Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the waiting hall outside the operating theater was a money plant, its vines entwined with that of a spider plant. The aloe vera and asparagus fern barely touched each other, almost shyly.
The twenty-five-year-old and twenty-six-year-old resident doctors moved around the young nurses.
The family members of the patients were anxious, but they forced themselves to remain calm.
Madam Xu looked at the door with unfocused eyes. She looked as if she were asleep, but at the slightest activity, she would sit up immediately.
Mister Dong held a cigarette in his hand, but he did not dare to smoke. He put it near his nose and took a whiff of it. He had his phone in his other hand. He seemed to be looking at it, but at the same time, he appeared to be unfocused.
*Click*
When the door opened, a doctor came out and took off his mask. Just like in movies, he said something to the anxious family members.
Dong Xiaoning’s father looked over with an exhausted face. He had been waiting for more than four hours. Not only was his body tired, but his heart was also anxious and fretful.
When he saw the face of the doctor who took off the mask, Dong Xiaoning’s father swiftly stood up.
“Doctor Qu.” Dong Xiaoning’s father acted as if he saw his savior.
Doctor Qu focused his eyes on him and forced himself to smile. “Mister Dong, hello.”
He had some bad memories in regards to this patient.
Dong Xiaoning’s father was very grateful to Doctor Qu, he quickly said, “Doctor Qu, thank God you’re here, my Ningning… I don’t know what’s happening to my Ningning, but she has not come out yet…”
“What do you mean, she hasn’t come out yet?” Doctor Qu gave him a small, friendly smile.
He just finished his surgery and was free at the moment. It was okay for him to just talk for a while.
Dong Xiaoning’s father gulped before he said laboriously, “It’s… it’s about my daughter. She went in for surgery, and she still isn’t out even after hours have passed. Doctor Qu, is there something wrong?”
“How many hours has the surgery been going on?”
“It has been four hours.” Madam Xu also rushed up to him. She looked at Doctor Qu with sparkling eyes and said quickly, “A doctor just came out saying that the progress for Doctor Ling’s surgery is a bit slow, but that we shouldn’t worry… How can we be calm? I asked around before this, and I know that Doctor Ling performs surgeries exceptionally fast. What’s going on? Was the surgery performed too quickly, and something had happened?”
Doctor Qu cursed in his heart. Even if he were a doctor, his first reaction was to believe that an accident had happened.
As far as Doctor Qu knew, Ling Ran would take only thirty minutes on average to perform a normal Achilles tendon operation. The average time for Plan A was also no more than three hours. Most of the time, he only needed two and a half hours to complete the surgery.
In Doctor Qu’s impression, a surgery of more than four hours was far longer than Ling Ran’s normal operation time.
“Don’t worry, I will help you take a look, okay?” As Doctor Qu said that, he wanted to go to the operating theater. But he stopped and turned to the demonstration room.
If a problem truly came up during the operation and he went into the operating theater, it would be hard for him to communicate with the surgeons. It was better to go to the demonstration room to see the situation first.
Doctor Qu was 70% certain that a problem had occurred with Ling Ran’s operation.
As the saying went, “If you are constantly taking risks, sooner or later, you will get into trouble.” Surgeons held scalpels to cut the human body while they were beside the operating table. There was actually a high probability for accidents to occur. According to Doctor Qu’s personal judgment, Ling Ran was young, but he held the position of a chief surgeon. He had also garnered attention from inside and outside the hospital. It was just a matter of time until something went wrong with his surgeries.
When Doctor Qu thought of the teenage girl who loved sports, he found himself unable to bear with the thought that an accident happened to her.
“Old Li, Old Huang.” Doctor Qu saw two surgeons on his way and dragged them to the demonstration room as witnesses without listening to their protests.
In the demonstration room were several resident doctors and postgraduate students. They watched Ji Tianlu’s hip replacement surgery.
“Is Chief Physician Ji teaching a class?” Doctor Qu saw and asked.
Some resident doctors shook their heads, “We’re just watching it.”
“Change the channel to Operating Theater 2 and watch Doctor Ling’s Achilles tendon repair.” Doctor Qu did not need to explain anything. After all, he was an attending physician.
A resident doctor came over and obediently used the remote control to change channels.
Old Li, who was called over by Doctor Qu, asked curiously, “Why do you want to watch Ling Ran’s surgery?”
“The patient’s family came to me and asked about the situation.” Doctor Qu muttered. Technically, it was not a lie.
Old Li and Old Huang were both attending physicians. They were already considered quite experienced among the other experienced people in the center. If someone gave something good to the other doctors ranked above them, they should get benefits as well.
When they heard Doctor Qu’s words, Old Li and Old Huang looked at each other and guessed that something might have happened in the operating theater.
As they were thinking about whether or not they should send the postgraduate students out, Ling Ran’s voice came from the speaker.
“Soak it in saline solution for a while.”
“Add the gauze.”
“Okay, forceps.”
Ling Ran’s voice was steady. There was no hint of the tension and confusion they thought he would have.
Yu Yuan’s voice was also slow and clear. “The connection between the two ruptured ends are done well. If we suture it like this, as long as she begins early functional training, the chances of her tendon rupturing again will be very low.”
“Yup.”
“You incorporated bits of the M-Tang technique in the Achilles tendon repair suture method you used just now, right?”
“Yup.”
“If we suture it like this, we should be able to increase the maximum weight the Achilles tendon can bear. I wonder if this girl would need such a high-strength suture. If she does not participate in a national competition within two or three years, I don’t think she’ll need to have her Achilles tendon be able to support such a great weight.”
“Yup.”
Ling Ran did not like to talk when performing surgery, but Yu Yuan always liked to comment and ask.
In the beginning, Ling Ran would still pay some attention, but now he would only grunt in response.
Old Huang and Old Li looked at Doctor Qu strangely in the demonstration room.
“The surgery is going very well.”
“It’s Doctor Ling’s style, alright.”
The two had watched Ling Ran’s operation countless of times. The Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center also researched Ling Ran’s surgeries so that they could turn it into lessons. They were all familiar with Ling Ran’s style.
Doctor Qu was also a bit confused and whispered, “The patient’s family said that the surgery has been going on for more than four hours.”
“An Achilles tendon repair of more than four hours?”
“Yup.”
The two of them then became a little bit more serious. They called a young resident doctor over and said, “Could you replay this video? The current one.”
The three of them then sat in the demonstration room and looked at the fast-forwarded video.
“Huh? He actually managed to ensure blood supply just like this?”
“Nerve damage should be the most troublesome complication… So we should just suture it, is that it?”
“Suture the blood vessel first? Oh… this is indeed better…”
Yu Yuan’s voice had also been accelerated in the replayed video. In fact, most of the time, Yu Yuan’s voice could be heard from the video.
Judging from the content of Yu Yuan’s speech and Ling Ran’s cautious movements, the doctors present could basically understand the current situation.
“Ling Ran slowed down his speed.”
“It’s not easy to do it fast. It’s even harder to slow down when you’re used to performing surgeries fast.”
“Old Huang, can you do this?”
“Don’t ask me. Let’s not compare ourselves with Ling Ran when it comes to Achilles tendon repair surgeries, don’t you agree?”
The doctors in the room nodded together.
All the people in the world knew how to procrastinate and waste time. However, even if ample time was given to most surgeons and they were told to do their best in that surgery, they still would not be able to do it.
An average surgeon could only complete a surgical procedure step-by-step. They could not talk about whether they performed the surgery slowly or quickly. They were only able to do it quickly because the surgery was going on without a hitch, and if it was slow, the surgery was not smooth. There was not much active awareness when it came to them adjusting their speed.
It was even more difficult for doctors to slow down their speed to improve the quality of the surgery.
After all, it was not that easy to improve the quality of something.
This was like car race. Most drivers could race without caring about fuel consumption, and they could do it pretty well, too. But if it were a long-distance race where saving fuel was vital, not every driver would know how to race by then.
Giving unlimited time to drivers and only asking them to save fuel was also not a driver’s professional pursuit.
The same was true for surgeons.
Truthfully speaking, Doctor Qu had only heard of this, but had never seen it before.
Of course, he might have seen it now.
Doctor Qu did not really want to admit that he saw it.
“In this case, the blood supply should be sufficient. Doctor Ling, the position you’ve chosen is called the Zhu-Yang incision. This incision position is really good and can ensure that the patient’s motor function is retained to its utmost.”
“The muscle shape has basically been maintained. You’ve worked hard, Doctor Ling. If the girl wears a skirt after the surgery, at least the surgery scar can’t be seen on the calf muscles. She can also further hide the scar by putting concealer over it.”
Yu Yuan’s voice was constantly heard from the stereo, which went on and on endlessly…
Doctor Qu was a bit annoyed by having to listen to the constant “Doctor Ling”s, but when he thought that Dong Xiaoning, who was of the same age as his daughter, might really get the best treatment, the doctor’s mouth curled up against his will.
Old Huang and Old Li looked at Doctor Qu strangely.
“What are you thinking about?”
“You look a bit weird.”
Old Huang and Old Li said at the same time.
Doctor Qu could not put on a straight face any longer. He coughed and scolded the screen, “This female doctor sent by Yun Hua Hospital is going overboard with kissing Ling Ran’s *ss!”
“She has indeed gone a little overboard with it!”
“Professional medicine is not about flattery!”
“I’d like to accept a student like this in the future!”
