Chapter 738: Consultation
Ling Ran cut open the patient’s abdomen, layer by layer. His movements were nimble — he was neither fast nor slow.
After carrying out hepatectomy for so many patients, Ling Ran was so familiar with the surgery that his hands were on autopilot. This was especially true when it came to the beginning of the surgery. As long as there were no obvious abnormalities to the patient’s anatomical structure, he could go all the way with his eyes closed.
Regardless of which hospital a doctor worked in, if he had carried out hepatectomy for more than five hundred patients, it was considered a tremendously large number. Only top-class specialists working in the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery could achieve this, and it was usually hard for chief physicians working in the General Surgery Department to hit this number.
The advantage that this amount of experience brought about was self-evident.
Truth be told, humans were only capable of putting more thought into what they were doing when they did not have to exert brain power while doing something. This was just like how only people who were extremely skilled in maneuvering a car could give adequate consideration to the condition of the road. Unskilled drivers had limited brain bandwidth to spare when it came to driving, and all their brain power went to things like differentiating between the accelerator, the brakes, and other things.
“He made a mercedes incision on the upper abdomen.” Michelsen, the old man whose face occupied the top right corner of the screen immediately recognized the incision Ling Ran made. He smiled and continued. “This is the most commonly used incision to expose the right lobe of the liver. The incision is made below the bilateral rib and is extended to the midpoint of the abdomen. I preferred this operative route when I was young too, and I have written quite a few research papers about it.”
“We didn’t actually have to be in such a hurry. We could have done a more detailed consultation. Michelsen is very experienced when it comes to the mercedes incision. Wouldn’t it be better if we had discussed things thoroughly before operating on the patient?” Actually, doctors participating in remote consultations were not usually given much time to talk. However, it was inevitable that they would feel unhappy as Ling Ran did not reach a consensus with them before he started operating on the patient.
They often provided remote consultation to doctors from third world countries, and most of the time, they had to advise those doctors, step-by-step. Doctors who were under their guidance usually respected them a lot. Most of the time, those doctors would do exactly what they said.
Ling Ran, though, operated on the patient without heeding the doctors’ words. Ever since he was young, he was used to filtering out the voices of people around him. For example, he only paid attention to the things said by the doctors participating in the remote consultation if they were useful, and let the other voices drift past his ears.
Actually, Ling Ran was hardly interested in the consultation itself.
Not only did he possess Master Level Hepatectomy, but he could also be considered above average among those with Master Level Hepatectomy. Moreover, he had other auxiliary skills such as the Virtual Human. Truth be told, whether a consensus was reached during the consultation made no difference to him.
At the end of the day, he was the one operating on the patient. The doctors participating in the consultation did not know Ling Ran at all, and it was almost impossible that the surgery would go well if Ling Ran were to operate on the patient according to the consensus reached during the consultation.
This was the reason why surgeons often acted alone.
In reality, all Michelsen and the others could do was talk. It was not like they could jump out of the screen and punch Ling Ran for not listening to them.
Lu Wenbin was even more annoyed by the foreigners than Ling Ran. As he operated the retractor, he could not help but mock them. “Foreigners are really annoying. Those doctors are using bombastic words for no reason at all. There’s more than ten letters of the alphabet in all the words they’re using. Do they really expect us to understand what they’re saying? Fine, they are probably showing off. Can’t they use simpler words?”
Lloyd, who was standing beside Lu Wenbin and watching the surgery, suddenly felt like sneezing. He suspected that Lu Wenbin was talking about him, so he turned to look at Lu Wenbin and asked amicably, “Doctor Lu, are you guys having a discussion about the surgery?”
“No.” Lu Wenbin gave a short and simple answer. He then turned and said scornfully. “Foreigners never put much thought into naming their kids either. What kind of name is Lao Ai? If his name were to appear in a textbook in our country, students would laugh so hard that they shit their pants.”
Yu Yuan, who was standing opposite him, started laughing. The young nurses in the operating theater could not help but burst out laughing too.
When it came to historical figures, plenty of people nowadays did not know about Lord Chunsen. [1] However, it was uncommon for people not to know who Lao Ai was. After all, there were many miraculous things about him that other people could not help but feel envious over.
Lloyd, who was not aware that there was something wrong with his name, asked with furrowed eyebrows, “Doctor Lu, I am pretty sure that I heard my name when you were talking just now.”
Several people in the operating theater burst out laughing.
Lu Wenbin coughed a few times and said with a smile, “Actually, no. I merely said something that sounds similar.”
Lu Wenbin continued by explaining how there were many words that sounded the same but had different meanings in Mandarin.
He had nothing much to do anyway, as operating the retractor was not really something that required skills. Chatting to a foreigner in English made Lu Wenbin feel good about himself.
After the two of them were done talking, Yu Yuan said slowly, “Doctor Lu, are you sure that this foreigner doesn’t know Mandarin? I’m pretty sure that he was calling you Doctor Donkey.” [1]
Lu Wenbin froze for a moment. He then turned and started laughing. “Ah, what to do, that’s the problem with homophones. I’ll just let him call me a donkey. There’s nothing wrong with a man who’s as hardworking as a donkey…”
As they spoke, Ling Ran had completely exposed the right lobe of the patient’s liver.
The doctors from Anderson Cancer Center on the screen seemed slightly more optimistic about the surgery.
“He exposed the liver pretty well.”
“He’s considered a pretty excellent surgeon.”
“The tumor is already visible. I hope that the degree of differentiation is on the high side.”
The fact that the doctors participating in the remote consultation did not leave meant that they attached a lot of importance to the surgery, as they would have left right after the consultation otherwise.
Ling Ran operated on the patient step by step according to what he had planned earlier. He did not get anything wrong at all.
He had already done the same thing before the surgery.
Ling Ran had already created a pretty well-thought out plan when he practiced using the Virtual Human earlier. Moreover, he was able to simulate the maneuvers to a very great extent.
Ling Ran only spoke before he carried out each step.
“I’m about to get started on the hepatic portal.”
“The gallbladder bed is already separated from the gallbladder.”
“The inferior vena cava is exposed.”
On the screen, the doctors participating in the remote consultation slowly did not feel like speaking anymore. This was especially true when it came to Michelsen who kept giving reminders to Ling Ran. He did not bother doing it anymore.
If a person were to look at the details, there was actually nothing superior about Ling Ran’s maneuver. This was because he never stopped trying to find ways to bypass or avoid risky steps. And since he did not make any risky moves, the surgery seemed plain and unremarkable.
If ordinary doctors were to watch this surgery, they would probably be criticizing Ling Ran internally right now.
But all the doctors who were participating in the remote consultation knew why things were so effortless for Ling Ran.
Foreigners know nothing about the concept of tackling complicated problems in a very easy manner. However, they knew how arduous it was to simplify a difficult step.
“His judgment is astonishing!”
Finally, Doctor Michelsen, who was on the top right corner of the screen, said something.
The three other doctors on the screen nodded a little.
“Right hepatectomy is a little harder than left hepatectomy to begin with.”
“The way things are going now, the patient will probably be alright.”
“I look forward to the prognosis quite a lot. Hm… I have something I need to attend to. Call me if you need me.” One of the doctors left.
The three other doctors said nothing as they stared at the screen.
‘Such a surgery is very hard to come by. It wouldn’t do you any harm to finish watching it, right?’
