Chapter 1482: Chapter 1109: The Unbearable Past
Yang Ping’s wedding stirred up the entire global dical community for many days, and a romantic love story spread throughout the provincial city of Nandu. The wedding, attended by nurous dical bigwigs from around the world, highlighted by a high-spirited song from Manstein, beautiful fireworks and drone performances, and overwhelming congratulations, left a deep impression on all.
Now, the excitent has subsided, and the doctors and scholars from around the world have returned to their respective countries, bringing rich exchange results back to their posts and starting their own work.
Yang Ping has resud a normal life. In fact, it is normal life that he and Xiao Su prefer—quiet, allowing them to freely do what they love, uninterrupted. True happiness is the peacefulness of everyday life, not the brilliance of fireworks.
With their child still young, Xiao Su decided to take so ti off to care for the child full-ti. She also uses her spare ti to work out. Xiao Su has always had a fitness habit, which is how she maintains her perfect figure.
Yang Ping used to love running and has maintained this habit. However, now he also joins Xiao Su in working out. No matter how busy he gets, he takes ti to work out because health is the foundation of everything. With a good body, he can better do what he loves and enjoy life.
When he first arrived at the departnt in the morning, he bumped into Little Five, who had just returned from the ophthalmology departnt. A special patient in the ophthalmology departnt was undergoing ergency surgery in the operating room, and they requested assistance from Little Five for technical guidance. Yang Ping asked, “What kind of patient would the ophthalmology departnt need our consultation for?”
Usually, the ophthalmology departnt rarely requests consultations from the Surgical Research Institute. It’s hardly ever more than a few tis a year, so what kind of case is this?
Little Five said: The patient had glass fibers pierced into their eye, which needs to be removed under a microscope. The ophthalmologists admitted the patient for ergency surgery. When they looked at the operating table, oh my god, there were dozens of short and long “fine needles” stuck into the eyeball. These “fine needles” are almost invisible to the naked eye because the diater of a single glass fiber is about 1/20-1/5 of a hair’s width. The ophthalmology departnt knew our departnt’s microscope skills are extrely high, so they requested one of our doctors to help remove these “fine needles” that can only be seen under a microscope. I happened to arrive early; the resident on duty had gone to the ergency departnt and hadn’t returned, so I had ti to take a look.
That’s quite a story. Yang Ping was familiar with glass fibers as they are encountered frequently in daily life, in items like umbrella handles, mosquito net rods, fishing rods, and so on. But how did this patient get so many glass fibers stuck in their eye?
Glass fiber can be scary but is certainly better than asbestos. Both have similar microstructures like “fine needles” or “fine threads.” If inhaled into the lungs, small amounts of glass fiber can often dissolve and disappear over several months. However, asbestos can stay in the body for up to 15 years, especially if inhaled into the lungs, where it lingers for long periods, continuously irritating and damaging lung tissue. This chronic damage can lead to cellular mutations in the lungs and eventually lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists asbestos as a Group 1 carcinogen. It’s banned in many countries worldwide, including China, although it’s still used in so rural areas of the country.
Glass fibers are sowhat better, with E-glass and “475” glass fibers listed as Group 2B carcinogens, while continuous glass fibers are listed as Group 3 carcinogens. Thus, their relative harm is less severe compared to asbestos.
“How did it go, did you handle it for them?” Yang Ping asked.
Little Five replied confidently, “It was a piece of cake. I removed all the fine needles, not leaving a single one behind. Now the entire hospital knows our institute’s laparoscopic and microscopic skills surpass other departnts. So, whenever there’s a challenging case in this field, they consult us. Last ti, gynecology had an ergency case where a female patient had live loaches in her uterus from wild swimming. Zhang Lin was called in to remove them, and he did so with ease, extracting several of them.”
In fact, surgery is sothing that’s easier to learn when you’re young. Both Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and Sanbo Hospital now use a ntor-apprentice system. The hospitals have clear regulations: if a ntor’s apprentice doesn’t et the technical standards for surgery within the specified period, the ntor loses their qualification to perform surgeries and the apprentice is reassigned to a new ntor until they et the standards. The previous ntor can only regain their qualification after the apprentice ets the standards. This system prevents ntors from being unwilling to pass on their skills.
In hospitals, many senior doctors worry about teaching their apprentices too well, fearing they’ll be outperford. This leads to an unwillingness to genuinely teach younger doctors. Of course, you can’t bla senior doctors entirely. Most hospitals lack a systematic, standardized training system for young doctors. Even if such a system exists, it’s often outdated and essentially non-existent.
Many departnt directors have absolute power and often monopolize surgical skills under the pretext of “patient safety,” dominating the operating table for decades, leaving many departnt doctors capable only of holding retractors.
In essence, this is because departnt directors fear being surpassed by other doctors and use their administrative power to monopolize surgical techniques. This situation isn’t uncommon. For example, in so departnts, only the departnt director knows how to perform a particular surgery, not because they’re superior, but because they never taught other doctors and didn’t send them for external training. As long as they’re in charge, they’re the only one who knows how to perform the surgery.
Sanbo Hospital’s Surgical Research Institute is different. Training for doctors starts from the standardized training student level. At least in terms of hands-on skills, they receive long-term, systematic training at an optimal age, mastering many surgical techniques. This puts them ahead of most hospitals. In most hospitals, standardized training students and graduates lack any systematic training. Instead, they’re seen purely as a source of exploitation. They aren’t viewed as objects of cultivation but rather as workhorses who aren’t even afforded the respite that actual horses can get. Even catching a breath is considered a cri for standardized training students.
One standardized training student accompanied Zhang Lin for a consultation and got to show his skills on the operating table, feeling particularly accomplished. He secretly shared his proud mont with other standardized training students, who were envious and all eager for an opportunity to display their skills. After all, they’ve been training for a long ti and are quite skilled.
Seeing all the standardized training students gathered around, Zhang Lin pulled out a piece of paper for everyone to sign. This was because the first month’s subsidy from the fund established by Wang Changxin to support dical students and standardized training students was about to be distributed. They needed to sign and verify their personal information and bank accounts. If everything was correct, they would submit it and soon receive their first subsidy. Although the subsidy was not much, only 6,000 yuan for now, it could solve their living problems, at least alleviating worries about daily subsistence.
Discussing this, everyone was both grateful to President Wang and filled with resentnt. Life for standardized training students at Sanbo Hospital was relatively better, whereas elsewhere, they lived in “dire straits,” with extrely low inco and overwhelming workloads. The fund established by Wang Changxin to support impoverished standardized training students was a fantastic initiative. Many survivors lack basic living security and rely on family support. Those with better family conditions manage while those without continue to rely on family support even after graduating from university or obtaining a graduate degree. This is absurd, but common in the dical field: no money, extre workloads, and imnse physical and ntal pressures, which have led to standardized training students committing suicide from the stress in recent years.
Hearing the students talk about this, Yang Ping was reminded of his own difficult days as a graduate student and standardized training student. His ntor never provided guidance, treating him like a workhorse. On top of heavy clinical duties, he had to assist his ntor with research projects, write papers, compile books, conduct postoperative follow-ups, and more. The ntor assigned him everything without any concern for his capacity to bear it, including child pickups, howork tutoring, dog-walking, and taking the dog to the vet. Staying up until one or two in the morning was routine, and pulling all-nighters was commonplace. Looking back, he felt it was a miracle he hadn’t died of sudden cardiac death during those years.
Once, he was so exhausted that he experienced chest pain, fearing a heart attack from overwork. He took so ti to do an EKG, which delayed taking the ntor’s dog to the groors, and he was scolded harshly by his ntor. He could only endure this because he ca from a rural area and worked hard to get into graduate school. He didn’t want to worry his parents by stirring up trouble.
Finally, one day, he exploded. He had stayed up three consecutive nights revising a research proposal for his ntor, but it never t the ntor’s satisfaction. The ntor threw the proposal in his face and scolded him bitterly. If it weren’t for the presence of doctors, the ntor would have almost slapped him. He couldn’t hold back anymore and yelled at the ntor, “What the hell! I’m quitting. Anyone who wants to do this can do it. You think you’re so great just because you flaunt the title of ntor? You’re nothing but a complete idiot!”
“You can forget about graduating!” the ntor retorted viciously, it was the last sester of his graduate studies.
After his outburst, he walked away coolly and then cried in his dorm. He knew that, having clashed with his ntor, graduating was now impossible. A senior had had a similar fallout and ultimately did not graduate. Taking up the phone, Yang Ping told his father everything in full detail, expressing his desire to leave graduate school. Surprisingly, he felt relieved afterward, expecting rebuke for being unambitious. But his father did not scold him. Instead, he calmly said, “It’s just a graduate degree. If you don’t want to continue, so be it. You won’t starve without it. At worst, co back and work as a barefoot doctor. But you can’t let yourself be bullied without putting up a fight. Go to the school dean and talk it over. If they refuse, we’ll escalate. It’s not our fault, so why shouldn’t you graduate? What right does he have? Can you handle this? If not, your dad will co and talk to the dean. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go higher up. We’ll find soone to resolve this.”
This was Yang Ping’s first ti experiencing his father’s assertiveness. With his father’s support, he felt much more confident. Knowing the worst outco was manageable, no graduation seed not so daunting. So, he told his father, “I can handle it.”
Thus, he went to the dean to lodge a complaint with determination. Intervened by the dean, he successfully graduated. Moreover, his ntor’s attitude softened significantly and no longer assigned him excessive tasks. To this day, Yang Ping harbors little affection for his graduate ntor. Instead, he sees Director Han as his true dical ntor. Moreover, Director Han happens to be Yang Ping’s doctoral ntor as well.
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