Chapter 151: The Stubborn Old Man's Stories

The new working group's first call comes after dark.

Evan had returned home, and the night was growing late.

Then he got another call. It was Leo Cao.

If anyone asked who Evan spoke to most often, the answer would have to be Leo.

Leo was now one of the people in charge of their academic working group. His medical skills might not amount to much, but the man certainly knew how to get ahead. He had even managed to work his way into their group.

Well, he and Evan were close. He had practically become Evan's chief point of contact.

If Evan one day became a truly outstanding clinician, a physician of the highest national standing, with a reputation across the country and legions of admirers, Leo could claim to be the man who had discovered the famous Dr. Xu.

There really were plenty of older Chinese medicine doctors quietly practicing in their communities, highly skilled but little known.

Take Dr. Li. He had started out as a rural barefoot doctor.^[1] Despite his ability, hardly anyone had heard of him. Only after someone brought him to public attention had he become nationally famous in his later years.

Of course, Evan wasn't that accomplished yet.

That did nothing to hinder Leo's networking. He was probably even grateful to Ben Song now. If Ben hadn't stood up for his brother-in-law, Leo would never have met Evan.

Nor would he have landed a leadership role in this working group. If the group really succeeded, it would be a shining achievement on his résumé!

No wonder he'd been so enthusiastic lately.

“Hello, Dr. Cao. What's going on?”

Leo sounded excited. “Dr. Xu! We've got a case!”

Evan was taken aback. The group had only been established today, and they already had a patient?

“All right. I'll be right there.” He hung up and hurried off to the Chinese medicine hospital.

If Leo was calling at this hour, the patient had to be a difficult case that couldn't wait. Evan had no complaints. During his time in the system, he had often crossed mountains in the middle of the night to see patients.

Now he was in the county town, with good roads and bright streetlights. It couldn't have been more convenient.

He took Clara's keys and rode her little electric scooter to the hospital. By now, he had more or less commandeered it.

Alex was on night duty and had heard the news too. He excitedly posted in the young Chinese medicine doctors' group chat:

Get back here! The working group's first case is in!

He added a shamelessly flirtatious sticker of someone waving a handkerchief to beckon customers over.

The little county town sprang to life.

By the time Evan reached the hospital, the young doctors were arriving one after another.

He went upstairs.

Leo and Alex took him to find Dr. Qi.

Dr. Qi hadn't gone home either. Once everyone had met up, they headed for the inpatient ward.

The resident, Hannah, followed behind Dr. Qi.

Walking beside Evan, Dr. Qi began to explain.

“The patient has been bleeding from his stomach for two days. He's had gastric ulcers for years and has a history of gastric bleeding. Twenty days ago, his fecal occult blood test came back positive.^[2]

“The day before yesterday, he had a glass of wine at a business dinner and suddenly began vomiting blood. It wouldn't stop. He was rushed here.

“We've tried treatment without surgery, but it hasn't worked well. He's still vomiting blood. We're worried he could develop a gastric perforation if this goes on, so we planned to operate immediately.^[3]

“But the patient and his family refused. They don't want surgery. Since we've just established the working group on using Chinese medicine to tackle critical illness, we discussed it with them and agreed to give Chinese medicine one more try.

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“His condition is dangerous, though. If we can't bring it under control, he could develop a perforation, become critically ill, or even go into shock. We could lose the opportunity to operate.

“If we can't stop the bleeding tonight and his condition doesn't improve, we'll have to transfer him to a higher-level hospital tomorrow morning. I hope you understand, Dr. Xu.”

Dr. Qi was very courteous to him. In medicine, ability was what counted. Skill earned respect, and Evan had earned the respect of the hospital's doctors and nurses through one case after another.

Evan nodded. “I understand, Dr. Qi. If a doctor's delay in treatment causes a patient to become critically ill, that's the doctor's responsibility.”

Dr. Qi nodded too, took the chart from Hannah, and handed it to Evan.

Evan began reading it.

For now, the patient had a bleeding gastric ulcer. It hadn't perforated. A perforation would make things much more difficult. Chinese medicine could still be used before that happened, but once there was a perforation, oral herbal medicine would no longer be an option.

No system of medicine was perfect. Chinese medicine couldn't cure everything. Conventional medicine had the advantage in many illnesses.

If the ulcer perforated, conventional surgery would certainly be more appropriate. Chinese medicine could still assist his recovery afterward through acupuncture and other external treatments.

Even now, if Chinese medicine couldn't control the bleeding, they would have to operate. Waiting until a perforation occurred would make matters very difficult indeed.

It was only the patient's refusal of surgery that had given Chinese medicine this opportunity. Otherwise, they wouldn't have invited the Chinese medicine doctors to join the case. The patient would already have been sent for surgery.

Every Chinese medicine doctor there knew they had just this one night.

They entered the room.

The patient's wife was there too.

She was surprised to see such a crowd of white-coated doctors coming in so late. The working day was over. Why were there still so many doctors here?

“Dr. Xu, this is the patient,” Dr. Qi said.

Evan had just finished reading the chart. He passed it back for the young doctors behind him to read.

He stepped forward to examine the patient.

The patient's wife stopped short. “He's going to treat him?”

“Yes,” said Dr. Qi.

“Didn't you say this group of yours was led by a provincial specialist?”

“That's right,” Leo explained. “Professor He is our academic leader, but he's already returned to the provincial capital. This doctor is his student, and he's the one actually running the group.”

“Oh… but…” Looking at Evan's youthful face, she felt thoroughly put off.

For a doctor, especially a doctor of Chinese medicine, being young was a real handicap.

Evan frowned slightly too.

She couldn't quite bring herself to say what she thought. Instead, she asked, “I've heard you have a very good Chinese medicine doctor here, someone named Xu. Is that right?”

Everyone stared.

Their reaction bewildered her too. “Is there no such person?

“I've heard about him several times. He cured a one-year-old of severe pneumonia. And he cured appendicitis and a bowel obstruction with herbal medicine, without surgery.

“And that deputy chief of the Chengguan police station—wasn't he in a provincial hospital for seven months without getting better? They were almost going to amputate. Didn't this doctor cure him too? Is there really no such person?”

Everyone's expressions grew stranger still.

“Have I heard wrong?” she asked. “We only agreed to Chinese medicine because we heard how good this Dr. Xu was.”

Evan was feeling rather put off himself. “Where did you hear all this?”

“In the county's central park. There's an old man there who tells everyone about him morning, noon, and night, three or four times a day. He says the doctor cured his appendicitis.”

The young doctors behind Evan couldn't hold back their laughter. So it was that stubborn old Chinese medicine devotee!

Well, that explained why he'd been in such a hurry to get out of the hospital. He'd gone off to play storyteller!^[4]

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ Barefoot doctors. These were rural community health workers who often combined farming with basic medical care after relatively brief training. The historical label does not mean they worked without shoes, or that all were specialists in Chinese medicine. Here it recalls Dr. Li's modest beginnings; it does not establish his particular training or credentials. Source: WHO Bulletin — China's village doctors take great strides.
2. ↩︎ Hidden blood in stool. “Fecal” means relating to stool, and “occult” means hidden from ordinary sight. A positive fecal occult blood test indicates that blood has been detected, but the test alone does not identify its exact source or establish the underlying disease. Here Dr. Qi is reporting an earlier test, twenty days before this consultation; that result is distinct from the visible vomiting of blood that began two days ago. Source: MedlinePlus — Fecal Occult Blood Test.
3. ↩︎ Bleeding and perforation. A gastric ulcer is a sore in the stomach lining. Bleeding and perforation are distinct complications; perforation means a hole through the stomach wall. The doctors are concerned about a possible perforation, rather than reporting that one has occurred. The nonsurgical treatment, proposed operation, overnight opportunity, transfer plan, and later discussion of Chinese medicine belong to this fictional case. The source explains ulcer complications; it does not establish this patient's course or validate the treatment choices described here. Source: NIDDK — Peptic Ulcers: Definition and Facts, “Complications”.
4. ↩︎ Playing storyteller. The Chinese joke invokes pingshu, a traditional form of oral storytelling in which a performer narrates a story and brings its characters to life through speech, gesture, and expression. The old man's repeated accounts in the park are jokingly likened to performances. The line does not establish that he has become a professional entertainer, or that the listeners pay him. His enthusiastic retelling of his own treatment supplies the comparison. Source: China Intangible Cultural Heritage — Beijing Pingshu (in Chinese).