Say Hello to Black Jack 3

Say Hello to Black Jack, Volume 1, Chapter 3 (pp. 44~55)

<44>
[x2]CLACK

=You were still here, Doctor?
=Yes, I just wanted to check...


<45>
#3: The Price of a 75 Year-Old

=Good morning—!

=Good morning—!

=What's up, Saitoh?
HMPH—
=You seem pretty energetic today...

[sign]First Surgical Department

=60 units of blood platelets
=6 injections of Plasmanate Cutter,//5 grams of Venilon.

=You did all this to Mr. Kaneko?
=Dr. Saito?


<46>
=Yes!!
=The patient seems to be doing well!

=Don't try and do anything on your own...
=I will give you the orders for his treatment.

=Thank you so much,//Doctor!
=Gramps would be proud of being operated on by such a distinguished professor!
[from top]Toshio Kaneko//Makoto Kasahara//Naoyuki Yoshimura//Kazuaki Takahara

=He's been doing well since the surgery.
=The surgery itself was a complete success, but there are still complications with his heart...
[x2]*mumble*

=There's nothing more we can do, quite honestly.
=He might not recover without another lung complication... Plus, there's always heart failure.

=By the way, this is Dr. Shiratori. He was my assistant surgeon.
*bows*
=That over there is the intern in charge. He is... Uhh—

=I'm Saito!!


<47>
=You've recovered quite well.
=We'll send you home this afternoon.

=Hey Doc.
=How 'bout you give me a drip infusion before I leave!

=Those things totally get my energy back up.
=I always get 'em at the clinic near my workplace when I'm feeling down.

=Hmm—
=A drip infusion...

=Are you aware of the contents of those drips?
=Mr. Kuwazawa?

=500 cc of drip infusion is essentially 25 grams of glucose.
=It amounts to only 100 kilocalories of energy. About half a glass of milk.

=Which means—What?
=Those drips don't really do anything?

=Yes...
=They're just a token procedure.

=Japan is the only place that offers them to patients that aren't dehydrated.


<48>
=That was surprising...
=Seeing Dr. Shiratori smiling like that to his patients...

=But it's kind of weird for a doctor to refuse a drip infusion...

=There isn't much in those drips, but the injection raises the cost around 1,000 yen.
=Patients only pay 10%, so it's 100 yen for them though.

=Sure, the hospital makes 1,000 yen.
=But that kind of waste builds up and bankrupts the state's medical funding.

=Yeah, I got nailed for using up too much stuff today too...
=I wonder if that was also about trying not to spend too much...

=No point in trying too hard—...
=It's 38,000 yen no matter how much you work...
[x2]TAP

=No!!
=I'm trying to make up for what I did on night-duty!!

=Then go back there and make it up.
=W...Well...


<49>
=CLACK

=Heading home tonight, Doctor...?

=There was a letter waiting for me in my apartment.

=It was from that doctor I was on night-duty with.
[letter]To Eijiro Saito,//What's up Eidai-grad.//You don't seem to be answering my calls, so I sent you a letter.//That patient from before is recovering well.//Come back [^]for night duty[/^] sometime.
[bubble]YAY
[signature]Tsuchida

[x2]TICK

PEEEP

=You have, one message.
=PEEEP//He—y it's mom—

=How are you Yujiro—
=The Bon Festival's coming up— I'm looking forward to seeing you again—


<50>
=Umm... Dr. Shiratori//There's been no urine since yesterday...
=His BUN has gone up to 110... We need to run a stomach dialysis...
[x3]CLAT

=Leave him as is...
[x3]CLAT

=But Doctor...
=At this rate, Mr. Kaneko will...

CLAT...

=You still don't get it?
=The reason for that operation...

=Huh...?

=The patient was brought in unconscious from his home...
=But the operation took place the following day.

=Don't you see why the dying patient wasn't operated on immediately?

=It was already too late.


<51>
=B...But...
=You still did the surgery though...

=The professor's orders.

=I thought I'd told you about the professor receiving 1 million yen from the patient's family.
=We cut into that old man's body just because of the money.

=You see...
=Further treatment is useless.

=Insurance lowers the medical expenses to several thousand yen per month, but...
=In reality, that sort of treatment is far more expensive than that.

=The remainder is paid through the state's medical funding, contributed to by taxpayers.
=You're going to use that much money to pay for an old man who has no hope for recovery?

=Currently, Japan's medical bill is 50 trillion yen... It's said to grow to 80 trillion within the next 15 years
=Where are you going to get all that money from...?


<52>
=Japan's medical finance is on the verge of collapse...
=Wasteful life-support is a social evil...!!

=Then why'd you operate...?

=If you think life-support is a social evil, then...
=Why didn't you go against the professor's orders...!?

=I'm no better...

=I...
DRIP
=Couldn't talk back to Dr. Shiratori, either...

=I wasn't thinking about the patient at all...


<53>
="This is a test..."//"I'm a real doctor if I can save this person..."
=I was only thinking about myself this entire time...

=Even back on night-duty, I was just worried about my own mistakes...
=And didn't bother to think about the patient until I saw that letter.
[highlighted]That patient from before is recovering well.

=Gramps...

Do you...//Want to live...?


<54>
CLACK—..

=Death prowls the hospitals at night—

=Of the 1,100 patient capacity at Eiroku University Hospital,
=Two pass away on average each night...

=It's an emergency!!
=Doctor!! Wake up!!
[x4]BAM

=Mr. Kaneko's condition as worsened!!
=Please wake up!!


<55>
=There's no pulse.