A Hospital in Another World?-Chapter 597: Spending My Money, Following Your Research Methods

Viscount Elwin received a bill.

A bill, plus a request for funds. The amount was so staggering that even for someone of his stature, it left him speechless:

"2000 gold coins? Spent in just two days? And now you need 3000 more? Mage Nordmark, this is..."

Isn’t this spending a bit too fast?

It’s not like it’s your money to spend freely!

"We have already made certain achievements," Garrett replied sincerely, smiling at his patron and carefully steering the conversation towards what the patron preferred to hear:

"We have preliminarily identified a method to visualize cardiac blood flow, as well as the types of potions needed. Moreover, we have conducted experiments on piglets nearly the weight of a boy to preliminarily determine the required quantity of potions."

He pushed the experimental record book forward. Viscount Elwin flipped through it page by page, his surprise and inexplicable displeasure gradually fading:

Mage Nordmark used a potion for treating minor injuries. Truly, in the realm of magic potions, there is none cheaper. It shows that Mage Nordmark has not been recklessly spending and has indeed minimized the experimental costs.

Each experiment had a clear purpose, with the potions used measured down to 0.5 milliliters. Adding up the amount of potions used before and after, not only did the 2000 gold coins not exceed the budget, but they even rounded down the totals.

As for the casting fees during the experiments, Mage Nordmark adhered to the prior agreement and did not charge a single coin. If those costs were added—the usual fee for casting spells—the expense would have more than doubled.

"Our current plan is to use 25-30 milliliters of the minor injury healing potion for each cardiovascular imaging session," Garrett continued to explain:

"On piglets of similar weight and heart size, we’ll first do 10 groups, observing the piglets’ reactions. If the safety is satisfactory and the effects are pleasing, we’ll then conduct experiments on piglets artificially created with ventricular septal defects to study injection sites and imaging angles."

He sighed helplessly:

"This is the minimal number of experimental groups; we cannot reduce it any further." 10 groups? In my previous life, no animal experiment dared to only do 10 groups.

Whether it’s the FDA or the China Food and Drug Administration, they would outright reject it!

But 3000 gold coins is really a large sum, and even if Viscount Elwin is like shearing a sheep, he hesitated to proceed.

Viscount Elwin nodded silently. He could understand and agree with Mage Nordmark’s experimental approach, but he still had some doubts:

"According to your plan, you want to insert vines into the heart and then release the healing potion? Isn’t that too dangerous?"

We want to check the child’s condition precisely because inserting vines into the heart is too dangerous; we wanted to see it in advance! And yet, after all this detour, we’re still going to insert something into the heart?

What’s the point!

"Of course, it’s dangerous," Garrett responded earnestly:

"Any invasive operation, in fact, any operation, carries risks. It’s just a matter of assessing whether the risk is worth it. In the case of your son, the previous diagnostic methods were already sufficient for a diagnosis; in fact, treatment could have begun directly."

But since you requested to see the cardiac blood flow, there’s no helping it; we’ll have to research a magic method—of course, Garrett didn’t actually say this last part.

Viscount Elwin’s brows furrowed. He flipped through the experimental records again, his fingertips brushing over the listed side effects, lost in thought:

Ventricular fibrillation, arrhythmia, cardiac arrest...

Just thinking about any of these occurring to his own son was unbearable!

Is 2000 gold coins a lot? Quite a lot. 5000 gold coins? Even more.

But if it could save his own son, even if it were 10,000 gold coins, he would pay! What he feared was, after all this effort, ending up with nothing...

He thought it over, bit his lip:

"Another 3000 gold coins? No problem! But, I have a request—can it be done directly on humans? I’ll bring a few children, and we’ll try it on them to see the effect..."

He was halfway through his request when Garrett began shaking his head. After he finished speaking, Garrett’s expression turned serious:

"That’s not possible. We can’t proceed with human trials without completing the animal experiments—even if we did complete them, we can’t do it on healthy individuals."

In the early days, this practice existed. More than one doctor, when unable to obtain experimental animals, conducted experiments on themselves or their children:

Drinking Helicobacter pylori, swallowing the vomit of yellow fever patients, dropping tr

achoma pathogens into their own eyes...

But on healthy children, conducting unnecessary, dangerous invasive operations?

That cannot be done!

It violates medical ethics!

"Why not?" Viscount Elwin did not understand at all. He thought for a moment, then forcefully patted his chest:

"Don’t worry, the children I bring will surely be my subjects or children from my servants’ families—even if something goes wrong, even if someone dies, no one will come looking for you."

Ah, how precious is a guarantor who assures there will be no medical disputes—even if it’s just guaranteeing that others won’t cause a fuss over medical issues. Garrett still shook his head. Viscount Elwin thought again, thinking he had guessed Garrett’s concerns:

"I won’t just let them take the risk for nothing. Each child who participates in the trial, I’ll compensate them with one gold coin each—that should be enough to convince their parents! These days, even if a child aged five or six is killed in an accident on the road, they wouldn’t get a gold coin in compensation!"

Garrett lowered his eyelids slightly, masking the sorrow in his heart. The viscount was right; in these times, the lives of poor children—or rather, human lives in general—are indeed cheap.

Even in his previous world...

Why did India become a haven for generic drugs? Why can the Indian government not protect the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical compounds, yet face no sanctions from developed countries in Europe and America?

That’s because, many large pharmaceutical companies in Europe and America, unspokenly, at an extremely low cost, conduct drug trials on the poor people in India...

But still, it cannot be done. Medical ethics are such that if you take one step back, a large group of people will suffer. Today, if I can conduct invasive experiments on healthy poor children for your son, tomorrow, when the king’s son, a great noble’s son, a legendary mage’s son falls ill, can they then conduct experiments on your son?

The viscount fell silent. He still felt that Garrett’s words were too idealistic, too out of touch with reality. But such reasoning, he couldn’t refute at the moment, and not refuting it, he wasn’t quite satisfied—

Should he just withdraw his funding? Withdraw the funding, no longer request to see the heart condition, just go straight to treatment?

After all, Mage Nordmark had said, the child has already been diagnosed and could be treated directly...

Hmm, maybe think of another way. Money can be earned again, but children are not easy to come by. Jennifer’s health isn’t good...

Garrett observed his changing expressions and suddenly smiled. Using healthy children for cardiovascular imaging violates medical ethics, but using children with congenital heart diseases for testing is a different matter!

"How about this then?" He gently suggested:

"After I perfect the animal experiments, you bring some sick children, and I’ll examine and identify them. If we confirm they have congenital heart diseases, then we can use cardiovascular imaging to inspect them. This approach wouldn’t violate my principles."

Viscount Elwin’s eyes lit up. He hesitated for a moment:

"And the costs..."

"Same as before, you handle the costs for the healing potions. Of course, finding and gathering those children, convincing them and their parents to agree to the treatment, all the human and financial resources required, you will need to bear that, I’m not capable of that."

Viscount Elwin lowered his head and did some mental calculations. Garrett added softly:

"Once we find these children with congenital diseases, I’ll treat them—as practice. Cure ten or eight, and then we treat your son; the success rate will be much higher, won’t it? Don’t worry, the casting costs for the treatment, you won’t have to pay."

Viscount Elwin’s eyes shone brightly. What a great idea! It’s one thing to have written about curing one, but to cure ten or eight right in front of him, that would definitely reassure him!

"That’s no problem! Leave it to me!"

He immediately puffed out his chest. Finding sick children was a piece of cake; there were plenty in the poorhouses and slums!

Garrett secretly smiled. Go for it, the prevalence of congenital heart diseases in newborns is about 0.4% to 1%—meaning, scouring Nevis City, you could probably find about 160 to 400 in a year.

The problem is, in the slums, such infants often die young, making it hard to find many. To find several dozen children around five or six years old with congenital heart diseases...

Emmm...

Good luck.

If you really find them, he wouldn’t mind treating them; after all, it’s also a matter of curing and saving lives. Plus, gathering some cases, publishing a major paper?

A single isolated case isn’t much, but if you could gather a dozen or twenty cases of congenital heart diseases,

then perhaps making a name for himself as "Miracle Healer Garrett" at Lady Alwaf’s would be even better?

He’ll go and talk to her about it later, see if he could get some funding to at least cover the hospital expenses for the children!

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This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦