Chapter 548: Difficulty

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Qiu Zhongren wore an anxious expression.

Doctors were extremely reluctant when it came to asking someone to save their as*ses. But sometimes, they were left without a choice.

A doctor would have a very hard time asking another doctor to save his a*s. The best case scenario would be when he encountered a doctor who merely had a bad temper, as that doctor would just throw him some vulgarities and get things over with. Some of the more barbaric doctors would agree to save his a*s before proceeding to scold him throughout the surgery. And when this happened, he had no choice but to swallow all his frustrations.

If a doctor could not endure this kind of shame or failed to get another doctor to save his a*s, his patient might die on the operating table.

If that were to happen, the chief surgeon would naturally be on the receiving end of plenty of blame. If the patient died because of a mistake the chief surgeon made during the surgery, he might get into a lot of trouble with his superiors, the patient’s family members, and the court.

As for the doctors who refused to save the chief surgeon’s a*s, he would at most be cursed to death by the chief surgeon.

Doctors were under no obligation to save other doctors’ a*ses.

Nine out of ten of the doctors from the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of Yun Hua Hospital would not dare take over this case. Afterall, hemorrhage in a patient with cirrhosis was not something to be taken lightly.

Even He Yuanzheng would have to think thoroughly about it before coming to a decision.

In the past, since Qiu Zhongren and the others had no choice, they could only wait for doctors like He Yuanzheng to think things through before coming to a decision. There was nothing they could do even if the surgery had to be delayed.

But since Ling Ran was in the picture now, Qiu Zhongren immediately sought him out.

Even though no one talked about it, it was an open secret in Yun Hua Hospital that Ling Ran was more skilled in hepatectomy compared to He Yuanzheng. Even though they might cause He Yuanzheng embarrassment by seeking out Ling Ran’s help, Qiu Zhongren and the others no longer took this into consideration. It was still better than to seek out specialists from other hospitals.

Ling Ran did not immediately come to a decision. Instead, he looked at Zhang Anmin and asked, “Are you guys sure that it’s hepatic hemorrhage instead of gastrointestinal hemorrhage?”

Even though Ling Ran knew what to do when it came to hepatic hemorrhage, gastrointestinal hemorrhage was an entirely different story.

“We’re sure that it’s hepatic hemorrhage. His gastrointestinal tract is fine,” Zhang Anmin quickly said.

Qiu Zhongren quickly added, “His blood isn’t coagulating, either. It’s different from what we had expected when we made our preoperative judgment.”

“Portal hypertension?” Ling Ran asked another question.

Since the patient was experiencing gastroesophageal varices, he most probably had portal hypertension.

Qiu Zhongren nodded solemnly. “Yes, portal hypertension.”

When it came to scheduled surgery of the abdominal cavity, such a patient could be said to have to face an extremely high risk.

Qiu Zhongren got a little embarrassed. He continued in a hushed tone, “Associate Chief Physician Liu from our department also took a look at the situation. He only sent me over to ask for your help because we are really up against a wall.”

Zhang Anmin glanced at Qiu Zhongren. Zhang Anmin’s head was lowered, and he did not say a thing.

As Qiu Zhongren was an attending physician, it was not impossible to be assigned as the chief surgeon of such a major surgery. It was possible that he failed to carry out his duty well and asked his superior to save his a*s, but it turned out that his superior was up against a wall too, so they ended up asking for Ling Ran’s help. Of course, the possibility that Associate Chief Physician Liu was the chief surgeon, and was using Qiu Zhongren as a black sheep.

The politics of every department of every hospital were extremely complicated. Even though Zhang Anmin had been working in Yun Hua Hospital for ten years, he only knew the politics of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery well. He did not dare to come to any conclusions when it came to the Digestive Surgery Department. This was why he had no choice but to believe in what Qiu Zhongren was saying.

Zhang Anmin raised his head to look at Ling Ran again. He had no idea whether Ling Ran understood what Qiu Zhongren had just said, as Ling Ran had whipped out his phone and was sending a text message.

Ling Ran said after a few seconds. “I’ll go and take a look. I have told Yu Yuan to schedule the hepatectomy I’m supposed to perform soon for later. Doctor Zhang, you can confirm with her again later.”

“Oh, sure.” Zhang Anmin immediately voiced his acknowledgement.

Qiu Zhongren immediately thanked Ling Ran and said excitedly, “I’ll treat you to some Maotai next time. It’s twenty years old. I’ve been keeping them for a while.”

Zhang Anmin spoke up in support and said, “Old Qiu is the king of Maotai in our hospital. He has many bottles of Maotai in his collection and is very good at appraising them. He could tell whether a bottle of Maotai is authentic without even twisting the bottle cap open.”

Qiu Zhongren said humbly, “Nah, I’m not the king of Maotai. Gao Meng is the real king of Maotai. He vomits every time he drinks counterfeit Maotai. The constitution of his body is out of this world.”

Zhang Anmin could not help but laugh when he heard that. He explained things to Ling Ran while he was at it. “Gao Meng is a pharmaceutical sales representative, and he’s quite close to Department Director Huo. He looks frail, and can’t drink well either. No matter how well-made a bottle of counterfeit alcohol is, he will vomit everything after drinking two small glasses of it. His alcohol tolerance is also extremely low.”

“Yeah, and this is why no one dares to make him drink a lot of alcohol. We’ll only pour him a little bit of it every time we open a bottle of spirit, as he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore after drinking only two sips.”

Qiu Zhongren and Zhang Anmin chatted and laughed as they walked beside Ling Ran, as if the problem with the surgery was already solved.

Truth be told, they had no choice but to place all their hopes on Ling Ran.

Intraoperative bleeding was an extremely bad sign to begin with, and hepatic hemorrhage was one of the toughest issues that could arise during an abdominal surgery.

As the anatomical structure of the liver was extremely complicated, most general surgeons tried to steer clear of it.

This also applied to doctors from the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of Yun Hua Hospital. A person could say that all surgeons who were skilled enough to perform hepatic surgeries would at least become an associate chief physician. Those who could perform hepatic surgeries but were not associate chief physicians had either offended someone of power or had an extremely low emotional intelligence. Meanwhile, those who were associate chief physicians but did not know how to perform hepatic surgery either got their position through connections or had extremely high emotional intelligence.

Of course, resident doctors like Ling Ran were an exception.

As Qiu Zhongren stood in the elevator and gazed at Ling Ran’s back, he could not help but think. ‘It’s fortunate that the hospital broke rules just to keep Ling Ran in the Emergency Department, or else, if such a houseman were to be transferred to another department that specializes in surgery, all the doctors in that department would definitely go crazy.”

“Give those in the operating theater a call and ask about the situation right now. How much blood did the patient loss, and is the patient in a stable condition right now?” Ling Ran told Qiu Zhongren after he exited the elevator. He changed into slippers and retrieved a pair of scrubs.

Qiu Zhongren immediately whipped out his phone and made a call.

The person at the other end picked up the call after a few seconds.

“Doctor Ling’s beside me. I’ve turned on the loudspeaker. Is the patient in a stable condition? How much blood did he lose?”

“67 ounces. The blood he lost could almost fill up an entire glass jar. He’s relatively stable.” Even though the person at the other end sounded quite calm, the sound of fluid being aspirated, someone yelling for more gauze, and instruments being maneuvered could be heard in the background. It was obvious that the atmosphere in the operating theater was not calm at all.

“I’ll head over after I get changed.” Ling Ran was a man of few words. After he said that, he went to retrieve his clothing items while wearing the new pair of slippers.

Since it was an urgent surgery, he definitely did not have time to shower and get changed. But there was enough time for him to change into a new pair of underwear that cost 399 RMB.

Ling Ran also consumed an Energy Serum while he was at it.

As it was an emergency hepatectomy, Ling Ran reckoned that he needed to be pumped full of energy to be able to focus.

After Ling Ran did all the preparatory work, he headed to the bathroom and ran his hands under the faucet. He then took a brush and spent three minutes scrubbing his hands and arms clean with iodophor solution. He then washed the iodophor solution off and dried his hands before rubbing his hands with iodophor-soaked gauze.

He did this to save time, as he usually took ten minutes to wash his hands before surgery. The use of iodophor allowed him to cut down that time by half. However, compared to soap and water, not only was iodophor’s antibacterial properties weaker, it was also detrimental to the skin on the hands.

The young nurse who was tasked to look for Ling Ran watched on reluctantly as Ling Ran applied iodophor on his hands. She said nothing, though, as she was so touched that her eyes were brimming with tears.

“Doctor Ling is really hard working.”

“Doctor Ling is such an earnest person.”

“Even his arms look good.”

The doctors and nurses in the neighboring operating theater had been paying close attention to the matters of the operating theater of the Digestive Surgery Department.

After all, the curses that rang out from the operating theater could be heard two buildings away.

Qiu Zhongren had been waiting outside the operating theater. When he saw Ling Ran, he immediately stepped open the airtight access door and handed Ling Ran a surgical gown. He helped Ling Ran put on the surgical gown as he introduced Associate Chief Physician Liu to Ling Ran. “Doctor Ling, this is Associate Chief Physician Liu who came over to help me out…”

“Who’s going to be the chief surgeon?” Ling Ran had no intention to make small talk and got straight to the point.

Liu Sixian was standing beside the operating theater. He was an experienced associate chief physician from the Digestive Surgery Department. He was one of the favourite subordinates of the director of the Digestive Surgery Department, and the two of them used to be from the General Surgery Department. It had been quite a while since someone took over the position of chief surgeon from him. He froze for a moment when he heard what Ling Ran said.

Ling Ran did not go forward either. He had to act as chief surgeon, as he would not be able to do anything as an assistant.

“You can be the chief surgeon.” Liu Sixian tossed the pair of forceps in his hand away, along with a piece of gauze.

Qiu Zhongren’s cheeks were red with embarrassment. He quickly spoke up for Liu Sixian. “Doctor Ling, Associate Chief Physician Liu is in a bad mood. We never expected an exploratory laparotomy to turn out like this…”

Ling Ran nodded without saying anything. He merely wanted to act as chief surgeon.

He did not really care whether the other party was an associate chief physician of the Digestive Surgery Department.

Liu Sixian, too, felt a little embarrassed by the fact that he tossed the pair of forceps away just like that. He did that mainly because the young Ling Ran was being so straightforward that it made him uncomfortable.

Now that he thought about it, he regretted what he just did.

Doctors would always try their best not to offend extremely skilled surgeons like Ling Ran. In the best case scenario, if Ling Ran were offended, he would not be willing to help him out the next time something happens. However, in the worst case scenario, Ling Ran might vote against him in one of the polls in one of the medical communities and ruin his future.

Liu Sixian stared at the operating theater with furrowed eyebrows. He was extremely worried that Ling Ran would not put in any effort for this surgery because he was offended.

Doctors knew other doctors the best.

If this surgery went well, it would mean that Ling Ran was only putting on airs and showing an arrogant front, and that he did not actually jeopardize the surgery because of his bad temper.

If this surgery did not go well, Liu Sixian was afraid that the involved parties would blame him for the rest of his life.

Besides, Liu Sixian would not be able to answer to his own conscience if the patient were to die on the operating table just because he threw a tantrum.

Liu Sixian gave Qiu Zhongren a look.

Qiu Zhongren sighed internally. He was under a lot of pressure from both Ling Ran and Liu Sixian. “Doctor Ling, how are things? Do you need my help?”

“There’s no need for that. I found it.” Ling Ran inserted his palm into the patient’s abdominal cavity, which gave all the doctors around him a shock.

Qiu Zhongren, too, was surprised. He could not help but say, “That’s really fast!”

Ling Ran had no intention of answering him. He assessed the situation again and called upon the system. He then chugged a bottle of purple serum.

[Skill Serum (small): All skill levels increased by 1 for ten seconds.]

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