The Enhanced Doctor-Chapter 679: There’s worry even when there are too many good seedlings

Chapter 679: There’s worry even when there are too many good seedlings

(Thanks to Shameless Hermit, Drybrusher by the Inkstone Pool, and Hidden-in-the-night for their monthly votes of encouragement)

While waiting for the child to have a CT scan, Liu Banxia peered into Zhou Shuwen’s office. They seemed to be having a good conversation, with smiles on all three faces.

This reassured him; the small fecal transplant project was successfully all wrapped up.

Actually, he still felt a pang of sympathy for his mentor. Even though Zhou Shuwen had been somewhat hands-off in his guidance recently, Liu Banxia knew Zhou Shuwen himself must be having a hard time as well.

Chief Director Chen, with a quick turn of his mind, had pushed him (Liu Banxia) into the spotlight. What was Zhou Shuwen supposed to do?

He clearly lacked advantages in every aspect, yet he had to compete with a chief plastic surgeon for the deputy director position. Would someone brought over by Vice Director Shen be incompetent?

Someone like that could probably be a Chief Director at an ordinary plastic surgery hospital. How could he compete?

Zhou Shuwen wasn’t particularly adept at these power struggles. But even if he wasn’t, with his teacher and student involved, he had to give it some serious thought.

Forcing a very capable person to do something he wasn’t good at and thoroughly disliked—wasn’t that just making things difficult for him?

However, Liu Banxia had no choice; he was in a situation where he couldn’t call the shots. Next, he had to make the rounds of various departments—not just those in the Emergency Center, but also those in the Inpatient Department.

Since he had decided to fight for it, he could use the opportunity of visiting various departments to build connections with the big shots. At the very least, he needed to get his face known by some of them; perhaps they would vote for him in the future.

"Hey, President Liu, covering shifts again, huh? Next time, come cover a half-day shift in our department!" Du Fancheng, who was escorting a patient out, saw Liu Banxia and teased him.

"I’d love to, but I really don’t have the skills for that," Liu Banxia asked. "What’s up? Someone you know?"

Du Fancheng nodded. "An old patient of mine; his hearing has declined a bit more. I actually suggested he wear a hearing aid, but he says it feels odd."

"Sigh... Actually, many people are quite self-conscious about it, as if wearing a hearing aid suddenly makes them feel ancient. You can’t persuade them otherwise; they’re needlessly sacrificing their quality of life."

"It’s the same for everyone; no one wants to admit their body is failing them. The older people get, the more sensitive they ironically become about this," Liu Banxia said.

"And don’t you forget, try to come up with a training plan for the Otorhinolaryngology Department in the next few days. I’m really counting on you guys to make me shine; otherwise, I might lose spectacularly."

"Right now, I daren’t hope for much else, but at the very least, I want to be defeated with dignity. If not, I’ll be too embarrassed to show my face in the Emergency Center anymore."

"What’s with you, playing the sympathy card again! Seriously, give me half a day or so. I’ll mull it over and see if I can come up with some areas for improvement," Du Fancheng said helplessly.

"Haha, I have no choice; it’s just your bad luck you’re caught up in this. If I still cared about saving face at a time like this, I’d go down in flames," Liu Banxia said.

"Alright. Seeing how frank you’re being, I’ll put more serious thought into it," Du Fancheng said with a straight face.

This made both of them chuckle. Chatting for a bit like this helped alleviate some of their work fatigue. Whether it was Du Fancheng seeing patients or Liu Banxia reviewing case files, working in a hospital was never easy.

Du Fancheng didn’t chat with him for too long; the work at hand couldn’t be delayed. It was his responsibility sooner or later, and the sooner he dealt with it, the easier it would be.

After a little while longer, the family of three returned. Liu Banxia glanced at the CT scan results—negative.

"Please wait a moment. I’ll make a call and ask a physician from the Neurology Department to come take a look," Liu Banxia said.

"Thank you, Dr. Liu. Can he be hospitalized?" the child’s father asked anxiously.

Liu Banxia nodded. "He can, but I’m worried it might be a waste of your money."

"It’s alright. As long as our child gets better, we can rest easy," the child’s mother said.

Liu Banxia said no more and picked up the phone to call Zhang Ping from the Neurology Department, who was on duty that day.

After a brief conversation, Zhang Ping agreed to come over once he finished what he was doing.

"Dr. Liu, do you really think this is a sequela of his concussion? It’s been so long; it shouldn’t be getting worse, right?" the child’s father asked after Liu Banxia hung up the phone. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"I can’t make a definitive diagnosis just yet, which is why I’ve called a physician from the Neurology Department. He has handled more cases like this and might notice something I’ve missed," Liu Banxia said with a smile.

"You can also try to carefully recall if there have been any other significant changes in your life recently, besides the insomnia and lack of concentration."

This last sentence was directed at the young patient.

The child shook his head. "All I want to do now is sleep. I’m so sleepy I can’t stop yawning."

Liu Banxia nodded; the child’s energy levels were indeed very low. In such a state, even if he questioned him about his symptoms, it would be difficult to get an accurate answer.

Prolonged sleep deprivation can also have a significant impact on the body, leading to a series of problems. Memory loss, lack of concentration, cardiovascular diseases, digestive system disorders, emotional problems, and so on—all these areas can be affected.

"President Liu, what’s the situation?" Zhang Ping walked in at that moment.

"The child experiences night terrors, and it’s the same during daytime naps. These symptoms began half a month ago after he hit his head while playing soccer," Liu Banxia said.

"We’ve also done a CT scan, which was negative. He has no previous medical history. The child’s father insisted on admitting him for observation. I considered post-concussion syndrome, but there were no typical symptoms such as headache, dizziness, or nausea."

Zhang Ping nodded and carefully examined the CT scans.

"Let’s do this: we’ll admit him to the Neurology Department first and do an EEG to monitor him overnight. Considering the child’s current condition, I’m also considering prescribing some sedatives to help him sleep," Zhang Ping said after reviewing the scans.

"Prolonged lack of proper rest can also cause a certain degree of central nervous system dysfunction. Let’s see how the child does tonight. If the night terror symptoms are still prominent, we’ll have to do the relevant tests tomorrow."

"Complete blood count, blood biochemistry, lumbar puncture—all these need to be done. We need to see if it’s caused by encephalitis. For now, these are the main possibilities we can consider."

"Encephalitis? Inflammation of the brain? Then... isn’t my son doomed?" The child’s father suddenly panicked.

"Please try to stay calm. This is merely our speculation about the possible cause. Usually, encephalitis is accompanied by fever, which your child doesn’t have," Liu Banxia said.

"Please, let it not be encephalitis. If he gets that disease, it’s all over," the child’s father muttered.

"Let’s get the admission procedures started then. Dr. Zhang will arrange the necessary observations for tonight," Liu Banxia said.

"He should also eat a good dinner. His recent lack of sleep must have affected his appetite too. He can... well, whatever flavors he likes, now’s a great chance, though our cafeteria food isn’t bad either."

He had just been about to say, "Eat whatever you want," but he swallowed the words just in time. He was worried that if he said it, the child’s father would be frightened again.

He was also quite curious why the child’s mother had said so little. She was clearly very concerned, yet she had only uttered a single sentence.

"Brother Zhang, don’t leave just yet. There’s something else I need to discuss with you," Liu Banxia said.

"Is it about the training program?" Zhang Ping asked with a smile.

"You’ve heard about it already? Anyway, I’m counting on your help for this one," Liu Banxia said.

Zhang Ping nodded. "But our Neurology Department’s assessment methods aren’t as straightforward as those in your Surgery Department; it’s pretty much the same for the entire internal medicine system."

"The main focus of our work is actually diagnosing patient conditions. If we want to make improvements in our field, it would mostly be in certain procedures, but those are relatively limited in scope."

"Whatever it is, please put some extra thought into it. I’ve already handled Orthopedics and Otorhinolaryngology. Now that I’ve gotten your Neurology Department on board, I’ll move on to the other departments."

"Haha, good luck with that. But I think the Inpatient Department will be the real challenge, right?" Zhang Ping asked.

"Yes, that’s the real headache," Liu Banxia admitted with a wry smile.

"But I’m planning to tackle this in two steps. For now, we’ll start implementing things here in our Emergency Center and see how it goes. If the results are good, and we have enough time, we can then make provisional adjustments to the Inpatient Department’s training program."

"Of course, all of this also depends on whether the senior doctors agree. After all, improving teaching quality will definitely take up a lot of the supervising physicians’ personal time."

"That’s what’s giving me the biggest headache. Work is already so demanding; if we could figure out a more concise and clear training pathway, that would truly be a win-win situation."

Zhang Ping shook his head. "If every intern and resident had the drive and ability of our current batch, there wouldn’t be a problem."

"Being proactive versus passive makes a huge difference in results. These young ones, even if you don’t push them, they know they need to study hard."

"This batch of interns in our Emergency Center are all good prospects. Unfortunately, many of them are already spoken for. Our Neurology Department might be able to keep one, and Neurosurgery perhaps one too. It seems your General Surgery Department got the most, keeping all of yours."

"That was really just luck. Back then, the Chief Director probably wanted our Emergency Center to show results quickly, so he put more resources into the General Surgery Department’s intake," Liu Banxia said.

"But it wasn’t easy. I practically had to fight tooth and nail to keep them. I’m also worried about the future; promoting them to attending physician will be an issue. With so many of them, how can we resolve it all at once?"

"Haha, that’s your headache to deal with. They’re all your star recruits, after all. Let’s see how you handle it then," Zhang Ping said with a cheerful laugh, then headed back to his office.

Liu Banxia shook his head. He wasn’t just idly complaining earlier; he was speaking from the heart. Having too many promising talents was also a headache.

No matter how much the hospital favored the Emergency Center, it couldn’t possibly create so many attending physician slots all at once. When the time came, these six young talents would have to compete fiercely amongst themselves.

Well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. Maybe things would take a turn for the better in the future.