Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Doctor Ling, we’ll be recording today’s surgery from the beginning to the end.”
Ji Tianlu still served as Ling Ran’s assistant, and he reminded Ling Ran of that fact too.
The plump, 218-pound doctor was the part-time videographer. He stood in the operating theater with a camera, which was placed on a tripod next to him. The camera was wrapped in a plastic bag, just like how doctors wrapped large microscopes in plastic bags.
As usual, the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center used an operating theater that was equipped with a panoramic camera and a mounted high-resolution video camera. The entire process of the surgery would be livestreamed in the demonstration room. To obtain footage that may be of use during the conference, Zhu Tongyi also asked his staff members to bring an additional ordinary camera into the operating theater so that they could get clips from more angles.
The panoramic camera in the operating theater recorded the surgery from above, and it was inevitable that some details would be left out. As such, Zhu Tongyi asked his resident doctors to record the surgery from another angle so that they had more comprehensive footage.
Ling Ran only raised his head to glance at the camera before he hummed in acknowledgment. He did not show any further reaction.
He was already very familiar with the Achilles tendon repair surgery. After training and practicing on the cadaver for the past few days, even Ling Ran himself felt that his skills had elevated, and that was when he was not tooting his own horn.
It was also the exact reason why Ling Ran arrived at the operating theater early that day.
Aside from examining the place, he also wanted to familiarize himself with the instruments.
Ling Ran swept his gaze over the instruments on the tray and asked, “Can you bring over a few pairs of finer Adson Forceps?”
Adson Forceps were used to clamp tiny bunches of tissue and also skin. Its tips came in different specs, and each doctor had his own preference. If no prior notice was given, the nurses would only bring Adson Forceps which had tips that were made according to the standard specs.
Ling Ran did not mind using Adson Forceps which had tips of standard specs. It was just that he would not be as at ease with them. If you were to look at it in gaming terms, the fact that different doctors had their own preference in terms of instruments when they used different surgical methods was just like how different gamers had different skill inscriptions when playing as different heroes.
Lousy players would lose the game no matter what skills he used, while excellent players would win no matter what skills he used. However, choosing the right skills would make their gameplay easier.
The nurses obediently agreed and went to retrieve the additional instruments.
Ling Ran then glanced at Yu Yuan and asked, “What’s the condition of the patient?”
Even though his first assistant was Ji Tianlu, as a chief physician, Ji Tianlu obviously did not know how to describe the patient’s condition. One could even doubt his ability to use the electronic medical record system. Even though there was no doubt that doctors were capable of continuous learning, the speed at which the skills of senior doctors degenerate was also astonishing.
Even though Yu Yuan was not the doctor-in-charge of today’s patient, she had been a resident doctor for three years and knew what the chief surgeon wanted to know. She quickly said, “The patient is twenty-seven years old, and is a national fencing athlete… His Achilles tendon is not completely ruptured. The chief complaint was that he fell while walking his dog because his neighbor’s Husky pounced on him. He then experienced pain in his right Achilles tendon and his movements were limited. After an MRI scan was carried out, the diagnosis was confirmed as right Achilles tendon rupture.”
Ling Ran listened to Yu Yuan with a straight face, while Ji Tianlu laughed out loud.
“Did he really rupture his Achilles tendon because a Husky pounced on him?” Ji Tianlu did not seem like he had any pity for the patient at all, and his face was filled with curiosity.
Because Yu Yuan knew that she was being filmed, she said seriously in the manner of a four-feet-nine-inches-tall junior high school student who was emceeing an event, “This is the patient’s chief complaint.”
“Has he ever ruptured his Achilles tendon before this? Is there any old injury?” Ji Tianlu could not contain his curiosity anymore, and when he saw that Ling Ran did not ask anything even though he was the surgeon, he started asking questions. The patient had not arrived, anyway.
“There’s no record of any other Achilles tendon injury.”
“In other words, this national level fencing athlete… You mentioned that he is twenty-seven years old just now, right? His Achilles tendon was fine even though he had been fencing for more than ten years, and in the end, it was ruptured because a dog knocked into him?”
“A Husky.” Yu Yuan corrected him.
Ling Ran also coughed a few times in a very solemn manner and said, “He ruptured it in a fall, which was a result of a dog pouncing on him.”
Ji Tianlu gave Ling Ran a sidelong glance and said, “Doctor Ling, you really want to laugh too, right? Just laugh out loud if you want to.”
Ling Ran remained expressionless while Ji Tianlu looked at him. Only after Ji Tianlu looked away did the corners of Ling Ran’s lips twitch a few times because he could not hold it in anymore. However, the camera captured the moment in its entirety.
The demonstration room was already filled with laughter, and when this happened, they laughed even louder.
Some of the young women screamed and commented on it.
“Doctor Ling smiled.”
“He looked so cute.”
“Doctor Ling looks so sweet when he smiles. Aaaahhhhh…”
“Ling Ran, you can do it!”
The demonstration room bustled with noise.
Doctor Qu who was feeling extremely cold even after he secretly wore thermal underwear, let out a few wry chuckles and said in a low voice, “You girls know that Ling Ran can’t hear you, right?”
“Of course.”
“How can we let our Prince Charming see this crazy side of ours?”
“We only dare to do this because it’s a livestream.”
Doctor Qu recalled how terrified he was when Ling Ran clutched his neck. He could not help but shake his head as he looked at the bunch of young women with a gaze as if he was looking at naive idiots. ‘You girls don’t know the true colors of your Prince Charming.’
The staff in the operating theater only stopped laughing when the patient was sent into the operating theater.
Ji Tianlu did not find it appropriate to continue laughing, either. He rubbed off the tears at the corners of his eyes, which was a result of him laughing too hard, and said, “I’ll go and wash my hands again.”
Ling Ran hummed in acknowledgment and put on his surgical gown with the help of the nurses.
The patient looked around, dazzled, and joked while he felt a little embarrassed. “This is my first time. Doctor, please be gentle with me.”
“There’s no need to be anxious. Doctor Ling is extremely skilled in Achilles tendon repairs. He performed a surgery that is similar to yours before this, and the patient had just won a bronze medal in a competition.” Yu Yuan consoled the patient.
The patient flashed a bitter smile. “The patient used to be capable of winning medals in the national games, and only got a bronze medal in the competition this time, right?”
“That’s not it,” Yu Yuan said. She did not know anything about sports and did not know what else to say.
The patient laughed in a self-deprecating manner. “I was already planning to retire anyway. If it really doesn’t work, I’ll just retire earlier…”
“The Achilles tendon repair surgery we are about to perform on you is one that is riskier but comes with better results. It’s mainly performed on more demanding cases when it comes to the post-surgical quality of their Achilles tendon and those who want to recover faster, such as athletes. If you plan to retire, I suggest that you consider receiving an ordinary Achilles tendon repair,” Ling Ran suddenly added when he heard what the patient said.
The patient froze for a moment. After he contemplated for a long while, he said with a sigh, “Let’s just do it according to the original plan. I’m already twenty-seven years old this year. Even though I’m already planning to retire, but you know, sometimes, human beings just refuse to admit defeat. I just feel that—”
“Dalang, drink this medicine before you carry on with the conversation.” The anesthetist lifted his instrument when he saw Ling Ran’s gesture.
The patient tilted his head to the side, and he fell asleep.
“Achilles tendon repair surgery.” Ling Ran reminded the others before he lifted the scalpel and made an incision.
As the first assistant, Ji Tianlu widened his eyes to watch Ling Ran work.
He had watched recordings of surgeries performed by Ling Ran before. Now that he had a chance, he naturally wanted to take a good look.
Even though he did not have clear categorizations when it came to skills in his thought process, it was still obvious to him whenever he saw that someone’s skills had elevated by a huge margin. For example, Ling Ran’s performance in the video. It had made Ji Tianlu very astonished.
Ling Ran’s Legendary Level Achilles Tendon Repair Surgery had exceeded even the limit of Ji Tianlu’s imagination.
Of course, Ling Ran’s skills right now was only at Perfect Level. However, even at Perfect Level, his Achilles tendon repair was way ahead of Ji Tianlu’s skills.
One could not go from Master Level to Perfect Level merely by performing a few hundred surgeries as practice.
Ji Tianlu might be expecting to see watched Legendary Level maneuvers while he watched Ling Ran’s Perfect Level maneuvers, but he was still extremely fascinated.
In reality, even with his Perfect Level maneuvers, Ling Ran still ranked among the top hundred in the world.
If a doctor’s skills when it came to a certain surgical method was confirmed to be ranked among the top hundred in the world, he would certainly receive favorable treatment. Even in this international conference, none of the participating surgeons could rank among the top hundred in the world.
Ji Tianlu and Zhu Tongyi had never treated Ling Ran as if he was one of the top hundred in the world since the beginning.
However, if one’s skills were excellent, others would be able to see it.
If a surgeon was only slightly more excellent compared to other surgeons, others would not find him that amazing. However, if you were to look at it from a wider perspective, you would be able to see the difference in skills. It was just like how in school, many students who ranked second place in class did not see much difference between them and the ones who got first place. However, if they were to look at how they ranked in the entire form, they would realize that the difference in ranking between them and the one who ranked first place in the entire form (who also ranked first in class) was around thirty or forty places. If they were to look at it from an even wider perspective and see how they ranked in the entire region compared to the one who got first place in class and who also ranked number one in the region, they would find that there were hundreds of places between them. Similarly, their difference in ranking in the entire city would be of a few thousand places, and their difference in ranking in the entire province would be almost ten thousand places.
The world of adults was much more complicated than the world of students.
It was still alright for junior doctors, as they only faced competition from those around their age and those from the same hospital. A doctor would only meet doctors from other hospitals once he became an attending physician. However, once a doctor was promoted to an associate chief physician or chief physician, he would have to compete with all the doctors in the city and even the province. Those who happened to be fortunate and had excellent skills could even compete with doctors all over the country.
Those who emerged victorious in the competition with doctors all over the country such as Chief Physician Ji Tianlu would sometimes think about competing with the rest of the world.
In reality, doctors in China rarely thought about competing with doctors abroad. This was because the medical fees in China were very cheap, and the patients’ income was also lower than the world average. Even if hospitals and doctors abroad could provide better treatment, patients would still seek treatment locally for financial reasons.
For example, under normal circumstances, Doctor Ji Tianlu would not think about how a doctor’s skills ranked in the world.
However, as the center prepared for the International Sports Orthopedic Research Conference, Ji Tianlu suddenly became more sensitive to the word “international”.
Without being aware of it, he started judging Ling Ran’s skills based on the videos of surgeries performed by a few international aces he watched some time ago.
As a result…
As a result, Ji Tianlu lost his confidence.
He shook his head and could not help but think. ‘It’s really hard to gauge the standards of a surgeon’s skills nowadays. Ling Ran seems pretty excellent.’
“I’m done. Time to move on.” Ling Ran tossed the pair of scissors aside and said to Ji Tianlu, “I’ll continue with the next surgery in the operating theater next door.”
Ji Tianlu panicked for a moment and quickly said, “I’ll go with you.”
This was something that did not align with his plans. According to Ji Tianlu’s original plan, he would only be assisting in one surgery to make sure that Ling Ran was in good condition before moving on to other tasks.
Ji Tianlu was also the one to decide whether the recording would be broadcasted during the conference.
As he pondered about it, Ji Tianlu suddenly lost his confidence. At that moment, he was not in the mood to do anything else.
He wanted to take another good look at Ling Ran’s skills.
Ling Ran naturally agreed. He let Yu Yuan carry out the remaining tasks before he headed to the operating theater next door with Ji Tianlu.
Ling Ran walked in front of Ji Tianlu. His gait was majestic, and he was in high spirits.
Ji Tianlu walked behind Ling Ran. His eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and he lacked confidence.
It was as if both of their identities had been switched.
