A Hospital in Another World?-Chapter 583: A Stern Lesson in Bacterial Annihilation!

Another busy day had passed. Exhausted, Garrett dragged himself back to his clinic and collapsed at his desk.

After completing a surgery on necrotizing fasciitis of the right hand, there were no more major surgeries for the day. However, that didn’t mean Garrett had time to rest. He had to analyze X-rays, read ECGs, and conduct ultrasounds...

Simply guiding the priests of Hartland City left Garrett talking until his mouth was dry and nearly running off his legs.

After the free clinic session ended, and the priests went back to their homes—to pray to their respective deities—Garrett faced another kind of training:

"Come on, try the divine bactericidal spell again—let me see why you still can’t do it."

Garrett was baffled.

In terms of targeted annihilation, he could already target all forms of a parasite—its body and eggs—and eradicate them entirely;

In terms of microscopic targeting, he could imagine the molecular formula of urea or the atomic weight and properties of cadmium to detoxify specifically;

Combining both, the divine bactericidal spell, the divine targeted removal of a specific bacterium, shouldn’t be impossible, right?

Garrett stared blankly at the rabbit in front of him. Its leg had been shaved clean, revealing an abraded patch of skin topped with a culture medium—recently cultivated with a layer of golden staphylococci.

Garrett knew if he couldn’t successfully eradicate the bacteria, the golden staph would enter the rabbit’s bloodstream, proliferate wildly, secrete toxins, and eventually, lead to high fever and multi-organ failure. But...

His fingers pressed on the rabbit’s forehead. The rabbit shook its head, its long ears brushing against his hand. Garrett closed his eyes slightly, carefully recalling in his mind:

"Staphylococcus aureus... Gram-positive, spherical, about 1μm in diameter, arranged like clusters of grapes... non-spore-forming, non-motile..."

"Genus Staphylococcus, currently divided into 40 species and 24 subspecies..."

"Highly sensitive to penicillin, vancomycin, gentamicin, and erythromycin, with a tendency to develop resistance..."

The healing light of Garrett’s fingertip gently fell, sweeping from the rabbit’s head to its toes. Elder Elwin sat beside him, feeling the rabbit’s condition and shook his head in disappointment.

"It still doesn’t work... What’s stopping you? Isn’t it the Staphylococcus aureus you mentioned? You cultivated it yourself; you’ve seen it under the microscope, why can’t you kill it?"

"But, it may not necessarily be that..."

Garrett shook his head blankly. Elder Elwin was shocked: freewebnøvel.coɱ

"Why not? You said it was this thing yourself!"

That was a simplified definition given for beginners to remember easily. If one were to delve deeper, it could be other different species belonging to the same genus;

A direct smear microscopy can only make a preliminary diagnosis based on the bacteria’s morphology, arrangement, and staining characteristics;

Moreover, he hasn’t yet managed to synthesize the crystal violet ammonium oxalate used in Gram staining; he’s just been using other dyes as substitutes. Whether it is Gram-positive or not, he’s been guessing based on experience...

With such a level of understanding, how could he be sure that his targeted eradication spell was definitely locking on to the Staphylococcus aureus?

A 1000x magnification microscope could only see small dots of 1mm size clumped together. Capsules, cytoplasm, endospores, he couldn’t see clearly...

What if he targeted the wrong bacteria?

What if he targeted harmless, or even beneficial, bacteria?

The human body has many, many microbiota, and indiscriminate killing could disrupt the internal microbiota and cause problems...

Garrett silently shook his head, unsure how to explain to his teacher. The critical issue was, how to explain the source of this knowledge?

It wasn’t something he had developed dish by dish, rabbit by rabbit. Without experiments, without evidence, could he further push it to divine revelations from the God of Nature?

What a joke!

Elder Elwin scrutinized Garrett’s expression, his bushy eyebrows gradually frowning. After a long while, he sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead:

"Little Garrett, there are some things you don’t want to say, and the teacher won’t ask. But, the teacher understands a bit why you can’t eradicate the bacteria: you lack confidence, right?"

Garrett silently nodded. He truly lacked confidence. The more he learned, the more he knew, the less confident he became. Elder Elwin shook his head:

"That epidemic back then, when I eradicated the dysentery bacillus you mentioned, I wasn’t very confident either. After all, it was something new

, something a priest apprentice had come up with..."

And it was the first time attributing a pathogenic factor to the microscopic level. Under those circumstances, Elder Elwin was more inclined to disbelieve than believe him.

"But what if it’s right? What if it really works and saves so many people? That’s what I thought at the time, just give it a try, and then it worked..."

Garrett sat up straight, his expression becoming solemn. Doctors are the same, whether surgeons or physicians, they often grope forward when facing patients and diseases.

Maybe this antibiotic could work... Maybe cutting out this part could recover... Maybe... Maybe... Maybe...

"I’ve told you before, the so-called divine magic is actually the power of the mind, the power of ’belief.’ If you believe in this power, if you hope this power can be effective, that’s where it starts to interfere with reality."

Is it that idealistic? Belief, hope, is that the beginning of everything?

Garrett had always thought it was about using mental power—also a kind of energy—to pull at the energies of the material world, to affect reality. But okay, the fundamental mechanism of magic, divine magic, hasn’t been unraveled yet. Everyone has their reasoning...

"So, if your relative was infected, wouldn’t you try?"

Elder Elwin’s tone changed, his eyes deep and resonant, seemingly echoing. Garrett stared into his eyes, and without realizing, his thoughts drifted:

Right, what if someone is infected with certain bacteria, and existing healing spells can’t cure it?

What if the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics? Not to mention, if Staphylococcus aureus keeps mutating, resulting in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)...

Even just to prevent the misuse of antibiotics, to prevent rapid iterations of Staphylococcus aureus, it’s best to learn targeted eradication divine magic sooner!

"Try again!"

With a snap, Elder Elwin slapped the back of Garrett’s head while concentrating his mental energy, shouting:

"Now!"

"Yes!"

Garrett responded instinctively. He glanced sideways at the remaining yellow bacterial colonies on the petri dish, his fingertips glowing white:

Whatever the species, as long as it matches my understanding of Staphylococcus aureus—die, all of you!

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