Chapter 451: A Gift of Healing

After receiving a patient complaint, the Medical Department and the Director’s Office no longer make snap judgments. Instead, they conduct a full investigation to ensure their decisions are fair and objective. As long as the medical staff haven’t committed a serious error, the hospital doesn’t hand out real disciplinary actions.

For those patients and families who are unreasonable, the hospital chooses to give them the cold shoulder.

When a complaint call comes in, they still log it according to the rules.

If, after checking with the medical staff involved, it’s clear the family just misunderstood the doctor or nurse, the hospital gives patients a proper explanation.

But if the family is bent on making a fuss, they get the cold treatment.

Cold treatment basically means using formalities and red tape to sweep the issue under the rug.

Every clinical doctor and nurse at Tuyu Hospital has noticed the huge benefits of these changes to the Medical Department’s policies. Once everyone found out these reforms were thanks to efforts from the Emergency Department and Pediatrics, their opinion of these two departments soared.

Especially in the Emergency Department—now, when they call in specialists for difficult cases, they can really feel how much more enthusiastic the specialists have become.

Even their attitudes have turned much friendlier.

As for complaints that hospital security isn’t doing its job, that story isn’t fading away—in fact, the rumors are only starting to build.

That evening, Zhou Can bravely spoke up in the Administration Office, pouring out his frustrations to Assistant Pang about the Security Department’s neglect, about frontline doctors and nurses bleeding and sweating and even having to shed tears. No one could say exactly how, but these words quickly spread.

Even Director Lou and Deputy Director Han from the Emergency Department joined forces to urge Assistant Pang to clean up the Security Department and take the safety of medical staff seriously. Those efforts soon became the talk of the hospital.

Zhou Can suddenly became a hero in the eyes of many clinical doctors and nurses.

He dared to speak up, to fight for everyone—even though Assistant Pang used his authority to suppress him, Zhou Can only won more support and admiration from the staff.

Because of that, the reputation of the Emergency Department has started to improve in everyone’s eyes.

Even though the department isn’t competitive and doesn’t bring in much revenue, their loyalty to frontline staff and their care for the team has deeply impressed everyone.

For now, Assistant Pang hasn’t made any noticeable moves—he seems to be holding his ground.

He is, after all, a senior leader. Whenever there are major things happening in the hospital, he’ll always be one of the first to know. There’s no way he’s unaware of the growing rumors.

If he’s staying quiet, it either means he’s very confident about handling it, or he just doesn’t care.

Even if the entire hospital’s doctors and nurses rose up, in his mind, it wouldn’t make much difference.

At least that’s how he sees it.

After all, Assistant Pang not only has support from Director Zhu but also from the Vice President in charge of logistics and from the Security Chief’s own powerful backer.

With that kind of backing, it’s no wonder he doesn’t feel threatened by a bunch of frontline doctors getting restless.

One day, while Zhou Can was working, he got a call from Director Xueyan in Cardiothoracic Surgery.

She rarely calls Zhou Can during the day unless it’s urgent.

She knows he’s always tied up operating in the Emergency Department and rarely has time to take calls.

“Sis Yan, is there another emergency patient who needs saving?”

From experience, any daytime call from her usually meant she needed Zhou Can to help with a rescue or urgent consult.

With high-risk cases coming in every day, Cardiothoracic Surgery never has it easy.

Occasionally, they get particularly tough or messy cases—when that happens, it’s always Zhou Can they turn to.

And if Zhou Can can’t fix it even after giving it his all, they’ll consider refusing the patient and recommending a transfer. If the family refuses a transfer and insists on keeping the patient at Tuyu, they’re likely only going to get conservative treatment.

In many cases, conservative treatment is a subtle way of nudging the family toward agreeing to transfer.

But if doctors can try a more active approach, like surgery, they’ll always discuss it openly with the family first.

“Relax! I called for two things today. First—tonight we have two very difficult level-four surgeries. We need your help.” Usually, she just messages on WeChat if she wants Zhou Can to help out after work.

“No problem.”

Zhou Can agreed right away.

“Second—remember that child transferred over from Third Hospital for heart surgery?”

She asked.

“Of course! What happened? Is the heart failure getting worse?” Zhou Can felt a sudden pang of worry.

The child was only six or seven months old. After so much effort saving her, it’d be a real tragedy if things turned for the worse.

“Good news! Ever since we started your ‘marathon-style’ treatment plan, the heart failure has improved dramatically. Looks like a full recovery isn’t far off.”

That was incredible news.

Zhou Can couldn’t hide the big smile spreading across his face.

“That’s fantastic!”

He felt a surge of pride.

When infants develop severe heart failure after heart surgery, survival rates are shockingly low.

When Zhou Can crafted that treatment plan, he’d been pretty anxious.

Thankfully, his judgment was spot on. By waging this long battle with illness, he managed to pull the child back from the edge.

“And here’s another update—the family managed to collect the real records and medication data from Third Hospital’s surgery through special contacts. While reviewing them, I found some irregularities with their procedure and medication choices.”

The family’s goal for gathering these materials was just to help inform further treatment.

But they ended up uncovering real problems by accident.

Director Xueyan has already saved this evidence.

Out of professional ethics, though, she hasn’t told the family.

Zhou Can thought that was exactly the right thing to do. Never badmouth another doctor in front of a patient—the basics of medical ethics. Those who love to pick apart others’ treatments in front of patients usually have questionable character and skills.

If you’re truly skilled, you never need to step on others just to make yourself look better.

“It’s smart to keep those records. If the child has complications later, you can figure out who bears responsibility. In the meantime, keep up the cardiac strengthening and diuretic treatment—it’ll likely be a long course, so talk with the family and help them stay motivated.”

Zhou Can had seen it too many times—when patients are just a little more persistent, recovery is still within reach. But families fear losing everything to mounting costs and give up in the end.

Cases like that are the most heartbreaking.

Doctors can’t do anything if the family chooses to stop treatment.

It’s like a critically ill patient coming in, the family signs to give up, and the doctor has no choice but to let them go.

Some men abuse their wives, treating them as less than human. Sometimes, a woman depends only on her looks, living recklessly after marriage, while at home the husband lords it over her like a queen.

People like that better pray they never fall seriously ill.

Otherwise, once they’re in the hospital, they’ll learn the true meaning of despair.

……

And so the days went by. As Zhou Can got used to working with the new medical assistant, Yang Zhi, their teamwork became smooth and efficient—he was very pleased with this new hire.

Luo Shishen had already finished his internship and moved on to residency training.

Back when he first started, he probably wouldn’t have passed the selection for residency at Tuyu. After a year of hard work under Zhou Can, though, his skills in every area had skyrocketed.

Especially in surgery—he could outpace other new doctors in practical, on-the-spot procedures and rescue work.

So when it came time for residency selection, he cleared every hurdle and finally secured a coveted spot.

He chose surgery as his specialty.

He immediately went to rotate through the main Surgical Department.

Luo had already promised Zhou Can—once he finished his residency, he’d return to the Emergency Department to join Zhou Can’s team.

But Zhou Can didn’t immediately say yes.

Instead, he told Luo that joining the surgical team would require real skills, making it clear Luo would have to push himself hard through two years of residency to prove he belonged.

Right now, Zhou Can’s surgical team is still short-staffed.

He feels the crunch especially during big, complicated level-three surgeries.

Dr. Xu is already up there in age, yet still helps out as a surgical assistant.

And because there are only two surgical nurses, Qiao Yu hasn’t had a single day off all year.

Even when she’s sick, she grits her teeth and pushes through.

She does it so the surgical team won’t miss a beat.

Zhou Can even tried training Ma Xiaolan to help as an instrument nurse, but she just couldn’t keep up with Qiao Yu. She struggled to keep pace and made a lot of mistakes under pressure.

Skill isn’t just about knowledge. It’s about experience, mindset, professionalism, logical thinking, and knowing how to keep things organized under stress.

For the team to function smoothly, at the very least, Zhou Can needs to hire another surgical nurse and a medical assistant to keep up with the intense workload.

Ideally, one day, even if Zhou Can or Qiao Yu take a day off, the team would still run smoothly and handle the regular surgeries without trouble.

For now, though, he and Qiao Yu are still the heart of the operation—absolutely indispensable.

“Dr. Zhou, there’s a package at the front desk for you. The courier said it’s urgent and needs your signature.”

That day, Zhou Can had just started another surgery when Ma Xiaolan came in with the message.

“Just have the nurse at the station sign for it. Who’d be sending something straight to me at work, anyway?”

He had no time to pick up packages himself.

Sometimes, patients who recover and leave will send banners or local specialties as a thank you. Zhou Can always feels touched by these gestures.

Since most patients don’t know his home address or personal number, they usually send things to the Emergency Department, writing down the department’s phone number or asking a nurse for contact details, and addressing the package specifically to Zhou Can.

Could this be another one of those heartwarming surprises?

Around 12:40, after finishing surgery, Zhou Can headed to the nurse’s station to check on the delivery.

To his surprise, it was shipped internationally.

Sent directly from overseas.

The sender’s name was written in English, and the phone number was foreign too.

That really piqued his interest.

He opened the package to find a dried plant inside, carefully sealed in a plastic bag. At first glance, he recognized it as a mayapple.

He had been searching desperately for this very medicine.

At one point, he even posted about it in his medical group chat, hoping someone could help find it.

But try as he might, he never found any leads.

Excited, he took a closer look at the shriveled plant. He could still see faint purplish hues on the underside of the leaves and the rhizome, though the color had faded as it dried.

The purple wasn’t as obvious now.

“Wait… could this be the purple-backed mayapple I’ve been searching for all along?”

He didn’t have any friends abroad that he could think of.

Who could have tracked down this medicine he’d sought so hard and mailed it to him?

It was only then he noticed a letter inside the box.

It was just a single sheet, neatly folded and tucked at the bottom.

“Zhou Can, how have you been? I’m now studying at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France. I happened to see a post in your WeChat feed about your search for the purple-backed mayapple. Through a friend, I learned of a rare plant exhibit that featured it. After some effort, I managed to buy it. I guessed you needed it for Miss Qianqian’s illness. I’m genuinely moved by your love, and I hope she recovers soon. Wishing you both happiness!”

The note was signed by Mu Qing.

She must have gone to great lengths to find the purple-backed mayapple and buying it from an exhibition couldn’t have been easy.

And with her sharp intuition, she figured out right away that Zhou Can was searching for the medicine to treat his girlfriend Su Qianqian.

By rights, she’d always had a secret crush on Zhou Can. Su Qianqian was her rival in love.

If Su Qianqian couldn’t recover, Mu Qing would have had a shot with him.

But instead, she went out of her way to help and put in so much effort for this herb.

Only a truly kind, generous soul could make such a choice.

“How did I get so lucky to meet all the best women in the world!”

Zhou Can carefully tucked away the letter and got the purple-backed mayapple ready for use in medicine.

Now, at last, Su Qianqian’s kidney disease could finally be cured.

He had no idea how much Mu Qing paid for it, but it certainly wasn’t cheap.

He decided he’d find a chance to pay her back.

One thing’s for sure—there’s no way he’s hiding this from Su Qianqian. Kindness and generosity like Mu Qing’s deserve a lifetime of heartfelt thanks from them both.

After work, Zhou Can finished his rounds and headed straight to the herbal shop.

Tuyu Hospital has its own pharmacy, but getting herbs through it is a hassle.

Plus, the selection isn’t as complete as outside shops.

He followed the prescription, but tracking down all the supporting herbs proved tricky. It took visits to a few different stores to get everything he needed.

Back at their villa, Su Qianqian was stunned to see Zhou Can home so early.

“Darling, you’re home so early today! I was just telling Wei Fang I expected you back at midnight again. You haven’t eaten, have you? I saved you some food. Go wash up and let’s get you fed.”

There’s something truly special about having a loving girlfriend waiting at home.

Coming home just feels full of hope and happiness.

“Wait to eat—there’s something even better. Look at this!”

Zhou Can showed her the purple-backed mayapple.

“Isn’t this mayapple?” She had also been searching endlessly for the two main herbs they needed, but kept coming up empty. “Where did you manage to find it?”

Su Qianqian looked at the rare herb, her hands trembling with excitement.

“Remember that reporter, Mu Qing?”

Zhou Can asked carefully.

“Of course I do! I’d never forget a woman who’s trying to steal my man.” Su Qianqian was absolutely honest about how she felt.

“No woman is big-hearted enough to just hand over the man she loves.”