Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xue Haochu remained speechless, long after his conversation with Lu Wenbin through the phone.
Xue Haochu was not considered a doctor yet. His understanding of the working life in hospital was not even comparable to a normal resident doctor. After all, he did not receive payment from the hospital, and neither would he work in the hospital. He, too, would not even get a glimpse of the pain of working on shifts in the hospital. He was also isolated from the matters that constantly troubled normal doctors, such as doctor-patient relationships and other bothersome affairs.
However, Xue Haochu himself did have a limited degree of understanding of the hospital. As a PhD student under an academician, he needed to visit many hospitals everywhere and handled a lot of hospital matters for his instructor. His workload was equal to the workload of a secretary of a big company. The number of hospital directors that he knew would be more than the number of hospital directors that most of the department directors and associate department directors knew.
From his own perspective, Xue Haochu felt that his arrangement to have Ling Ran rest for many days was a perfect plan, and this was also a means of conveying goodwill towards Ling Ran.
However, even if he racked his brains, he would never be able to imagine that Ling Ran would threaten to leave for Yun Hua just because there was no surgery for him to perform.
Of course, Lu Wenbin’s tone was friendly, and the way he delivered the message was indirect. However, Xue Haochu was willing to swear by his pride as a Ph.D. student that he heard the threat in Lu Wenbin’s voice.
With his phone in hand, Xue Haochu thought long and hard before he reopened his WeChat and sent some messages.
He dared not disturb his instructor, so he could only solve the problem on his own. After he spent around ten minutes being busy, Xue Haochu could no longer sit still. He quickly settled his work at hand and went to search for someone to borrow a ear from.
A celebrity doctor could bring a great impact on improving a hospital, and it was the same for a star athlete as well as a celebrity in the entertainment industry.
The internal management of the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center had argued about the matter of getting a doctor from other hospitals to be the chief surgeon of the surgery guided by Academician Zhu Tongyi.
This was one of the reasons why the research institute had invited Ling Ran over the past few days to work.
Xue Haochu himself was not sure when Ling Ran should be permitted to come into contact with the patients.
*Tap, tap, tap, tap.*
Xue Haochu’s hard bottom leather shoes made clear, loud clops when he walked along the corridor in the hospital, and it sounded just like Xue Haochu’s biography.
The surface area of the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center was not small, and it was comparable to a small-scale tertiary grade A hospitals. However, the number of beds in the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center was fewer compared to tertiary hospitals. This made the research institute look very spacious, and it looked similar to the big Japanese hospitals in Japanese dramas at first glance.
In truth, when Zhu Tongyi invited people to design the building of the research institute, he had indeed instructed the architect to design the research institute based on Japanese hospitals. Japan was the only developed country that he could learn from while he was still doing his advanced studies. The hospitals in the United States were more advanced, but the medical treatment models, medical equipment capital, as well as the medical costs, were not something China could afford to fund. For doctors, it was still very expensive for them to undergo training in the United States.
Xue Haochu liked the spaciousness of the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center the most. After he got used to the life here, it was very difficult for him to get used to the busy and crowded life of tertiary grade A hospitals.
Unfortunately, there was a limited number of research institutes like the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center in the country.
“Doctor Qu.” Xue Haochu knocked on the door of a VIP clinic before he entered the room.
The doctor’s office was connected to the treatment room, and together, they were 196 square feet in area. The forty-year-old Doctor Qu was built like a bamboo, had twinkling eyes, a straight nose, bald head, and slender and fair finger joints. Xue Haochu saw him holding a Kindle [1], and he was reading from it. When Doctor Qu saw Xue Haochu stepping into the room, he smiled and nodded. He said, “Has the department director returned yet?”
Zhu Tongyi was an academician. At the same time, he was also the director of the research institute. But Doctor Qu always preferred using the second title to greet him.
Xue Haochu shook his head and said, “I didn’t come to you because of the director today. Do you still remember Doctor Ling from Yun Hua Hospital, the one brought here by the director?”
“How could I forget such a ludicrous matter? Bringing back an intern and letting him perform the surgery?” Doctor Qu smiled as he spoke. He was a surgeon. Although he spent more time on research than clinical practice and also often received surgeons from all around the world, this was the first time receiving an intern.
Xue Haochu had seen Ling Ran operate before. He smiled and said, “Doctor Qu, have you checked on the video we brought back?”
“I glanced through, and it’s not really interesting.” Doctor Qu’s expression changed slightly. He put down his Kindle and said, “What does he want now?”
Xue Haochu raised his eyebrows before lowering them. He said, “Doctor Ling wants to participate in the surgery.”
“The surgery for Liu Weichen? Impossible, I’m his doctor-in-charge. The surgery plan for Liu Weichen has not even been confirmed yet…”
“The instructor has confirmed it.”
“It’s impossible to go along with the director’s plan. Liu Weichen does not need a normal Achilles tendon repair technique. He needs to use his Achilles tendon to run the 100-meter and 200-meter races. The current suture plans either account for normal people or just increases the complexity of the surgery. I’ll not agree with a plan that unreasonably increases surgery risks.”
“The instructor thinks that Ling Ran can perform the surgery. How would you know without giving him a chance to try?” Initially, Xue Haochu did not want to speak for Ling Ran, but his position made him do so.
Doctor Qu groaned and shook his head. He said, “I admit that the technique he showed in the video is quite good. But that’s just a hand surgery. Has Ling Ran performed any foot surgeries before? It’s a no, right?”
Xue Haochu showed a faint smile. “You’ve seen Ling Ran’s surgery records.”
Doctor Qu grunted a positive answer unwillingly.
“Since you have seen it, you should know of his success rate, right? The finger replantation surgery is the top of all microsurgeries. It will only be much easier for him to perform a foot surgery.” Xue Haochu was Academician Zhu Tongyi’s secretary. He always needed to communicate with all the medical staff in the institute, and he could easily grasp the doctors’ weaknesses.
Doctor Qu remained silent. It was obvious that feet surgeries were easier than hand surgeries because the foot was bigger than the hand. This played a decisive role in microsurgeries. Besides, foot functionality could not be compared to the hand. In other words, there was more room for errors in foot surgeries.
If the chief surgeon the academician brought back was a forty-year-old doctor at the prime of his career, Doctor Qu might not have been so vocal about his disagreement. Even if the doctor had not performed any feet surgeries before, it was still possible to train him. After all, when it came to the topic of microsurgeries, it was impossible that a doctor who specialized in microsurgeries to have only performed hand surgeries but never feet surgeries.
“Doctor Qu, how about we do things this way? Why don’t we just ask Ling Ran to come over first, and you can guide him in two surgeries. Then, we can proceed with the discussion tomorrow.” Xue Haochu provided an acceptable suggestion.
Doctor Qu thought about this again and again before he unwillingly nodded.
Although Xue Haochu was extremely happy, he still left the room with a calm look on his face.
When he walked along the corridor, Xue Haochu could no longer hold the smile on his face. He knew of Doctor Qu very well. If he mentioned that Ling Ran wanted to perform surgeries in a very direct manner, there was a high chance that he would be turned down. He could only get Doctor Qu to agree by going at it in a roundabout manner.
“No matter how difficult you are, aren’t you still…” Xue Haochu kept mumbling under his breath until he could no longer think of anything else to say. Then, he started to sing.
…..
Second day.
Xue Haochu went to pick Ling Ran up and brought him to the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center.
No matter what, he was a person personally selected by the academician. Neither Xue Haochu nor Doctor Qu had the right to refuse him.
Everyone analyzed things in the manner of a surgeon, and all of them came to the same conclusion: the most straightforward manner to judge Ling Ran’s skills was through a surgery.
Naturally, Doctor Qu hoped that Ling Ran would quit because of the difficulties he would face. Xue Haochu… He only believed himself to be a surgeon.
For Ling Ran, he had just obtained the Perfect Level Achilles Tendon Repair Technique. If he was in Yun Hua Hospital now, he would have long since asked Department Director Huo to get him patients.
But in Rome, or this case Shanghai, Ling Ran could only do as the Romans do.
But Doctor Qu did not intend to stop Ling Ran. He randomly threw out around ten medical cases to Ling Ran and said, “Just have a look at which medical cases you would like to try, then we’ll do that…”
Doctor Qu also wanted to show off the graciousness of one of the top sports specialist hospitals in the country.
Just like what Doctor Qu hoped, Ling Ran was indeed a little surprised.
In the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital, Ling Ran could select the medical case that he wanted among all the medical cases brought to him through Department Director Huo. However, the number of cases was usually in the single digits or slightly more. He could rarely get more than twenty or thirty cases in one go.
Meanwhile, Doctor Qu had casually brought around ten medical cases in the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center. Ling Ran could even see that there were more medical cases in his document cabinet.
“Are all of them ready for surgery?” Ling Ran pointed at the medical cases in his hand before he pointed at Doctor Qu’s document cabinet.
Doctor Qu was annoyed and said, “Whatever that can be performed has already been performed. For those that can’t be, you can do nothing about them.”
Ling Ran was not sure whether he had any solutions. He was not a person who loved to boast about himself.
In most of Ling Ran’s life, when a male student or a man saw him, the first thing they wanted to do was to boast about themselves.
For Ling Ran, boasting was just a process that wasted his time.
“We’ll do a simple medical case then.” Ling Ran picked out the simplest, most common, and highly typical case of Achilles tendon rupture among the pile.
Doctor Qu expression turned better. He thought, ‘You made the right choice.’
According to his plan, he would only allow this young man stay in the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center for some time, let him obtain a cert to prove that he had gone through training, and let him go home.
If he had the right to make the decisions, Doctor Qu would not even want to give the training certificate to Ling Ran.
But no matter what, Ling Ran chose a simple and standard medical case, and Doctor Qu was relieved with his choice. So, most of his qualms were alleviated. He smiled and said, “Please prepare yourself for it, we will perform surgery latest by tomorrow afternoon.”
Deep down in his mind, Doctor Qu thought, ‘This will be your last surgery in the research institute.’
Ling Ran also knew that the patient needed preoperative preparation, so he nodded and agreed. For him, he still needed to get himself familiar with the surgery first, even if he was just trying out the Achilles tendon repair surgery. Ling Ran had to participate in an actual surgery in order to know more about the effects of the Perfect Level Achilles Tendon Repair Technique.
Xue Haochu saw the sincere smile that appeared on both their faces, and he trembled in fear.
Because Xue Haochu knew that both of them were sincere. Yet, only one sincere smile could remain until the end.
