A Hospital in Another World?

How to convince the Review Committee? Garrett already had a plan in mind. However, when he began to prepare the materials, he immediately encountered an unexpected difficulty.

There was too much data!

Not too little, but too much!

"Sir, are you requesting the population records from previous years?"

Facing Garrett, who came to retrieve the original data with authorization from the Review Committee, the clerk at City Hall was quite helpful. Leading Garrett upstairs, around corners, all the way to the end of the corridor, he pushed open the door to the archive room and gestured inside:

"It’s all here! Sir, feel free to look around. Do you need me to find you an office?"

Garrett: "..."

In this room, there were at least seven or eight rows of wooden shelves. Each row extended inward, 1, 2, 3, 4... Garrett counted ten shelves and still hadn’t reached the end. Each wooden shelf towered over head height, laden with several layers of wooden crates...

"All of these?"

How many years of records was that... Garrett took out the Endless Ink Pen from his breast pocket, flipped it over, and looked at the central quill under the light. Silently, he read the delicate and graceful small characters inscribed on the quill:

"Year 1183, New Promising Mage Award, presented to Garrett Nordmark"

So, the data here spanned over a thousand years? Garrett took a sharp intake of breath. He grabbed the clerk and asked:

"Where are the records from the last 20 years, no, the last 50 years?"

"They’re on this side near the aisle! Sir, look, one box per year, each box is numbered!"

Inside the data room, heavy shelves were divided into four layers, each layer stuffed with a wooden box about 40 centimeters high and over half a meter wide. The box at the bottom of the shelf nearest to the aisle was labeled "1182" in red paint. Garrett squatted down, tried to drag it, but couldn’t.

"Let me do it!" The clerk came forward eagerly. He bent over, grasped the copper handle on the edge of the box, and with a grunt, pulled hard. The wooden box shook but remained in place. The clerk retreated half a step, exerted more force, and pulled with all his might.

"Ouch... my back..."

He couldn’t straighten his back on the spot. Garrett hurried to assist him: "Don’t move! Don’t move, let me see!"

"Ouch... Master Mage, ouch... I’m really sorry, my old back is acting up again..." The clerk groaned while propping himself up on the wooden shelf with one hand and holding his lower back with the other. Garrett supported him, slowly helping him stand straight, and forcibly pulled one of his hands down, stuffing the Endless Ink Pen into it:

"Hold onto this! Don’t move! Don’t speak!"

The Endless Ink Pen, a 9th-level magical item. With its own ink and lightweight portability, it could be used as an X-ray by anyone below 5th level. It was considered a portable X-ray machine, an essential item for surgeons during travel.

With X-ray magic activated, the spell light penetrated through the body. Garrett adjusted his breathing, quickly entered a meditative state, and focused on examining:

"Emmm... No compression fractures of the vertebrae, no slippage between adjacent vertebrae. Overall, no abnormalities observed on the X-ray positional and lateral images. It should be an acute lumbar sprain..."

In other words, the soft tissues such as muscles, fascia, and ligaments in the lumbar region were strained or torn. This condition needed to be distinguished from lumbar muscle strain, spinous process ligament injury, intervertebral ligament injury, and so on, but Garrett didn’t have an MRI on hand; as for physical examination, Garrett wasn’t an orthopedist, and he really wasn’t familiar...

Fortunately, the inability to examine didn’t mean an inability to treat. Garrett took a deep breath, activated healing magic, and warm white light seeped into the muscles. Using his thoughts to move the healing energy, he traced the skeletal positions seen on the X-ray, following the anatomical structure of the human body.

The quadratus lumborum, iliocostalis lumborum, thoracolumbar fascia, sacrospinalis...

Supraspinous ligament, interspinous ligament, lumbosacral ligament...

"Hey hey hey, it’s better!"

The clerk twisted his waist, moved left and right, looking surprised. He immediately bent down gratefully:

"Thank you so much, Master Mage! Thank you so much!"

"Oh, it’s nothing major, I’m also a healer. Remember, in the future, when moving boxes or heavy objects, don’t bend over to lift, squat down like I did, and then drag them out..."

Garrett gave a spontaneous health education lecture. The clerk nodded and bowed repeatedly, full of gratitude, squatting down again to try dragging the box. Holding onto the handle of the wooden box with one hand, he raised the other and casually slipped the Endless Ink Pen into his chest pocket...

"Hey hey hey, give me back that pen! It’s magical equipment!" Truly, administrative personnel from another world, how could they have this habit...

With this little episode, Garrett found it much easier to check the population records. The clerk who guided him, though in a low position, had been working in the archive for over a decade and was familiar with everything. Upon learning Garrett’s needs, he opened the boxes and enthusiastically pointed out:

"Sir, the population data at City Hall is divided into several parts: the general file, detailed household records, family property details, birth registration, death registration.

The general file and important family properties, such as houses, large livestock, workshops, are summarized and counted every ten years; household details change every year and are recorded on arrival; birth and death registrations are issued weekly by City Hall, let me see, it’s this stack..."

With a thump, a well-bound thick leather book fell into Garrett’s hands, weighing down his arm.

"So many?!" A thick book for each year, if he had to compile statistics for twenty years, how long would it take?

Garrett suddenly felt dizzy.

Guided by the clerk, he sat down at the small desk near the door of the storage room, opened the register, and looked at the entries. Each line was filled with handwritten text, some neat, some sloppy, with uneven ink intensity:

"January 1st

Deaths: 42 people

Annie Watt, female, 15 years old, textile worker. Address: 219, Room 15, Freya Street. Cause of death: Scarlet fever.

Chris, female, 14 years old, textile worker. Address: 308, Room 27, Freya Street. Cause of death: Scarlet fever.

Tom, male, 17 years old, dock worker. Address: Basement, 375 Anlo Street. Cause of death: Crushed by a wooden box, fever.

Unnamed infant, female, 1 day. Cause of death: Abandoned,

froze to death.

Allen, male, 15 years old, painter. Address: Basement, 287 Mayne Street. Cause of death: Chest pain.

Ford, male, 3 years old. Address: Green Village. Cause of death: Malnutrition.

Demmy Reyes, female, 14 years old, laundry worker. Address: 69 Clifton Street. Cause of death: Difficult childbirth.

Craig Franco, male, 57 years old, merchant. Address: 28 West Denham Street. Cause of death: Stroke.

...

..."

With each entry, Garrett’s heart grew heavier.

Since crossing over, especially since arriving in Nevis City, he had been climbing upward, with bright sights and colorful scenes wherever he looked. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to be poor.

The Tower of Heaven and its eight subsidiary towers, lighting, sanitation, living facilities, all conditions matched or even exceeded the office buildings of his previous life, with some areas surpassing them. The mages working inside, even the lowest of them, were at least level two or three official mages...

And becoming a mage, even just an apprentice mage, meant no worries about food or clothing, no need to worry about basic living. Their gaze was always on the stars, their only pursuit being the exploration of the mysteries of this world.

However, in places he hadn’t seen, among people he hadn’t touched, there were so many who were impoverished and sick, so many who died young due to poverty. The grain of sand from the era, falling on these people, cruelly broke their backs.

But should ordinary people die just because they can’t become extraordinary? So many people, so many young laborers, they died before the age of 20, many of them not even reaching 15! Just from the records of January 1st last year, the average lifespan of deceased laborers, or rather, factory workers, dock workers, etc., was less than 25 years! And for merchants, those wealthy individuals, their average lifespan, visibly, was at least ten years longer than that of laborers...

Garrett silently tightened his grip on the quill pen in his hand. As a doctor, even as a renowned doctor of his time, even as a level 11, 15, or even legendary healer, he could only deal with patients one by one, treat them one by one. It’s not that there were no wide-range healing spells, but firstly, the cost was too high, and secondly, how many years would he have to work in this world to be able to release large-scale healing magic?

Twenty years?

Thirty years?

However, becoming a public health expert, becoming an official who could influence public health policies, even formulate policies, he could help these people immediately, right away!

This is my duty! It’s my duty as a doctor in this world, an obligation that cannot be shirked!

I have to prove that the establishment of public health institutions is useful!

I want to help them!

Clean water! Adequate food! Labor protection! Affordable, even basic medical care! Even if we can increase their average lifespan by 5 years, raise it to 30, 35 years...

This is the protection of laborers!

It is also the growth of social wealth, so that they won’t die young, can create wealth for society for a longer time!

Seizing on this point, I can convince the Magic Council, I can definitely do it!

Garrett lowered his head and quickly wrote with his pen. Under the Endless Ink Pen, grids and columns appeared on the paper at lightning speed. Age, gender, occupational classification, residential area, cause of death...

Thanks to the Magic Council, thanks to whoever the mighty individual was, or whichever time traveler, who established the rules of recording household registrations, property details, and birth and death registrations. With these detailed original records, his statistics would have solid enough data!

"But, it’s still a huge project to compile all this stuff..."

Looking at the twenty neatly stacked piles on the desk, each one as thick as a fist, piled up to his shoulders, Garrett couldn’t help but let out a lament.

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