CHAPTER 143: 143 SUDDEN ACCIDENTS

Ma had fallen quite hard. Although he regained consciousness, he still felt a bit weak with pain in his back, unable to stand at the moment. When he heard that he had indeed drunk urine, his throat unconsciously twitched a few times.

Child’s urine, also known as children’s urine or retentive soup, is usually taken from the morning urine of boys under ten years old.

It is popularly believed that child’s urine has magical curative properties for all diseases, but, in fact, this is not the case.

In traditional Chinese medicine, child’s urine is used only for its cooling and detoxifying properties, and more often as a pharmaceutical adjuvant.

The claim that it cures all diseases is absolute nonsense.

In the modern Western medical system, child’s urine is just urine. It’s considered waste from the human body and has no use whatsoever, apart from its unpleasant odor.

It is completely the dregs of traditional Chinese medicine and should be discarded.

According to the theory of Western medicine, this is indeed the case.

Urine is just wastewater.

But now, there was a tangible case. How could this be explained?

Du Heng was also puzzled.

With the knowledge system he currently possessed, he was still unable to explain child’s urine.

He even suspected that Ma regaining consciousness wasn’t due to any special or magical properties of the child’s urine; Ma had probably just been jolted awake by the pungent smell.

Regardless of its effectiveness, in Du Heng’s system for prescribing medicine, child’s urine and Three Yellows Decoction were absolutely at the bottom of the list. Unless absolutely necessary, these two remedies would never be prescribed by him.

Du Heng gave Ma a check-up and found no obvious problems. However, to be safe, Du Heng still advised Ma to go to the hospital for an X-ray.

Even Liang Limin suggested that Ma go to the hospital, and he would cover the costs.

However, Ma was adamant in his refusal, insisting that he would be fine after some rest and was very resistant to the idea.

Du Heng guessed Ma was probably embarrassed. Going to the hospital would mean explaining the treatments he had received. If he had to admit he drank child’s urine, wouldn’t people laugh him to scorn?

Of course, in rural areas, everyone knows everyone. If fellow villagers felt it wasn’t a big deal, they often found it hard to ask for help, not wanting to lose face.

Since Ma had regained consciousness, he was taken back to Liang Limin’s house by a few people and allowed to rest on the bed.

Ma did not refuse, but when he felt he could walk, he intended to get up and leave.

Du Heng firmly stopped him, insisting he needed to be observed a while longer. If Ma really had internal hemorrhage and took that tricycle home, jolting all the way, everyone would likely be attending his funeral feast soon after.

Not until it was getting dark, and Ma was showing no signs of any issue, did they finally feel assured enough to let him go home.

However, Du Heng thought for a moment and said, "Brother Ma, leave your tricycle at our place. My big brother can bring it to you tomorrow. I’ll drive you home today."

This time, no matter what Ma said, Du Heng was firm.

Ultimately, Ma couldn’t refuse Du Heng’s insistence, and Du Heng drove him home in his car.

When they got back home, Wang Shuqiu was full of curiosity, "Is child’s urine really that magical?"

After some thought, Du Heng said, "No, it’s not, and I wouldn’t recommend doing it."

"Why? Didn’t Ma get better after drinking child’s urine?"

"That’s because he was lucky; he just had the wind knocked out of him from the fall. If he had hit his head today, or had internal bleeding, do you think child’s urine could have saved him?"

After some thought, Wang Shuqiu said, "Probably not."

"Exactly. It definitely wouldn’t. No ’probably’ about it. No matter how miraculously child’s urine is hyped up to be, it’s still just urine, not some divine elixir. If the worst had happened today, giving him that bowl of urine would only have made things worse."

"But... But..."

"No ’buts.’ If any medical situation arises, you should contact a doctor or go to the hospital immediately. Never try to treat illnesses with folk remedies you’ve heard about; they have severe limitations."

"Okay, I understand."

"Don’t just say ’okay’; you must remember this. You work at a school, and with so many students, accidents are more likely. If an accident happens, remember, the very first call must be to 120. This is to ensure the most timely and professional treatment. Don’t use any folk remedies, and don’t assume you can treat it yourself.

"The second call is to the parents and the school administration. Understand?"

"Oh, I get it. How did this turn into you lecturing me?"

Rebuked, Du Heng sulked and said no more.

「Monday at work.」

The first thing Du Heng did was his ward rounds. However, the hospitalized patients, mostly suffering from stroke and hemiplegia, didn’t require much of his attention, so he finished his rounds quickly.

The real business of the day, however, was a meeting. Yes, a meeting.

Back when Li Qingde was in charge, he held a meeting every Monday, which Du Heng loathed.

Now that he was in charge, he found that if he didn’t hold a meeting on Monday, he had to hold it on Friday.

No matter when it was, at least one meeting had to be held every week.

There were just too many things to deal with.

For instance, the first item: starting this week, a major health and safety awareness campaign was to be launched in all middle and elementary schools in Zhonghu Town. Every school had to be visited at least once.

Second, in coordination with the Township Government, they needed to start promoting medical insurance in all the villages.

There were also other tasks; basically, they wouldn’t be idle.

All these tasks required dispatching personnel. They couldn’t send out drivers, the chef, cleaners, or the electrician, so staff had to be drawn from the operational departments.

Previously, when the Health Clinic had few patients, they could leave one person on duty and send everyone else out without issue. But that wasn’t possible now.

Du Heng now somewhat understood Li Qingde’s predicament; holding meetings was truly necessary.

Fortunately, Zhang Jinlian had recently undergone a surprising change in attitude. She wasn’t as confrontational as before and had even volunteered for the school awareness campaign, which gave Du Heng a slight sense of relief.

However, Du Heng suspected this woman’s enthusiasm stemmed from trying to avoid him.

As for promoting medical insurance with the Township Government, Du Heng assigned it to Wang Lili, letting her arrange the personnel.

Then came a host of trivial matters: purchasing disposable acupuncture needles and decoction machines, setting canteen standards, and so on. After discussing these miscellaneous things all morning, it was past eleven o’clock before everything was settled.

Back in his office, Du Heng’s work wasn’t over. He still had to review and sign expense forms and financial statements submitted by Wang Zhenzhen.

By the time he was done with all these matters unrelated to the actual treatment of patients, it was already past one o’clock.

Even so, Wang Zhenzhen had brought his lunch to the office. If he had gone to the canteen himself, he probably would have been busy for another hour that afternoon.

However, he was also in a learning and adaptation process. For instance, tasks like reviewing and signing didn’t need to pile up until Monday. He could tell the person preparing the documents to find him whenever he was free, and he could take care of it on the spot.

Finally having some downtime, he remembered Du Da from yesterday, the suspected drug addict.

Leaving the Dean’s office and heading downstairs, he saw Wang Zhenzhen in the registration office, engrossed in a TV drama. Du Heng smiled and asked, "Sis Zhenzhen, is Brother Gong at the station today?"

"He should be; we came in together this morning. Do you need him for something? You can call him."

"I do have something, but it’s better to talk in person."

"Then go find him."

Once Wang Zhenzhen finished speaking, she returned to her TV drama and paid him no more attention.

Du Heng smiled and headed out, planning to find Gong Daoyang at the Police Station.

But before he could leave the Health Clinic, his phone in his pocket rang.

He took it out and saw it was a call from An Chunhui.

"Leader An, good afternoon."

"Xiao Du, I just received news. Someone in Duke Village’s third brigade has apparently gone mad. He’s holding his mother on the third floor of their house and is threatening to throw her down. You need to take a team to the scene immediately. If an accident happens, the injured must receive treatment at once. Do you understand?"