Path of Medicine With a System

Chapter 67: Medical patches

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Death! Such a scary concept. However, death would occur in the cardiovascular department on almost a daily basis. Death might arrive at any moment. After one week, Zhang Fan became numb and even accustomed to death.

Actually, this wasn’t a good condition to be in. Lacking respect for death would make one a cold and distant person who lacked empathy and pity due to getting too accustomed to death. However, there was no helping it. China’s population was far too large, with only so many doctors. What else could the doctors do? This was simply the natural order here.

Many people felt that doctors were cold and cruel. Actually, the doctors were simply helpless after experiencing far too much death. Doctors were just normal people too. They often had to carry a burden that other normal people wouldn’t understand.

Humans’ capacity for emotion was limited. Facing and witnessing death on a daily basis would naturally result in numbed emotions. No matter how much pain or sadness the patient’s family experienced, that was just something normal to the doctor, just like eating and sleeping. This was the pity of being a doctor in China.

Zhang Fan had been confused and lost the first time that he faced death. Back then, he’d felt as if the sky had fallen. He often had bloody dreams during that time.

Doctors weren’t capable of doing everything. It was quite often that a doctor would be helpless. There were many terminal illnesses where the patient couldn’t be saved. However, the doctors would still have to face the patients and their families’ pleading expressions.

Doctor was a profession that would cultivate the heart. Getting past this would mean that Zhang Fan was truly becoming a professional doctor, and that his personal path was maturing. He would no longer be an ordinary person or intern doctor. Whenever someone else talked to him, they would typically address him by the title of “Doctor”.

To summarize, life in the cardiovascular department was tense, difficult, and carefully detailed.

The heart was the human body’s version of an engine. Any minor accident involving the heart would be fatal. Cardiologists’ nerves were always stretched to the highest tension as they were in charge of fixing this all-important engine.

It was normal for the cardiovascular department’s emergency treatment operation rooms to be the most numerous and largest at any regular Class A hospital. The stocked medicine and medical equipment were also the most complete. It was common for there to be two or three medical teams simultaneously working to try and save patients near death.

Typical intern doctors would lack the mental fortitude to participate in emergency treatment. Those who wouldn’t tremble when seeing such a scene were already considered passable. It wasn’t like a doctor would naturally be hardened when first starting out.

Only by experiencing daily medical work and undergoing years of professional training would doctors become hardened and resolute. It was impossible for a doctor to have a long career without being hardened. If a doctor cried over every single patient that died under their care, well, they wouldn’t need to go to work anymore, as they would be crying every single day.

Back when Zhang Fan was in his second year of medical school, his human anatomy dissection teacher had given the class of future doctors a warning: being a doctor was no pleasant job, and the future doctors would need to directly face death. For the first year, medical students would focus on learning the basics. Only in the second year would the medical students start learning actual practical skills.

The weather had been really hot that year. The human anatomy dissection room had been closed off for the entire summer when no classes were in session. The entire building was filled with the stench of formalin and rotten flesh.

A bunch of newbie medical students were all excited as they surrounded a corpse container. Even though it was very hot, there were still many medical students. More than 30 people were all gathered together for the sake of witnessing so-called human dissection for the first time.

The moment that the container was opened, a rotten smell washed over everyone. The corpse inside had already been cut open, revealing what was inside. It was unknown which student vomited first.

*Retch!* This student vomited up some tofu soup. The next student vomited up vegetables and spicy peppers. All the students started hurling everywhere, painting the floor with various colors. The floor became covered in milk, bread, noodles, eggs, and so on. Someone actually even ate stinky tofu for breakfast. That smell!

Obviously, more than 30 people all vomiting together in a closed room would create an incredibly sour stench.

The human anatomy dissection teacher had exited the room long ago. She knew that the first class would be the hardest, but it was also something they needed to experience. For the next two years, the human anatomy dissection class continued with the students getting accustomed to being with corpses on a daily basis.

By the end, the students became accustomed to corpses to the point where they could eat instant noodles right next to a corpse.

This wasn’t about disrespecting a corpse. It simply couldn’t be helped. If you couldn’t get used to corpses, it would be impossible for you to be a doctor. Students who couldn’t get used to corpses should quit so as not to waste their own and the patients’ time.

In the cardiovascular department, Zhang Fan spent the majority of his time writing medical reports and performing electrocardiograms. There were far too many different types of medicine used in the cardiovascular department. Zhang Fan had yet to learn them all even after more than one week. He was only a normal person without the aid of his System.

The other two young female doctors who rotated together with Zhang Fan knew much more than he did. This was because they had been in internal medicine departments beforehand. Well, since Zhang Fan couldn’t compare, he would do his best to study. He couldn’t just wait around for his System to open up internal medicine corpses. Thus, Zhang Fan started studying internal medicine textbooks. If reading a textbook one time wasn’t enough for him to learn the content, then he would read it two times. If two times were insufficient, then he would read it three times. Zhang Fan was used to grinding.

Zhang Fan would return to his apartment after his work shifts and study his textbooks. He made good progress, especially since he was also simultaneously obtaining hands-on experience. He started picking up the foundational basics that he had previously forgotten. Physiology, biochemistry, pathology, and so on were all equally important. Lacking knowledge in any one area would mean not being able to understand why a specific type of treatment was necessary, or how an illness came about.

The medical field was one where learning interconnected courses was especially important. Missing a single course would mean lack of knowledge, which might result in not understanding an illness and being unable to successfully treat a patient.

Shao Hua’s mother had greatly improved recently. Zhang Fan’s massages for her were highly effective. This evening, she came over to see Zhang Fan. She had been coming over every day for massage treatments while accompanied by her daughter Shao Hua. However, Shao Hua didn’t come with her today. Zhang Fan felt slightly disappointed to see that Shao Hua’s mother had come alone.

“Thank you, Doctor Zhang. I’ve improved so much recently. Look, I can even lift my arm without much pain.” She then raised her arm to show Zhang Fan.

“That’s good, then. You must be exercising at home, right? Just my massages alone won’t have such a good effect.”

“That’s right. Every day, I’ve been practicing the wall-climbing exercises that you taught me.” Shao Hua’s mother then took out a box of medical patches. “Doctor Zhang, take a look at this. My next-door neighbor gave this to me. She said that it’s really miraculous, and that a paralyzed patient was able to stand after sticking on a few boxes’ worth of these patches. I didn’t believe her, but she absolutely insisted that I try.”

Zhang Fan took the box of medical patches and inspected the contents. He found that the patch’s medicinal properties stemmed from safflower extract and musk. “Ma’am, these medical patches will be somewhat effective for improving blood circulation. However, it shouldn’t have much effect on your shoulder periarthritis.”

“Yeah, I didn’t believe that it would be so miraculous. My neighbor made it sound so divine, but also said that one box costs more than 100 yuan.”

“Ma’am, you should continue your regular exercises and keep receiving massages from me. This medical patch shouldn’t be of any use of you. How come Shao Hua didn’t come with you today? Is she alright with letting you come here alone?”

“I’m almost completely well, so of course she’s alright with letting me come alone. She’s working overtime today. It seems that her boss is checking up on everyone’s work, so she’s been really busy recently.”

“Oh!” Zhang Fan felt much better now. He had been worried that Shao Hua was avoiding him. Although there had been no romantic development between them, Zhang Fan had been quite proactive in finding topics to chat about every day while treating Shao Hua’s mother.

By the way, on the topic of medical patches, strange rumors had been spreading about them in China. Such rumors said that a person paralyzed for more than 10 years could suddenly stand up again after using a certain type of medical patch. Without even talking about the medical patch’s effects, a person’s muscles would atrophy severely after being paralyzed for more than 10 years. It would be impossible to stand up again without a long period of physical therapy. It wasn’t like people were robots made out of metal.

Many elderly people in China even believed such rumors that also claimed that these medical patches would cure hundreds of different illnesses. If you had a cough, you were supposed to apply the patch on your throat. If you had a headache, you were supposed to apply the patch on your forehead. If you had a stomachache, you were supposed to apply the patch on your stomach.

Many illnesses were simple illnesses that would automatically go away by themselves. However, some elderly people would believe that using two medical patches would help a cold to go away. Using a medical patch seemed far better than needing an injection or medication, and it seemed so effective!

One box of these medical patches cost a bit more than 100 yuan. Wasting a little money wasn’t that important, but potentially worsening an illness because of believing in a scam medical patch would be no small matter. Even though China’s medical field had many problems, China had still successfully improved its citizens’ average lifespan from the thirties to the seventies in just several decades. This was all thanks to China’s advances in the medical field 1 .

The cardiovascular department was incredibly busy currently. It was now around the end of winter and the beginning of spring. This season was one where people would often catch colds or infections, which would then lead to a weakened heart. The patient rooms were completely filled. There were even many patients without beds who could only stand or lie in the hallways.

With so many patients, it would be easy for there to be a medical incident. Director Ren emphasized this on a daily basis in the departmental morning meetings. Everyone was also very tense because of this.

Ye Jing was having a hard time with the workload recently. If it weren’t for the fact that Zhang Fan was helping her, she would have applied for vacation time already.

Even though everyone was being so careful, a major medical incident occurred with one of Ye Jing’s patients. Ye Jing instantly collapsed.