New Gods of North America.

Chapter 439 Hospital
After the exorcist priests surrounded him, Wayne turned around and confirmed the casualties at the scene.

The situation was better than expected. When the guy "jumped down the stairs", he was already running for his life. It didn't seem like he was "afraid of death", but more like "there are more important things to do".
Fortunately, the focus of his last wave was "breaking through" rather than "killing", and many exorcists were injured, but only two of them were seriously injured.

Patrol police officers arrived quickly, and after initially confirming the identities of the victims, the exorcists searched for medicines and materials in a nearby private clinic to bandage the wounds. Those with relatively serious injuries stayed behind to await support and follow-up treatment, and the captured guys also had their hands and feet locked after the initial confirmation of their injuries.

During this process, the exorcists who continued the search also arrested two more guys in two rooms on the third floor.
They said they didn't know Anton Chigurh, but obviously none of them dared to fight as hard as that guy. After asking them for a while, Wayne confirmed from their vague and concealed confessions that they were the "little thugs" among the insiders.

I know a little, but not much, but I can be sure that they are "in the same group".
If you want to dig deeper into the details, you will probably have to spend more time with them.

Fortunately, Wayne already had a preliminary idea of what they might do tonight. He checked the nearby public facilities on the map and tricked them a little.

The public hospital that was already on the suspicion list was now considered a "red flag" hospital.

The "hospital" of those days is not the same as the "hospital" in modern society.

Because those large and expensive medical equipment had not yet been invented, there was not enough necessity to "live in a specific place to receive treatment", so whenever there was a choice, rich people and even ordinary people would prefer to receive treatment at home, or go to the pharmacy to buy some medicine and get through it on their own.

Even when going to a private doctor's clinic, people usually just go for "examination", "bandaging", or relatively complex "clinical treatment". The rich tend to do even major surgeries at home - at this time, large-scale private hospitals have not yet developed, and the good doctors who make money are almost all "self-employed", with at most a few people partnering to form an "office" model.

The "hospitals" that provided free and open medical treatment were, in this era, more like poorhouses that "helped the sick" and sometimes served as "the last resort for the poor and incurable", "a testing ground for new medical methods" and "a compulsory isolation residence for patients with infectious diseases".
This is what is called “helping the notorious and caring for the most vulnerable.”

The reputation of "church hospitals" is better in comparison, because "insiders" in the church and some believers with higher status also go there for treatment. On weekdays, the medical conditions and the populations admitted in different church hospitals are also different.
As a spontaneous and voluntary "good deed", church hospitals also have the power to refuse to admit some patients who do not meet the requirements. After providing some medicines, they can suggest that patients go home to recuperate, or declare that "the limit of admission has been reached" and require patients to seek treatment in public hospitals.

No one has the right to blame those who "do good things".

The same goes for hospitals affiliated with some universities. They have no obligation to treat patients on a large scale, and usually there is no definite guarantee on the effectiveness of treatment. If the relationship is average, when they come, they are expected to cooperate with professors in their research or give medical students practice. It's a "willing fight, willing fight" situation.

In comparison, "public hospitals" are at a disadvantage. Since they can receive regular funding from the state or city government, admitting eligible patients has become an unshirkable "obligation".
However, if we only rely on those grants, even if we add the support from charities and caring individuals, the treatment capacity that most public hospitals can provide these days is actually far from enough.

Therefore, due to many practical considerations, in order to maintain business, some practices such as "claiming to cure the disease before it is cured", "using treatments that may not be feasible", and even "false treatments" will occur.

The "proportion" and "total number" in this regard in some public hospitals can even reach a level that makes people "shudder with fear".

Adding these two together, "public hospitals" are no longer considered a "good place" in the public's concept, nor are they "relevant to everyone".
Unless they are embarrassed or helpless to a certain extent, most people are unwilling to go to the hospital for treatment. Even if they go, they may not meet the conditions for admission, and the treatment they can get may not be better than waiting to die at home.

Of course, public hospitals and church hospitals also have their "high quality" aspects. For example, since many urban women who cannot afford doctors' fees have to choose to give birth in public hospitals or church hospitals, the medical staff here have more experience and proficiency in delivery than many expensive family doctors.
In order to avoid any accidents, some members of the upper class who are seeking safety or whose fetuses are not looking good will choose to go to hospitals in big cities for their final delivery. However, the temporary residence is just like "another world".

After a virtuous cycle is formed, hospitals are also happy to see this happen, because "welcoming a newborn" is something that the public likes to see, and the occupation of medical resources is less and easier to predict than that of long-term patients. Politicians can also use some data as achievements, and the hospital itself often receives a large amount of donations. Compared with "treating illnesses", "delivering babies" is actually a part of hospitals that is more "happy" these days.

But no matter what, "public hospitals" and "church hospitals" are both clear non-profit organizations. For doctors and nurses, they are a good way to accumulate resumes, qualifications and cases, and for many ordinary people, they are the last hope for themselves or their families to survive.

Therefore, although celebrities and the general public will try their best to avoid the situation of having to stay in a public hospital due to illness, people often care about the construction of local public hospitals verbally or through funding and actions.
Whether it is to accumulate votes or to show that you are caring or passionate about public welfare, this is an excellent topic.

On the other hand, once something happens in this place, the reactions and voices from all walks of life will easily be louder than if something happens in their home.

……

When we arrived at the public hospital, there were only a little over two hours left until midnight.

Taking into account the time that would be consumed on the return journey, as well as the time left for Tom Hagen to make decisions and for the exorcists to prepare,
The time left for Wayne and his team to investigate is probably less than an hour, and the shorter the better.

Hospitals these days are like dormitories in colleges. They are not "high-rise buildings" but more like "small buildings" or "small courtyards".
An exorcist priest in charge suggested that Wayne check the critically ill ward first, because from the perspective of "possible death and injury", the patients in the critically ill ward are obviously weaker on the whole, and if they are affected by the seal, the consequences will probably be more serious.

Wayne sighed slightly after hearing this, and the follower next to him came over again without knowing when, and shook his head unconsciously after listening to it.
So the team, which had already been depleted halfway, split into two groups to first check the delivery area in the hospital, then the so-called "outpatient area", and finally the inpatient area for seriously ill patients.

No matter how many poor families or seriously ill patients with nowhere to go die, they are just numbers in the news. Politicians, wealthy people and the middle class will certainly express indignation, but they may not care at all and may just curse a few times.

Special delivery rooms for the upper class, and inpatient delivery rooms that are theoretically for people from all walks of life, may be the places that can truly shock public opinion.

The former are fewer in number, but they may all have considerable influence. Although the probability of family members of wealthy people or big politicians appearing in public hospitals is not high, they are more likely to appear in hospitals under the names of churches or some university medical associations, or even have expert groups temporarily stay at their homes. However, as long as the probability is not zero, the attackers may choose to go there.

The latter has a wider impact and may shake the cornerstone of votes in the constituency. If there are some middle-class or special citizens who move in because they want to show closeness to the people or for various objective reasons, whether they are congressmen, lawyers, newspaper editors, reporters, or even leaders of trade unions, then it will be like winning the "jackpot", and we can only wait and see public opinion being led to a boiling point.

Even if we put these factors aside, from the perspective of "human nature", people are more likely to be indignant because "the good things that could have happened were destroyed" than because "the poor people had to face a bad ending early."

Wayne sighed that he was indeed a ruthless person, and went to the inpatient delivery room for people from all walks of life.

It's not that I don't want to see the other small courtyard that is said to be quieter and more luxurious, but it's a bit far away, and even the gate is not the same as the main hospital. Even if I take the emergency internal passage used by medical staff, it feels like a waste of time.

(End of this chapter)