Chapter 83: A Doctor’s Quiet Brilliance

Even though Jin Mingxi was a chief physician at the County People’s Hospital, he scrambled his way into Tuyu Hospital as a resident because Tuyu Hospital was simply too prestigious.

Even the Provincial People’s Hospital, Provincial Children’s Hospital, and 701 Hospital were left far behind.

Only in such an environment can one truly learn advanced medical skills.

“Yes!”

Zhou Can replied coolly, as calm as ever.

“Is it the affiliate or the main hospital?”

The female nurse was clearly planning to interrogate him further.

“Main Hospital!”

Zhou Can’s answer once again made the three look uniformly dismayed.

Doctors from the affiliate hospital couldn’t help but feel somewhat inferior when facing physicians from the Main Hospital.

Though never openly stated, everyone knew it well.

Most of the affiliate hospital’s doctors had been eliminated in the competitive academic battles at the Main Hospital.

Sixty-year-old doctors couldn’t match those in their thirties and forties—a silent agony for many.

They were outclassed both academically and in practical skills.

Their only pride lay in the wealth of clinical experience accumulated over a lifetime.

Times were changing rapidly, and many veteran doctors, with their lower formal education, were gradually being outpaced. Only a select few, constantly studying and updating their knowledge, eventually became the pillars of modern Chinese medicine.

For instance, the veteran Huang in the field of breast cancer.

Or Veteran Wu, a successor of the Jiang legacy in orthopedics, among others.

They were titans in their respective fields.

But very few medical veterans maintained the self-discipline and commitment to learning; most simply basked in the afterglow of fame and honor.

Tuyu Affiliate Hospital was teeming with such established doctors.

The female nurse questioning Zhou Can lost much of her haughty air when she learned he was from Tuyu Main Hospital.

Frankly speaking, she already felt a twinge of inferiority.

“Which department at the Main Hospital are you from?”

She tried to regain her confidence, especially since this unbelievably young doctor hadn’t even given her a proper glance until now.

She had assumed his avoidance was due to his own insecurity.

Now that she knew Zhou Can was from Tuyu Main Hospital, she realized he might have never taken her seriously from the start.

That sense of being looked down upon filled her with anger.

“Emergency Department!”

“Oh—so you’re a doctor from the Emergency Department! You look so young, an intern, right?”

Her confidence returned.

Which member of Tuyu’s staff didn’t know the Main Hospital’s Emergency Department was looked down upon?

“Yeah, something like that. Resident training.”

Zhou Can replied casually as his mind raced to diagnose the boy’s condition.

The boy’s face was cyanotic, and his fingertips were equally discolored.

His breathing had stopped—what about his heartbeat?

His gaze shifted to Dr. Shangguan, who was tirelessly performing CPR. Asking about the heartbeat once more would probably be met with refusal.

If the boy died, they might even pin the blame on Zhou Can.

When Dr. Shangguan described the boy’s condition, he mentioned that there was no breathing and barely any heartbeat.

Which meant there was still a faint heartbeat.

At that moment, his eye caught a flash of green in the boy’s pocket.

He immediately reached in and pulled out a box of Green Arrow Chewing Gum.

There were only three pieces left.

“Was your grandson chewing gum before the incident?”

Zhou Can asked the elderly woman.

But the woman was in such hysterics that her mind was muddled. After a few seconds, she nodded, “Yes! He loves chewing gum—I bought him a box before getting in the car.”

“Dr. Shangguan, stop with the compressions. This child is most likely choking on a foreign object.”

Zhou Can announced loudly.

[Pathology Diagnosis Experience +1.]

Everyone was astonished.

After all that fuss, it turned out not to be a heart attack but choking on a foreign object.

However, Zhou Can’s declaration of being a doctor from Tuyu Main Hospital had earned him some trust among the onlookers.

Dr. Shangguan was taken aback.

A flush crept over his face. “It shouldn’t be; I’ve examined the child’s mouth twice.”

“If it’s lodged deeply, you won’t see it without a laryngoscope. Let me try.”

Without further ado, Zhou Can picked up the child, pressing his stomach against the child’s back and inverting his head.

He gripped the child’s abdomen with both hands, about three finger-widths above the navel.

Then he delivered a forceful upward thrust.

Thump!

One time!

Thump!

Two times!

Everyone watched intently, hoping for a miracle.

The child’s arms hung limp and his face turned blue—as if he were already beyond hope.

……

Until the sixth attempt when a clump of chewing gum shot out from the child’s mouth.

It fell to the ground.

“It’s out! It’s out! Clearly, physicians from Tuyu Main Hospital are superior!”

The onlookers erupted in cheers.

The Heimlich maneuver is one of the most effective methods for rescuing a child choking on a foreign object.

Using your fingers or giving water are both entirely wrong approaches.

They only hasten the child’s demise.

The correct method is to deliver a strong upward thrust to the child’s abdomen, using the resulting pressure to dislodge the obstruction.

Zhou Can laid the child down and examined him carefully once more.

He discovered that the child had resumed breathing.

He let out a relieved sigh.

Meanwhile, Dr. Shangguan turned beet red with embarrassment.

From the start, he had been misled by the child’s grandmother into believing the child had a hereditary heart condition and was suffering a heart attack, which led to all the subsequent misdirected rescue attempts.

That female nurse, far from being proud, now didn’t dare speak a word to Zhou Can.

She was even afraid he might mock her.

In the end, Zhou Can didn’t even glance in her direction.

Dr. Sun Qian, the female doctor, hadn’t been much help at all; she gave Zhou Can a long, meaningful look, as if determined to remember the exceptionally skilled young doctor.

“Wow…”

After a moment, the child began to cry.

His eyes fluttered open.

The elderly woman was overjoyed.

“He’s alive, he’s alive! My grandson is alive!”

She embraced the child excitedly.

Then, as if remembering something, she set the child down and kowtowed before Zhou Can.

Had it not been for Zhou Can saving her grandson, the consequences for her family would have been catastrophic; she wouldn’t have been able to explain it to her son and daughter-in-law.

“Please, don’t overdo it. Although the child is awake, he needs to be taken to the hospital for a checkup. And if he’s that young, it’s best not to let him have things like chewing gum, jelly, or peanuts. Children are naturally active and prone to accidents.”

Zhou Can helped steady the elderly woman.

Saving lives was a doctor’s ultimate duty.

Rescuing the little boy from the clutches of death was Zhou Can’s greatest satisfaction.

After saving the child, he didn’t linger.

He quietly departed.

He left without fanfare, his deeds hidden away—epitomizing true nonchalance.

……

Once back at Tuyu Hospital, he acted as if the rescue had never happened, carrying on with his work and mentioning nothing to anyone.

After dinner, he bought eight white mice for his dorm, all in pursuit of gaining more surgical experience.

Every day, he quietly honed his medical skills.

Describing his progress as meteoric might be an understatement.

But his rate of advancement was unmatched.

No matter how brilliant a genius might be, in his presence, they were merely youngsters.