Chapter 39: Face-Off

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Is this… Barehanded bleeding control?” Department Director Liu stood up as he spoke. He took out his reading glasses from his pocket and put them on.

He had worked all his life in the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital. Even though he had never entered the battlefield, he had participated in many drills and countless conferences regarding the army’s medical system.

When it came to the army’s medical system, both the treatment of trauma and bleeding control were extremely vital topics.

During surgeries, bleeding could be stopped by applying high-frequency electricity, hyper-frequency wave or lasers. All sorts of interventions could be carried out, and all sorts of drugs could be pumped in. There were also countless hemostatic forceps and resident doctors that could be used during the surgery.

However, on the battlefield, the most commonly used methods to stem bleeding were to apply pressure, tie limbs up with tourniquets, and spray drugs on the area of injury. Barehanded bleeding control was more like an advanced and mysterious technique, mastered only by certain people.

Most of Department Director Liu’s time was spent on studying burns, and he did not master techniques such as barehanded bleeding control. However, he was extremely interested in it.

“The bottom of the patient’s Glisson’s capsule is bleeding.…”

“The bleeding has stopped!”

“Ling Ran, get onto the gurney…”

Department Director Liu looked at the scene displayed on the projector and listened as the voices in the monitor went from shrill to leisurely. He actually felt a spark of passion stirring up in his heart.

Doctors knew other doctors the best. Any doctor would be able to imagine the entire spectacle from that grainy film.

As Department Director Liu and the others looked at the video and listened to the audio, their minds started imagining just how tense that situation had been. It would only be as tense as a battlefield.

Patients in hemorrhagic shock were typical examples of Level 1 patients. Every doctor who had worked in the Emergency Department had experienced the struggle and helplessness of having blood flow on to their hands before it fell to the ground.

In the video, Ling Ran was carried onto the gurney and pushed into the operating theatre together with the patient.

As Department Director Liu watched them move away from the camera lens, he suddenly got anxious. “Oh, my! Why didn’t the cameraman follow them? Follow them! What sort of cameraman is this?”

“A patient in the resuscitation room took this using his own mobile phone.” Huo Congjun quickly explained.

“Such a good source material, filmed so badly. Why didn’t you get someone to film this on camera? Youngsters nowadays love taking selfies or whatever you call it, right?” Department Director Liu recalled how the young nurses in his department often made various poses in front of their mobile phones.

“If you want source materials, we can film it next time. Ling Ran, have Department Director Liu and the others take a look at your research paper. It’s not like barehanded bleeding control is witchcraft. We’re about to go all out into spreading it.” Huo Congjun gulped down a mouthful of tea, soothing his throat so that he was prepared to start scolding everyone to the left and right.

Ling Ran got up and gave a copy of the material he had prepared to all the doctors present.

When Qi Zhenhai saw the video, he was still unsure about whether he could believe his eyes.

After all, the video had been circulating in their circle for a while. He was unsure whether Huo Congjun saw his comment from that day either. Like Department Director Liu, that man was never to be found on social media.

However, when he saw Ling Ran, Qi Zhenhai became rather vigilant.

The main character of the video was way too conspicuous. Moreover, Ling Ran was easily recognizable, and it was hard for Qi Zhenhai not to recognize him.

In truth, Qi Zhenhai had commented on Weibo that day because he was triggered by terms such as ‘internet celebrity doctors.’

As one of the very few young chief physicians in the country, Qi Zhenhai did not become an internet celebrity even after mingling around various social media platforms for a few years. On what grounds could a reckless doctor become an internet celebrity?

On the grounds of his appearance?

Qi Zhenhai stared at Ling Ran with a stern expression, not even sparing him a smile when he received a copy of the research paper. He only swiftly let out the breath he held, releasing all the air he held in his lungs after Ling Ran had turned and left.

He begrudgingly lowered his head to read the research paper. Qi Zhenhai thought about looking for some loopholes to gain a firm foothold in attacking Ling Ran later.

Most of the research papers out there were actually full of bullshit. They were just essays without much actual meaning.

Even if you disregarded matters such as data fraud and selective choice of samples and subjects, many of the essays were problematic in terms of their conception and direction. Logical errors were not unheard of either. It could be said that flaws could be found in most research papers out there, and this was why it was research paper authors more or less had to revise their research papers before they were published.

Qi Zhenhai’s first reaction was to find some flaws to launch a counter-attack.

He usually needed only a few minutes to read the research papers of the postgraduate students studying beneath him or the literature reviews in journals. This was the basic literacy standard of medical researchers.

Huo Congjun let everyone read the research paper for a few minutes. He then stared at Qi Zhenhai and said, “Doctor Qi, didn’t you want to know if it’s possible to perform barehanded bleeding control without a surgical field? Does this research paper grant you a clear explanation?

Qi Zhenhai was a chief physician, not the director of a department, and Huo Congjun was not even bothered to call him Chief Physician Qi.

Qi Zhenhai made the best use of his time to read the essay while replying coldly, “Department Director Huo, what do you mean?”

“Have you forgotten about what you wrote on the internet?” Huo Congjun displayed Qi Zhenhai’s comment from that day on the big screen and highlighted one of the paragraphs.

[If the video I saw today was not a staged recording, that could be considered one of the most reckless incidents I’ve seen in my life. Would it be possible to control the bleeding on a patient with your bare hands without setting up a surgical field?]

Huo Congjun said with a smile, “Haven’t you witnessed whether it’s possible?”

Qi Zhenhai chuckled, “You’re standing up for the intern, huh?”

“We have an outpatient consultation today. During consultations, we should learn from each other and solve our problems… And I would like to solve this problem for you today.” Huo Congjun pressed on aggressively, forgoing all manner of tact.

If a person regarded a hospital as a workplace, then they would find that its working environment was incredibly different to other workplaces.

The most glaring difference was that the doctors were neither cheerful like groups of civil servants, nor businesslike like employees in private sectors.

Every day, doctors alternated between restraining themselves and blowing up.

They restrained themselves when under immense pressure while serving night shifts, when scolded by senior doctors, and when reprimanded by patients…

When they could not restrain themselves anymore, they would blow up.

In the hospital, senior doctors scolding junior doctors and doctors from different departments berating one another was nothing new. In every hospital, there were even a few chief physicians who refused to see each other on the basis that a mountain could not contain two tigers.

The senior doctors would trade insults with other doctors in the city or province, or get a group of doctors in the country to mock a certain doctor together. The even senior ones could even hold international conferences and trade insults in front of colleagues from all over the world in both English and Mandarin…

It had been proven that not only was this not embarrassing, it could also illustrate the ability and spirit of a doctor. This was because weaklings could just giggle and take selfies in this sort of occasions.

Huo Chongjun and Qi Zhenhai were chief physicians. In principle, they had a highly-ranked job title that was equal to that of university lecturers. However, while university lecturers could see the world in a nonchalant manner, doctors could not and still had to scold other people.

Why? Because other people’s lives were in their hands!

Junior doctors deserved to be scolded if they carried out a treatment wrongly. They would also be scolded if their handwriting when writing the necessary documents was not tidy.

Directors and associate department directors of similar ranking would also unavoidably insult each other. They would tell you today that you cut too much of the patient’s tissue off, making it hard to come out with a prognosis, and it would affect the patient’s quality of life. Tomorrow, they would tell you that you cut too little of the patient’s tissue off, and that you did not clean the lymph thoroughly, making the probability of cancer relapsing in the patient high. The day after tomorrow, they would gather together and chastise the hospital for over-treating the patient…

It could be said that junior doctors treated listening to department directors insulting each other during department consultations as medicine for their souls, because they get to obtain materials for gossiping and alleviate mental pressure.

And it was not rare for doctors to be scolded badly by other doctors during outpatient consultations. There were as many medical experts who had grudges against one another as the number of dogs in the housing estate who had fought one another.

As a medical director of Yun Hua Hospital, the number of chief physicians Huo Congjun had insulted in his life was even more than the number of patients who had died under his hands. He did not give Qi Zhenhai a chance to defend himself and lashed out at him. “The type of people I look down on the most in life are those who accuse others without reason. The type of people I’m the most annoyed by are those who use their administrative positions to oppress others. So what if Ling Ran is an intern? Did you think that you have the capability to criticize him just because you’re a chief physician? Do you know how to perform barehanded bleeding control? When other people talk about those who have no ability and still have a lot to say, they’re referring to people like you.”

His spit was flying through the air. Crystal-clear droplets of saliva that the naked eye could discern landed on the table in front of Qi Zhenhai.

Qi Zhenhai had just been promoted to chief physician for a few years and was just starting to stand a chance to become director of a department. He had neither Huo Congjun’s experience nor Huo Congjun’s confidence. He grew angry and anxious from the scolding. “Department Director Huo, aren’t you accusing me without reason and using your rank to persecute me right now?”

Huo Congjun spat. “Haven’t you seen the research paper in black and white? Accusing you without reason? If this happened when I was younger, I would have punched you until your nose bleeds and your face swells.”

“It’s wrong to punch other people.”

Department Director Liu looked up by the side and gave out a statement to try and mediate the fight before he went back to quietly reading the research paper.

“He made unwarranted accusations at our department, so I must teach him a lesson today. Qi Zhenhai, if you were from Yun Hua Hospital, I would still let you preserve some of your dignity. But as someone from the provincial hospital’s Emergency Department, who are you to talk about medical malpractice? Have you ever witnessed medical malpractice? Do you have an idea as to what medical malpractice is?” Huo Congjun spoke with plenty of force, and his saliva droplets were even bouncing off the meeting table.

Qi Zhenhai could not help but feel slightly guilty.

He had made a casual comment on a video, but it was indeed easy to get on the doctors’ sensitive nerves by throwing the word ‘medical malpractice’ around.

In truth, he had already made the comment, and there was nothing to be done about it anymore. Qi Zhenhai was not afraid of offending Huo Congjun, but he had been caught off-guard in an unflattering posture, and the situation at hand was rather embarrassing for him.

He had been blindsided. Unable to do anything else, he lowered his head to read Ling Ran’s research paper.

After all, he was a doctor who had the qualifications to contend for the position of the director of a department. Qi Zhenhai had written quite a lot of research papers and had read even more of those. He could easily find fault with the research papers written by ordinary resident doctors or even attending physicians.

However, Ling Ran’s research paper was different.

It was a research paper written after he mastered the Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control, and the case he used was one he was directly involved with.

Most importantly, this was Ling Ran’s first proper research paper. Because of this, he did not strive for grandiosity. The content of his research paper was limited to that single case and the usage of barehanded bleeding control. A basic approach meant that the point of view was firm.

‘Barehanded Bleeding Control Without Setting Up a Surgical Field by Applying Localized Pressure During Suturing of Glisson’s Capsule’ had over one thousand words and had even been checked multiple times by Huo Congjun. How could there be obvious oversights?

If Qi Zhenhai had a few hours to properly research relevant literature, he might be able to raise some points of objection from another angle.

But only a few minutes had passed since he received the research paper. How would he be able to come up with any arguments?

But Huo Congjun did not give him a chance. He continued lashing out at the bowed head, and he was doing so happily.

He was renowned in Yun Hua’s medical scene for being a critic and had destroyed countless ‘international’ conferences. Why would he restrain himself during an outpatient consultation?

In the end, once he saw Ling Ran’s author introduction, Qi Zhenhai decided to act recklessly, because he no longer had anything to lose, and said, “Barehanded bleeding control can be carried out. But are you supposed to let a medical intern perform barehanded bleeding control? I was putting it lightly when I said that it was a medical malpractice. All of you were acting with utter disregard for human life.”

“Everyone knows how to put on a hat. Why can’t medical interns perform barehanded bleeding control? Who set this rule? Is letting patients die on the gurney your only talent?”

“I watched the video. There was enough time to perform an exploratory laparotomy.”

“You dare to speak after only watching the video? I’ll give you ten cases. Why don’t you give each of them a remote diagnosis?” Huo Congjun was scornful. A physical examination was an extremely vital step for doctors in making a diagnosis. In short, contact with the patient was a must before a major diagnosis was made. That was also the reason why errors often occurred when remote diagnoses were carried out.

Naturally, Qi Zhenhai did not dare to accept the challenge. He snorted a few times and said, “The fact that there wasn’t a mistake that one time doesn’t mean that all of you handled it correctly. It’s true that medical interns are like newborn calves who aren’t afraid of tigers. When a medical intern acts like that, the senior doctors can’t just let him do as he likes, right?”

“Judging from your faculty of judgment, I don’t think you’re even as good as a medical intern.”

“What’s there to compare between me and a medical intern?” Qi Zhenhai twisted his lips.

“I don’t think you’re comparable to him either.” Huo Congjun rested his hands on the table.

“I don’t compare myself to him.” Qi Zhenhai rested his hands on the table, too.

“You’re not even comparable to an intern.” Huo Congjun leaned forward.

“There’s no need for me to compare.” Qi Zhenhai also leaned forward, giving Huo Congjun tit for tat.

“You…”

“I…”

Everyone watched in terror as both of them inched closer to each other. Their reflections had fully occupied each other’s eyes, and their lips were almost meeting.

“Well… Why don’t we let the author of the research paper speak?” Department Director Liu really could not take it anymore.

“Ling Ran, you speak.”

Huo Congjun glanced at Qi Zhenhai. He straightened his body in an extremely provocative manner.

Qi Zhenhai was unwilling to back down. He wiped his lips with force and straightened his body too, sucking his tummy in.

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