Chapter 11: First countryside doctor visit
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
When Zhang Fan went back to work after his lunch break, he prepared disinfectants before heading over to change Bayin’s medicine. When he went into the patient’s room, he saw that Bayin’s uncle, Superintendent Batu, was also present.
“Hello, Superintendent.” Zhang Fan didn’t say anything else as he placed his items by Bayin’s feet.
“I’m simply here to watch. Feel free to change his medicine, don’t mind me.” Batu was worried that his presence would be a distraction for Zhang Fan.
“Sure. Bayin, I’m going to change your medicine now. Your injury might scab over. It could hurt, so please hold on.”
The superintendent’s presence wouldn’t affect Zhang Fan in any way. Ever since obtaining his System, Zhang Fan’s medical techniques had become highly standardized due to all the training he did with his System. Providing a sterile environment for the patient was one of the most basic fundamentals of surgery that he had already mastered in the System.
“Alright, Doctor Zhang, please go easy on me. I’m afraid of pain.” Bayin was now afraid whenever he saw a doctor or nurse.
“Doctor Zhang should go harder on him. Otherwise, my son won’t learn from this lesson.” Although Bayin’s mother was saying this, her expression made it clear to Zhang Fan that she didn’t actually want Zhang Fan to do what she said.
“Relax, it’ll be alright.”
The injury’s recovery was going well. There was no swollenness or pain. Zhang Fan lightly pressed on the injury and saw no fluid coming out. He then began disinfecting and bandaging. After he finished the bandaging, he looked up, only to see that Bayin was sweating all over.
“Does it hurt?” Zhang Fan inquired.
“It’s fine. He needs to exercise more. He can’t tolerate any pain despite being a man,” Superintendent Batu commented about his nephew before speaking to Zhang Fan again. “It looks like the injury’s recovering nicely, right? One of the biggest dangers with orthopedic surgery is getting infected after the surgery. Previously, with Nuar’s and the others’ surgeries, it was quite common for patients to become infected after the surgery. Not only did I have to worry about their surgery skills, even the post-surgery infections were a headache for me to deal with.”
“Bayin should be fine,” Zhang Fan told Batu while preparing to leave and return to his own office. However, Batu stopped him.
“Are you busy this afternoon? If not, come over to my office later this afternoon.”
“Sure, I’ll come over right after I finish here.”
A few minutes later in Superintendent Batu’s office, Batu intentionally sat on the guest sofa together with Zhang Fan rather than sitting in his own chair. “You must have been tired over the past few days. Please take extra good care of Bayin. Although he’s about your age, he’s still immature like a little brat. He’s so willful, and just does whatever he wants. I hope that he can mature a little after suffering such a painful accident.”
“Rest assured, Superintendent. I shall give him my very best care.”
“Colleges in these days have greatly expanded their enrollment. In the past, it would have been impossible for even bigger city hospitals to be able to hire college students, not to mention a city hospital that’s as small as ours. Although the other fresh college graduates can’t compare to you, their overall level is still alright.
“Recently, our autonomous region held some promotional exams, and several more recent graduates were accepted at our city hospital. Our hospital dormitory isn’t large enough to give everyone a room, so we rented a large house with a nice environment from the Kuake City Communist Party Committee. I had the administrative director give you a private room. You won’t have a roommate. This will make it easier for you to self-study with nobody bothering you.”
“Superintendent, I’m quite satisfied with the current place I’m living in. Won’t it seem improper for only me to have a single room without a roommate?”
“No worries. Just rest assured and take that room. I’ve already made all the arrangements. It’s perfect that tomorrow is the weekend. I’ll have Director Wang use an ambulance to help you move. These two cartons are my moving gift to you.” Batu tossed two cartons of Red Snow Lotus cigarettes over to Zhang Fan.
“Thank you, Superintendent.” Zhang Fan accepted without any more polite refusals.
Although this was a house that the hospital rented for its employees, Superintendent Batu had given a single room to Zhang Fan. This was a way of thanking him. As the hospital superintendent, he didn’t need to go out of his way of thanking a specific doctor, but he would remember Zhang Fan whenever there was something good that a doctor could have.
Recently, Zhang Fan had been performing many surgeries. Since the snowfall sealed off the mountain paths and it became impossible to leave KuakeCity, the residents could only choose to treat their problems at Kuake City Hospital instead of going over to a bigger city nearby. If only the snowfall would seal off the city for an entire year, Zhang Fan would probably be able to graduate from his traumatic injury surgery studies within that time.
Right when Zhang Fan returned to his own office, the superintendent summoned him back again.
“A child was injured by a horse in S Village. His collarbone was fractured, and he also has a pneumothorax (collapsed lung). His situation is rather bad. It’s not possible to travel to Kuake City from S Village by car. They called the Bureau of Public Health, so the Bureau of Public Health reported it to the Kuake City Communist Party Committee. Our City Committee ordered our hospital to send a doctor over to S Village. You’re the best orthopedic surgeon in our hospital. It will take two hours to reach S Village by horse. Will that be alright?” Batu’s expression was quite serious. It seemed that the Kuake City Communist Party Committee felt that this incident was rather important.
“It’s hard to say without knowing more specifics about the situation. Also, I don’t know how to ride a horse…”
“Ah, that’s fine. I’ll have Shi Lei and Ma Lihua accompany you, along with two people from our security division. I’ll also contact the Kuake City police station and have them send some horses to pull you there on sleighs. Our Kuake City Hospital is the only hospital close enough to send a doctor over there in such snowy conditions. No matter what the situation is, someone absolutely has to go.”
“You should send Doctor Chen along with me then. He’s also an orthopedic surgeon. The patient’s situation will be easier to stabilize with another experienced doctor.”
“Okay, but don’t count too much on Doctor Chen. He’s the type that tries to avoid all responsibility.”
Zhang Fan immediately went back to make his preparations. He also went to the security division to borrow a thick military jacket. It was currently a bit past three in the afternoon. Since he was going to spend more than two hours on the road on a horse sleigh, he would freeze to death without warmer clothing.
Due to the influence of the Party Committee, the six members from Kuake City Hospital and two police officers all set out together within thirty minutes. It was still possible to drive in Kuake City’s streets, so some ambulances hauled everyone and their medical equipment. A large truck followed after the ambulances with the horses and sleigh inside. When the ambulances reached the outskirts of the city and were no longer able to drive, it would be time to use the horses and sleighs.
S Village was more than two thousand meters above sea level. This meant that the village was far colder than Kuake City. The great majority of S Village’s residents were nomads. After half an hour of driving, it became impossible to drive any further because there was too much snow accumulated on the roads farther away from the city. Zhang Fan looked all around him as he got on a sleigh for the first time in his life. He saw nothing but a pure white world of snow and ice.
“Vice Director Shi, does something like this happen every year?”
“Not always. The snow has been particularly heavy this year. I’ve never met such a situation myself, either.”
“S Village was supposed to be scheduled for demolition. However, the nomads refused to agree, so the demolition has been stalled for a while. I’ve gone there a few times as part of my service for the rural area. Their rural hospitals have decent supplies, but they lack good doctors. Over there, all their pregnant women give birth at home. Any issues with difficult labor usually result in both the mother and child’s death,” Ma Lihua explained while tightening her jacket.
“I was worried that you didn’t have a thick enough jacket, so I brought one just for you. You should put it on. The temperature will only go even further down after the sun sets.” Shi Lei brought out a leather jacket.
“I have a military jacket. You can give it to Sister Ma instead.”
“We’ve long since gotten used to the weather here. You should just put it on. Besides, I’m also wearing really warm clothing inside. I’m wearing a dogskin jacket.” Ma Lihua helped Zhang Fan to put on the leather jacket over the military jacket.
The sun gradually set and the wind started picking up in force. Luckily, Zhang Fan was wearing both a leather and a military jacket. Even so, snot constantly ran down his nose with how cold it was.
Ma Lihua asked, “Are we almost there yet? Doctor Zhang probably can’t take this anymore.”
“We’re almost there. We’ll be at the local S Village Hospital right after turning around that corner. Hold on for a little longer. We’ll have them cook some goat meat for us later tonight, and ask them to make it really spicy. This will help us to sweat right after eating it,” Shi Lei said.
“I’m already drooling. I’ve never wished so much to eat goat meat before. I’ve had way too much goat meat over the past few months,” Zhang Fan commented.
“Haha, if you live here for a few more months, maybe you won’t even enjoy pork anymore. Besides, doesn’t your Sister Ma have a beautiful cousin she can introduce to you? Haha…” Chen Qifa really loved to make jokes about ethnic minorities’ customs such as how the Uighur Muslim Ma Lihua wouldn’t eat pork meat.
“Hey you, you only know how to make fun of me? My cousin really is extremely beautiful.” Ma Lihua lightly hit Chen Qifa.
She then rubbed her leg while saying, “My leg is numb now. The doctors in our Kuake City are still better than doctors in a village like this since Kuake City is still a city. It’s truly hard for doctors out here in the countryside. All the equipment they have is a first aid kit and a horse.”
Everyone finally arrived at the S Village Hospital before it became dark. The injured boy was approximately ten years old; he had been kicked in the collarbone by a horse. His collarbone had been shattered, and a piece of the broken bone had also pierced through one of his lungs.
The rural countryside doctors were limited in their medical skills. All they could do was put pressure on the lung to lessen the bleeding and improve the breathing. Zhang Fan could instantly tell just from looking that the problem wasn’t severe. The boy simply had some pneumatosis in the lung which caused him difficulties breathing. Since Zhang Fan had already leveled up his suture abilities through the System, this type of surgery was not difficult at all for him.
Zhang Fan prepared for the surgery, performed debridement and osteosynthesis, and closed drainage. He finished the surgery within one hour. The nomads welcomed him incredibly passionately. If it wasn’t for Zhang Fan’s insistent refusal, they would have slaughtered an entire cow to welcome him.
Zhang Fan became drunk as it was impossible for him to refuse to drink. A white-bearded grandpa personally filled a silver bowl with horsemilk wine and sang while presenting the wine to Zhang Fan.
And so, Zhang Fan became drunk from horsemilk wine on his first countryside doctor visit.
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