top student at medical school

After Fang Ziye completed the physical examination, he reported the results in a very formal manner.

Deng Yong nodded repeatedly, while Dr. Qiao Fei from the outpatient department immediately and meticulously copied down Fang Ziye's examination results word for word into the outpatient medical record.

After Fang Ziye finished speaking, Deng Yong explained the treatment to the patients with a half-smile: "You must be very clear about this situation. Spinal cord injury caused by trauma results in a partial 'closed' state of spinal cord function."

"However, compared to some spinal cord injury patients, your situation is better. At least you can relieve yourself without any problems. It's just that the muscles below your knees have lost nerve control."

Fang Ziye entered as Deng Yong's student, and he looked young, so the patients and their families didn't notice anything amiss.

"Professor Deng, my dad can squat down to relieve himself without any problem, and he can stand up with his hands for support without any problem either."

“He is very unsteady when walking. We have been to many hospitals, and they all say this is the best possible outcome.”

“We also met other patients, and some of my dad’s friends, who had similar conditions, even envied him.”

"We had heard that Professor Fang could treat spinal cord injuries like this, and we finally managed to get an appointment, but then we heard that Professor Fang had temporarily suspended his practice..."

"Professor Deng, do you think this situation can still be treated?" the patient's son asked in a very gentle voice.

Deng Yong glanced in Fang Ziye's direction and saw Fang Ziye nod slightly after carefully examining the MRI scan. Only then did he say, "There should be a chance, but that's all I can say."

"Currently, our hospital's understanding of spinal cord injury also has certain blind spots."

"Many patients achieve good results after undergoing standard surgery, but a few do not experience any functional improvement after the same standard surgery."

"So, all I can tell you is that there's a chance."

The patient and their family's expressions changed: "Professor Deng, is it possible that this surgery will fail?"

Deng Yong nodded: "Yes, that's right!"

"Any surgery has the potential to fail; surgery is not a child's play."

"Even the smallest surgery can carry relatively extreme risks."

"So you family members need to think this through carefully."

“Right now, your father’s condition is that he has lost muscle strength below the knee, but the muscle strength above the knee is only weakened, and he still has the ability to defecate.”

"Actually, this is already considered one of the better cases among spinal cord injury diseases."

“Many other patients seek treatment with the goal of recovering to the same state as your father,” Deng Yong stated clearly.

"How about we stop watching? What if we fail..." The old man was not old, only about sixty years old, and he was quite frightened after hearing Deng Yong's words.

But his son, who brought him there, thought differently: "Professor Deng, can you tell me how many patients didn't have very good results after the surgery?"

Upon hearing this, Deng Yong thought about it seriously for a moment: "We have treated one or two hundred patients with spinal cord injuries in our ward so far."

"The postoperative outcomes for about seven or eight patients were not optimistic."

"That's roughly the ratio."

The young man blinked as he calculated: "Four percent... Four percent isn't high, but it's not low either."

"Does this mean the treatment effect is not optimistic?" The young man's eyes also showed some fear.

To the average person, a failed surgery might mean "death"!
"Yes, it means there's no therapeutic effect, or the effect is quite poor," Deng Yong emphasized.

"Huh? It's not gone?" the young man asked.

Deng Yong shook his head vigorously: "That's not it!"

“Spinal cord injury is an elective disease. Without surgery, there may be no danger to life. If there is a 4% mortality rate after surgery, it would have been stopped long ago.”

"What I mean is, it's possible that in the end, you spend money but get nothing in return."

This is an established fact, and Deng Yong cannot guarantee whose treatment will be effective.

Fang Ziye and others are also slowly conducting statistical analysis on patients whose treatment is ineffective, to see if they can summarize the special circumstances of this group of patients and form 'surgical contraindications' or non-surgical indications.

"Dad, that's not the case, it's just that it's not working."

“I think it’s worth a try, and I’m also inclined to have the surgery, but of course it ultimately depends on what you think.”

"It's just a matter of spending some money, right?"

"Of course, you may still suffer a bit after the surgery, but what if it works?"

"You can also go fishing or take a walk, wouldn't that be great?" the young man reassured his father.

The old man hesitated, "But? What if?"

Spending tens of thousands of yuan for a chance, even with a 90% chance, is not worthwhile in the eyes of the elderly.

"Dad, there aren't that many 'what ifs.' Even if it doesn't work out, at least we tried, and that gives us peace of mind."

"Professor Deng hasn't said that the postoperative results are particularly bad, which at least proves that the worst outcome is simply no significant change."

"But if it works, that would be great."

"But there's something I need to make clear to you. I absolutely didn't think of taking a gamble because I thought you were a hassle. I just really want you to be okay."

"Many times when I see you staring blankly, it breaks my heart."

"You've worked so hard all these years, and now that your son's career is finally starting to look good, what are you doing?" the young man explained in a low voice.

The old man looked at his son, hesitated for a moment, and then slowly nodded.

Deng Yong said, "No rush. Even if we don't worry about it, we can't be hospitalized right now. Let me take a look."

"If you want to book a hospital admission now, you'll have to wait until after the new year."

"If you guys need to be hospitalized, get a hospital admission certificate first, then go home and enjoy the New Year in peace... There's no rush..."

"After the New Year? What month is it in the lunar calendar now?" the young man asked in surprise.

"June 12th, it should be the 12th. We came to Han City on the 8th of June." The old man remembered the lunar calendar clearly.

"Why is it taking so long, Professor Deng?" The young man was a little annoyed.

"There are a lot of people coming to schedule surgeries. Go outside and take a look."

“We see patients with spinal cord injuries at other times, except for the days when Professor Fang is in the outpatient clinic. We see at least ten inpatients every day, if not twenty.”

“Since May, we have issued at least seven or eight hundred hospitalization certificates.”

"It's easy to get a hospital admission certificate, but difficult to get treatment. We can only do a maximum of three cases a day, and at most four."

"You do the math. It would take more than 200 days for over 800 people. Currently, apart from Professor Fang, no other team can solve it..."

"Can't Professor Fang do a few more in a day?" the young man muttered to himself.

Deng Yong said, "Having surgery isn't like going to the market to buy vegetables, where you can buy more if you have money and less if you don't."

"Surgical quality is the top priority."

"Um, do you think we should issue you a hospital admission certificate?" Deng Yong pressed, seizing control of the outpatient department.

“Go ahead, Professor Deng, there’s no other way!” the young man nodded.

After quickly writing the words, Deng Yong handed over the hospital admission certificate.

Qiao Fei diligently saw the patient and their family out, even blocking the patient outside the door. Deng Yong gently pinched Fang Ziye's arm: "Why did you come here?"

“Master, of course I had to come back to visit. Thank you for your hard work, Master,” Fang Ziye said softly.

"Didn't you get enough rest? Look at your swollen eyes, go back and rest!" Deng Yong said.

“Since we’ve already endured this long, let’s finish the outpatient consultation with you,” Fang Ziye replied.

Deng Yong glanced at the doorway, where Qiao Fei was still explaining to the patients outside, "Please wait a moment, Professor Deng has some things to attend to inside."

Deng Yong said, "Qiao Fei, bring the patient in..."

Fang Ziye is an adult; he can clearly decide whether or not he needs to rest.

With Fang Ziye's help, Deng Yong's outpatient speed is not slow!

Around 5:20, there were no more patients outside the outpatient clinic...

Deng Yong stretched, interlaced his fingers, and rotated his upper body, yawning: "Finally finished working overtime, hehehe..."

Deng Yong looked at Fang Ziye with a half-smile.

Fang Ziye was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "Master, thank you for your trouble."

"Hey, do you think being a master is so easy?"

"Right now, you are a student who hasn't graduated yet, a student who hasn't been released yet, so your experience in mentoring students isn't that profound yet."

“It’s not like you’re free of burdens just because you’ve graduated.” Deng Yong’s tone was uncompromising, treating Fang Ziye as a very mature friend.

Fang Ziye certainly didn't have this kind of experience.

Fang Ziye asked, "Master, who is the PhD student assigned to me this year? I heard you're supervising three PhD students this year?"

Deng Yong nodded: "One is academic, two are professional. The research group has money, why can't they take them?"

“You also brought three students: one academic, one professional, and one eight-year program.”

"Isn't this actually something I brought for you?"

At this point, Deng Yong touched his chest: "Will there be any pressure? Yuan Weihong also has two more."

As the saying goes, when one person succeeds, everyone around him will prosper!
After Fang Ziye's outstanding performance, Deng Yong and Yuan Weihong also produced a great deal of scientific research output.

Today, Deng Yong and Yuan Weihong have long since reached the point where others may not have doctoral positions, but Deng Yong and Yuan Weihong cannot be without them.

In Fang Ziye's year of doctoral studies, there were only 6 professional doctoral positions available in the entire orthopedics department.

Currently, the doctoral positions for Deng Yong, Yuan Weihong, and Fang Ziye alone add up to four professional doctoral positions.

They are no longer comparable to what they used to be.

Unlike the master's and doctoral students in Yuan Weihong's research group back then, Fang Ziye now has absolute priority in selecting the doctoral and master's students in the group.

From attending physicians to interns, Fang Ziye could choose whatever he wanted.

Fang Ziye had previously mentioned that they were short of people, and if they were short of people, they would have to find a way to bring them in.

"It's alright. Thank you both for your kindness. Anyway, if you entrust the students to me, I, as their senior brother, can at least guarantee that they can graduate smoothly!"

“However, whether I can stay in the hospital, Master, is not something I can decide on my own…” Fang Ziye emphasized.

Deng Yong glared at Fang Ziye and said irritably, "You're going to hold a grudge against me for the rest of my life for making a mistake?"

"Hey, Professor Fang, are you starting to lecture me now?"

After Deng Yong finished speaking, he rubbed Fang Ziye's ear.

Fang Ziye gently shook his head: "Master, that's not what I meant. It's just that there are more and more junior brothers nowadays."

"Yes, there are more and more students, so it's becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate."

"Sigh, there's nothing we can do about it." Deng Yong nodded.

After saying that, Deng Yong asked curiously, "Why didn't you submit a list to the department before this year's doctoral recruitment? So many people applied to you, but you didn't choose any of them?"

Fang Ziye nodded slightly and said self-deprecatingly, "Master... to be honest, I feel like I'm quite a snob myself now."

What does it mean to be a snob? It means that those who are not talented will not be noticed by Fang Ziye, and he is unwilling to give them a chance. They can only rely on their own efforts.

Mentoring students is not an easy job; in fact, it involves a lot of tasks.

Of course, mentoring a high-achieving student is a very rewarding experience.

For example, students like Hu Qingyuan.

"There's no need to feel uncomfortable. It's just a matter of perspective and position. It's only natural."

"You're not familiar with the students who come to you, so of course you can only look at their grades. How can you give them enough time to understand them thoroughly?"

"On the other hand, if a master's or undergraduate student can't even write a decent paper, then even if they are a genius, they will still make mistakes."

“You can’t possibly have that many thoughts.” Deng Yong was still providing psychological support and instruction to Fang Ziye, clarifying for Fang Ziye the mindset of a mentor.

Fang Ziye has a lot to do these days. If he wanted to, he could go out to meetings every day. His email is full of invitations to various academic conferences, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device manufacturers.

If Fang Ziye wanted to go out and throw knives again, he wouldn't be able to handle it even if he didn't sleep for 24 hours straight.

In reality, Fang Ziye even skipped some of the institute's meetings!
Outpatient clinics, ward rounds, surgeries, and laboratories can fill all of Fang Ziye's time.

Administrative tasks, recruitment, assignments from superiors, and teaching and mentoring students are all things I can only spare time to "deal with"!
A person's time and energy are limited, so they can only be 'distracted' and can no longer do what they did in their student days, where they could concentrate on doing one thing at a time.

"I'll find out more about it when they arrive."

"Speaking of which, none of my three doctoral students came early this year; they'll probably have to wait until September when classes start."

"They're all quite arrogant," Fang Ziye said with amusement.

Back then, he started working immediately after graduating with his master's degree.

"That might not be arrogance. It's possible that Professor Fang, your current rank is so high that they're afraid they won't have another chance to take a vacation after you come, so they're taking a big exam and having a lot of fun?"

"It's understandable. The summer after graduating with a master's degree will be the last long vacation of their lives. After the start of the semester, they will become real beasts of burden."

"It may not sound nice, but that's the gist of it."

"As long as you're working, it's all the same thing."

Fang Ziye laughed and said, "Master... then we should be the kind of beasts of burden we want to be."

"I'll go over to Professor Wang Ou's place first to thank her, and then we'll go out for a drink together later."

"Okay!" Deng Yong nodded, crossed his legs, squinted his eyes, and tapped his right hand on the desk, looking quite relaxed.

Fang Ziye is his student!
Fang Ziye had just stepped out the door when he received a phone call. He put the phone to his ear and immediately stepped back, saying, "Master, I can't eat anymore."

"Tianluo called."

(End of this volume!) (End of this chapter)