readytorunbook Chapter 607 An Irresistible Temptation
Chapter 607 An Irresistible Temptation
Upon hearing this, Cheng Li and Dong Feng immediately perked up. Cheng Li even leaned forward slightly unconsciously and said excitedly, "Marquis Shence, let me tell you, after receiving the Prime Minister's order, Jun Yi (Dong Feng's courtesy name) and I each found ten pregnant women in the nearby counties for comparison. I used the method of handwashing and disinfection to deliver the babies, and we successfully delivered seven babies, with only three dying in infancy."
"Junyi is still using the old method to deliver babies, and only four of them were successful. The success rate is shockingly low. More importantly, the babies I deliver are all from women who are poorly nutritious and weak, while the babies Junyi delivers are from strong and healthy women who are theoretically more suitable for childbirth. Logically, Junyi's success rate should be higher, but the result is the opposite. This proves that the Prime Minister's method is indeed effective."
"But so far, we have each delivered ten babies, which is still too few subjects. So we are going to expand the number of participants and this time we will look for 100 pregnant women to conduct further experiments."
Guan Xing's eyelids twitched as he listened, and he wished he could punch Old Man Cheng in the mouth.
Is it something to be happy about if the generation success rate is only 70%?
If this happened in later generations, you would definitely be beaten to death by the pregnant woman's family.
Furthermore, your experiments are fine, but your subjects are pregnant women. Pregnant women are already in unbearable pain during childbirth, and you have to torture them like this. How can you bear it? How much suffering do pregnant women have to endure in your hands?
Although Guan Xing strongly disagreed with this approach, he knew that the current medical technology of the Great Han Dynasty could only do so much. Unlike other industries, the progress of the medical industry was all fueled by human lives. Why are the surgical and cosmetic techniques of later generations so advanced? Weren't they all spurred by the large number of wounded during World War II?
However, the mother's life is also a life, especially since it involves the death of both mother and unborn child; we cannot simply ignore it.
Guan Xing pondered, “Ten pregnant women are enough to prove the importance of handwashing and disinfection. There is no need to continue the experiment. In addition, I plan to build a school. I have already reported to His Highness the Crown Prince and received approval. Since you also need to continue the experiment, let’s add a medical school to the school.”
"In the initial stage, many things are not perfect and we can only proceed slowly. Therefore, the medical school currently only has an obstetrics department and combines the school and pharmacy in one place. Women in labor can be sent directly to the medical school for delivery and treatment. This way, delivery can be carried out effectively, and if there are any abnormalities in the mother and fetus after delivery, they can be treated nearby. What do you two think?"
Cheng Li asked incredulously, "What? Establish a medical school? You must be joking!"
Throughout history, medicine has been considered a lowly profession. It was a tradition of masters finding apprentices or passing down the profession from father to son. There has never been a story of an academy specifically teaching medicine. Yet now you want to establish a medical school to teach medicine and gather patients together for unified diagnosis and treatment.
Guan Xing shrugged and asked, "Is there a problem?"
Cheng Li and Dong Feng looked at each other, unsure how to respond.
Guan Xing continued, “Medicine is an indispensable profession for human beings. Even the Yellow Emperor attached great importance to it and even personally compiled the ‘Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic’. But the powerful and wealthy of later dynasties, for some reason, regarded medicine as a lowly profession. They looked down on it in normal times, but frantically sought medical treatment when they got sick. Isn’t this a kind of schizophrenia?”
"Therefore, I believe that the current situation where doctors are regarded as a lowly profession must be changed, the status of doctors must be raised, and the number of doctors must be increased. It is absolutely unacceptable for things to continue like this."
Cheng Li and Dong Feng listened with tears in their eyes. As doctors, they knew all too well the hardships doctors endured. Those damned powerful and wealthy people were extremely respectful to doctors when they were sick, but as soon as they recovered, they abandoned them like trash, without even putting on an act. The reason for this situation was simple: they could manipulate doctors at will, and they believed that doctors would not dare to refuse to treat them if they fell ill again.
Cheng Li and Dong Feng exchanged a glance and asked in unison, "What does Marquis Shence want us to do?"
Guan Xing laughed and said, "As the dean, I teach more students and continuously improve medical skills. Take childbirth for example. Currently, we only wash and disinfect our hands, which is far from enough. What if we encounter women with narrow pelvises or weak bodies who simply cannot give birth? We can't just watch them die along with their unborn children. In that case, is there any solution? For example, some kind of forceps that can dilate the uterus, or like Hua Tuo performing craniotomy on Cao Cao, cutting open the mother's abdomen to take out the fetus and then sewing the mother's abdomen back up, or..."
"That's all I can think of. You can figure out the rest. Just focus on doing your jobs well. I'll handle all the other messy things, like fundraising and dealing with rumors in the court."
Cheng Li and Dong Feng hesitated. To be fair, the matter was very tempting, but it was an unknown area that they had never done or even thought about before. Everyone would feel fear and hesitation when faced with the unknown.
Seeing their wavering expressions, Guan Xing continued to persuade them: "I truly believe this matter has great potential. Both of you are doctors, and doctors should have the well-being of all people in their hearts. Especially Doctor Dong, I heard that you never charge money when treating patients at the foot of Mount Lu. You only ask that the patients plant an apricot tree after they recover. Doctor Dong does not charge consultation fees because he does not want to increase the burden on patients. Asking them to plant apricot trees is to make them contribute something and prevent them from taking your efforts for granted because they do not work for you. This is enough to prove that Doctor Dong also has a compassionate heart and cares about the well-being of all people."
"But Doctor Dong, even if you treat patients non-stop for twelve hours a day, how many people can you save in your lifetime? Teaching at a medical school is different. You can train a large number of students to treat more people, and you can also establish a comprehensive medical system that covers all the people of the Han Dynasty, including those in remote mountainous areas, so that everyone can afford medical treatment. This is a great achievement that will be remembered in history. Are you sure you don't want to consider it?"
Immeasurable merit?
go down in history?
A monumental achievement for all time?
These words captivated Chairman Cheng and his companion, who immediately decided, "We will follow Marquis Shence's orders."
Guan Xing smiled and said, "Then please go home and rest first. I will start preparing to establish the medical school. I will invite you back when I need you to come out of retirement."
"By the way, how's the matter of compiling the 'Barefoot Doctor's Manual' that the Prime Minister mentioned coming along?"
Cheng Li replied, "It's still being proofread. Writing a manual isn't difficult, but writing it in plain language that most people can understand is very difficult. Besides, there aren't that many doctors willing to go door-to-door. It will probably have to wait until medical schools are established and a large number of medical students are trained before it can be fully rolled out. In short, it's a long process that will take at least 30 to 50 years."
Guan Xing expressed his understanding, saying that production and construction are too difficult and there are no shortcuts. It takes a lot of time to slowly grind things up and move forward little by little, unlike destruction, which only requires lighting a fire.
Guan Xing laughed and said, "Then let's do as Master Cheng says. I drank too much beer yesterday and have a bit of diarrhea today, so I won't keep you two any longer. I'll treat you to hot pot when I'm better."
Mr. Cheng and Mr. Cheng rolled their eyes. "You brought this on yourself. Would this happen if you didn't drink beer?"
The two men got up to say goodbye, and Guan Xing saw them to the door. He then returned to his tent and immediately picked up a pen to write a plan for building the school.
Building a school is not difficult for him at present. Because of Yu Jin's destruction, Jiangling City had to be rebuilt on the original site. He took advantage of the reconstruction opportunity to divert a lot of residential land, including land reserved for building a school.
Having seized the residential land from the aristocratic families and obtained the funds for school construction from the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun, the rest was simple.
Although he only received a little over 10,000 strings of cash from the Marquis of Haihun's estate, those are strings of cash! Converted, they amount to tens of millions of coins, more than enough to build a school.
In the civil engineering industry, once funding is in place, things take off. Give me a chance, and I'll give you a miracle. With sufficient funds, it can be done in a month.
Jiangling is located south of the Yangtze River, where the river does not freeze or thaw, so construction can begin in winter and schools can reopen after the Lunar New Year.
In short, this is not difficult.