Chapter 499: Professor Feng

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Professor Feng, the plane has already entered the stratosphere.” The flight attendant who was in charge of both the first class cabin and the business class cabin swiftly walked over to Professor Feng. She squatted down beside him to attend to him, showing him why the tickets for first class seats were twice the price of the tickets for business class seats.

Professor Feng Zhixiang who had been a platinum member of the airline for a long time opened his eyes and nodded. He was obviously very familiar with the services provided as he said, “Give me a glass of plain water and a cup of tea.”

“All right. Do you want warm or cold water?”

“Warm water, please. Thanks.” Feng Zhixiang took the warm towel the flight attendant gave him and wiped his face hard. He then turned and said to his student, Guo Mingcheng. “Have you taken a look at all the CT scans? How’s the situation?”

Guo Mingcheng, who had just became an associate chief physician, was not even forty years old yet, and he felt no discomfort at all from the flight. He was energetic as he took out a folder and passed it to Feng Zhixiang. “Based on the CT scans, the patient’s condition is quite serious. He suffers from portal hypertension, cirrhosis, and nodular hyperplasia…”

He had just finished operating on a patient, and only read his next patient’s scans on his journey to the airport. However, he had taken a look at the patient’s medical records earlier, and it was why he accepted the job.

He accepted the job because he was writing a research paper on performing hepatectomy in patients with portal hypertension. Besides, the other party also offered quite a large sum of money.

Meanwhile, Feng Zhixiang was rather tired. It had been quite some time since he operated on a patient. He was the associate director of the hospital and the department director of the General Surgery Department right now. Besides, he held all kinds of positions in various national committees. At the same time, he was also writing a book. It was impossible for a seventy-year-old man to find time to carry out surgeries under these circumstances.

However, Feng Zhixiang would guide two or three surgeries every now and then.

This was because if he did not carry out surgeries, he would no longer be in the zone and cease being a surgeon. Feng Zhixiang could not accept this. Besides, all his students were already very experienced. For example, even though Guo Mingcheng was only an associate chief physician in their hospital, he was totally qualified to become the department director of a local hospital once he graduated from under Feng Zhixiang.

Truth be told, a doctor like Guo Mingcheng did not need to worry about his future at all.

He had trained under Feng Zhixiang for years. A doctor like Guo Mingcheng could totally get the yearly surgery count of a hospital up by two thousand.

He could carry out three surgeries as well as guide and monitor another three surgeries within a day without much effort.

And in China, doctors of Guo Mingcheng’s caliber in most hospitals were few and rare in between. Hence, most hospital would definitely take Guo Mingcheng in, even if it meant that they had to create an additional department for him. All they needed to do was to assign some hospital beds, nurses, and doctors to him.

As for patients, large cities could always provide an endless supply of them.

However, no matter how excellent a doctor was, they also had to exercise a lot of caution when working on complicated cases.

The human body is extremely complicated. In this time and age where there were still patients dying during appendectomy, hepatectomy was obviously a very dangerous procedure.

Guo Mingcheng had lost four patients in the past half a year because he chose to operate on patients with portal hypertension, which was a high-risk surgery. Fortunately, everyone in the hospital was very supportive of him. Feng Zhixiang even promised that he would incorporate Guo Mingcheng’s research into the new edition of the teaching material he took part in editing after it was done.

Even though the teaching materials would not be used in all the universities of China, Guo Mingcheng was still extremely excited about this prospect.

“The electrocardiogram even shows that he’s suffering from minor heart failure.” Guo Mingcheng shook his head. “Considering his age and the condition of the body, this operation is very risky indeed.”

Feng Zhixiang took out the CT scans from the file and took a look at them. He then said, “The patient is experiencing a lot of pain and has a low quality of life. This is why he is quite inclined to receive surgery. After you arrive at Yun Hua Hospital, you must explain things properly to the patient and the doctors there.”

“Actually, we should have requested for him to be transferred to our hospital. I don’t know how the quality of Yun Hua Hospita’s postoperative care is like. With the patient’s condition, if any mishap happens after the surgery, there might be major bleeding that would lead to death.”

“He can only make an insurance claim if he’s staying in Yun Hua Hospital.” Feng Zhixiang enunciated each word forcefully before he continued. “Most senior citizens at this age wouldn’t be willing to let their children spend this much money on them. And most patients who need to fund their own surgeries would rather opt out of it.”

Guo Mingcheng hummed in acknowledgement.

Chinese-styled freelance surgeries was, in a way, another form of society trying to manage its members by itself.

Most health insurances in China imposed restrictions on the patients’ mobility.

Patients were only able to use their health insurances in the provinces they bought them in. There were even some health insurance providers who imposed a restriction where patients must seek treatment in certain hospitals in their areas first before being transferred to other hospitals.

This meant that patients with certain ailments such as appendicitis, cholecystitis, and ruptured Achilles tendons that were not serious enough to warrant a transfer could only use their health insurances in tertiary Grade A, secondary Grade A, or even secondary Grade B county hospitals.

Doctors and health insurance providers hoped that patients with minor ailments would seek treatment at smaller hospitals and leave the larger hospitals for patients with more serious illnesses.

But why would any patient be willing to be left at the mercy of doctors in smaller hospitals, who only scored four hundred and fifty marks in their college entrance examination, combined Western and Chinese Medicine, were not qualified for a PhD, were forced by their parents to work in local hospitals so that they can earn an income while waiting for their demise, were unwilling to learn new things and merely wanted to profit a little out of medical consumables, and were only able to become chief physicians because they had been working for many years?

All patients suffering from hepatolithiasis wanted to stay alive.

Even when it came to the most basic prenatal care checkup, the probability of doctors from larger hospitals spotting a congenital disease was a few thousand times higher than doctors from smaller hospitals.

Freelance surgery was a solution to this problem.

The best doctors were able to carry out both highly difficult surgeries or ordinary surgeries in county hospitals as long as the facilities were not too shabby. They could even do it during their free time for a large sum of money, which contributed greatly to their finances and dignity.

Even highly renowned professors like Feng Zhixiang carried out freelance surgeries every now and then. He could not just survive on his monthly salary which was about 10,000 RMB as well as the profit he made from the drugs he administered which totalled up to about another 10,000 RMB.

Both of them talked about the case for a while on the plane, and that was considered their preoperative consultation.

As Feng Zhixiang was already of advanced age, he fell asleep shortly after he covered himself with a blanket. Guo Mingcheng who was the chief surgeon looked at the information at hand for a bit more before taking a short nap. Soon, the plane landed.

Neither of them bought any luggage. The moment they arrived at the arrival hall, they saw a placard with “Professor Feng Zhixiang” written on it.

“Those are probably Ding Fan’s family members.” Feng Zhixiang, who had already washed his face and tidied himself up, looked extremely elegant. No sign of the sluggishness of old age could be seen on him at all.

“Yes, my name is Ding Zhong. Professor Feng, we have met in Beijing before. Director Li from Heavenly Goodness of the Century was the one who introduced you to me.” The second son of the Ding family made use of his connections.

Feng Zhixiang nodded with a smile.

With his position, there were often people seeking treatment from him through connections. This was especially true when it came to hepatectomy, which was a matter of life and death. It was only par for the course that all of the patients’ family members would try all means and use all connections to get the best doctor possible. Feng Zhixiang understood this very well.

Besides, he did kind of remember the Director Li from Heavenly Goodness of the Century whom the second son of the Ding family was talking about. This was why he still flashed the middle-aged man before him a smile even though he did not really remember him.

“Nice to meet you, Mister Ding.” Feng Zhixing shook Ding Zhong’s hand lightly and said, “Why don’t we head to the hospital first and talk while we are on the way?”

“Sure.” When Ding Zhong saw that Feng Zhixiang seemed quite amiable, he heaved an internal sigh of relief. He then started utilizing the interpersonal communication skills he had garnered from being a businessman to chat with Feng zhixiang.

By the time Feng Zhixiang entered the car, he was already in a very good mood.

It was always a joyous thing to be flattered.

Ding Zhong rented a Toyota Coaster, while the families of Ding Fan’s three other children were waiting in three other cars so that they could meet the doctors who would be operating on their father as soon as possible. At the same time, Department Director He Yuanzheng was also here to welcome Professor Feng together with another doctor from his department. They were totally showing Professor Feng a lot of respect.

Feng Zhixiang had seen a lot of the world and had met all kinds of family members of patients. After he gauged how Ding Fan’s family members were like, he first spoke some words of consolation and made a bit of small talk. He then continued, “I have carried out many similar surgeries. Your father’s condition is relatively complicated, and this is exactly why we’re ready to take on the challenge. Of course, the surgery is very risky. You guys must me mentally prepared.”

If Guo Mingcheng, who was beside Feng Zhixiang, were to say all this, the patient’s family members definitely would not buy it.

However, the patient’s family members felt a lot more at ease when they heard these words from Feng Zhixiang, who looked experienced and level-headed.

After Feng Zhixiang was done with the pleasantries, Guo Mingcheng came forward and talked about the risk of the surgery as well as the patient’s critical condition.

Feng Zhixiang then spoke more pleasant words, and by the time he finished speaking, they had almost arrived at Yun Hua Hospital.

“We feel at ease that you’re treating our father, Professor Feng.” Ding Zhong glanced at the other people in the car and continued. “I’ve searched up some information online, and according to all of them, you the best general surgeon in our country…”

“I wouldn’t dare to say that.” Feng Zhixiang chuckled and cut Ding Zhong off.

Guo Mingcheng furrowed his eyebrows a little. Doctors of his generation would get vexed whenever they hear about patients searching for information online.

Many of the things that were posted online were not actually true even though they sounded legitimate, and it was way too much of a hassle for doctors to explain things to those patients. The worst thing was that sometimes, doctors were not even able to come out with words to refute the information posted online. However, they knew very well that those were false information, and this was truly infuriating.

Ding Zhong continued wearing a big smile on his face. “Professor Feng, you’re so humble. As the patient’s family members, seeing a doctor like you really puts our minds at ease. We’ll be entrusting our father to your care.”

“Yes, please take good care of our father.” His siblings immediately joined him in flattering Professor Feng.

Feng Zhixiang continued to console them before entering the building of Yun Hua Hospital.

All the doctors from the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery as well as some curious doctors had gathered at the lobby to wait for Professor Feng’s arrival.

“I’ll get the job done first. We’ll chat later,” Feng Zhixiang said this with a smile on his face, but in reality, he did not feel like chatting at all. He walked straight into the operating theater and headed to the changing room. He then started panting loudly.

“Professor, how do you feel?” Guo Mingcheng stood beside Feng Zhixiang and asked carefully.

“I’m okay, just a little tired.” Feng Zhixiang smiled and took a deep breath. “After watching all of you graduate, it will be time for me to retire.”

“Teacher, you’ve really done a lot for us.” Guo Mingcheng wore a guilty expression. He knew that his professor was actually talking about watching all of them becoming department directors, even though he said that he wanted to watch them graduate. Department directors were doctors who got to spread their wings the most with the least restrictions.

However, not all departments are the same. A department in a large hospital in Beijing and a department in a local tertiary Grade A hospital were two entirely different things. For Guo Mingcheng, the best case scenario would be to stay in the hospital he was in and inherit Feng Zhixian’s legacy after he retired.

As he thought of this, Guo Mingcheng felt calmer and calmer.

He was already in the zone to carry out a surgery.

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