Surgery Godfather

Chapter 349: Chapter 0332: The Future of Mayo

Xiao Su was waiting for Yang Ping at the entrance of the Overseas Chinese Building, and the two of them are going to the canteen for a meal.

After their meal, they take a walk and walk to the overpass where Hermes is singing. His wife is adjusting the sound system for him. This brother is a singer who was sidetracked by making money.

They perform one song after another, “Glorious Years”, “Sailor”, “Been the Eldest Brother for Many Years”. He’s phenomenal; his emotional investment in the songs is so genuine that it brings tears to the audience’s eyes, not to mention his incredible singing skills.

Although Hermes sings loudly near the hospital, the security guards wanted to discourage him, but after so many days, no one has complained, and many patients run to listen to his songs. The security guards have given up trying to stop it and have started clapping along with the music.

“I heard he used to be a coal boss; he lived quite luxuriously but is now bankrupt, sigh…”

“Look, his singing makes people cry.”

In front of Hermes, many notes of money, including hundred yuan notes, have been thrown into the stainless-steel basin. His daily income is quite good.

Since Hermes started performing, the overpass has become a hotspot attracting business resellers, herbalists, fortunetellers, and antique sellers. With his performances, Hermes has stimulated the local economy.

“Specialist appointments! Fuer, Provincial Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sanbo available…” Scalpers are promoting their services in the crowd.

“A cure for impotence and premature ejaculation, an 18th generation royal medical practitioner. A refund provided if three doses are ineffective.” The stallholder stroked his white beard while chatting with prospective customers.

“Genuine Qing Dynasty official kilns, selling due to financial difficulties.” An old scholar with round black glasses is fanning himself with a paper fan.

After walking around the hospital, the two stop under a tree. Yang Ping shares some recent events with Xiao Su. Regarding Boss Cheng offering shares, Xiao Su has a different perspective.

She says, “I think you should accept the shares, and you thoroughly deserve them. In Europe and America, doctors, especially well-known ones, have their own clinics. This is a way for them to realize their value, not just to make money. Besides, there’s no such thing as too much money. If we have more money, we can do more and help more people. If we have more money, we can help children like Sisi, and in the future, we can do charity and help even more people.”

“With more money, you don’t need to rely on others when conducting research or wait for funding approvals. You’d be free to establish your own lab to conduct your own research projects. Only financial freedom could provide other forms of freedom.”

“Of course, even if you become a shareholder, you don’t need to manage the hospital. You should just focus on surgeries and let Boss Cheng manage it. He’s a talented hospital administrator.”

“The hospital relies on you. Its future will naturally be guided by your thinking. In my opinion, Boss Cheng will eventually make you the largest shareholder. Isn’t it to his advantage to have you as his backer? For you, owning this hospital means you can shape it according to your vision. Maybe in the future, the hospital can become as good as the Mayo Clinic or the New York Special Surgery Hospital.”

Yang Ping didn’t expect Xiao Su to have such insights and was listening attentively to her.

Xiao Su then concluded, “I’m just a nurse and don’t know everything. You can take my words for reference.”

Yang Ping hugged her, “I feel that you view these matters from a higher and further perspective than me. I’ve been too focused on medicine. You make a lot of sense. I’ll take the shares.”

“Don’t take the initiative to bring it up yourself. I’ll talk to my brother and have him approach Boss Cheng. He can say that he readied your thoughts, and then Boss Cheng will naturally discuss the shares with you.” Xiao Su is very meticulous.

“Even though I don’t fully understand, through our daily conversations, I feel that the conditions at the hospital are now quite mature. Boss Cheng is a doctor by professional, and skilled at managing; he can manage full-time. You’re a top-notch doctor, dedicated to surgeries; my brother has a wide social network and can deal with some of the hospital’s public relations issues. This trio can lead to the rapid development of the hospital. In the future, when the hospital has more funds, it can buy land, build more buildings, and expand the hospital. That’s how the Mayo Clinic started.”

Xiao Su leans against Yang Ping. She knows what’s going on. She has clearly analyzed the situation to see what will happen in the next few decades.

—

In the morning rounds, nothing special happened with the other patients. However, Little Five had a patient with left leg pain who has been suffering for three years. The boy, 12, has been seen by many doctors who diagnosed him with ‘Growing Pains’. He has also undergone many tests and none showed any problems.

Growing Pains? Yang Ping found it strange. There’s no such diagnosis in medicine.

Generally, if children experience pain around the knee joint or in the front of the leg without any history of trauma, their movements are normal, there’s no local tissue redness or swelling, and no tenderness with pressure. If there are no other diseases, it is commonly defined as “growing pains”, in the belief that it is caused by rapid growth and development, or it could be related to calcium deficiency.

Factually, there is no such term as growing pains in medicine. Any professional medical journal or publication doesn’t mention the diagnosis or description of “growing pains”.

So, the concept of “growing pains” is an absolute misnomer. It’s used to describe children with pain in the region around the knee joint or in the front of the leg, physical examination and ancillary tests showing no abnormalities, it’s a name for such pain of unknown origin.

Similar to the widely misconceived term rheumatoid arthritis, all inexplicable knee joint pain gets classified as rheumatoid arthritis. It appears to be a diagnosis, but in fact, it’s also like having no diagnosis.

Pain is never without reason, and there’s always a cause for all pain. It’s just that the doctor hasn’t found it yet, or that medical science has yet to discover it.

Actually, this kind of pain is not related to “growth.” Most so-called “growing pains” are related to exercise. These “growing pains” usually “strike” at night, which is actually a result of a buildup of waste, such as lactic acid accumulated from a day’s movement. Or, it’s due to minor injuries to the muscles and ligaments causing the pain.

Athletes usually take saunas after a lot of exercise, causing the blood vessels to fully dilate, accelerating blood circulation, and eliminating waste materials like lactic acid as much as possible.

The so-called “growing pains” in children are essentially due to muscle fatigue and the generation of lactic acid after lots of exercise, similar to the muscular soreness adults occasionally experience after exercise.

Because children are active, they have a weaker ability to clear out lactic acid, and so this pain is even more apparent in them.

Yang Ping took Song Zimo to the ward, asked about the patient’s history, performed a physical examination and reviewed all the results of the tests the patient had undergone.

No issues were found, and all the results showed normal conditions. But the child was in pain, so how could it be considered normal? It’s just that the imaging examination did not reveal any issues yet.

“Should we redo an MRI?”

“Not necessary for now. Bring all the X-rays to the office, and I’ll review them again.”

Song Zimo collected the imaging pictures, a significantly thick pile.

The films were hung on the lightbox for viewing, and everyone available, as long as they were not immediately occupied, would gather around.

Takahashi, disregarding his status, fought for a spot alongside the students, moving quickly to get as close to Yang Ping as possible.

The films were hung up one by one. Some had been improperly stored and were damaged, showing some patches, and significantly interfered with reading the images.

Orthopedics, X-rays, CT, MRI, these three main tools indeed showed a very slight change in the density at the lower end of the right tibia on the CT. It wasn’t obvious unless looked at closely. It was thought to be a vascular impression. At the same location on the MRI, there was a slight signal change, also not obvious unless looked at closely. It was like a slightly lighter black within black, or a not-so-white white within white.

This area was at a common location for vascular impressions, which was naturally overlooked by all doctors and not thought abnormal.

“Do another MRI. This is chronic osteomyelitis, localized. This spot is not a vascular impression, it’s necrotic bone.” After Yang Ping finished reviewing the films, the diagnosis was out.

CT has a relatively large ionizing radiation, not good for a child to do multiple times. So, do another MRI to get the latest lesion image to guide the surgery.

“You can tell this is osteomyelitis from just that tiny spot?” Takahashi turned to Yang Ping. Right up to now, it wasn’t noticeable. The vascular impression on the image seemed typical. How could it be said to be necrotic bone? Could necrotic bone look like this?

In the future, if Takahashi wants to take over Fujiwara Masao’s work, he needs to accomplish something significant in orthopedics, not just be limited to trauma surgery. So, he wants to learn more from Yang Ping.

“If you show him two mosquitoes, with a glance, he could tell you whether they’re male or female. If you ask him how he figured that out, he’d simply tell you: look at their reproductive organs.” Song Zimo knew that Yang Ping’s judgment would definitely not be wrong.

“From now on, just follow his instructions. What you don’t understand, just ponder slowly.”

Song Zimo had Little Five call the family members over, and then explained to them the child’s illness: This is chronic osteomyelitis, localized. It’s a tiny spot and needs to be surgically removed. The infected and necrotic bone tissue inside needs to be fully cleared out, and then it’s to be filled with something called calcium sulfate. After the surgery is complete, the child’s problem will be solved.

The family members’ expressions fluctuated at the mention of surgery,

“We can do minimally invasive surgery. Cut a small incision about 1 cm, then use instruments to drill into the bone, and get out the necrotic bone along with the surrounding normal bone tissue. Afterwards, fill in the calcium sulfate, and stitch it up”

The mention of a minimally invasive approach pleased the child’s parents. If it had involved major surgery, they would have been a little fearful and worried.

“You certainly live up to your reputation. The technology here is really amazing. We’ve heard that the orthopedic department at Sanbo Hospital is very powerful, especially a certain Doctor Yang, you. We’ve heard that surgeries even the foreigners can’t handle, Doctor Yang can easily complete.” The parents of the child, enthused for a moment, began to flatter them.

Takahashi, standing on the other side and listening, heard it all loud and clear. His face flushed with heat; the “foreigner” referred to was obviously him, right?

“The doctor at our local health center said, ‘For your child, don’t bother with any other place. Just go to Sanbo, find Doctor Yang. Don’t get the wrong person. If even he can’t figure it out, you can stop bothering in the future, this disease can’t be treated.'” The child’s father was very articulate.

Source: Webn0vel.com, updated on Novg0.co