Great Doctor Ling Ran

Lu Wenbin’s gaze traced after the path of Ling Ran’s scalpel.

After Ling Ran sliced the skin open and started moving the scalpel downwards. More and more layers of yellow adipose tissue was exposed.

If Professor Huang had not given them a reminder beforehand, Lu Wenbin would have said something sarcastic by now.

To doctors, not only were fat bellies an obstacle during surgeries, but the fat also made it hard for incisions to be made.

“There’s blood seeping out.” Lu Wenbin reminded Ling Ran in a hushed tone. He wore a troubled expression as he asked, “Should we stop it with an endotherm knife?”

“There’s no need for that. Give me a gauze.” Ling Ran extended his hand and asked for a gauze. He then carried out bleeding control by applying pressure on where the blood was seeping out.

Professor Huang was standing beside the operating table. He watched as Ling Ran performed bleeding control with the gauze and nodded silently in approval. He said to Lu Wenbin, “The use of endotherm knife may cause the liquefaction of adipose cells, and it’ll make postoperative recovery more difficult. You should use a gauze to stop bleeding whenever you can, as it’ll make things easier after the surgery.”

Even though he sounded like he was talking to Lu Wenbin, he actually wanted the members of the Mei family who were watching the surgery from outside the operating theater to hear what he said.

Selecting Ling Ran for this surgery was not an easy choice for Professor Huang either.

If Professor Huang were a little more shameless and unethical, he could have made his life a lot easier by choosing an influential and renowned doctor.

By choosing Ling Ran, Professor Huang had no choice but to repeatedly sing Ling Ran’s praises.

Despite all odds, Professor Huang was resolute in choosing Ling Ran who was highly skilled in hepatectomy, had a high success rate, and could ensure good prognosis.

Because of this, Professor Huang was under pressure from various parties, especially the members of the Mei family, who doubted Ling Ran’s abilities. All of them, from direct family members and close relatives to distant relatives and Elder Mei’s subordinates, never once doubted Ling Ran’s abilities.

Professor Huang was only able to remain unfazed despite the pressure because he had been Elder Mei’s family doctor for many years and had gained Elder Mei’s trust, and because he was extremely confident in his decision.

But Professor Huang still wanted to help the members of the Mei family relax during the process of the surgery.

For the family members of patients, the time period before surgery and during surgery were two entirely different concepts.

This might be due to the workings of the human brain. Before the surgery began, even when the patient had already been wheeled into the operating theater, as long as the doctor had not made the incision, the patient’s family member would feel that there’s still room for choice and the possibility of the surgery not being carried out.

However, after anesthetics were administered and an incision had been made on the patient’s abdomen, the horror that came with watching a family member being operated on would immediately heighten.

All kinds of “what ifs” and possibilities would immediately fill up the minds of the patient’s family members.

Even though Elder Mei’s eldest daughter had been through all kinds of emergency situations, she could not help but tear up as she watched her father, whose eyes were tightly shut, through the big screen.

“Thank God we didn’t ask mom to come over,” Elder Mei’s eldest daughter said as she wiped her tears.

Mei Tiangui hummed softly. He then looked at his phone and said, “We have already found dad the best doctors and made the best choice. God always keeps the good out of harm’s way.”

“So, now you believe in God too?” Elder Mei’s oldest daughter gave Mei Tiangui a sidelong glance

Mei Tiangui furrowed his eyebrows, and he looked so fierce that his face, which already looked fierce to begin with since he was a member of the Mei family, seemed to have frozen over. The people beside him immediately lowered their heads when they saw this.

Doctor Jin coughed a few times and said, “For Elder Mei’s surgery, the first risk is the making of the incision. Looking at the way things are going right now, there shouldn’t be any problem. Doctor Ling is pretty skilled at bleeding control.”

Even though he had no particular admiration for this young man called Ling Ran, Doctor Jin really could not find any flaws in Ling Ran’s maneuvers, especially when it came to bleeding control. Doctor Jin had seen the same when he had observed other surgeries Ling Ran carried out, and this was one of the things about Ling Ran that he secretly admired, even if only a little.

Mei Tiangui glanced at the screen and said, “By this, do you mean that the surgery has been going smoothly so far?”

“Yeah,” Doctor Jin said crisply, “Next up would be laparotomy, with the exposure of an adequate surgical field being the aim. Surgical field means what the surgeons could see during the surgery. As Elder Mei is pretty plump, the process wouldn’t be very easy…”

“Adjust the lamp a little. Now, we’re going to interrupt the blood flow of the hepatic portal vein…”

Doctor Jin froze for a moment before he nodded and said, “It seems like Doctor Ling is done with the laparotomy. Hm, this means that the first stage of the surgery went smoothly. And it’s considered extremely quick too. Just like what the chief surgeon just said, the most important thing that has to be done next is to interrupt the blood flow. As the chief surgeon chose the hepatic portal vein, it would be quite a difficult endeavour. There’re a few methods, and each has their pros and cons. As doctors, the only thing we can do is to choose the method with the most pros and the least cons…”

“The blood flow is interrupted already. Start the stopwatch.” Ling Ran’s voice rang out from behind them again.

Doctor Jin could not help but turn to look at the big screen behind him.

Through the panoramic lens, he could see that Ling Ran had started operating on the exposed liver.

Doctor Jin gasped a little and glanced at his watch without being aware of it.

Ling Ran was carrying out the surgery at almost the same speed as he did during his other surgeries that Doctor Jin had watched.

Doctor Jin lowered his head and adjusted his glasses to mask his astonishment.

Even for the same types of surgeries, the difficulty level varied from patient to patient. Even though carrying out the same type of surgery for different patients at almost the same speed sounded simple, from the perspective of doctors, this meant that Ling Ran had attained complete mastery of the said surgical method.

Doctor Jin then recalled the way Ling Ran operated before this and suddenly had the realization that Ling Ran no longer had to cater his maneuvers to the patients he was performing on. Instead, he had entered a zone where he can manipulate a patient’s condition to what he was used to…

In other words, Ling Ran had attained the ability to completely control the rhythm of all patients who required this sort of surgery.

Even though the surgery today was relatively difficult, he did not reduce his pace. He carried out the surgery at the same pace as he did during less difficult surgeries. This meant that this was his favourite pace when it came to hepatectomies, and he had totally mastered this surgical method.

Of course, Doctor Jin’s perception of “mastery” was not the type where he expected Ling Ran to score ninety-eight out of a hundred marks for hepatectomy.

As a patient lay on the operating table, he definitely would not expect the surgeon’s best performance to be one that could score him ninety-eight marks.

It was the same with Elder Mei. He definitely did not expect Ling Ran to put on a performance that would score him ninety-eight marks either.

“Doctor Jin, is there something wrong?” Elder Mei’s eldest daughter turned to look at Doctor Jin with unease.

“No, Doctor Ling is doing pretty well.” Doctor Jin quickly raised his head and said, “Hmm, the main thing about Elder Mei is that he had suffered from liver problems for a relatively long time. As his hepatolithiasis has been developing for years, it has to be dealt with carefully. For example, one of the indicators in the removal of the stones though choledochoscopy is in the amount of leftover stones. The aim would be to take out as many stones as possible, but it’s impossible to remove all of them. This might take a longer time.”

“Alright, we should have taken out most of the stones…” Ling Ran’s voice rang out again.

As all the doctors knew that they were being filmed and that the people outside could hear them, they tried their best to remain silent. This was why Ling Ran’s orders sounded especially clear.

Of course, Ling Ran liked this sort of operating theater the most.

Doctor Jin was not so easily convinced. He looked at the screen in shock and had an extremely astonished expression. “He’s done removing the stones just like this?”

“Is something wrong?” Mei Tiangui furrowed his eyebrows.

“No…” Doctor Jin shook his head solemnly.

He suddenly recalled the time he used to play Go when he was young. He was unbeatable in his school and the Go club he went to. He also enjoyed pretty good results when he participated in amateur competitions in his city. One day, he encountered a professional Go player who had just started his career…

Even though there was nothing special about the other party’s stance, he tore all the amateur Go players to shreds.

“Alright, I’m done. I’m going to carry out bleeding control now. Ma Yanlin, continue retracting for a few more minutes. The liver is a little brittle. Professor Huang, after this, you have to ask Elder Mei to continue losing weight.” Ling Ran was working with his head lowered. He explained things in detail for the sake of the members of the Mei family outside.

Professor Huang hummed to express that he had agreed to take the order with a smile, and those who were watching the big screen could see how relaxed he looked.

Mei Tiangui sensed something and quickly asked, “How’s the situation now?”

“The surgery is basically a success,” Doctor Jin said hesitantly.

“A success? He’s done? He’s done just like this?” Mei Tiangui asked one question after another. He was extremely surprised.

Doctor Jin nodded a little. “Yes, he’s done.”

“And there’s no problem?”

“Based on the situation right now, no.” Doctor Jin let out a deep breath.

“Isn’t this… a pretty major surgery?”

“Yes, it’s just like the friendly matches NBA players participate in during their free time.” Doctor Jin wanted to use the professional Go player as a metaphor, but he did not as it might confuse the members of the Mei family. He then sighed internally.

This was not his first time encountering an excellent surgeon. The more excellent surgeons he encountered, the more convinced he was that being a family doctor was a good decision.

“Wash the area with more saline than usual and aspirate. Lu Wenbin, you do it.” Ling Ran exercised his wrists, and a few clusters of adipose cells as well as fat fell off his hands in the process. He then said, “Get me a new pair of gloves.”

Professor Huang quickly said, “Doctor Ling, please perform abdominal closure by yourself.”

“Alright.” Ling Ran was about to do so, anyway. It was not easy to close the abdomen of a plump person, and it would be quite challenging for Lu Wenbin and the others.