Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The middle-aged woman from Shanghai who was under regional anesthesia went silent for a few minutes.
Within that short span of time, Ling Ran had used the conventional method to insert the arthroscope into the patient’s knee joint.
The outward appearance of an arthroscope was similar to that of a long metal rod. It was also very thin.
The camera was located at the front portion of the thin metal rod. It was used to film the interior of the knee joint, which would be broadcasted on the screen above the operating table.
In American movies, you would often see members of the SWAT team insert a long and soft metal rod into a house before they observed what was going on in the house through a screen outside the door. Basically, arthroscopes had the same function as those metal rods.
The only difference was that the members of the SWAT team had a view of a large room, while the surgeons had a view of a tiny space.
Just as the members of the SWAT team confirmed the location of their enemies, Ling Ran looked at the screen to confirm the state of the patient’s meniscus. This process was known as “exploration”.
If the patient had only been there for an examination without the need for treatment, the doctor’s job would have ended there, and it would have still been considered surgery. However, the patient was there for a meniscoplasty. Ling Ran informed the others, “It’s more or less the same as what we saw in the MRI scan. Let’s get started.”
As he spoke, Ling Ran skilfully inserted a 0.08-inch guide pin. He then inserted a 0.16-inch surgical drill.
The middle-aged woman on the operating table was a little scared. At that moment, her fear was greater than the fear she felt when Ling Ran said that he liked girls with injured legs. She could not help but ask, “Doctor Ling, do you have any siblings?”
“No.”
“Ah, it’s a plus point to not have any siblings. But sometimes, nothing is certain… I have a few friends who are young women, and all of them are the only child at home. They don’t really care if a man owns a house. But when it comes to you, I don’t think girls will place so much importance on whether you own a house. Don’t you think so?” As the middle-aged woman spoke, she laughed loudly and said, “You’re a doctor and you’ve operated on Liu Weichen before. You can probably afford a house if you want to, right?”
“I don’t know.” Ling Ran fixed his gaze on the screen as he worked.
“You’re still very young, and it’s very normal for you to not be able to afford a house. Can your family help?”
“I don’t know…”
“You’re not from Shanghai, are you? Oh, I remember. The doctor I consulted told me that you’re from Yun Hua. Are you here to expand your career? Actually, I’m just going to give you a piece of advice; since you’re here to expand your career, it’s a pretty good idea to find a young woman who owns a house here, isn’t it? Those young friends of mine come from pretty wealthy families, and they’re also beautiful. Oh, by the way, Doctor Ling, do you have a girlfriend?”
Ling Ran felt that the surgery was being disrupted.
Compared with open surgeries, arthroscopies required doctors to be even more meticulous. It was kind of like building a city in a matchbox. Such conversations were really distracting.
Ling Ran signaled the anesthetist with his eyes.
The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan immediately understood what Ling Ran meant and administered an additional dose of sedatives.
The middle-aged woman obviously felt the effects of the additional anesthetics. She was so tired that her eyelids began to droop. However, she continued to speak, “One of my nieces is extremely beautiful. It’s just that she’s a little older than you. She was born in 1994. Even though she works in a bank, her family has saved up 10,000 RMB for her to use. She doesn’t actually need to work and has time to take care of her family if she ever starts one…”
“Increase the dosage.”
The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan administered more sedatives.
Even though the middle-aged woman finally closed her eyes, as though due to muscle memory, her lips did not stop moving. “I also have this younger friend who has two daughters. The elder daughter married a foreigner, and the younger one who studied in England finally returned to China after her family forced her to. She’s a university lecturer and looks extremely obedient. She just bought a big house. She also has a small apartment that she’s renting out to someone else…”
With his eyes, Ling Ran signaled the anesthetist, whose surname was not Pan, again.
This time, the anesthetist whose surname was not Pan ignored Ling Ran. He turned and whispered into the middle-aged woman’s ear. “Do you have her phone number? Or any other means to contact her? Do let me know.”
The middle-aged woman opened her eyes with all her might and asked in a daze, “What do you want to do?”
“I’m not married either.” The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan smiled slightly and said, “I’m from Shanghai, and I have a proper job. I also have relatives who work with the government. I have a house and I’ve even bought a shop lot. I also have a car—”
“You won’t do.”
“Hey, why won’t I do? You know, if it weren’t for the fact that I spend all my time in the hospital instead of work eight hours a day and five days a week, I would have gotten a wife ten years ago…”
The middle-aged woman hummed in acknowledgment before she tilted her head and started to snore softly.
The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan froze for a moment. He then raised his head to look at the monitor and said indignantly, “Aunty, your tolerance level’s really high. But isn’t it a little too disrespectful towards your anesthetist to pretend to be asleep when your entire body’s connected to so many tubes? Ordinary people wouldn’t snore even after we’ve administered sedatives, you…”
The middle-aged woman stopped snoring.
The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan glanced at the monitor again and sighed. He said to Ling Ran, “She’s really asleep…”
The young nurses in the operating theater tried their best to hold back their laughter.
The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan tried to help himself out of his predicament. He calmly sat down and said, “Life is so difficult. Nowadays, as an anesthetist, apart from administering anesthetics, we also have to counsel the patients…”
The people in the operating theater were not the only ones who found the whole thing funny. The demonstration room was also filled with laughter.
A few resident doctors and young attending physicians laughed so much that they started to tear up.
“Surgical thread #2-0.”
Ling Ran was extremely alert whenever he was in the operating theater.
He had always liked to place full focus into doing something ever since he was young.
When he was in school, he always focused on the lessons. He would never get distracted just because girls passed him notes with messages on them. Once, Ling Ran replied to one of the notes out of politeness, which resulted in a large number of notes being passed to him. If it had not been for the fact that the teacher was astonished by the incident and understood his predicament, he would have been reprimanded!
It was the same during physical education lessons. He focused on jogging when it was time for it, and focused on playing ball when it was time to play ball games. He would not stop just because a girl confessed to him. He also focused on the exam papers during examinations and focused on eating during meal times. The art of focusing was a necessary skill for him to maintain a normal lifestyle.
Ling Ran continued to focus on whatever task he was doing after he entered medical school and after he started working in the hospital.
Right now, Ling Ran just wanted to fully focus on the surgery.
And that was what he did.
“I’m going to start suturing.”
Ling Ran reminded the rest and started to carry out the vertical mattress suture with a suture hook.
Ling Ran obtained the Specialist Level Vertical Mattress Suture Technique a long time ago. However, the suturing technique could rarely be put to use. After all, before arthroscopy existed, the vertical mattress suture technique could only be used to suture loose skin and wounds on the scrotum. Even if you stayed in the emergency room all day for a week, you might not come across such a case. This proved that men were very careful when it came to their private parts.
However, the beautiful thing about skills was that each skill could always be put to use. Even if its impact on the mass public and society was minuscule, it could make a large positive impact on single individuals.
When it came to suturing during arthroscopy, the vertical mattress suture technique was more effective than the ordinary interrupted suture technique.
Ling Ran completed the arthroscopy around twenty minutes later. He did not even need an assistant.
“Send the patient out and prepare for the next surgery.” After Ling Ran checked for the last time that there was no problem, he tossed the instrument in his hand aside and left the operating theater.
The best part about being a chief surgeon was that one did not need to carry out miscellaneous tasks. It was a relaxing job in which one got all the credit.
Ji Tianlu, who watched the entire surgery in the demonstration room, had a lot of words running in his mind. He immediately exited the demonstration room and walked towards the operating theater.
“When did you practice arthroscopy?” If Ji Tianlu had not watched the surgery with his own eyes, he would not have believed how skilled Ling Ran was.
Ling Ran said, a little embarrassed, “I’ve been spending all my time on Achilles tendon repair surgeries lately…”
Ji Tianlu fixed his gaze on Ling Ran for a few seconds. He then turned and left.
He now knew very well that when dealing with young and aggressive genius doctors like Ling Ran, words would only make him reflect on his own abilities. Rock hard facts, such as the fact that there were only two hundred or three hundred beds available, were the only things that could show Ling Ran how tough reality was.
