Great Doctor Ling Ran
chapter-500

Chapter 500: The Surgery Begins

“The operating theater is pretty decent.” Guo Mingcheng entered the operating theater before his teacher to survey the equipment and facilities.

Doctors of his caliber did not actually like to treat patients in hospitals they were not familiar with. Even when it came to freelance surgery, he liked doing so at hospitals he was familiar with. The best case scenario would be for him to go to hospitals where he had trained junior doctor before. He had even operated in the departments of other doctors who were also trained by Feng Zhixiang.

If he were part of a Wuxia novel, Guo Mingcheng would be a famous inner sect disciple of a renowned, righteous sect. Even when he was out exploring the country, he would prefer to visit places that had subdivisions of his sect.

And his senior brothers who were holding high positions in smaller hospitals also welcomed their junior brother very warmly and took good care of him. Aside from doing it as a show to their teacher and larger hospitals, this was also one of the ways they protected each other’s mutual interests.

However, for the sake of training and expanding their careers, the inner sect disciples had no choice but to visit hospitals they were unfamiliar with every now and then.

They might even be able to make those hospitals new subdivisions of their sects.

Guo Mingcheng examined the operating theater meticulously as he pondered. ‘Yun Hua Hospital looks pretty decent, and Yun Hua is a big, bustling city with a lot of people and a high average income. Yun Hua Hospital is also one of the top hospitals in the area. Besides, their Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery seems mediocre…”

An associate chief physician like him was akin to a half-ripe fruit. He would need to take root somewhere else in around three to five years.

The best choice would be to stay in the hospital he was currently working at, but there were very few job openings for chief physicians in the hospital. If he were able to get an offer letter for that, it would mean that he was one of Professor Feng Zhixiang’s heirs.

But at the same time, it would also mean that he needed to outperform one of his senior brothers. This was not an easy feat.

Hence, even though Guo Mingcheng strived hard to challenge himself by taking on difficult project, he was also concurrently looking for a new hospital to settle down in. Hence, he wanted to leave a good impression on the medical staff of Yun Hua Hospital as it might open up an extra path for himself.

Guo Mingcheng continued to examine the operating theater with a grin on his face as he found that there was more significance to the surgery today.

“You guys need to adjust the lighting here.” Guo Mingcheng casually pointed out a flaw, and when a few nurses came in to help, he pointed at the prettiest one and said, “Can you help out in the surgery too?”

The head nurse looked at Guo Mingcheng with a puzzled expression.

“A beautiful nurse would make the lighting in the operating theater better.” Guo Mingcheng liked having young, beautiful nurses in the operating theater as he worked. He was a simple man who merely wanted the scenery in the operating theater to be prettier. After all, he spent ten hours a day in operating theaters.

The head nurse had seen all kinds of doctors and was too lazy to argue with Guo Mingcheng. She glanced at him a few times before she nodded and said, “Xiao Fang, stay here.”

“Sure,” the young nurse answered.

Guo Mingcheng laughed. “Your name is Xiao Fang?”

“Yes.”

“There’s a maiden in our village named Xiao Fang…” [1] Guo Mingcheng immediately started singing a song from his era.

The young nurse flashed a polite smile before she turned and grimaced at the other nurses in the operating theater. As a nurse named Xiao Fang, so many people had sung this song to her that she could recite it backwards.

After Guo Mingcheng left the operating theater, Xiao Fang chuckled as she said to the other nurses, “I’m pretty sure that he’s another doctor who suffers from straight man cancer.” [2]

“Only poor doctors suffer from straight man cancer. Rich ones are just straight men.” The scrub nurse cleverly chirped in.

“Cancer can’t be cured. No matter how rich a person who suffers from straight man cancer is, he still has cancer.”

“He even knows how to sing.”

Xiao Fang wore an annoyed expression. “The mere fact that he knows how to sing Xiao Fang shows that not only does he suffer from straight man cancer, but he’s also old.”

“Shh, be careful. What if someone comes in?”

After one of the nurses said that, everyone in the operating theater immediately went silent.

After a short while, the patient was wheeled into the operating theater.

The department director of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, He Yuanzheng then entered with two of his direct disciples.

Yun Hua Hospital’s operating theaters did not come with observation areas. Only top hospitals where other doctors frequently observe surgeries would spend money on that.

Even the demonstration rooms in Yun Hua Hospital were not well-equipped. They were shabbier than the demonstration rooms in the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center

So, to be able to properly observe a surgery in Yun Hua Hospital, one had to enter the operating theater.

However, an operating theater only had space for a limited number of people.

Since the anesthetist, assistants, and nurses also took up space, the operating theater did not have much space for observers.

After a short while, Guo Mingcheng who had just washed his hands again followed Feng Zhixiang into the operating theater.

“Is the patient anesthetized yet?” Guo Mingcheng quickly examined the equipment once again.

This was the downside of working in a hospital he was unfamiliar with, especially when it came to such a difficult surgery. He did not have much trust toward the medical staff there.

“Yes.” Xiao Fang, who was acting as the circulating nurse, quickly answered.

Guo Mingcheng nodded and looked at Professor Feng Zhixiang.

Feng Zhixiang, too, quickly examined the equipment. He then said, “Doctor Guo, you’ll be the chief surgeon. Department Director He, can you delegate two younger doctors who had performed hepatectomy before to act as Doctor Guo’s assistants?”

He Yuanzheng immediately understood what Feng Zhixiang meant. He said to his two direct disciples who were standing behind him, “Go and wash your hands.”

The two doctors immediately did as they were told.

He Yuanzheng shrugged and stood aside. He looked neither happy nor sad, and he was just like a monk who had transcended worldly concerns. In reality, he had merely seen a lot of the world.

Feng Zhixiang was a name that had appeared in medical textbooks. He had probably carried out more than ten thousand general surgeries.

However, at the end of the day, there was a difference between guiding surgeries and actually performing surgeries. The doctor guiding the surgery could do nothing other than reminding the surgeons about the things they would otherwise miss and give some pointers. He might even miss some minor details.

But there was nothing He Yuanzheng could say about this. He was merely a lowly department director of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, and he was in no position to make any comment. Feng Zhixiang had made his opinion of He Yuanzheng obvious when he specifically asked for younger doctors.

“Do get ready. We’re getting started.” The moment the two doctors returned, Guo Mingcheng asked for a scalpel and started making an incision. He kind of looked like he was racing against time.

He Yuanzheng raised his head to look at the clock. It was already 4:10 p.m.. They were indeed pressed for time.

*Shick.*

Someone opened the airtight access door again. This time, Huo Congjun entered, followed by Ling Ran.

He Yuanzheng merely nodded at him without greeting him.

Huo Congjun did not greet He Yuanzheng either. He merely stood there and watched the surgery.

Feng Zhixiang looked at Ling Ran for a few seconds before he shifted his attention back to the surgery.

Guo Mingcheng was very fast. It was obvious that he was extremely familiar with the surgical method.

Even though Feng Zhixiang was guiding the surgery, he merely stood aside and watched Guo Mingcheng operate without doing or saying anything. Of course, they were only at the beginning stages, and there was no need for him to remind Guo Mingcheng of anything.

The surgery continued to progress, and everything was basically going smoothly.

However, no one in the operating theater dared to let their guard down.

The first half of hepatectomy was merely an ordinary abdominal surgery. The difficult part only begun when the surgeon started operating on the liver.

“At a far, far away place…”

Huo Congjun’s phone started ringing, and his ringtone was a song of Tengri’s.

“Excuse me.” As Huo Congjun spoke, he answered the call and hummed a few times in acknowledgement. He then said to Ling Ran, who was standing beside him. “Emergency hepatectomy. Go ahead and do it.”

“Sure,” Ling Ran said. He then glanced at the operating table before he turned and left.

Feng Zhixiang looked at Ling Ran when he heard the word “hepatectomy”. However, he said nothing and merely stared after Ling Ran.