After politely seeing off Reporter Long and the others via the Publicity Department people, Director Ma Qingsong stayed in the office for the time being.

Fang Ziye hurriedly asked: "Director Ma, you said before that reporters also wanted to interview me previously, but the leadership didn't agree. What was that about?"

Director Ma Qingsong said: "Professor Fang, please don't put me in a spot. I don't know the root cause of this matter either."

"Anyway, the feedback passed back all along has been that Professor Fang's current work unit isn't finalized, so public interviews are inconvenient."

"Actually, both our hospital and the school's publicity departments have fought for this many times. Our hospital's Publicity Department has long wanted to release a report on Professor Fang."

"The reason we didn't dare make a big move is mainly based on two reasons."

"One is leadership disagreement. The second is that last year, the teacher from our school who won the highest award chose to keep a low profile, which made the rest of us even more afraid to act rashly."

Last year, Old Li, who won the National Highest Science and Technology Award, only released a bit of news on a small scale, and didn't let the school report on it extensively.

With just Fang Ziye's little achievement, can it be freely praised?

Such an interview, actually Fang Ziye did one last year too, just that it seemed not to have been aired. Perhaps now Fang Ziye counts as 'unbanned' status.

"Judging by the current situation, I still have to thank those leaders. Can they agree to finalize my work unit?" Fang Ziye took a deep breath, feeling quite stifled.

Ma Qingsong knew Fang Ziye might be holding anger in his heart. He smiled and said: "Professor Fang, life is only thirty-some thousand days. Don't be angry!"

Hearing this, Fang Ziye also nodded: "Yes, don't be angry. What I need to do is, one day make them angry, or make them feel powerless."

Ma Qingsong was startled upon hearing this, and deliberately gave Fang Ziye a look.

After that, the two didn't continue chatting deeply. Ma Qingsong merely gave Fang Ziye some guidance and feedback regarding this interview's matters, and told Fang Ziye to be careful to avoid those traffic-chasing self-media outlets.

After seeing off Director Ma, Fang Ziye sent a WeChat message: "Master, my interview just wrapped up here. It's already past 2 PM. How about we get together in the evening instead."

"I reckon you've all eaten already!"

"Then Ziye, you set the time and place! I'll ask Liu Huanglong in a bit. His rural rotation surgery should be back by now too." Deng Yong replied.

Today, Fang Ziye planned to have a banquet with several Orthopedics Department teachers: Deng Yong, Gong Jiahe, Du Xinzhan, and Yuan Weihong.

Originally Liu Huanglong was also coming, but he went out for a consultation today.

But now the time has shifted to afternoon. Liu Huanglong might have time.

"Okay, Master." Fang Ziye said.

"Then I'll pick the place."

"Are you bringing Tingzhu and your parents?" Deng Yong asked.

"Tingzhu has already gone back to the Yangyuan Laboratory. My parents are just eating at home." Fang Ziye replied.

This kind of work-nature banquet is naturally inconvenient to bring Lao Fang and Liang Xia to.

Evening, 6:30. Seeing Fang Ziye, Liu Huanglong's first sentence teased: "Director Fang is getting harder and harder to pin down now."

"We finally managed to set up a meal, and there's even an official TV station coming to interview us — do you think we dare disagree?"

"Professor Deng, what do you think?"

Deng Yong said with a smile-not-smile: "An interview from the official TV station — we still have to give some face, we need to cooperate with positive publicity, and that's a good thing for us personally as well."

"Besides, Little Fang being exclusively interviewed this time represents extraordinary significance — from now on we won't have to worry about being poached anymore."

Liu Huanglong listened, his tone meaningful: "Who knows if you'll regret it later, Ziye."

Fang Ziye leaned in with a grin, shaking his head decisively: "No regrets, absolutely no regrets."

"You haven't even heard why yet, and you've already chosen not to regret it?" Liu Huanglong countered with interest.

"I've actually been roped in as a persuader before too, only I didn't come to sleep with you." Liu Huanglong still maintained his lecherous attribute.

As ward director in the department he had to keep up appearances; keeping it up for long gets tiring, and now that he was out of the ward, he naturally let loose a bit.

Deng Yong asked curiously: "Liu Huanglong, why don't you tell us in detail?"

Liu Huanglong then laid out the conditions he knew — actually they were much the same as what Fang Ziye had heard on the phone last time, all very tempting, with only minor differences in details, nothing fundamental.

But such conditions, to Deng Yong and the others, seemed completely incredible.

The conditions Fang Ziye was currently being courted with were benchmarked at least at super-large-national-master-level treatment, even treatment that only some academicians have.

That is to say, actually many places aren't unrecognizing of talent, including many leaders in Hubei Province, they aren't unrecognizing of talent either.

It's just that for a long period before, Hubei Province's side had been in a game with Jingdu's side.

Jingdu's people wanted to get Fang Ziye over there, Hubei's people also wanted to keep Fang Ziye, Fang Ziye himself also wanted to stay, plus the sanatorium's support...

By now, this tug-of-war has finally dropped its curtain.

"Ziye, then your contract isn't an indentured contract, it's a nobility entry ticket?"

"Don't you feel tempted?" Deng Yong asked curiously.

Fang Ziye nodded: "Not tempted, Master!"

"Why?" Deng Yong asked.

"One, I've never thought of going to Jingdu to develop, so anything over there has no attraction for me."

"Two, the inner joy and sense of achievement I've gained now cannot be replaced by the things he gives."

"Sometimes self-recognition can be self-delusion, but in the end, self-recognition is the greatest motivation a single person pursues!"

"Three, the things they promise — if I don't go I can't get them, then I'll go get things they can't control!"

"Things related to entry tickets involve human relations."

"In truly high-end competition, human relations are of no use at all."

"Even Moutai can't get a Nobel, can people who drink Moutai and hang around society get one?" Fang Ziye was very confident.

Of course, this was also the first time Fang Ziye had spoken so candidly about his ambition in front of so many teachers and superiors.

Academician or not doesn't matter anymore, as long as it doesn't affect me being a doctor, as long as it doesn't affect me being an attending physician with independent surgical rights, it doesn't matter — having it I'm happy, not having it I won't starve.

Rather, honors like the Nobel Prize in Medicine that only speak of strength, not connections — that's what I want.

Deng Yong said irritably: "Ziye, this kind of talk you should say less, say too much and you'll offend people."

Fang Ziye then smiled mischievously: "Master, I only say this kind of talk at this moment; if outsiders could still hear it, that would mean some teacher doesn't love me enough."

Liu Huanglong discovered that after Fang Ziye finished speaking, everyone was staring at him.

Liu Huanglong was very uncomfortable: "Hey, why are you all looking at me?"

"Teacher Deng, I'm also from Zhongnan Hospital, I was born right here! Don't you trust the relationship between me and Fang Ziye?"

Yuan Weihong said with a smile: "Professor Liu, I trust you completely — you'll definitely say you and Fang Ziye have a master-disciple relationship, so the price must go up, and by at least five times!"

Yuan Weihong seemed able to predict Liu Huanglong's prediction: "That's just the kind of person you are."

Professor Du Xinzhan, who had been silent all this time, spoke up now: "Fang Ziye, actually I still don't understand your specific reasons for choosing."

Fang Ziye said: "Teacher Du, this is a gift I'm giving myself. Why would it need so many reasons?"

"Freedom, familiarity, acting willfully — aren't those reasons enough?" (Chapter End)