Ling Ran separated the abdominal tissue bit by bit and relished in the first abdominal surgery in his life.
Ordinary people usually thought that doctors only needed to cut once with a sharp scalpel to make an incision during abdominal surgeries. However, in truth, when surgeons made incisions to access the abdominal cavity, they will try their best to do it layer by layer.
Even though uneven abdominal incisions made during the surgical process might not be so aesthetically pleasant, they made it easier for the surgeons to close the incisions after the surgery was completed. This was because the structures had to be sutured layer by layer during an abdominal closure. The peritoneum, rectus sheath, adipose tissue layer, and other structures had to be aligned.
One would take forever to close an abdominal incision made in one strike.
So, to prevent this from happening, the surgeons consciously separated the layers and moisturized them with saline before wrapping them in gauze and setting them aside with surgical clamps. This way, it would be a lot easier for them to perform layered abdominal closure. It also reduced the likelihood of mistakes.
Ling Ran performed the abdominal surgery at a relaxed pace.
To Doctor Zhou, who was familiar with abdominal surgery, Ling Ran’s performance was not exceptional in terms of speed in the beginning. However, his movements were very cohesive and well-paced.
Hence, it did not take long for Ling Ran reach the surgeons’ favourite part of an abdominal surgery—playing hide-and-seek with the appendix.
Doctor Zhou gazed at Ling Ran with a grin on his face.
Nowadays, the only challenge surgeons faced when performing abdominal surgery was the search for the appendix. This was especially true for Doctor Zhou and those ranked above him. Tasks like separating and ligating the appendix were considered extremely simple for them.
If a person were to describe an abdominal surgery using terms from the animal kingdom, the search for the appendix was like a game of hide-and-seek between a bear and a rabbit. The moment the bear found the rabbit, the bear would encounter no difficulty in consuming the rabbit at all.
The only problem was that the appendix was a cunning rabbit which was always wandering around inside the abdominal cavity. It did not have a fixed position. When the incision made was small, there might be a possibility that the doctor would not be able to find the appendix. It was totally normal for an unlucky and inexperienced doctor to spend half an hour looking for the appendix. Many small-time doctors spent two or three hours looking for the appendix during the first abdominal surgery they participated in.
Doctor Zhou watched as Ling Ran worked and asked with a smile, “Ling Ran, when was the last time you searched for an appendix?”
Proficiency was very important in a surgery. No matter how excellent a surgeon was, if he had not performed appendectomy for a long time, their skills would be quite rusty.
Ling Ran pondered for a moment. He did not answer Doctor Zhou immediately. Instead, he exerted some force using his fingers and fished out a chunk of bloody and small intestines out of the abdominal cavity.
“Gauze.”
Ling Ran ordered before replying Doctor Zhou, “Just now.”
The scrub nurse handed the gauze to Ling Ran, and her gaze was filled with admiration. “Doctor Ling, you’re really good at this.”
“Thank you.” Ling Ran nodded politely before cleaning the pus around the appendix with the gauze. He then asked for a pair of forceps and lifted the appendix.
As Doctor Zhou stared at the suppurating appendix, which could have killed the patient, he was instantly shocked. He could not help but feel a little baffled. “You found it?”
“Yup.”
“You practiced it in secret, didn’t you?”
“No.”
Doctor Zhou shook his head. “Such amazing luck.”
Doctor Zhou had no other explanation for this, so he could only attribute it to luck.
Even though Doctor Zhou had seen and also heard about some surgeons from the General Surgery Department who could find the patients’ appendixes with the lift of a finger, the number of appendixes each of those surgeons had removed could be used to cover up all four walls of the operating theatre. Ling Ran had at most practiced removing appendixes; it was impossible for him to have had ample experience prior to this.
Ling Ran smiled and said nothing. He raised his chin a little at Doctor Zhou.
“Hey, why are you being so smug…?” Doctor Zhou shook his head nonstop. “It’s just an appendix, don’t be so pleased with yourself yet…”
Ling Ran looked resigned. “I was trying to tell you to operate the retractor.”
Doctor Zhou froze for a moment and immediately operated the retractor with force.
This was the assistant’s only task in an appendectomy.
Ling Ran nodded and started dealing with the patient’s blood vessels and mesoappendix.
Doctor Zhou was rather embarrassed. “It has been a long time since I operated the retractor, and my skills are a little rusty. We still need to work on our teamwork.”
“There’s no need.” Ling Ran glanced at Doctor Zhou’s skinny arms and legs, and the wrinkles around Doctor Zhuo’s eyes. He regarded the idea of working with Doctor Zhou again with great contempt.
Tasks like operating the retractor should naturally be carried out by energetic young people. Not only were they strong and hardworking, but they were also good at flattering others.
Compared to those young people, attending physicians like Doctor Zhou were not very useful as Ling Ran’s assistant.
“It’s time to ligate and remove the appendix.” Ling Ran reminded Doctor Zhou, causing Doctor Zhou to swallow his words.
Ling Ran removed the appendix without trouble in a short period of time and sutured its end using the purse-string suture technique.
The official name of the purse-string suture technique was the “continuous inverting horizontal mattress suture”, and it was slightly different compared to the other two inverted suture techniques that Ling Ran had mastered before this, which were the Lembert suturing technique and the interrupted inverting horizontal mattress suture.
Right now, Ling Ran was already capable of performing all kinds of sutures without any difficulty.
He tossed the tiny appendix on the tray. The appendix was bright red, like a small chunk of Cantonese sausage.
“Young woman, don’t go so wild during buffets next time.” Doctor Zhou’s mood became relaxed.
The patient was unable to see what was going on. She asked timidly, “What is going on now?”
“Your appendix is already removed.” Doctor Zhou toyed with the appendix on the tray and said, “It was swollen.”
“Oh… thank you.”
“Hey, this young woman is pretty polite. The next time you seek treatment in our Emergency Medical Center, we’ll think of a way to give you a discount.” It was a textbook doctor-joke.
The patient was speechless.
She did not dare to say that she did not ever want to get admitted into the Emergency Medical Center again.
After Ling Ran checked the patient’s abdominal cavity carefully, he tossed the instrument in his hand aside and asked Doctor Zhou, “Do you want to perform abdominal closure?”
Doctor Zhou glanced at his watch and agreed. “Thank you, Doctor Ling.
“You’re welcome.” Ling Ran took off his gloves and tossed them into the trash can. He then asked the circulating nurse. “Where’s the next patient? Operating Theater 2?”
“Yes, Operating Theater 2. I’ll go and check.” Even though the circulating nurse had already inquired about it earlier, she went to make a double confirmation. After a while, she returned and said, “The patient is already in Operating Theater 2.”
Ling Ran nodded.
At this moment, the patient, Mei Qiaoqing, whose head was covered by a drape, called out, “Doctor, doctor, please make sure that the incision is at the same position and shape.”
Ling Ran stopped in his tracks for a moment.
“I’ll try my best, but the appendix moves around the abdominal cavity.” Ling Ran had no choice but to explain. Even though the probability of it being in the lower right abdomen was the highest, he could not guarantee that this would be the case…
However, Mei Qiaoqing’s persistent voice rang out from behind the drape, “He’s my boyfriend. So, now that we suffer from appendicitis at the same time, even if his appendix wanders around, it would definitely end up at the same location as mine.”
Ling Ran earnestly listened to the patient’s opinion and said, “I’ll test your hypothesis out on your behalf.”
After he said that, Ling Ran exited the operating theater.
Mei Qiaoqing panicked when she heard what Ling Ran said. “What if his appendix is not at the same position as mine? Can we still be together? How am I going to face him?
Doctor Zhou panicked too when he heard what the patient said. He told the nurse in a hushed tone, “Hide all the scalpels…”
