Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1059 Using Traditional Chinese Medicine as an antidote for a consultation? I feel you're being a bit disrespectful to me (Bonus chapter for monthly votes)
It's been a long time since anyone called in to consult on dialects.

The last consultation was with Secretary Zheng from Yuan Qingshan's hometown, who works at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. (See Chapter 947)
At the time, the patient was treated by other departments, but they couldn't cure him, so Yuan Qingshan called Fang Yan over.

I wonder what happened at Xiyuan Hospital this time.

Fang Yan followed the nurse who had called him and hurried towards the inpatient building of Xiyuan Hospital. They soon arrived at the first floor, where the nurse led Fang Yan to the door of a conference room and knocked.

The door was quickly opened from the inside.

Looking inside, Fang Yan was surprised to see that there were quite a few people.

There were at least a dozen people present, all wearing white coats.

After carefully identifying the dialect, I recognized four or five people, but there were many more I didn't know.

Fang Yan had been interning at Xiyuan Hospital for some time now and knew quite a few people, so he was still a little surprised to see so many doctors he didn't recognize today.

However, he immediately realized that the words on the chests of these people's white coats were not Xiyuan Hospital, but another hospital, Chongwen Hospital in Chongwen District.

Its predecessor was the rear hospital of the 31st Army of the Kuomintang Army. After several changes, it was renamed the Second Rear Hospital of North China Military Medical University, the People's Hospital of the North China Administrative Committee, the North China People's Hospital, and the First Hospital of the Central Directly Subordinate Organs of the Ministry of Health. Finally, it was named "Yanjing Tiantan Hospital".

In February 1970, Tiantan Hospital was ordered to relocate entirely to Gansu. In July of the same year, the remaining staff of the original Tiantan Hospital and some staff of the then Chongwen District Qianmen Hospital rebuilt the Chongwen District Chongwen Hospital on the original site of Tiantan Hospital.

Now that the storm has ended, many people have returned from Gansu, so they still habitually refer to themselves as Tiantan Hospital when speaking to outsiders.

Just like at last year's Ministry of Health mid-year conference, when many hospitals wanted to recruit Fang Yan, this hospital was one of them. (See Chapter 129)
In fact, the name Tiantan Hospital was not officially restored until April 1982.

Today, the person presiding over the consultation here is an old acquaintance of Fang Yan, namely the vice president of Xiyuan Hospital... Fang Yaozhong.

That's how they are; if the school doesn't have classes scheduled for the morning, then they have to come to the hospital to work.

Upon seeing Fang Yan arrive, Fang Yaozhong invited him to find a seat.

Fang Yan glanced around the scene and it seemed that only one spot remained next to Fang Yaozhong.

He didn't stand on ceremony and went over to sit down.

Next, Fang Yaozhong nodded to the doctor from Chongwen Hospital and said:

"Let me first introduce the patient's condition."

A middle-aged doctor over there immediately stood up and addressed the crowd:

"The patient's surname is Yang, she is 24 years old this year. Before being sent to our hospital, she had bone marrow aspirations at several hospitals in Jiangxi where she works. All the test results confirmed that she has aplastic anemia."

"She was treated with a combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine for two years, but her condition kept recurring and generally showed a worsening trend. When she came to our hospital, she needed blood transfusions to maintain her vital signs. After the treatment started, she developed jaundice."

"This is the result of our report from yesterday..."

As he spoke, he took out the examination report and handed it to the people from Xiyuan Hospital at the scene for review.

As a result, the first person in the prescription book looked at it and handed it directly to Fang Yan.

Fang Yan glanced at it and realized it was a Western medical examination report.

Blood test:
Red blood cells: 90/μL, white blood cells: 2800/μL, platelets: 2/μL.

Liver function tests:
Jaundice index 85.5 μmol/L, thymol turbidity test 10 TTT, zinc sulfate turbidity test 8 ZnTT, alanine aminotransferase 85 U/L.

"Isn't this considered critically ill?" Fang Yan asked the person from Chongwen Hospital across the street. The person nodded and said:

"Yes, that's why we transferred the patient here, hoping to try combining traditional Chinese medicine to see if we could save him."

"..." Fang Yan frowned slightly upon hearing this. What did that mean?
What does it mean to "integrate with traditional Chinese medicine"?
Fang Yan glanced at the other person, then at Fang Yaozhong.

Fang Yaozhong frowned at this moment and asked:

"I'm not quite sure, are you entrusting this patient to us for treatment, or would you like us to provide our opinions?"

The other party shook their head and said:
"No, we want to treat her together."

“We have our own set of ideas, and now we need your TCM practitioners to assist and cooperate with our treatment, which is to say, the integration of Chinese and Western medicine.”

He said to the prescription:
"My idea is to use immunosuppressive therapy, such as cyclosporine and anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG), to suppress the abnormal immune attack on the bone marrow in this severe aplastic anemia, and to regularly transfuse blood to correct anemia, platelet transfusions, and antibiotics to prevent infection."

"Then you traditional Chinese medicine practitioners use Chinese medicine to treat liver and kidney damage caused by immunosuppressants, and to alleviate acne and abnormal liver function caused by hormones."

"Acupuncture can stimulate the body's hematopoietic function and reduce dependence on blood transfusions."

Upon hearing this, Fang Yan clicked his tongue.

Fang Yaozhong tapped the table with his fingertips, his gaze behind his gold-rimmed glasses suddenly sharpening. Fang Yan sensed that Old Fang was about to lose his temper.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes, then he pushed the test report back to the doctor at Chongwen Hospital. The edges of the pages rustled slightly against the table. He said rather rudely:

Are you using traditional Chinese medicine as an "antidote"?

The patient leans forward, placing the tip of their right finger on the reading "red blood cells 90/μL":

“Aplastic anemia occurs in the bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment. Western medicine views it as an immune attack, while traditional Chinese medicine diagnoses it as ‘emptiness of the marrow sea.’ You say ‘auxiliary support’ essentially means you don’t consider traditional Chinese medicine as an independent system. Do you think that you can make deteriorating bone marrow regenerate blood by simply inserting acupuncture needles into Zusanli a few times?”

Upon hearing Fang Yaozhong's words, the other party was clearly taken aback.

“Mild immunosuppressant side effects…” Fang Yaozhong took off his glasses and wiped the lenses, but his tone was even colder. “Cyclosporine damages the kidneys. Traditional Chinese medicine tonifies the kidneys not by using a few wolfberries and privet fruits, but by differentiating between yin and yang: for yang deficiency, use Jin Kui Shen Qi Wan, and for yin deficiency, use Zuo Gui Wan. This is called ‘differentiation of syndromes and treatment’, not what you understand as ‘where Western medicine damages, Chinese medicine tonifies.’”

He put his glasses back on and scanned the room: "Have you ever thought about why the patient's condition is still worsening after two years of combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment? It's because the previous hospital treated traditional Chinese medicine as a 'side-effect eliminater' for Western medicine, without allowing the two to truly synergize at the pathological level!" The meeting room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The doctor from Chongwen Hospital opened his mouth, but was silenced by the last sentence in the prescription: "If we follow your 'auxiliary' approach, I suggest we prepare a blood transfusion plan now, because traditional Chinese medicine's 'auxiliary' approach cannot save critically ill bone marrow."

After saying that, he directly stated his position:

"For this illness, you either have to treat it for us, or take the person to another hospital to see if they can help you."

The other party was somewhat embarrassed by Fang Yaozhong's actions and said:

"Dean Fang, just because you yourself can't do it doesn't mean that others can't, right?"

After saying that, he looked at Fang Yan:

"Dr. Fangyan, I remember you've treated quite a few patients who were referred from Western medicine hospitals abroad, right? What do you think of this treatment plan?"

Fang Yan hadn't expected that he would have anything to do with this, so he smiled and said:
"I did cure a patient with aplastic anemia who returned from Singapore, but... I treated him entirely with traditional Chinese medicine, without combining it with any Western medicine, and I didn't use Western medicine as an... antidote."

PS: I got another 100 monthly votes, so after finishing this chapter, I still owe everyone 40000 words.

There will be more this afternoon.

(End of this chapter)