Chapter 707: Level One Skill Book
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ling Ran returned the liver to the patient’s abdominal cavity after slicing off the cancerous cells. He then quickly completed the subsequent steps such as suturing before he carried out the wound packing. Last but not least, he ordered Lu Wenbin to perform abdominal closure.
Lu Wenbin was rather pleasantly surprised. The way whereby abdominal closure was performed differed slightly depending on the position of the incision. And while acting as Ling Ran’s assistant, being assigned to perform abdominal closure often meant that he had the opportunity to learn even more. This was just like how in the beginning, Ling Ran often ordered Lu Wenbin to finish up M-Tang surgeries for him. In the end, Lu Wenbin became capable of performing M-Tang surgery as the chief surgeon.
Opportunities were often given one step at a time.
And Ling Ran was relatively fair in this regard. He did not give opportunities to other doctors based on their positions, age, or looks. Instead, he always gave opportunities for doctors who put on the best performance.
Even though abdominal closure was a simple procedure, Lu Wenbin excitedly got started. There was a joyous expression on his face.
The doctors who were standing around them and watching the surgery understood what Lu Wenbin was feeling very much, though. Right now, everyone knew that Ling Ran was already the best in Changxi Province when it came to hepatectomy. Besides, there was a high possibility that he would eventually become one of the best in China.
China was a huge country, and it was not in the capacity of many doctors from local tertiary Grade A hospitals to keep track of the experts in the country. Hence, being the best at a surgical method in the province was already a clear statement of his status in the country.
Even if a person were to disregard other things, the fact that Ling Ran had a say in the fund distribution of the National Natural Science Foundation of China when it came to hepatectomy was already astonishing.
Besides, Ling Ran was not even twenty-five years old yet.
Specialists never retired. They merely went somewhere else to work after they reach the age of retirement.
Based on the average lifespan of modern humans, Ling Ran would continue to be an authoritative figure when it came to hepatectomy for sixty years, which was equivalent to more than half a century. This was a very long time. A person just had to delve deeper into his imagination to picture the extent whereby Ling Ran would participate in the development of the field of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery in the future. Ling Ran might even have a say in who shall become the department director of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of various hospitals.
The doctors in the operating theater who were from other hospitals could not help but look at Lu Wenbin in unison. They were gritting their teeth so hard in jealousy that their teeth were about to break.
Meanwhile, Ling Ran turned and opened the Intermediate Treasure Chest that he had just obtained.
‘I hope that it’s a skill book.’ Ling Ran thought.
As he had not made it a point to carry out hepatectomy lately for liver cancer patients, he had not really been using the Virtual Human. He still had more than three hours of the Virtual Human left, which was more than enough. Hence, he was not in desperate need of more time.
Of course, if the system were to give him a few more hours of the Virtual Human, Ling Ran would not complain either. The Virtual Human was a really great function. Not only did it lessen his pressure when carrying out surgeries, but it also increased the patients’ survival rate and life expectancy. Unfortunately, Ling Ran did not have enough hours to utilize this function for research.
The treasure chest was silver. A skill book which was also silver floated out of the treasure chest.
Ling Ran nodded and opened the skill book.
[Level One Skill Book: Elevates a Basic Skill to Perfect Level]
If there was no one else around, Ling Ran would have praised the system out loud.
Compared to skills books that gave specific skills, Ling Ran had a deeper impression on “Level One Skill Books”.
This was how he obtained Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control, which had helped him greatly.
It was also put to good use whenever he performed hepatectomy. Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control played a huge role in allowing him to come out on top in the province and become renowned in the country for hepatectomy even though he only possessed Master Level Hepatectomy.
The most difficult and complicated part of hepatectomy was the possibility of hemorrhage. Even though barehanded bleeding control was not the best method to solve this problem, the skill gave Ling Ran considerable confidence to make braver and riskier choices.
A saying had been going around the field of medicine. “The higher the risk a doctor is willing to take, the more benefits the patients receive.”
Of course, the recipient of the benefits referred to in this saying were patients as a whole instead of individual patients.
The health of individual patients might deteriorate because of the high risks the doctor took. Sometimes, it might even end in death. However, whenever doctors took risks, there would definitely be a positive return for patients as a whole.
Truth be told, ever since the advent of the field of medicine, this had been how advancements and improvements were made.
Clinical trials of drugs consisted of four phases, and it involved a large sum of money. But no matter how a person tried to sugar-coat it, at the end of the day, clinical trials involved testing drugs using humans. Every single time this was done, there would definitely be damage to people’s health. When it came to clinical trials of drugs, the death of patients was nothing new. However, it was still something beneficial for patients as a whole.
The same went for surgery. Surgeons in the past, or even present, were always taking higher and higher risks. And because of this, patients got to receive more and more benefits.
Even though the work of surgeons was not research-based, whenever surgeons made highly risky choices, it was often not based on whether the patients could handle the risk. It was often because the patients would not receive any benefits if a highly risky choice was not made.
The relationship between doctors and patients was sometimes similar to the relationship between investors and enterprises.
It was just that when investing in medical services, instead of money, patients lost or gained their health.
For Ling Ran, ever since he possessed Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control, his capital and risk resistance capacity had increased greatly. With this skill, a surgeon was capable of performing many types of surgeries. It was just like how many investment firms were willing to invest in risky assets just because they had a huge capital. This often resulted in a high return.
As Ling Ran reminisced about the past, he flipped the page of the Level One Skill Book.
[Exposure +]
[Incision +]
[Separation +]
[Bleeding control +]
[Suturing +]
[Drainage +]
All the basic surgical skills were presented before Ling Ran, and he could immediately elevate one of these skills to Perfect Level.
For a few seconds, Ling Ran’s gaze hovered back and forth between “exposure” and “separation”.
Right now, for him, even though there was still room for improvement when it came to suturing, bleeding control, and drainage, he was already considerably skilled in these. In comparison, being better at exposure and separation would give him the most advantage.
Exposure was the most basic skills that surgeons must master. It was also the most difficult. This was because plenty of experience was required for a surgeon to know how to expose the most suitable surgical field.
Back on the ship, Lin Honghou almost cut the patient into half just to stop his hemorrhage. If Lin Honghou were to possess amazing exposure skills, he would have had no problem in finding the bleeding point.
If Lin Honghou were able to find the bleeding point, even though he could not pull off a cool maneuver and stop the hemorrhaging via barehanded bleeding control or stop the bleeding right away, as long as the incision was made at a good position, it did not matter whether a surgeon performed bleeding control in a cool or grotesque manner.
On the other hand, “separation” was also a pretty valuable skill.
It could be put to good use when performing hepatectomy in patients with or without liver cancer. It would also come in handy during most general surgeries. This was because, at the end of the day, a large part of these surgeries comprises of separating human tissues from one another.
Take the most basic cholecystectomy as an example. At the core of it, it involved separation of the gallbladder and liver. After solving the problem of adhesion, even a rookie was capable of performing the rest of cholecystectomy.
And separation was an even more valuable skill when operating on patients with liver cancer as it affected the success or failure of a surgery directly.
A person could say that by elevating any one of these six basic surgical skills, a surgeon would not only improve greatly but would also become a lot more all-rounded. This was better than mastering a new surgical method.
Ling Ran pondered carefully for a moment and decided to click on “separation”.
A list immediately appeared under [separation +].
[Separation of Subcutaneous Connective Tissues]
[Separation of Fascia and Aponeurosis]
[Separation of Tissues]
[Separation of Sacs]
This time, Ling Ran clicked on [Separation of Tissues] without thinking much.
Even though the separation of fascia and aponeurosis could come in very handy when it came to all kinds of orthopedic surgeries such as hand surgeries, arthroscopy, and Achilles tendon repair surgery, the separation of tissues was the most difficult and widely used skill.
Ling Ran would only choose the [Separation of Fascia and Aponeurosis] if he were an orthopedist who did not perform general surgeries such as those involving the liver and the spleen. Aside from this, the [Separation of Subcutaneous Connective Tissues] was probably a more suitable skill for those working in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department and other highly profitable departments. As for [Separation of Sacs], it was merely a not-so-useful skill. It was just like how sacs itself did not play an important role in the human body.
Of course, if Ling Ran did not need to make a choice and could obtain all of the skills, he would not shun any of the other skills.
Even though the skills of doctors could be divided into different levels of difficulty as well as rarity, illnesses were non-discriminatory. From another perspective, as long as he got to operate on patients, Ling Ran would not really care about what kind of surgery it was…
The silver skill book glimmered for a moment and disappeared. At the same time, Ling Ran obtained Perfect Level Separation of Tissues.
Ling Ran lowered his head to look at the operating table. When he saw that Lu Wenbin was almost done performing abdominal closure, he said to Zuo Cidian, “Can you arrange for me to operate on two more patients who need hepatectomy later? And send me their information…”
“Sure.” Zuo Cidian immediately agreed.
“Do you want to learn hepatectomy?” Ling Ran felt that Zuo Cidian had already spent a lot of time and energy on treating patients with Colles’ fracture. ‘Perhaps it’s time that he tries something new?’
However, Zuo Cidian shook his head firmly after giving it a good thought. “It’s better if I treat patients with Colles’ fracture first. After all, there are still a lot of patients who are waiting in line.”
At the same time, the system sent Ling Ran another notification. He had received another mission.
[Mission: Train a rookie]
[Mission Aim: Increase the skill level of a doctor]
[Mission Reward: Intermediate Treasure Chest]
Ling Ran could not help but arch an eyebrow. It seemed that this mission was once again triggered by Zuo Cidian’s presence. Including this one, Zuo Cidian’s presence had triggered the same mission thrice.
“Alright, go ahead and treat patients with Colles’ fracture. Call if there’s any problem.” Ling Ran did not have much to say. After all, self-improvement mostly depended on the person himself.
Zuo Cidian nodded with determination. He then left the operating theater with firm steps.
