Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Doctor Zhang, can you arrange to have Teacher Zhu operated by an experienced surgeon?” Principal Liu took Zhang Anmin’s hand and asked him in a pleading tone. Those who did not know what was going on would probably think that Principal Liu was asking Zhang Anmin to take care of his child upon his death.
Teacher Zhu, too, gazed at Zhang Anmin in anticipation. It was natural for patients to want to be treated by the best doctors.
Zhang Anmin flashed a wan smile and said, “Our department director is the one who assigns the chief surgeons. I’m in no position to meddle with his decisions.”
“I know Department Director He too,” Principal Liu said with a smile, “I’ve worked in four different schools, and on average, one teacher would be admitted into the hospital for cholecystitis every year. I’ve always sought out Department Director He’s help when it came to this. Doctor Zhang, do try your best for Teacher Zhu’s sake.”
Not only was it troublesome to seek out the department director, but it also required quite a sum of money. One would need to utilize his connections to do so. Hence, Principal Liu merely paid lip service. Before this, he would never seek out a department director for the sake of the teachers working in his school.
But he planned to do that today.
He gathered all the emotions in his heart and said in a poignant tone, “Doctor Zhu has been in the teaching industry for thirty years, and has won the ‘best employee award’ in our school multiple times. Many of his students now hold all kinds of positions and have made a lot of great contributions to our nation…”
Zhang Anmin listened in resignation. Principal Liu’s words were obviously directed to Teacher Zhu instead of him.
Teacher Zhu’s eyes were brimming with tears as he heard that. He felt that his thirty years of hard work had not gone to waste and that at the end of the day, someone remembered his contributions.
Ling Ran quietly left the ward. This patient’s condition seemed complicated, and he preferred to take on relatively simple cases first.
It was only then that Zhang Anmin see Ling Ran. He immediately uttered a few more words of consolation before following Ling Ran outside.
“Doctor Ling, why didn’t you call me before coming over?” Zhang Anmin stood behind Ling Ran with a grin on his face.
“I feel like carrying out a few cholecystectomies.” Ling Ran paused for a moment and added, “But I don’t want to operate on the patient just now.”
“Yeah, let’s leave that patient to the department director.” Zhang Anmin pursed his lips. His department director, He Yuanzheng liked to operate on this kind of patients. Those patients would be indebted to him, and this could benefit him in the long run. Even if his own children or his relatives’ children did not end up needing help from the Department of Education, the children of one of his colleagues might need it.
However, a junior doctor like Zhang Anmin did not have much use for a cadre of above average rank in the Department of Education. Hence, he did not really care about whether he got to operate on Teacher Zhu.
He did not depend on the Department of Education for a living, and the Department of Education did not care about him either.
Now that doctors were not even allowed to take red envelopes from patients anymore, Zhang Anmin did not feel like going through so much trouble just for a few good reviews.
Zhang Anmin would rather butter up to skillful doctors like Ling Ran.
When he recalled how Ling Ran was able to handle a case that even Professor Feng Zhixiang and his student were not able to, Zhang Anmin acted even more obediently. He was smiling so politely that he could pass off as Zuo Cidian’s younger brother. “Doctor Ling, I have made it a point to take in patients who need cholecystectomy this week. Excluding the one you see just now, there are four more of them. Do you want to take a look?”
“I’ll follow you on your ward round.” As Ling Ran had not even mastered Novice Level Cholecystectomy, he naturally did not dare to make any promises. He followed Zhang Anmin to meet the patients. He then examined those patients and looked at their scans.
“I’ll arrange to have one of them operated this afternoon. Do you want to be the chief surgeon?” Zhang Anmin only asked Ling Ran when they were done with the ward round.
“I would like to put in more practice. Do go ahead and be the chief surgeon for this afternoon’s surgery. I just want to perform a few steps.” Ling Ran sounded extremely humble.
Zhang Anmin glanced at Ling Ran in bewilderment and said, “Other doctors are always very eager to become the chief surgeon.”
Ling Ran shook his head. “Being a chief surgeon has no meaning in itself.”
Zhang Anmin wanted to say something to refute Ling Ran’s statement, but he did not dare to.
Ling Ran was not interested in explaining things to Zhang Anmin either.
He was not like other doctors.
First of all, he was extremely experienced when it came to abdominal anatomical dissection. A doctor with an experience of one hundred times in abdominal anatomical dissections was akin to a Transformer that suddenly appeared in the parking lot; he was way ahead of the others around him.
Besides, Ling Ran could operate the laparoscope very skillfully at this point.
Most resident doctors take a very long time to get used to laparoscopy. A lot of them could not even make a proper knot using the laparoscopy.
Ling Ran had already transcended all this.
Right now, he merely lacked experience in cholecystectomy, and being a chief surgeon was not the only way to obtain that experience.
Ling Ran had been the chief surgeon of a large number of surgeries, and unlike other junior doctors, he did not need to be the chief surgeon of a surgery just so that he could strengthen his ego.
A lot of excellent doctors in history could master a surgical method merely by watching it once and getting hands-on practice in two of them. This kind of talented doctors were the only ones who could master a large number of surgical methods. Hospitals in most countries only have a General Surgery Department without separate departments for each of the abdominal contents. This was why skillful surgeons could master almost a hundred surgical methods without putting in much effort.
Of course, there were also doctors who kept referring to their textbooks as they carried out surgeries. This did not necessarily affect the qualities of the surgeries carried out. It was just like how certain Mathematicians solved problems with their formula sheets beside them.
There was no need for Ling Ran to be in a rush to act as the chief surgeon for a cholecystectomy.
In the afternoon, Zhang Anmin entered the operating theater and carried out miscellaneous tasks such as draping. As soon as he was done, Ling Ran, too, entered the operating theater according to the time they had agreed upon beforehand.
In the hospital, only when a senior doctor acted as the first assistant would the chief surgeon drape the patient himself. However, neither the nurses in the operating theater of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic surgery nor the anesthetist found it weird.
“I’ll hold the laparoscope.” Ling Ran took the initiative to stand on Zhang Anmin’s left.
“I’m sorry to trouble you.” Zhang Anmin still felt extremely diffident.
Truth be told, this was the first time he had met a doctor who knew how to perform hepatectomy but was not well-versed in cholecystectomy.
However, when Zhang Anmin considered the fact that Ling Ran was only a little more than twenty years old, he realized that this was not out of the ordinary.
“Doctor Ling, which step do you feel like trying?” Zhang Anmin asked as he operated on the patient.
“If the adhesion isn’t serious, I’ll carry out the lysis of adhesions.” The lysis of adhesions during a cholecystectomy was considered the most complicated step.
Zhang Anmin agreed without feeling worried at all.
The gallbladder commonly adhered to the liver. Since Ling Ran knew how to perform hepatectomy, this definitely would not be a problem for him.
As expected, Ling Ran could carry out the lysis of adhesions very well.
Ling Ran nodded internally.
This was also what he had presumed, as he reckoned that the skills he had mastered would not disappear magically just like that. There was a possibility that he might make all kinds of mistakes if he were to become the chief surgeon for a cholecystectomy immediately, which might result in a bad prognosis for a patient.
However, if he were to only carry out the steps he was good at first, there was no possibility of there being any mistake.
As for the steps he was not familiar with, he would take his time and put in some practice.
Ling Ran carried out four cholecystectomies together with Zhang Anmin within an afternoon.
Ling Ran only decided to act as chief surgeon after assisting in two more cholecystectomies the following day.
Zhang Anmin immediately made way for him.
He was extremely tired after performing so many surgeries in succession within two days.
Carrying out surgery and guiding another doctor at the same time was a tiring endeavor to begin with. The fact that the doctor who required guidance was Ling Ran made things even more tiring for Zhang Anmin.
“We’ll be inflating the patient’s abdomen first.” Now that Ling Ran was the chief surgeon, he acted like he usually did and reported every single step.
This was unnecessary, as both his assistant and the nurses were already extremely used to carrying out cholecystectomy.
But since Ling Ran was willing to do that, the nurses let him be. It was not a bad thing to get to hear their Prince Charming’s voice more, anyway.
Ling Ran took almost an hour to carry out the cholecystectomy, which was almost as much time as he needed to perform a hepatectomy.
The sight of it was a confidence booster for Zhang Anmin, as he realized that there were also times when Ling Ran was out of practice.
Ling Ran himself felt pretty good, though. Even though he was a little slow, he was not that slow. He felt that his performance definitely surpassed that of a novice’s.
As he pondered about it, the system’s notification appeared.
[Mission Completed: Self-Improvement]
[Mission Details: Obtain Cholecystectomy (Novice) through your own practice.]
[Mission Reward: Basic Treasure Chest]
Ling Ran did not think much as he opened the treasure chest.
As it was merely a Basic Treasure Chest, Ling Ran did not even bother being ceremonial.
However, a purple bottle appeared.
[Skill Serum (Small): All skill levels increased by 1 for ten seconds.]
