A Hospital in Another World?-Chapter 817: Alarm Goes Off Just as Surgery Begins?

Learning medicine can't save the Chinese people.

Learning medicine can't save the people of Nevis either.

Well, the first sentence was said by Lu Xun, and the second was said by Garrett.

Garrett asked all the patients. Whether due to fear of wizards or having the ability to live independently, all adults chose to accept treatment. Would there be pain? 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

No problem, Master Wizard, we're not afraid!

There are risks, including paralysis?

No problem, Master Wizard, please go ahead!

Bad luck could lead to death?

Well...

"It's already our great fortune that Master Wizard is willing to treat us. Whether it works or not, we leave it to fate!"

The vast majority of adult patients, with gritted teeth and closed eyes, all put on a stiff smile and earnestly assured Garrett. Only one patient, who looked the oldest with a face full of yellow and black wrinkles, hesitated for a long time before quietly asking:

"Master Wizard, if I unfortunately die, could there be some compensation... not much, not much, just ten gold coins would be fine!"

Seeing Garrett's expression stiffen slightly, he immediately shrank his head back, like an old turtle with its neck stuck. Waving his hands frantically, he stepped back:

"Or eight would do... five gold coins, no less! For my wife and children! If I die, no one will support the family!"

Garrett: "..."

He felt like he had been force-fed dog food. Really, how could such a short, thin, hunched man, whose torso was habitually bent at a 60-degree angle, actually find a wife?

On second thought, perhaps a man like him, who puts his wife and children first in his heart, would always be able to find a wife no matter what?

"If you unfortunately die, Oak Grove Clinic will compensate ten gold coins, not a penny less, delivered to your wife's hands," he nodded slowly.

"If you become disabled or paralyzed, there will also be subsequent assistance. We won't let you go without food or clothing for the rest of your life."

"That will do." The middle-aged patient sighed in relief, bowing deeply again:

"That will do. Respected Master Wizard, please feel free to operate on my body. Even if I really die, it doesn't matter... Even if I don't die, this is all the money I could earn for my family anyway!"

Garrett's face turned slightly pale. He opened the contract, pointed to each clause and read it to him, had him acknowledge and press his handprint, then sent him away. Closing his eyes, he slowly inhaled, slowly exhaled...

All beings suffer. Even in his previous life, when social conditions were incomparably better than here, he could only watch as many people chose to give up treatment and go home to wait for death. As a doctor, knowing how to treat but unable to save everyone.

When he went to ask the minors, most of the young people's answers were also "Yes, we are willing to be treated." The child in the jar was even younger and didn't understand anything, only knowing how to cry.

Garrett was helpless. According to the ethical standards he had always adhered to, for minors, patients without civil capacity, or patients who were unconscious and unable to make decisions for themselves, decisions should be made by guardians. No guardians around?

Medical Affairs Department!

Go!

The problem was that there were no guardians now. As for the Medical Affairs Department, he himself was the hospital, he was the Medical Affairs Department. But Garrett always felt that being both the athlete and the referee wasn't right...

In case of a medical dispute, it would be easy to fall into a "who down there is accusing this official" situation. If a third party could be brought in, it would be better to bring in a third party.

He had people settle these prospective patients and found the necromancer who had brought them over. He asked earnestly:

"These patients, after they're cured, or if they can't be cured, how will they be settled? I mean, especially those children?"

"Orphanages and poorhouses will take them in, right?" The necromancer answered without thinking. After answering, he looked at Garrett's expression and pondered:

"Since we brought them back... we'll arrange for them, first test their aptitude for magic and priesthood. Those with wizard aptitude, the council has places for them; those with divine magic aptitude, we can use connections to send them to temples, which shouldn't be difficult. For those without any aptitude..."

He shrugged and sighed:

"The council can't take care of all of them for no reason. The most likely outcome is still the orphanage."

Garrett frustratedly sighed along. He pulled the necromancer to sign all the authorization documents for the children and politely saw him out. Returning to his office, he banged his head on the pile of documents:

"Ah—"

"What's wrong?"

Cirilla lightly flipped in through the window and rubbed Garrett's shoulders. Garrett buried his face in a pile of authorization documents, sighing long and short:

"Sigh... It's so troublesome..."

After sighing for a long time, he finally got up from the desk and recounted everything in detail. Finally, he sighed:

"The other children are one thing, but I really feel sorry for that little girl called Lyra. A child like her could still support herself in the circus, but pulling her out, curing her, and then throwing her back into society is tantamount to harming her..."

Thinking about the situation of children in the slums, especially girls, thinking about little Jenny's condition when she was found, thinking about how many girls had become textile workers, laundry workers, or even prostitutes at an early age.

Thinking about how many entries on that death record book he had seen read "14 years old, died in childbirth", "15 years old, postpartum hemorrhage"...

"Then why don't we keep her?" Cirilla said softly. "With so many people in our hospital, we can surely afford to raise one little girl for free, right?"

"But it's not good to raise her for free... and that's not how things are handled, we can't just take in every pitiful patient for free... She's so young, we can't make her work either..."

"That's true..."

The two sat face to face, frowning and sighing together. After a while, Cirilla raised her hand:

"Why don't I ask the nurses what a seven or eight-year-old girl can do? Even if there's just a little something she can do, it would give us a reason to keep her!"

"That works..."

As soon as Garrett nodded, Cirilla darted out quickly. In no time, she dragged in two older nurses, one in each hand:

"Hey, come here, come here! I have something to ask you!"

Garrett recognized them; one was Jenny's mother, a ward nurse; the other was the leader of the laundry women. Cirilla pressed them into chairs and asked eagerly:

"What can a seven or eight-year-old girl do? — Oh right, can she read?"

"I don't think she can read," Garrett hesitated. Cirilla had already turned to the two nurses, her face full of enthusiasm:

"What can she do? Anything!"

"What can she do? There's so much!" Both nurses laughed. Jenny's mother straightened her apron and wiped her hands on the edge of it:

"Serve tea and water to patients, be at their beck and call, do whatever they ask. Help patients wipe their bodies, change clothes, make beds, change diapers for babies, she can do all of that! — Oh, the last one might need some learning, but it's not difficult..."

"There's a lot she can do on my side too!" The laundry leader chimed in:

"A seven or eight-year-old girl can be treated as half an adult at home. Taking care of younger siblings, sweeping floors, wiping tables, washing clothes, sheets, and diapers, what can't she do? Don't worry, sir, if you want to keep her, we can definitely find work for her to do!"

Cirilla slowly opened her lips, forming a small "o" shape. She looked left and right, sincerely exclaiming:

"Humans really have it hard..."

For her dragon kind, not just seven or eight-year-old young dragons, even seventeen or eighteen-year-old adolescent dragons didn't have to worry about anything except eating, sleeping, and playing!

Garrett sighed deeply beside her. He had underestimated the situation. Not just in this world, even in his previous life, children from poor families did everything. Rural kids followed adults to the fields, city children cooked, swept floors, washed clothes...

"Let's do it this way then," he sighed lightly.

"Let Lyra stay. If she's cured, she can help out at the hospital. Tell Jenny to teach her to read when she has time."

"Alright!"

Cirilla cheerfully agreed.

From that day on, Garrett drew blood from patients one by one, did CT scans, electrocardiograms, and completed various examinations. Eleven patients, different causes, different directions of curvature, different angles - he had to design a separate treatment plan for each person.

"Garrett, is it done?"

"Master Normark, can we start treatment?"

"Which one to treat first? Are you confident?"

Cirilla asked once a day, the necromancers came to ask once every three days, and Madam Alva sent someone to ask once a week. Garrett held his head:

"Don't rush me — let me study for a few more days —"

Among the 11 patients, 8 had severe pectus excavatum. Once the spine was straightened, the pectus excavatum would collapse right before his eyes. Moreover, how to ensure that the internal organs between the spine and ribs were not affected?

Not to mention, among the 11 people, 5 had combined spinal meningocele, spinal cord splitting, syringomyelia, and other strange abnormalities. These were all situations not encountered in animal experiments, each requiring careful handling.

"Ahhhh... it's so difficult... isn't there a simpler case for me to practice on first..."

Garrett had a terrible headache. He remembered that two years before he transmigrated, the hospital had recruited a PhD whose research direction was the sequence of correction for scoliosis and pectus excavatum, which seemed to involve some 3D modeling and numerical calculations?

How exactly was that calculated?

It seemed to also involve stress analysis and such, how was that done? How to measure the stress of muscles and bones?

Or, even skipping all that, what exactly was the correction sequence? Which should be done first, which later, had he glanced at it while reading papers before, or had it been mentioned in conversations?

Garrett tried hard to think, tried hard to think, but still couldn't figure it out. Fortunately, the other three didn't have these strange complications, and one young patient's cause was particularly obvious:

As an infant, a hot iron had fallen on his back, causing severe burns. Too poor to afford a priest, all kinds of strange folk remedies were tried, and miraculously he survived, but was left with large areas of scarring.

From five or six years old, his back began to bend more and more severely, one foot higher than the other, unable to run or bear weight. Later, he was sold to a circus by his family.

"Burns on the back leading to large areas of scarring, muscle contracture and loss, resulting in scoliosis..."

Garrett rubbed his hands together:

"This is simple! You'll be the first one to have surgery!"

He drew diagrams day and night for seven or eight days. This one looked the simplest, but the pelvis was tilted, with the left side higher than the right, and there was a large patch of contracture scar tissue on the left back, with most of the muscle tissue missing underneath.

Due to the large area of scarring on the limb, the skin, muscles, fascia, intertransverse ligaments, etc., all contracted, disrupting the balance of the spine. To repair these tissues, quite a bit of work was needed!

Finally, on the day of the surgery, Garrett was fully prepared. In addition to dragging Cirilla along for support, he also had familiar assistants like Carlos and Anita standing by, ready to lend a hand at any time.

Everything went smoothly at first, but as they were operating, the magic alarm on the side suddenly went off!

"Not good!"

Garrett glanced up, his hair standing on end:

"Why is the blood oxygen saturation dropping so fast! Carlos! Start the ventilator! Anita, intubate immediately!"