Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4331 - 3426: Divine Doctor with Wonderful Hands (33)

"Operating room 20! Is operating room 20 there?!" Shiller shouted at the wall of pipes with a list in hand.

A vague response came from one of the pipes. Shiller pushed open the cabinet door and walked over, shouting into the passage, "Your medical records show that you've successfully healed a case of purple lung fungus infestation, right?"

After hearing a positive reply from the end of the passage, Shiller said, "There's another case here, infection in the abdominal cavity. Can you do it?"

Sounds came from the other end, and after listening carefully, Shiller seemed to hear that a doctor over there was taking a break. So he said, "Can I schedule surgery for you two hours from now?... Okay, then I'll put you down for that."

Shiller went back and told the patient waiting at the counter, "Take your number and wait over there, surgery in two hours. Next!"

After checking the patient's condition, Shiller shouted towards the passage again, "Joseph! Another case of perforated eardrum! Patient is normothermic, breathing is rough. Get ready for consultation!"

One of the passages responded, but Shiller couldn't hear what was being said from behind the counter, so he had to lean closer and knock on the passage.

"I'm saying we're out of sponges!" A gruff voice came through the pipe, with an evident banging on the other side. He said, "We need sponges to treat perforated eardrums. Find a way to get some!"

"Alright, hang on a sec!"

"Is Jenna there?! Miss Jenna! I saw you had plenty of sponges over there, give me some, I'll return them to you tomorrow!"

Whoosh, a pack of sponges fell from above the pipe. Shiller picked them up and threw them into another pipe, then sent the patient through. After returning to the counter, a long queue had formed again.

"Next!"

Looking up, Shiller found himself face to face with Jarvis. Thinking Jarvis did not want to blow his cover, he pretended not to recognize him and asked, "What's wrong with you? Where does it hurt?"

"Doctor, do you need some help?" Jarvis's mechanical arm rested on the counter, then he said, "Yelling through the cabinet to the corridor is too troublesome. I can make you an air-conduction microphone."

Shiller looked at him in surprise and asked, "Can you do it? What do you do?"

"I'm an engineer." Jarvis took out his license from his pocket to show Shiller and said, "I was originally here for a repair mission, but I got stuck. I heard there was a hospital here, so I thought I'd come to see if there was anything I could help with."

"Mr. Kama indeed is an engineer." A little boy with a cat's head came over and said, "He is a good person. Not only did he fix our tap water system, but he also brought us to the hospital."

Shiller glanced around and noticed many people looking in their direction. It seemed Jarvis had become their savior.

Now he was starting to understand why Jarvis had pretended not to recognize him. It was better for the two of them to play good cop, bad cop.

"Okay then. But you have to assure that it won't affect the use of the pipes during this time," Shiller said. "Wood, that guy, took money without working and has been fired by the boss. He left me with this mess, and I need to sort it out quickly."

"Wood's been taken care of?!" Someone in the crowd said in surprise, "Is he dead?"

"Yes. He won't be coming back. I'll be taking over from now on. But I must remind you, don't think I'm easy to bully..."

"Of course not, Doctor." Jarvis suddenly interjected, "You're much better than that Wood. He only wanted money, didn't care about people's lives and deaths. But in just a short while, you've already healed three people..."

The others echoed in agreement. It wasn't so much that Shiller did that well, but compared to his colleague Wood, he was like a reborn Hua Tuo, a National Doctor Bian Que...

"All right, all right, keep it down. Go ahead then, Mr. Engineer. Others can stay a bit longer if they wish, but they must leave before the evening."

One of the patients who had just undergone surgery was lying on the floor holding his abdomen. He said weakly, "I really have nowhere to go, can I..."

"Not tonight." Shiller said impatiently, "I need to talk to the boss about expanding the hospital. There's been no inpatient department here because of Wood's embezzlement. We need to start expansion soon. If all goes well, it should be done by tonight, and you can be hospitalized tomorrow."

"Hospitalized? What is that?" The patients waiting seemed puzzled. It appeared they had never experienced hospitalization.

"It means you pay a little money, and the hospital provides you with accommodation. You can also pay to receive medication injections here, and if there's an emergency, we can take you directly to resuscitation..."

"How much does that cost?"

After thinking it over, Shiller felt that he shouldn't charge too much. After all, the patients here weren't demanding; just having a bed to lie on was enough. Even an empty room where they could lie on the floor would do. The quality of hospitalization in the modern hospitals would make their executives hang themselves, but here it qualified as practicing medicine to save the world.

"Ten copper coins a day," Shiller said. "But if we check and your health is restored, we will forcibly discharge you and you won't be allowed to stay any longer."

The room quieted for a moment, making Shiller wonder if he'd set the price too high. After all, while he wasn't as crooked as Wood, who charged a gold coin just to see a patient, he still charged at least half a gold coin. These people might not have much money left.

Suddenly, cheers erupted in the room, and Shiller immediately regretted it. He knew he had undercharged, but oh well, the expansion was free anyway. Making any profit from a business with no cost was still good.

"Additionally, after the expansion of the inpatient department, we need to hire two nurses. Do you guys know what a nurse is? Preferably those skillful and smart women who are also good at dispensing medicine..."

The crowd in the room began to talk. Here, being a 'Witch' wasn't taboo; although looked down upon by the higher-ups, it was quite common among common folk. Almost everyone had some interaction with them. Many people were whispering, considering whether to introduce their witch friends.

Jarvis started building the communication system. But instead of using physical methods to propagate sound, he used a transmitter and a strange receiver. There was even a metallic keyboard installed with typewriter-like keycaps.

Shiller was becoming ever more bewildered by the technology of this world.

But obviously, Jarvis was a professional fit for the job. He installed the transmitter at both ends, then pressed the receiver. Finally, he placed the keyboard and a square box on Shiller's office desk.

"Enter the number here, then press this key to start the communication call. After two rings, you can start talking. Your voice will be transmitted directly into the other party's pipe. The voice speaking through the pipe will come out from this box."

Having witnessed Shiller's ability to screw in light bulbs, Jarvis was extremely thorough with his instruction, fearing that Shiller wouldn't know how to operate it.

Shiller immediately tried it out and dialed the number for Strange's room. Strange seemed startled by the clear voice coming through the passageway but quickly responded, "This is Ward 11. Go ahead."

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"This is the emergency room, with the newly installed communication system. From now on, you don't have to shout loudly into the passageway. Just stand in front of the operating table and talk; I will be able to hear you. End of message."

Shiller informed all the wards. The doctors all received the message. Soon after, someone dialed in for a call.

"Hello, this is Ward 26, we have a patient who has suddenly started bleeding heavily, what should we do?"

The speaker was a woman, and her voice sounded somewhat panicked. Shiller immediately called up the details for Ward 26. There were a pair of 15-year-old siblings there, not old but very talented, and the healing rate of this ward was one of the highest.

Thinking of the patient sent there before, who was in a complex situation, Shiller hesitated and then said, "Don't do anything yet, I'll come over right now."

"You're coming over?"

"Yes, you probably can't stop the bleeding by yourselves; I'll help you do that. After I'm done, you do the follow-up treatment."

After saying that, Shiller asked the patients waiting in line to hold on for a moment, saying there was a critically ill patient in need of emergency care. Then he climbed up the ladder to Ward 26's access and went straight in.

When Shiller landed, he saw two frightened faces. This ward had also been upgraded, so they weren't wearing masks. Their young faces were filled with disbelief.

"My god, how did you get here?!"

"If I didn't, would you be able to handle it on your own?" After saying that, Shiller picked up the scalpel and hemostatic forceps nearby and said, "Come here. I'll demonstrate for you..."

About ten minutes later, the patient's bleeding had been largely controlled. Shiller wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to the siblings behind him, saying, "Did you see clearly? You need to work together. When holding the hemostatic forceps, make sure not to move..."

Both of them nodded vigorously. It wasn't really a very complicated procedure, it's just that the sudden amount of blood that had scared them.

"You are such a good doctor," the sister spoke up, "just like Doctor Foster in the stories."

Hearing this name, Shiller paused for a moment as he walked back. He stood in front of the passageway and asked, "Do you think Doctor Foster is a good doctor?"

"Of course, they say he's a role model for all doctors." The brother pointed at a painting on the wall and said, "His portrait is hung in every hospital to inspire new doctors to learn from him."

Shiller nodded slightly, said nothing more, and headed back through the passageway.

After seeing two more patients, the phone rang again. It was Joseph's voice, "There's trouble, Doctor Shiller, the patient with the perforated eardrum is having convulsions..."

"Didn't you pay attention when you pressed the sponge?"

"Might have applied too much pressure, but we also don't know what we touched. He's been convulsing nonstop now, and we can't examine him..."

"Alright, don't panic." Shiller looked at the queue that was getting longer and decisively pressed the communicator, then said to the other side, "Steven, go to Ward 4. There's a patient with a perforated eardrum there, might require neurosurgery..."

"I'm overwhelmed," Strange said, "Such a minor ailment, you go."

"I'm also swamped." After hesitating for a moment, Shiller dialed back to Joseph's ward and asked, "Is the patient still conscious?"

"Yes, he can hear me talking, but he can't control himself."

"Good, tell him this. Our medical resources are limited. Additional surgical procedures will require him to pay out of pocket. We will arrange for the best doctor to operate. 20 silver coins per operation. Ask him if he agrees."

"I agree! I agree! Hurry, my ear hurts so much!!"

Shiller then dialed Strange's number again and said, "The party has agreed to pay for the costs. 10 silver coins for your swift scalpel."

"Too little, you've taken at least 20, I want 15."

"Fine. Hurry up and go!"

Soon, Strange emerged from his own ward and descended into the passageway to Ward 4. In about 5 minutes, he came back out. The treated patient came out as well.

"That was quick?" someone in the crowd said surprisedly: "Last time I was in the hospital, I saw a patient with a perforated eardrum who was in resuscitation for four hours and still died..."

Seizing the opportunity, Shiller immediately grabbed Strange and said, "This doctor is our hospital's top surgeon, known as the Hand of God. If anyone feels their condition is too severe and wants to request this doctor's surgery, it will be 20 silver coins per operation. First come, first served!"

Because of Wood's reputation, those who dared to come to this hospital all had some means. Immediately, a Deer Mother with her daughter rushed over, shouting, "I'll go first, I'll go first. My daughter also has a perforated eardrum! We want the surgery right now!"