Chapter 151 - Meal (1/2)
The result of the pathological examination arrived!
The result was fortune among misfortune. The lesion was between benign and malignant, and had high tumor differentiation. The expert doctor that Director Liu invited was the type who favored conservative treatment. The moment that the pathological test reported the lesion as cancerous, no matter what the tumor differentiation degree was, the expert doctor cleared out all of the lymph glands in the nearby area.
Although this would cause quite a lot of damage to the body, this was the safe path! There was a more aggressive school of thought that the cancerous site didn't need to be cleaned out, instead waiting to observe the situation or directly use radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The benefit of this was that there would be less damage to the body, but the downside was that it would be easier for the cancer to relapse!
If you were the type who favored conservative treatment, but your department director was the type who favored aggressive treatment, then you would feel great pain from being in such a department. This was why so many doctors would compete over the position of department director. The fight between different medical treatment styles was just like how Confucius murdered his rival Shao Zhengmao. The fight between different medical schools of thought would be quite cruel, often only having bitter resolutions. It was common for a department to end up with only doctors of the same medical school of thought in the end as doctors with other beliefs would end up leaving. That would then make everyone in the department much happier!
The expert doctor began to clean out the lymph glands. He was very careful and detailed, going from down to up, then from up to down. He cleared out every single one that he possibly could. Typically, he would only start performing surgery at this stage of the surgery back at Zhongyong Hospital in Beijing as his disciples would do the earlier work for him, but since he was being paid a handsome amount of money, he personally performed all this work out of professional pride here.
The surgery finished. The anesthesiologist and operating room nurse took the patient Liu Wenli to the ICU. Director Liu took Zhang Fan and all the other doctors in the department to a meal treating the expert doctor. Of course, the patient's family was responsible for paying for this meal, but they wouldn't be joining it!
The expert doctor abstained from drinking alcohol. He simply ate some of the border province's special mutton, beef, and horsemeat dishes along with some vegetables. Not long after, Director Liu hurriedly drove the expert doctor to the airport as the latter needed to rush to Raptor City. The car was yet another Mercedes Benz that the patient's family had borrowed.
The expert doctor had now left. The surgery was over, but the patient's family didn't even get a chance to thank the expert doctor. He hadn't even met any of the patient's family members. He had performed far too many surgeries in his life, so dealing with the patients was already his daily routine. He didn't need to think about dealing with the patient's family!
As the expert doctor was leaving, Zhang Fan took the opportunity to ask a single question. ”Teacher, what should we do for this patient's postoperative care?”
”He can be discharged from the hospital soon! Just wait and observe. No special treatment is necessary.” This was the benefit of conservative treatment. Although there was a large amount of damage to the body, the cancer had been cleanly removed. There was no fear of relapsing! There was no need for chemotherapy! This was also the expert doctor's self-confidence in his own handiwork.
Zhang Fan had already seen during the surgery how skilled the expert was, along with the expert's mentality. The expert's mentality was still beyond Zhang Fan's skill level. The expert doctor had been far too steady! He took everything step by step, completely unhurried. It would be impossible to accomplish this without an experienced mentality! This was what Zhang Fan lacked. There were always those out there who one could learn from.
Liu Wenli's wife was truly a strong woman. When the nurse came out to tell her as quickly as possible that her husband had carcinoma in situ, meaning that the cancer hadn't spread, all the other family members besides her started crying! They were crying tears of joy! Liu Wenli's wife wiped away her own tears and hurriedly thanked the nurse and started preparing red packets!
The expert doctor had now left. The postoperative care would need to be done by the local doctors. Although the expert doctor had been invited here by Director Liu, overall, the patient's family's actions meant that they looked down on the local doctors here. Liu Wenli's wife had plenty of preparations ready in order to ease such awkwardness! She truly was emotionally intelligent! Maybe this was because she was an elementary school teacher.
Liu Wenli was quite lucky and survived! After three days of observation in ICU, he was then moved to a regular patient room in the cardiothoracic department. His son and wife constantly stayed by his side. They didn't dare to allow Liu Wenli's parents to come over, because he looked too pitiful with so many tubes stuck in him. They were worried that his parents would become anxious at the sight.
Liu Wenli still couldn't speak, because he had a breathing tube! He caressed his son's face and held onto his wife's hand. He felt that being alive was so wonderful! He would be able to see the rising sun again. He would be able to continue accompanying his wife and son. He would be able to take care of his parents in their old age! This all seemed truly wonderful!
Since Zhang Fan was assigned to be Liu Wenli's primary doctor, he paid special attention to him as this surgery counted as a major surgery. Zhang Fan checked up on Liu Wenli three times per day, not missing a single time. Liu Wenli gradually recovered to the point where he could talk again, walk again, and then be discharged.
Liu Wenli had truly been lucky! The cancer had been discovered quite early, so the treatment was effective. If just six more months had passed without the cancer being discovered, the end result wouldn't have been anywhere nearly so wonderful. When Liu Wenli was discharged, Zhang Fan grabbed his hand, and asked, ”You've had a life-and-death experience. Did the god of death say anything to you?”
”The god of death told me to stop smoking!”
”Haha! It's good that you understand!” Zhang Fan watched the balding Liu Wenli leave the hospital. Liu Wenli was a middle-aged man with lots of responsibilities. Did he dare to die? Of course not! In that case, he would protect himself! He would only do as he pleased once he was done with his responsibilities! Men would forever be children at heart!
Ma Wentao's hospital's business slowly became better and better. The doctors he hired had good attitudes. There were also short lines at his hospital. Ma Wentao was really ambitious, and started placing even more importance on how he managed his hospital. His small hospital was quite orderly under his management, which was a combination of western and Chinese management styles. He had his own personal management style which seemed to work pretty good so far.
Li Liang became dejected. He truly felt like there was no future for him! In just one short year, Chasu City Hospital no longer hired medical students who only had undergraduate degrees. Only those with master's degrees and above would be accepted! Undergraduate students were no longer wanted! Li Liang's father was a minor government official who only had connections in Kuake City, so there would be no way that his father could help him get into Chasu City Hospital or become a graduate student.
”What's up? What's wrong?” Chen Qifa greeted Li Liang who had called him out for a meeting.
”Director Chen, I came here to Chasu City today to look at Chasu City Hospital's recruitment exam requirements, but they're not even recruiting undergraduate students anymore!” Li Liang was about to cry. The fatty had worked hard for the past year, but the end result was that he wouldn't even be given a chance.
”Sigh! Take things slow, take things slow.” Chen Qifa patted Li Liang on the shoulder. He didn't know how he should console Li Liang. Kuake City Hospital's current state was that there were absolutely zero surgery patients to treat. Maybe that would make it a good hospital for doctors who wanted to have an easy time in old age, but it would waste the abilities of anyone young! Three years would be more than enough to make someone as young as Li Liang completely waste away!
”You should go and rest for now; your spirit and energy are so lacking. I'll call for Teacher Zhang to come over later tonight. The three of us can have a good conversation and see if there are any ideas.”
Li Liang was now dealing with the consequences of the exact same situation that had helped Zhang Fan back then. The colleges had really expanded admission during Zhang Fan's time, so now the hospitals were only recruiting graduate students.
As a certain joke went, a certain workplace needed to hire someone to tend to a furnace. This workplace was only willing to recruit a graduate student who had majored in thermodynamics, because the workplace said that a thermodynamics graduate student would know how to save on using coal in the furnace!
Later that afternoon, Zhang Fan came over, and Li Liang explained the situation. There was nothing that Zhang Fan could do about helping him get a job at Chasu City Hospital, because those were the hospital's rules. He was still just a low-ranking doctor, and didn't have the power to change the rules. Meanwhile, Superintendent Zou had truly made a big mess of Kuake City Hospital. Even if a new superintendent was appointed, it would take at least several years for Kuake City Hospital to recover.
How many ”several years” would a person have to wait around? It would be unrealistic to expect Li Liang to stay at Kuake City Hospital and continue working hard! Adults who had graduated and joined the work force already couldn't joke like that! Everyone would understand that you could only succeed by following the crowd.