Great Doctor Ling Ran

“The operating theater is getting a little too congested. If you’re not from a related department, please wait outside for a while.” After watching Ling Ran work for a while, Department Director Huo became calmer, but his spirit also became even more excited. Hence, he began picking on his surroundings.

They should have limited the number of people in the laminar flow operating theater they were using, anyway. However, doctors simply did not tend to act according to rules.

Now that Department Director Huo had spoken, the resident doctors from other departments who came here to take over work—should the opportunity arise—immediately vacated the area.

While they enjoyed watching Zhao Leyi make a fool of himself, they absolutely did not dare to go against the director of a department, especially when it was the infamous Rebuker Huo Conjun.

The few doctors from other departments obediently left the operating theater. Huo Conjun stretched his body comfortably, grabbed the anesthetist’s chair, and sat down.

Su Jiafu, the anesthetist, was short and weak. At first, he had only stood up to look over the patient upon seeing Department Director Huo arrive. It was an act to display his apparent diligence. He had not expected even his chair to be taken away.

At that moment, Su Jiafu saw Department Director Huo gently lifting his chin three times.

He immediately started putting his logical thinking to work, which scored him around six hundred points in his college entrance examination. ‘If a person lifts his chin once, it’s because of an itch. If that same person lifts his chin twice, it’s to greet someone. If the person lifts his chin thrice…’

“I’m going out for a while.” Su Jiafu nimbly stepped through the airtight access door and left the operating theater without even looking back.

Anesthetists often roamed between different operating theaters. Sometimes, it was because there were not enough of them to go around, leaving no choice except to have one anesthetist to manage multiple operating theaters. At other times, it was purely because they were bored.

Instruments in modern hospitals were highly automated. Instruments that automatically monitor vital signs, adjusted the dosage of IV drips and so on were already very common in secondary grade B hospitals. Besides, chief surgeons, first assistant surgeons, and nurses who would automatically shout things like “Skelaxin”, “blood pressure” and “heart rate” came with their uses. An anesthetist would be able to fulfill most of his duties simply by not wearing earphones and listening to various calls from instruments and doctors.

The great invention that truly kept the anesthetists in the operating theaters was the mobile phone. Before this, anesthetists, bored of reading theses and novels and free of the worry of upcoming exams—for the time being—often gathered in the corner of an operating theater and played games such as chess and fighting the landlord[1]. They would then go to the operating theater of the anesthetist who had emerged victorious. There were no cases of anesthetists playing mahjong yet.

Department Director Huo watched the doors of the operating theater swing shut. He cleared his throat and said, “Alright, we are only surrounded by members of our own department now.”

The doctors and nurses were staff members of the department who received performance-related pay from the department and followed the department heads’ orders. On the other hand, anesthetists belonged to the Department of Anesthesiology, just like man-made hip joints—not a natural part of the person’s body.

“I’m calling a meeting now.” Even though he was only leading dozens of people and they were not wielding guns, Department Director Huo still had exuded great leadership over his people.

Zhao Leyi and Ling Ran went on with the surgery.

Zhao Leyi had participated in many such ‘small meetings,’ and knew that he did not need to stop. Ling Ran was simply unconcerned. He had always been conscientious at work and would be neither overcautious and indecisive, nor raise his head to look around. He would only try his best to do whatever he was tasked with.

Huo Congjun’s voice rang in a leisurely manner. “Ling Ran, first of all, I’m going to have to call you out on this. Take a look at how you acted on your own accord, with no regard for discipline. Twice. Do you know how grave the consequences could be?”

Before Ling Ran could reply, Huo Congjun went on sternly. “If this were to happen in another hospital, and other doctors were to deal with it according to official procedure, forget about just having a tainted record, you can kiss goodbye to your graduation certificate!”

Zhao Leyi stole a glance at Ling Ran, feeling slightly pleased that Ling Ran was reprimanded.

Ling Ran was carefully looping the suture around a tendon. His focus and earnest intent were like that of a child making loops in a park.

The nurse in charge of handling machines and equipment moved in a similarly quick, light fashion. She looked at Ling Ran as if wishing that she could steal him away to a quiet corner and claim an autograph.

The angel and devil inside Zhao Leyi’s mind had almost staged an insurrection.

“All in all, you have administered treatment against medical advice twice, you must take this as a warning.” Huo Congjun continued sternly. “Ling Ran, it’s still your internship period right now, but even though the purpose of an internship is for you to learn through practice, you’ll have to be punished for those severe offenses. Do you accept this?

“Yes.” Ling Ran naturally accepted the fact that he had to be punished after committing offenses, while also admitting his mistakes. This was how he got through his student life. As Ling Ran spoke, the needle holder in his hand remained as firm as ever.

Huo Congjun deliberately paused for a few seconds before he said, “In light of the fact that you bent the rules when performing treatment twice—which is a serious offence—in less than a month, I will have the Medical Education Department extend your internship period in the Emergency Department. Your total internship time would also have to be longer than any other intern. Do you have any objections?”

“No.” Ling Ran was looking at the patient’s hand, his head lowered. His posture was quite ordinary, similar to any other doctor in the operating theater. However, it was particularly pleasing to the eyes.

Huo Congjun hummed in satisfaction and said, “That’s it. Now, for the second matter…”

“Department director?” Zhao Leyi felt as if he was about to explode.

‘Could this be counted as Huo Congjun raising the plank up high up, as if he was about to strike a naughty student as punishment, only to gently lower it? Ha! As if! Huo Congjun had indeed raised the plank, but he did not even lower it!

‘An extension of internship period? What sort of punishment is this? Obviously, Huo Congjun wants to keep him in the Emergency Department.’

Huo Congjun ignored Zhao Leyi and waved his hand slightly. He continued, “I asked the head nurse to look through the records. In the past three months, the Emergency Department had transferred around thirty patients with flexor tendon injuries to the Hand Surgery Department. This is equivalent to one case for every three days. This is not a small number.”

Huo Congjun looked at Ling Ran and said, “Do you still want to perform surgeries using the M-Tang technique?”

Ling Ran lifted his head and asked, “Can I?”

“If this surgery goes well, you can just do it with the authorization of an attending physician next time.” Huo Congjun flashed a smile typical to that of a department director’s before turning to Zhao Leyi and the others. “Surgeries for flexor tendon injuries can either be big or small. If we do it for some time, we should have handled quite a lot of cases and have them recorded under our belts.”

Zhao Leyi suddenly calmed down.

Yes, his patient was receiving surgery. Surgery that used the M-Tang technique on his Zone II flexor tendon.

No man’s land!

Sure, doctors who could perform surgeries on Zone II flexor tendons were not unheard of. But they were highly uncommon when compared to the number of doctors who could operate on other parts of the body. Right now, in Yun Hua Hospital, the top hospital in the Changxi Province, there was only one person who could operate on that part of the body!

Ten cases of surgeries performed using the M-Tang technique every month in the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital?

This was not a Level 1 or Level 2 surgery like appendectomies or caesarean sections. It was a very high-ranking surgery, even by the standards of Yun Hua Hospital. If this were to be carried out, this sentence could be added to the Emergency Department’s year-end summary: The Emergency Department strove hard to perform a new kind of treatment and performed more than 120 cases of surgery using the M-Tang technique throughout the year, creating a new record in the country’s emergency medicine scene…

Perhaps, half of Huo Congjun’s dream of establishing a subsidiary Department of Surgery could be achieved.

Zhao Leyi wanted to tell him that they did not even know the patient’s condition right then. They could not even determine his upcoming prognosis either. Something urged him to attempt telling Huo Congjun that they might be pushing the boundaries if the Emergency Department attempted this sort of surgery.

But Zhao Leyi knew better than to actually mention it. He could also guess that Huo Congjun would never listen to him.

They could always look at the patient’s prognosis later. In the worst case scenario, they could just screen patients according to Ling Ran’s mastery of the M-Tang technique and reduce the number of cases. As for their boundaries… All the hospitals with large Emergency Departments were constantly pushing theirs. This was almost common practice. The Department of Orthopaedics was a hotspot when it came to other surgeons from other departments snatching their surgeries, anyway. After all, everyone knew that all the doctors in the Department of Orthopaedics were wealthy.

‘If we really managed to establish a larger Emergency Department!

‘If we really managed to establish a larger Emergency Department…’

In spite of himself, a scene started playing out in Zhao Leyi’s mind. He pictured his wife loftily swiping her credit card to purchase a handbag in the LV store, and still having enough money left to buy him two 150 RMB T-shirts from the global trade retail store at the square beside the LV store.

As he thought about that, he was so touched that his eyes glistened with tears!

Translator’s note:

[1] A card game under the genre of shedding and gambling. It is one of the most popular card games played in China. (Source: wikipedia)

[2] A flat ruler with a widened end, formerly used in China to beat children.