Chapter 427: Good Intentions and Difficult Choices

I used to think Dr. Xu spending most of his salary to compensate victims’ families was unnecessary.

Now I finally understand there’s a hidden story behind it.

The victims of Dr. Xu’s medical incident are incredibly powerful, and Dr. Xu himself is just a regular doctor. Without showing real sincerity, if those people can’t let go of their anger, it’d only take a word from them for disaster to strike him.

Doctors not only have to battle illness but also fend off attacks from behind—some obvious, some hidden.

People from the hospital administration, leaders at all levels, supervisory departments, and local power players—basically anyone with a bit of influence can mess with a doctor.

Zhou Can could fully grasp now how tough things were for his mentor.

“Teacher, if a company invites you to give a lecture, would you accept?”

Zhou Can had so much money now, he could never spend it all.

Dr. Xu had to use most of his monthly salary to compensate victims’ families. At his age, he didn’t even own a car and dressed just plainly. He must not be doing well financially.

Zhou Can figured, by inviting Dr. Xu to give lectures, he could help him earn some extra money outside his regular pay.

Giving him cash outright would just be an insult.

Dr. Xu definitely wouldn’t accept that.

“I’m content with how things are right now. But thank you for thinking of me. By the way, that patient with the severe thigh burn and infected wound—how do you plan to treat him?”

Dr. Xu was sharp, and he immediately understood Zhou Can’s good intentions.

He politely declined and changed the subject right away.

Clearly, he didn’t want to discuss it any further.

“The patient can’t have anesthesia, so we can’t do debridement surgery. I plan to admit him to the special care ward and use the lab’s sterile maggots to clean out the dead tissue. If all goes well, we should see results in about three or four days.”

Zhou Can couldn’t help but feel a little excited to try out this method nobody there had ever used before.

Throughout his medical career, he’d dealt with all sorts of tough cases. It forced him to innovate, constantly trying different approaches to find what fit best for each patient. That’s how he built up real hands-on experience.

That’s the only way to keep getting better.

“We might not have maggots of the green bottle fly in our hospital lab, but the medical school should. You could ask Director Tan from Internal Medicine—or even Director Zhang Bihua from Obstetrics—to help out. The main issue here is urgency. If we request them ourselves, getting a batch in three days would already be great.”

Dr. Xu gave him a few pointers.

Ordinary doctors didn’t have that kind of network.

But Zhou Can was on good terms with both Director Tan from Internal Medicine and Director Zhang from Obstetrics.

A small favor like this—they’d definitely help him out.

After some thought, Zhou Can decided to ask Director Tan.

Once he finished talking with Dr. Xu, he used a lunch break to check his phone for messages and missed calls.

Reporter Mu Qing had already replied to him.

“It’s a done deal! Don’t forget my treat!” (playful smile emoji)

She really got things done fast.

He hadn’t expected her to connect with that girl so soon.

Now all he could do was hope for a good outcome.

Reporters aren’t miracle workers.

That girl’s boss was clearly no pushover. Making him pay a huge sum of medical expenses would be harder than climbing the sky.

Getting compensation for her father dying in the mine accident? Even less likely.

Her uncle obviously pocketed that money for himself—he’d never give it up easily.

On the other hand, the patient’s family should be easier to handle.

Worst case, let them sue—but only if there’s an organization that can protect the girl’s safety.

You could tell she was terrified of the patient’s family.

Those fierce relatives, furious as they were, might turn on her. They could even detain or hurt her.

Zhou Can would keep a close eye on the case, hoping for the best possible result.

After lunch he headed straight to Director Tan’s office in the Internal Medicine Department. He’d already decided if Tan wasn’t in, he’d go straight to Obstetrics for Director Zhang.

If he went to Obstetrics, he’d definitely run into Yang Chan.

She was Director Zhang’s favorite protégé, always shadowing her—clinic, surgery, ward rounds, you name it.

As Yang Chan got older, she became more mature and elegant. Her attitude toward Zhou Can seemed to be quietly changing too.

Every time he came to Obstetrics, he could sense a bit of heat in her eyes.

He’d been there himself; he knew exactly what that look from Yang Chan meant.

It wasn’t just his imagination. Based on his gut, he was pretty sure Yang Chan had a thing for him—maybe even a secret crush right now.

Of course, that was just Zhou Can’s own guesswork.

He was a married man. Sure, Yang Chan was an old classmate who’d helped him a lot. But betraying his relationship was something he just couldn’t do.

A man’s desires might be instinct, but his self-control shows his character.

Many doctors with a bit of status had remarried—some even two or three times.

But Zhou Can didn’t want to go down the path of constant new marriages.

Pharmaceutical reps, young nurses, female doctors, and pretty young patients—sure, they were tempting. But if he ever stepped over that line, two women would end up hurt.

That’s why he always kept his head.

Lately, since things were calm, he hardly ever visited Obstetrics.

When he got to Director Tan’s office in Internal Medicine, luck was on his side—Tan had just finished an academic meeting.

Right now, Tan was inside, going through some tricky case files for the department.

“Zhou, what a rare guest!”

Director Tan’s face lit up as he greeted Zhou Can.

“Director Tan, sorry to trouble you with something today.”

Zhou Can noticed that the students with Director Tan this time weren’t Gao Jian but two new faces.

Director Tan was quite accomplished academically. Last time, he promised Zhou Can that as long as he joined Internal Medicine, Tan would personally handle everything about getting him a postgraduate degree. That showed his high standing at the medical school.

Dr. Xu’s suggestion to ask Director Tan or Director Zhang Bihua from Obstetrics for sterile maggots also reflected both directors’ status at the school.

Director Tan was at least a master’s advisor, if not a doctoral one.

He kept training new students batch after batch.

The two new doctors looked at Zhou Can curiously.

“Every time you come, you need a favor, don’t you? So what is it this time?” Director Tan’s words almost made him embarrassed.

“Heh, guess I just can’t escape debts!” Zhou Can laughed as he poured water for Director Tan. “There’s a patient I admitted today—badly burned his leg and is seriously allergic to anesthetics. The wound’s infected and rotting. The other hospital tried all kinds of antibiotics, but nothing helped.”

“That’s a tough one. Without anesthesia, there’s no way to do a deep debridement. Unless this patient’s got nerves of steel. But if he did, he wouldn’t be here asking for help.”

Director Tan had seen it all, and after hearing the case, he just shook his head over and over.

“We in Internal Medicine can help with nutritional support or maybe use medication to adjust his overall condition, but when it comes to treating such severe infected burns? I honestly don’t have any great ideas. There are all kinds of antibiotics, and if you’re thinking of switching to a more advanced one, I can suggest a few. But frankly, if the infection hasn’t been controlled after using multiple antibiotics, trying different expensive ones won’t work any miracles. Don’t go expecting some huge breakthrough.”

Internal Medicine mainly deals with chronic illnesses, though they can handle emergencies too.

Especially for the critically ill, Internal uses medication, nutrition, ventilators, and various interventions to rescue some patients on the brink.

But when it comes to medical miracles? That’s the realm of surgery.

To put it another way, Internal Medicine is steady as an old dog.

Big surprises are rare. It’s not like surgery, full of wild ups and downs.

Live or die by the knife—things like that almost never happen in Internal Medicine.

Their treatment philosophy is much like traditional Chinese medicine: control the disease, stabilize vital signs, and then let the patient’s own immunity fight back.

“I’m not looking to try any new antibiotics, especially the expensive ones. The patient got burned when a waitress dumped a hot pot on him at a restaurant. Now, his relatives are forcing that young girl to sell herself to pay for his treatment. If I can save them some money, I will.”

Zhou Can gave a quick rundown of what happened.

Many advanced antibiotics can’t even be found in a regular ward.

Partly because average patients don’t need them, but also because some are outrageously expensive. Most are imported.

Gotta say, locally made drugs and supplies are lagging way behind.

Antibiotics were invented in the West—they had a head start, so fair enough.

But medical equipment and consumables? Local stuff is way behind imports. There are plenty of things to complain about. Too many domestic pharma and device companies care more about bribery and marketing than quality.

It’s understandable—everyone’s just trying to survive.

Their products can’t match imports, and don’t work as well. Unless you know the right people, nobody wants to use them.

But if connections get you everything, then what company would ever spend big on research and raising standards?

Just booting up an ECMO costs over seventy thousand—why’s it that expensive?

Because the tubing for it is all imported and single-use.

After you start it up, the running cost is ten to twenty thousand a day.

A patient without insurance wouldn’t be able to afford it at all if their family didn’t have money.

One vial of super antibiotics is over a thousand—and a seriously ill patient might need six vials at once. That’s over six thousand right there.

Sometimes being broke really does mean you can’t survive.

“Do you know what I admire most about you? It’s that after all your years working, you still have a heart of gold. That’s rare. Most doctors get jaded fast and turn indifferent. You still treat patients with compassion—it’s really admirable.”

After hearing the details, Director Tan sincerely admired Zhou Can’s medical ethics.

“Hey, it’s really nothing. Like they say online: Even when I’m barely scraping by, I still can’t turn a blind eye to suffering. With a conscience, you just can’t do heartless things.”

Zhou Can didn’t mind it at all—he thought that’s just the way it should be.

If someone loses their conscience, can they even be called human?

Barely any different from a beast.

“I’m not asking you for a consult this time. I just need a favor—help me get about a thousand sterile green bottle fly maggots from the lab at the medical school.”

Using live maggots to treat necrotic wounds—back before antibiotics were invented, it was standard on Western battlefields.

It actually worked really well.

The discovery was pure chance.

Back during wars in the West, soldiers got wounded, supplies were scarce, wounds became infected, oozing pus and starting to rot.

With stretched-out lines and weak logistics, plenty of soldiers never got timely care. Their wounds stank and attracted swarms of flies, which feasted on the dead flesh and laid eggs.

In the heat, it didn’t take long for those eggs to hatch and become maggots in the wounds.

After a while, battlefield medics noticed something amazing. The soldiers whose wounds didn’t get maggots actually healed slower. The ones crawling with maggots recovered faster.

After some observation, doctors realized the maggots ate up all the dead flesh and even secreted some fluids.

Those fluids seemed to disinfect and speed up healing.

Soon maggot therapy became standard for treating rotten wounds.

Director Tan was surprised at first but his eyes lit up. “You’re brilliant! To think of using lab maggots for such a tough case—you might actually pull off a miracle. No problem, I’ll call over there and have a thousand green bottle fly maggots sent over.”

Director Tan agreed right away.

The two medical students, hearing about this treatment for the first time, were totally fascinated. Their impression of Zhou Can hit a whole new level.

[A stable, long-running novel app, rivaling the old Pursuit of Books app, beloved by veteran readers everywhere: huanyuanapp]

“Thanks! I’ll get out of your way now!”

Zhou Can had spent more than a year in Internal Medicine residency, so he and Director Tan already knew each other well.

They weren’t super close, but they got along fine.

“That kid, always dashing off after getting what he needs. Such a shame—if only he joined Internal Medicine.”

Watching Zhou Can leave, Director Tan could only shake his head and smile.

“Teacher, Dr. Zhou seems really impressive! What department is he from?” One student couldn’t resist asking about Zhou Can.

“He works in the Emergency Department. He’s the most talented med student I’ve ever met—and, importantly, he’s got real integrity. Learn as much as you can from him if you get the chance.”

Director Tan’s praise for Zhou Can was sky-high.

The two medical students nodded, impressed.

This was their first time seeing Director Tan so effusive about a young doctor. If they knew Zhou Can’s legend, they’d be even more in awe.

When Zhou Can returned to Emergency, it wasn’t long before someone delivered the thousand maggots.

By then, he’d already finished prepping the patient and his family for what was coming.

To boost treatment results and keep the family from interfering, Zhou Can said only one family member could stay—with the patient’s wife chosen as the caregiver.

As she watched Zhou Can pour live maggots onto her husband’s wound, she looked horrified. The patient himself faced a tough test, both mentally and physically.

After all, having a thousand maggots squirming and munching away at your wound would scare anyone.

Most people can’t stand the idea of maggots biting into their body. There’s a deep, instinctive fear.

Imagine how it feels when even a single caterpillar crawls across your skin.

It’s cold, gross, and itchy.

Now picture a thousand maggots squirming across your body, eating away. That’s a nightmare only someone who’s lived it could describe.

Just in case the patient or his wife did anything to interfere, Zhou Can specifically reminded the attending doctors and nurses to keep an eye out. He wouldn’t be able to watch the whole time himself.

There were still plenty of patients waiting for him in the operating room.