The Enhanced Doctor

"Has the patient’s child been examined yet?"

Early the next morning, the third day of the Lunar New Year, Liu Banxia went straight to the emergency center and asked.

"Blood has already been drawn, and they’re doing the instrument tests now," Xu Yino said.

"That tetanus patient had another episode of generalized spasm last night, lung sounds are normal. Right now it’s just increased sweating, the other parameters haven’t changed."

"Not bad, at least that’s a relatively good sign. But you still have to keep a close eye on him—once a pulmonary infection sets in, it gets very dangerous," Liu Banxia said.

"By the way, you need to do a good job with his wife’s mindset too. Right now the patient is relying entirely on his wife to help hold him up. If he himself loses the will to fight, the next stages of treatment will get very difficult."

Xu Yino glanced at him, looking like she wanted to say something but held back.

"Whatever you want to say, just say it," Liu Banxia said.

"Teacher Liu, I think you should give the patient some encouragement. Your encouragement usually works really well," Xu Yino said, screwing up her courage.

"Anyway, that very un-serious way you have of talking to patients, I think it works great. These past two mornings after your rounds, the patient’s spirits have been really good."

"How is it un-serious? I’m very serious, okay?" Liu Banxia glared at her.

"Just wait, when we do rounds later I’ll stay with him a bit longer. Once the test results for the patient’s children come back, let me know immediately."

Xu Yino nodded with a smile. She genuinely felt that Liu Banxia’s way of communicating with patients helped them more.

Even though liver transplantation doesn’t need as many matching loci as other organ transplants, and the requirements are relatively relaxed. Plus this time it’s a living-donor transplant, with the patient’s own children as donors, which makes matching even easier.

But there are still plenty of issues to consider, such as the shape and size of the liver, the donor’s overall health, history of major illnesses, liver diseases, and so on.

Relatively speaking, the risks of a living-donor transplant are actually mostly borne by the donor. So far, there have been more than a dozen cases worldwide where donors died after donating part of their liver.

For the recipient, though, this kind of living-donor transplant—especially when the donor is a close relative—has many more advantages than an allogeneic transplant.

Some patients even develop immune tolerance after transplantation and no longer need long-term immunosuppressants, because the recipient’s body recognizes the transplanted liver as "one of its own."

Of course, there are still many possible complications after transplant. You can only say that related-donor transplantation has far more advantages than other methods and can reduce complications to a certain extent, but don’t expect it to eliminate them completely.

Once he’d changed clothes and gotten himself ready, Liu Banxia started ward rounds with the team.

Today was pretty good—four patients would be discharged. That’s the benefit of NOSES surgery: compared with conventional laparoscopic surgery, the hospital stay is shorter.

Especially for TaTME patients, their hospitalization is even shorter. Those in better physical shape can be out in five days; even those a bit weaker are discharged in about seven.

Liu Banxia’s ward rounds are actually rather distinctive—you could even say they’re a bit "slapdash."

He tends to skim over the disease-related points, unless a patient has developed complications, in which case he’ll say a bit more.

In his mind, if these basic concepts still need to be harped on during rounds, it means the interns haven’t been studying seriously in the first place.

These are routine management protocols; there’s no need to repeat them over and over.

If someone is genuinely motivated to learn, they’ll remember it after you explain it once. If they’re just going through the motions, no matter how many times you talk, it’ll go in one ear and out the other.

They arrived at Liu Yiqing’s sister-in-law’s ward, and her older brother hurriedly stood up.

"Did you do some appropriate exercise yesterday?" Liu Banxia asked.

"We did, but it was all walking around inside the ward, we didn’t go outside," Liu Yiqing’s brother answered quickly.

"That’s fine. You need some moderate exercise—that helps the body recover. But pay attention to the amount; if you overdo it, recovery will actually be slower," Liu Banxia nodded.

"Given how things are now, five or six laps around the ward is no problem. Walk slowly, don’t stride around like you’re rushing to buy discounted eggs—that won’t do."

"Director Liu, thank you. Has the pathology report come back yet?" Liu Yiqing’s sister-in-law asked.

"Either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. There have been a lot of specimens sent for testing lately," Liu Banxia said.

"But no matter what the result is, we should respond proactively. Chemotherapy is an essential follow-up step. When the time comes, you can have chemo here in our hospital, or at a qualified hospital near your home."

"Standard chemo drugs will be fine. There’s plenty of mature experience in this area now, and the drug combinations are good. You don’t need to worry about that, and health insurance will cover a lot of it."

"Focus on recovering well. The day after tomorrow we’ll do a checkup, and if there’s no inflammation you can be discharged. Go home and have a proper celebration on the fifth day of the New Year. Just be a bit careful with your diet at the start."

The couple thanked him again.

Originally, Liu Banxia had been about to mention that the treatment they were receiving in Ward Two had all been secured thanks to Liu Yiqing’s efforts, but in the end he left it unsaid.

This was Liu Yiqing’s family matter. He and everyone else had no business butting in.

Anyway, as long as Liu Yiqing can keep his mind balanced, that’s that. It’s not like just because you helped someone, they’re obligated to pay you back.

What Liu Yiqing is doing also counts as fulfilling a bit of family duty.

As for how things will go in the future, that still depends on how his brother and sister‑in‑law conduct themselves.

If they keep being that selfish, always trying to take advantage of Liu Yiqing, Liu Yiqing won’t indulge them.

"Alright, you all go do whatever you need to do. I’ll go take a look at that tetanus patient’s ward. Too many people around will inevitably make the patient nervous." After walking out of the ward, Liu Banxia said.

Even though he said that, Xu Yino and Liu Yiqing, who’d been waiting outside, still firmly followed him toward the other end of the corridor.

These two girls are pretty willful too. You say your piece, but today we just have to properly witness the Demon King’s legendary persuasion skills.

Everyone else was actually quite curious about this too, but since Liu Banxia had spoken and was clearly thinking of the patient, they didn’t dare follow.

Because after learning under Liu Banxia for this long, they all know: if there’s a patient Liu Banxia himself can’t talk around, everyone else might as well give up right away.

They entered the tetanus patient’s ward; the light in the room was a bit dim. That was also for the patient’s sake, to avoid strong light stimulation.

Seeing Liu Banxia come in, the patient’s wife who was accompanying him hurriedly stood up.

Liu Banxia waved his hand. "I heard their report on your condition. Things are looking pretty good. There’s still some risk, but it’s already been greatly reduced."

"You’ve been here taking care of him by yourself, must be exhausting. Have you contacted any of the elders back home? This is going to go on for quite a while; you can’t be the only one doing this, you won’t hold up."

"For now I’m managing. It’s New Year, so I’d rather let everyone have a good holiday. If I tell them, they’ll all rush to the hospital to visit." the patient’s wife said.

Liu Banxia nodded. "Thinking like that is very good. It proves he found himself a good wife, someone who knows how to think of others. But I actually think right now you should be eating and drinking like crazy right in front of him, really tempting him. That way he’ll be able to control his diet better in the future."

"You heard what I said, right? Don’t worry, your diabetic foot is already under control. We’ve now found a balance point between nutrition supply and blood sugar control; everything is moving in a good direction."

"But I still think I should talk you through the current situation, so you have it clear in your mind. If you understand, blink your eyes."

The patient blinked his eyes.

"Right now your symptoms are mainly spasms and sweating; those are the basic symptoms of tetanus. As for your diabetic foot, it’s been impacted a little bit too."

"But we cleaned things up thoroughly at the start, so now you’re basically killing two birds with one stone. We’re treating your tetanus and your diabetic foot together; otherwise, healing that diabetic foot would’ve taken a long time on its own."

Liu Yiqing and Xu Yino blinked, not quite sure what Liu Banxia was up to.

Logically speaking he should be focusing on comforting the patient, right? How come they didn’t hear a single word of comfort?

"Judging from how you are now, you’ll have to stay in our hospital at least until the Lantern Festival." Liu Banxia went on.

"The tube needs to stay in for a few more days; only after the spasms stop can we take it out. At the moment all your nutrition depends on the infusion, which is indeed pretty tough."

"But I think your wife has it even tougher—she’s taking care of you and not eating properly herself. If you can persuade her, do persuade her to eat more."

"Alright, that’s about it. Your situation doesn’t really count as a big deal, nothing more to say. The main thing to remind you is: once you’re better, you must keep your diet under control."

"Don’t go on some revenge binge‑eating spree just because you’ve been fasting during this period. If your blood sugar shoots up like a rocket, it’s not easy to get under control again."

After Liu Banxia finished, he clasped his hands behind his back and strolled out.

Liu Yiqing and Xu Yino, who were following, were half a beat slower, but then they noticed the patient actually raised his hand and gave a small wave.

Was that him saying goodbye to the Demon King?

But the Demon King just now was totally talking nonsense; he didn’t say anything serious. It was all rambling, and full of teasing.

Yet for this patient, that worked.

They’d taken care of this patient too, and he really hadn’t given them much reaction.

"Teacher Liu, how come when you’re just randomly rambling it still works?" Liu Yiqing asked, chasing after him.

"What else is there to say? His spiritual support right now is his wife. If his wife collapses, he’ll get even more upset. Use another’s strength to polish your own jade—remember that." Liu Banxia said casually.

The two girls frowned slightly and sighed inwardly.

They’d been so focused on the patient that they’d forgotten to think about the family.

When family can provide high‑quality care and companionship, it’s a big help to the patient’s recovery too.

The Demon King might have been talking nonsense, but he still grabbed the key point.

How come he always sees things differently from everyone else?