Great Doctor Ling Ran

Chapter 115: Observing While Feeling Baffled

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Pan Hua had performed his surgeries well and smoothly for the day.

Firstly, his pre-surgery preparations were sufficient. Unlike many patients who were not willing to spend their money and were worried that the hospital would overcharge them, President Han did not need to pay for his medical expenses—he did not even need to pay in advance because his medical expenses in hospitals within the province were directly covered by the Medical Insurance Bureau. President Han could also use imported medication and go through many medical checkups that were not insured by the medical insurance directory. In addition, President Han performed full body checkups every year. That, along with Young Tie performing his preoperative examination and Pan Hua keeping his composure while researching President Han’s condition, Pan Hua pretty much had a complete understanding of President Han’s health condition.

Secondly, President Han’s physical condition was not bad. Although President Han was a middle-aged Asian leader with a potbelly, the foundation of his body was in very good condition. If they did not set the requirements for a healthy person too high, President Han’s blood, internal organs, immune system, and other health indicators were actually normal. That not only ensured that he had excellent surgical tolerance, but it also meant that his body was typical of a healthy man his age.

Plus, doctors were most familiar with bodies resembling the typical model of human bodies.

If the patient was beefy, had a lung capacity of ten thousand, a hemoglobin level of one hundred and sixty, as well as a heart rate of forty, forget what would happen after his body was cut open on the operating table. The act of cutting him open itself would be exhausting. The anesthetist would most likely have to flip over books just to fully anesthetize him. He may even need to prepare a few extra Skelaxin as a backup.

Compared to that, President Han’s surgery was much simpler.

What Pan Hua expected to see during the surgery was exactly what he saw once he opened up President Han’s body.

Except for a more prominent BBQ smell when President Han was cut open with an endotherm knife, there were no other complications.

Of course, the most, most, most important fact was how Pan Hua managed to apply his knowledge and experience.

Forget the other cases, just within that year, he had performed more than ten major surgeries in Japan, and he had also performed more than ten surgeries of the same kind when he was back in China. The number of hand surgeries he performed alone could match the surgical volume of an orthopaedist who had worked a few years in a tertiary grade A hospital in some rural area.

Hence, Pan Hua was more determined to believe that the surgery he performed on President Han was the fruit of his preparations, and with some editing, he could write a research paper on it.

When he remembered the videos of Ling Ran’s surgeries, Pan Hua came to a realization. Even though he still needed to weigh over more consequences when he handled certain minor parts and was inferior in certain suturing procedures, in terms of the crucial steps he performed in the surgery earlier, his skills were slightly better than Ling Ran’s.

Pan Hua slowly walked out of the office with a cigarette in his mouth. He tried not to reveal his haughtiness.

“Department Associate Director Pan!” Hayato Ueda shouted in Mandarin. He looked very excited.

“Doctor Hayato.” Pan Hua smiled and handed out a Jiu Wu Zhi Zun [1] cigarette.

“I don’t smoke.”

“This is a cigarette of victory.” When Pan Hua returned to China, he had shed his careful facade in Japan, and he now showed a more domineering side.

When he was in Keio University Hospital, he would never demand other doctors to do something forcefully.

After Hayato Ueda hesitated for a while, he took the cigarette. After he lit the cigarette, he inhaled the smoke. He choked and coughed consecutively.

Pan Hua laughed out loud and said, “Let’s take a look at Ling Ran’s surgeries.”

“Oh, is he the one all of you have been mentioning? The very talented newcomer in the Emergency Department who does eight surgeries a day?” Hayato Ueda asked curiously.

Pan Hua nodded.

Hayato Ueda hesitated for a moment and rather reluctantly said, “If he’s just a newcomer, won’t the both of us paying him a visit together give him too much stress?”

In reality, Hayato Ueda thought that it was better not to waste their time going over to watch Ling Ran’s surgery. After all, no matter how gifted a newcomer was, he or she could not possibly do anything amazing.

Performing eight surgeries was indeed something, however, surgeries were not a competition of speed.

Otherwise, it would be too easy to evaluate a surgeon’s surgical skills.

Hayato Ueda had seen a few outstanding newcomers, but they only appeared in well-known hospitals in Japan; those doctors were already talented students, and they only managed to become outstanding after they put in a lot of effort to gain admission into the hospitals.

Compared to them, Yun Hua Hospital was ranked too low.

The story of performing eight surgeries was also suspicious.

Pan Hua continued to present his exceptionally overbearing attitude and insisted. “He also does flexor tendon sutures. Although he only knows the M-Tang technique, he’s considered our opponent on a certain level. Knowing your opponent allows you to gain leverage, don’t you agree?”

The Japanese entrance examination tested students on idioms, which allowed Hayato Ueda to understand what Pan Hua meant. He nodded and said, “In that case, let’s go and take a look. Did Young Tie notify Ling Ran?”

“Let’s go and take a look first.” Pan Hua did not say anything else. He dragged Hayato Ueda up to the Emergency Medicine building.

Without much trouble, both of them entered the Emergency Department’s Operating Area. They casually put on scrubs and slippers before they went from one operating theater to another, standing at the door to search for Ling Ran.

*Hissss…*

When Pan Hua saw the back of a very handsome man in Operating Theater 3, he opened the door.

It was the first time Hayato Ueda had seen Ling Ran in person. He stood by the door and pondered for a few seconds before he turned his head around to look at his surroundings.

“What are you doing?” Pan Hua felt a little embarrassed. Even though leaving the operating theater door open for a few seconds was not a big deal, it did make them seem unprofessional.

When Hayato Ueda noticed, he immediately entered the operating theater and bowed apologetically. He then whispered to Pan Hua, “I was wondering if there are hidden cameras… You know, those cameras in prank reality shows? Mister Pan, you should have seen them before…”

“I’ve never watched them…” Pan Hua snorted.

“Hey, I’m not talking about the shows. All I meant was that this could be a prank.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“All right then. But I have to say, your newcomer doctor’s really striking.” The word Hayato Ueda wanted to use was handsome, but somehow, he was unable to say the word.

Pan Hua snorted, but there was no other response.

Ling Ran had just completed a set of sutures at the same time. He lifted his head to look at the both of them, and he nodded as a greeting.

Pan Hua nodded courteously too, but both sides did not talk to each other.

Ling Ran continued to perform his surgery with his head low.

The surgery he performed that day was the application of the M-Tang technique on a laceration. The patient’s two fingers were neatly peeled open, and the flexor tendon, nerves and blood vessels were all ruptured. It could be considered a slightly more severe injury.

There were actually four types of flexor tendon injuries: lacerations, ruptures, crushing, and contusions.

Compared to the others, a laceration was slightly less complex. It was unlike crush injuries, which were often accompanied by fractures and other complications. However, the less complex the surgery was, the more it challenged the surgeon’s skills.

Hayato Ueda went to a spot directly diagonal to Ling Ran to clearly see the wound under the light of a shadowless lamp.

What appeared before his eyes were skilled hands performing sutures and a clear area of exposure.

Hayato Ueda blinked. He saw that one strand had been completed on the flexor tendon, and in another blink of the eye, another strand was sutured.

“Oh…”

Hayato Ueda was in awe. He took a sharp breath and asked Pan Hua, “Is he really a newcomer?”

“Look at his face.” Pan Hua’s tone was indifferent, but there was a storm in his heart.

Pan Hua was a specialist in the field of flexor tendon suturing.

He could still vividly remember how Ling Ran operated before he left. At that time, the orthopedic associate professor of Keio University Hospital, Hashimoto Shiro was next to him… Right then, both of them had already found Ling Ran’s skills incredible.

However, as he watched Ling Ran work at the operating table again, Pan Hua became even more shocked.

Pan Hua’s deepest impression of Ling Ran was no longer his super awesome suturing technique, even though that level of suturing was still something many doctors could not achieve in their lifetime. Instead, the most unexpected thing was Ling Ran’s knowledge of hand anatomy, which Pan Hua gauged based on his own knowledge.

When applying the M-Tang technique, the suture should go around the back of the hand. This allowed the surgeon to avoid many important nerves, blood vessels, and tendons to prevent damaging the hand further.

Last time, Ling Ran made sure that the thread circumnavigated those areas and remained as far as possible. There were no considerable problems in doing so, but it inadvertently caused him to waste some time and slightly weakened the effectiveness of the tendon suture.

Of course, circumnavigating those areas was the most common technique during such operations; even Pan Hua did the same.

The back of the hand was full of nerves and blood vessels, so circumnavigation would provide a lot of benefits in terms of safety. Even Pan Hua did not have the confidence to go near the back of the hand while he sutured.

Yet this time, Ling Ran performed the sutures very closely to the back of the hand.

Not only was his performance bold, the palpation he conducted each time before he took another step in the operation made Pan Hua feel that Ling Ran had a definite objective in mind, and he was able to find his target accurately.

If Pan Hua had not witnessed the operation in person, he would have found that thought ludicrous.

Even with his experience of performing nearly three hundred surgeries using the M-Tang technique, he would never dare perform the stitches in such a manner…

Pan Hua suddenly frowned. He secretly took out his phone and sent out a text message. [Help me find out the total number of surgeries performed by Ling Ran.]

After a while, Pan Hua’s phone vibrated.

He opened the message, took a look, and found the arabic numerals on the screen very dazzling to the eye: 482 surgeries.

“I will suture the tendon up to this point. Next, I will perform perineurium anastomosis on the ulnar nerves. Wipe off my sweat.” Ling Ran straightened his neck and exercised it.

A young nurse stood on her toes—an action she was skilled with—and used a clean white gauze to help wipe off Ling Ran’s crystal clear beads of sweat. There was a sincere smile on her face.

Hayato Ueda saw that, and he could not help but recall countless mangas centered around high school. He involuntarily moved, finding his thoughts a little messed up.

Pan Hua, who had just finished his in-service training in Japan, felt very sorry for Hayato Ueda. Students were much more competitive in Japan. Those who were able to gain admission through examination into a medical institute, especially a well-known medical institute, had the most boring school days a person could imagine. Hayato Ueda looked slightly better than Hashimoto Shiro, and perhaps because of that, the shock brought by the scene before his eyes was greater to him.

Pan Hua heaved a deep sigh in his heart as he thought about how unfair the world was, ‘How does a doctor who burns the midnight oil every day to perform surgeries have such smooth skin? Do you take hormones so that you won’t get fat or something?’

“Good, the perineurium anastomosis is complete. We will continue with the middle finger’s flexor tendon suturing…”

Pan Hua was horrified once more. ‘What the hell? Excuse me? Are you serious?’

Note:

[1] Jiu Wu Zhi Zun: A brand of cigarette in China.