Great Doctor Ling Ran

Ling Ran inspected the wards at six o’clock in the morning.

After he left Yun Hua Hospital for half a month, the extra beds in the Emergency Department were returned. Some beds in the wards were even emptied.

The greatest contributor to the emptied beds were the patients who received M-Tang technique surgery. Most of them had been discharged from the hospital and were only required to return for regular follow-up examinations.

Patients who had their fingers replanted had also been discharged from the hospital one after another. They needed to perform long-term exercises if they wanted to use their fingers normally, but they did not have to remain in Yun Hua Hospital.

Ling Ran touched a snow-white sheet on one of the empty sickbeds. He looked happy, and he did some self-reflection in his heart, ‘I didn’t realize the importance of sickbeds before. I didn’t cherish them enough. Now, I won’t be so reckless anymore…’

Moans traveled into his ears, and they sounded like someone calling out to something.

“Is our Emergency Department haunted as well?” Ling Ran curiously asked Ma Yanlin, who was standing next to him.

Lu Wenbin had been on a business trip for several days. He was given mandatory leave by Huo Congjun for those few days. Huo Congjun had not been very busy recently, and there was nothing special to do. Hence, he made the resident doctors utilize their leaves in lieu. Otherwise, things would become awkward if they wanted to take leaves when the department got busy.

Ma Yanlin was a houseman, and he would be going home in a few days. He could not even take any leaves in lieu. His one month of working usually involved him staying up late for overtime at night, and he could only go back and clear his sleep debt the next day. Today, he had woken up at five in the morning. He was so sleepy that he kept yawning non-stop. He could not hear Ling Ran’s question. He just laughed and said, “What do you mean haunted?”

“When I was in school, I often heard sounds of tables being moved in the anatomy building at night and people shouting like this,” Ling Ran replied very carefully and provided as much information as possible.

Ma Yanlin came to his senses and looked at the young nurses, who joined them while they pranced about. He felt a chill run down his spine.

The moans became clearer in the dark corridor.

“Did your school finally solve the mystery?” A young nurse approached Ling Ran, and she was prepared to hug him if he told another scary story.

“You mean the sounds from the anatomy building?” Ling Ran nodded and said, “Some of the tables were broken and some were not.”

“Some?”

“Yes. Some of the sounds came from a few seniors who were feeling too sleepy while doing revision for their National Postgraduate Entrance Examination. They roared to wake themselves up. Other seniors roared together to wake themselves up while they revised together. Some even hung out in the anatomy building at night alone, and they regretted it so they screamed desperately…” Ling Ran answered naturally.

The young nurse was stunned. “Doctor Ling… you know a lot of stuff.”

“Well, I also often revise in the anatomy building. The air-conditioning there is very powerful.”

The young nurse felt a gush of cool air blow against her.

Ma Yanlin giggled. “No one constantly studies in our hospital…”

“Let’s go take a look.” Ling Ran raised his leg and started to walk in the direction of the sound. After a short distance, he heard some Mandarin words intermingled with the moans, “My leg… Arghh… my leg…”

“That’s the patient who had his leg amputated yesterday.” Ma Yanlin breathed a long sigh of relief.

Ling Ran sternly said, “It could also be a ghost who lost his leg.”

“Or a ghost that has come for the life of the man who lost his leg.” A faint sigh accompanied by a vague light traveled into their ears and appeared in their line of sight.

The young nurse was so scared that she squeaked and fixed her eyes on the person who spoke. It was a policeman who was hiding in the corner while smoking.

“This building is a non-smoking area!” The young nurse’s yell covered the moans from the man who had his leg amputated.

The policeman, in his thirties, was stunned by the nurse’s yelling. He slowly threw away the cigarette butt.

Ling Ran continued to walk forward until he entered an isolated intensive care unit.

The patient, who just had his leg amputated the day before, was holding his own leg and screaming non-stop.

The policeman in the room felt agitated, gloomy, and sleepy. He stared at the patient with a cup of strong tea in his hand.

“Ward rounds?” The policeman recognized Doctor Ling Ran, but he was suspicious of Ma Yanlin.

Ling Ran stood at the door and said, “Just curious.”

Without waiting for the police to speak, Ma Yanlin said in astonishment, “Aren’t we doing ward rounds?”

“Do you know how to make the prognosis for amputated thighs?” Ling Ran asked Ma Yanlin.

“Huh, you don’t?” Ma Yanlin looked at Ling Ran with surprise.

Ling Ran answered very honestly, “Of course I don’t, yesterday was my first time.”

“Oh yeah, you were the first assistant for the chief surgeon from the Orthopedics Department.” Ma Yanlin smacked his lips, and he could not help but feel envious of Ling Ran’s treatment in the Emergency Department again. Limb amputations in the Orthopedics Department were considered major surgeries. Even though the first assistant was really just there as a pretense, it was actually a rare experience. The surgeries that orthopedic surgeons were least willing to perform were amputations. Avoiding amputations was the trendiest thing to do among orthopedic surgeons. However, how could orthopedic surgeons who had never performed amputations make the right judgment to avoid amputation?

The three of them turned and left the ward, continuing their ward rounds.

The moans in the room stopped inexplicably.

Ling Ran observed room after room, and most of the patients he met were patients who had received finger replantations. There were also patients with more than two fingers severed.

Most of the patients and their family members who met Ling Ran had a good attitude.

As the saying went, prolonged sickness made a patient a good doctor. Patients or family members who had lived in the hospital for more than a month developed a pretty good judgment of their condition and recovery. Everyone had a basic concept of whether Ling Ran’s surgery was good or not.

Surgeries performed by ordinary doctors were roughly of the same level, but there was no one who could perform finger replantations perfectly in Yun Hua Hospital.

Ling Ran received ten Sincere Gratitude Treasure Chests in one shot.

In Ling Ran’s memories, only the patient who smoked and ended up having his finger amputated gave him two Sincere Gratitude Treasure Chests. That patient had basically received two surgeries.

Currently, less than fifty patients had not given him Sincere Gratitude Treasure Chests among those who had yet to be discharged. Receiving ten treasure chests was already a very high percentage for him.

The only problem was, he had previously accumulated eleven treasure chests.

Eleven plus ten equaled twenty-one. There was one extra treasure chest.

“Open all of them.” Ling Ran returned to the office, closed his eyes, and did not look as the chests were opened.

After a ray of light shone, Ling Ran opened his eyes again, and he saw that there were two Single Skill Books.

“Open them.” Ling Ran grabbed the nineteen bottles of Energy Serums he received.

Getting two skill books in one go was still very new to him.

Ling Ran could not help but sum up his experience. ‘Do I have to perform thigh amputations before I can get more skills books?’

Under the silver light, two Single Skill Books were displayed in front of Ling Ran.

[Skill Branch obtained: Intradermal Suture Technique (Master Level)]

[Skill Branch obtained: Buried Subcuticular Heavy Reinforcing Suture (Master Level)]

Ling Ran touched his cheek silently.

Both skills were used for closing wounds, and both were to make the wounds look nice.

The intradermal suture technique was as its name implied. It was a suture method, in which the thread was placed in the lower dermis. No punctures from the needle would be seen, and it reduced the chances of scars being formed. Doctor Miao, who was hired by Lower Groove Clinic, was skilled at such sutures, and he had a good reputation for using cosmetic suture techniques. Hence, he often received patients from Golden Deer Health Services Pte Ltd.

The buried subcuticular heavy reinforcing suture was also dedicated to reducing the formation of scars to the best of its abilities. It was designed to deal with wounds with greater tension. In short, it was a suture that aimed to heal the wound as much as possible and reduce the cracking of scars after surgery.

In large-scale tertiary grade A general hospitals, intradermal sutures and buried subcuticular heavy reinforcing sutures were methods that many doctors knew, yet were reluctant to adopt. Since the strength of the sutures was low, they were the type of sutures that reduced scarring by reducing the strength of the stitches. So, they were not embraced by doctors who treated injuries.

Relatively speaking, the Department of Plastic Surgery or the Plastic Surgery Center would apply those two methods frequently.

‘The next time I perform amputations, I may be able to use the buried subcuticular heavy reinforcing suture,’ Ling Ran thought. ‘Then the amputated legs could look better.’