Chapter 177: The Unknown And The Humble!
【 Saved the patient’s life through liver protection surgery, hemostasis, and fistulation, gaining 16.3 Skill Points 】
【 Current Skill Point Balance: 27.4 】
【 Team members effectively communicated with the ‘patient’, alleviating the patient’s anxiety, fear, and panic, gaining 1.5 Skill Points… 】
【… 】
【 Current Skill Point Balance: 29.8… 】
This surgery yielded a considerable amount of skill points, totaling eighteen when all was said and done.
Team members effectively communicated with the ‘patient’???
Lu Cheng saw this new entry and found it rather intriguing.
This was an entry that had never appeared before.
…
After lying in the Emergency Department’s doctor’s lounge for a while, Lu Cheng slowly figured out the possible reason.
The “patient” here actually refers not to the actual patients in the resuscitation room and ICU, but to the patient’s family members, such as the patient’s immediate relatives or children.
Due to his father’s sudden illness, which caused his mind to be in disarray, Director Lin Qianlong brought good news when communicating with them, which could calm their emotions.
The reason such entries didn’t appear before was that these rescue activities were mostly unrelated to him…
Of course, the reason no such entry appeared when rescuing his Uncle Wei Ying was likely because there were no family members with particularly fragile emotional states nearby at the time…
Lu Cheng made a decision in his heart: “This kind of skill point gain is entirely up to chance, not an inherent path.”
Zhang Tiesheng pushed open the lounge door and headed straight for the restroom. After coming out, he groped in the dark to leave, and heard a slight movement from the resting bed.
He knew that Lu Cheng was not asleep. He turned sideways, gave Lu Cheng a thumbs-up, and opened the office door. The light gradually increased, allowing Lu Cheng to clearly see Zhang Tiesheng’s gesture.
Zhang Tiesheng had to be on duty, and Lu Cheng needed to rest, so Zhang Tiesheng didn’t say anything particularly worldly. However, his admiration was evident without words.
Lu Cheng closed his eyes again.
After leaving, Zhang Tiesheng paused his steps while holding the doorknob. The eyelids of his eyes flickered several times before he narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath.
While walking towards his Emergency Surgery Clinic, he muttered to himself, “Can I still call him ‘Xiao Lu’ from now on?”
A Xiao Lu who can perform tendon suturing is, at most, the department’s ‘top seller’, a brother who helps him earn money, and it’s not demeaning to be polite.
But a brother who can save lives, and can also bring him significant tangible income, and whose skills are better than his own…
Whether it was appropriate to continue calling Lu Cheng “Xiao Lu” had entered Zhang Tiesheng’s serious consideration.
At least one thing was certain: Zhang Tiesheng had relatives living in Long County, and while one should prepare for the worst, he had to consider the possibility of an emergency.
For this type of emergent bleeding disease, Zhang Tiesheng would definitely call Lu Cheng for help, not anyone else. Based on this alone, Lu Cheng was irreplaceable.
…
Lu Cheng slept for a while and was woken up by Zhang Tiesheng again at five o’clock.
After rubbing his face and stepping out of the lounge, Han Xiaoping, who was on night shift in the ward, came over upon hearing the noise: “Brother Lu, there’s a patient with multiple tendon injuries in the clinic. Brother Zhang has nowhere else to send him, so he called you.”
“Earlier, there were some minor injuries, but Brother Zhang sent them all to the specialty departments.”
Long County People’s Hospital is different from many hospitals. Even for minor injuries sent to specialty departments, they wouldn’t say that the Emergency Department is useless, and they would accept them.
After all, there weren’t many patients in the department, and debridement and suturing could be considered a source of patient flow.
Lu Cheng’s expression sharpened: “Thank you. I’m on surgery shift. If there are minor injuries our department can handle, you should still call me.”
“After all, I’m on duty! I’ll tell Brother Zhang later.”
When he was not on duty, Zhang Tiesheng and others tried their best not to disturb Lu Cheng. Therefore, when he was on duty, Lu Cheng would also do his best to fulfill his responsibilities.
The patient volume and surgical volume of the Emergency Department rely entirely on emergency surgeries. Although minor debridement and suturing are small, they are still like scraps of meat, contributing to the department’s “performance.”
Of course, the patients indeed needed to be treated.
Lu Cheng had planned to go and talk for consent, but unexpectedly, Zhang Tiesheng had already obtained the patient’s family member’s signature.
As soon as Lu Cheng arrived, Zhang Tiesheng called out to the patient’s family member: “This is Doctor Lu. For tendon injuries, he’s the right person to find.”
“Doctor Lu, this is a brother of mine, and his wife is the one who was injured.”
“Hello, Doctor Lu.” The young man opposite Zhang Tiesheng stood up and greeted him with a smile: “When Tiesheng was drinking before, he mentioned he had a brother with excellent skills, and I guess that’s you, Doctor Lu.”
“I remembered that time because I run a small factory, and this time my wife was cut by a machine…”
Lu Cheng also politely stepped forward and asked, “Hello, how is Sister-in-law doing now?”
Zhang Tiesheng replied, “I’ve sent her for an X-ray, just in case of a fracture.”
“Her mother is accompanying her. Liu Long and I will chat here for a while and sign the papers to save time.”
“Um, Lu Cheng, Liu Long here is my good brother. If it’s appropriate later, please try to get some good quality sutures.”
“Don’t try to save money by…”
After Zhang Tiesheng finished speaking, he looked at Liu Long: “Tendon suturing is different from regular suturing. If the quality of the sutures is too poor, she will suffer more during postoperative recovery.”
Liu Long understood Zhang Tiesheng’s meaning: “Doctor Lu, it’s fine. Please use the best sutures you have. You don’t need to worry about the cost.”
Lu Cheng stroked his chin: “Brother Liu, since you’ve mentioned it, I will definitely use good sutures. However, you know the general environment here.”
“Most patients who come here for treatment are not well-off, so we try our best to save some money…”
Zhang Tiesheng must have said something to Liu Long, because the subsequent conversation and signing were very smooth. Neither Liu Long nor his wife, Lin Liyuan, hesitated at all. After signing, they went directly to the operating room.
This saved Lu Cheng a lot of trouble.
However, just as the surgery was about to begin, Lin Liyuan asked, “Doctor, can my condition be cosmetically sutured?”
Lu Cheng shook his head: “That’s not feasible, Sister-in-law. Your current condition involves internal tendon injury, not just simple muscle and skin soft tissue damage.”
“Cosmetic suturing is not practical. We need to prioritize function first.”
Women naturally care about beauty, but Lu Cheng had to try his best to explain.
Liu Liyuan sighed: “Sigh… Alright…”
Lu Cheng added, “Although cosmetic suturing cannot be used during surgery, you can use some scar removal products afterward. You can buy them online yourself.”
“There are some overseas products available through personal shoppers online. During promotions, the prices are relatively cheap, cheaper than in the hospital.”
“But the price is still not exactly cheap.”
Liu Liyuan immediately asked, “Does it work?”
“It works; it can lighten scars,” Lu Cheng said with a smile.
Lu Cheng mentioned this because a patient he treated previously had their anxiety about their appearance reduced due to a smaller scar.
Therefore, Lu Cheng had paid attention to scar repair issues after surgery.
There would definitely be no scar repair medications at Long County People’s Hospital, but Lu Cheng could recommend them to patients. If the patients requested it, they could purchase them online at their own discretion.
This was also a way to earn some extra ‘skill points.’
“Doctor Lu, Dr. Zhang told me you have excellent skills. You are so young, how did you learn them?” Lin Liyuan asked politely.
“My skills aren’t that great; Brother Zhang is flattering me.”
“Learning skills requires hard work and dedication…”
…
Time flew by, and more than three hours passed. Although Liu Liyuan could not have cosmetic suturing or use absorbable sutures for cosmetic purposes, Lu Cheng was extremely meticulous while suturing for her.
He strived to make the needle entry points and layers more precise, and the incision more neatly aligned. As long as she didn’t have a keloid tendency, the resulting scar would be less noticeable.
This was within Lu Cheng’s capabilities and didn’t require excessive effort; it only slightly extended the surgery time.
But it was not a big deal.
After Lu Cheng left the operating room, Zhang Tiesheng did not go back but had thoughtfully prepared breakfast for Lu Cheng.
In the Director’s office, Lin Qianlong, Zhang Tiesheng, and Lu Cheng sat opposite each other. Lin Qianlong and Zhang Tiesheng started eating first and finished first.
Since the office door was closed, Lin Qianlong and Zhang Tiesheng each lit up a post-meal cigarette. Wisps of smoke curled from Lin Qianlong’s mouth: “Xiao Lu, the patient from yesterday woke up once this morning and has already been extubated.”
“However, her blood pressure is still a bit low, and her lactate is still high. She is expected to be discharged tomorrow or even the day after.”
“Otherwise, everything else is fine.”
Lu Cheng glanced at Lin Qianlong and asked with a smile, “Director Lin, have you already seen the patient? I was planning to see her after breakfast.”
Even if the patient was transferred to the ICU, it didn’t mean the surgeon could completely disengage. They still needed to make rounds.
However, surgeons primarily managed wound healing, checking for any oozing blood from the surgical incision. Maintaining vital signs was the responsibility of the ICU attending physician.
Lin Qianlong smiled and replied, “Since the department performed such a major surgery, I naturally had to pay close attention.”
“If this type of surgery can become a routine procedure in our department in the future, it would be of great significance.”
“Professor Chen himself didn’t perform many such liver protection surgeries. I didn’t expect you to manage to get one done.”
Zhang Tiesheng said, “Director Lin, Xiao Lu’s talent cannot be described as ordinary. This is called being adept at both land and water.”
Hearing Zhang Tiesheng describe the word “abnormal” so ‘elegantly,’ Lu Cheng also laughed: “Brother Zhang, you might as well just say abnormal. You’re driving too fast with that analogy…”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand yet?” Lin Qianlong looked at Zhang Tiesheng with surprise.
“It’s a homophone pun,” Lu Cheng said with a smile. “I don’t know if Brother Zhang is referring to navigating both land and water, or just water.”
Zhang Tiesheng’s dark face twitched slightly: “Damn, Xiao Lu, your brain is moving too fast! You’re learning this stuff too?”
As the saying goes, a surgeon who doesn’t know how to drive is not a good sailor.
Dirty jokes are commonplace in surgery and operating rooms.
Lu Cheng quickly ate a few bites of noodles and drank some soup, then packed them up. He glanced at the time and hurriedly said, “Director Lin, I’m going to the Emergency Clinic for my shift now. I’m almost half an hour late.”
Today was Lu Cheng’s day shift in the Emergency Clinic.
The Emergency Department had a considerable number of staff, but with so many shifts, Lu Cheng’s surgery shift directly followed his day shift in the Emergency Clinic.
Lin Qianlong immediately said, “No rush, Lu Cheng. It’s like this, your day shift has been canceled…”
Lu Cheng looked at Lin Qianlong, a look of confusion on his face.
Lin Qianlong understood Lu Cheng’s meaning: “Although Professor Tong said that the schedule has been set and it’s difficult to change.”
“But we can change it through the Medical Affairs Department.”
“Director Huang from Internal Medicine and I discussed it, and we still believe that if you, Xiao Lu, could work even one more night shift, it would reduce the overall mortality rate of our Emergency Department.”
“This is something both our Emergency Department and the hospital are happy to see, so we had the Medical Affairs Department intervene and cancel all your subsequent day shifts.”
Lu Cheng: “…”
“Director Lin, isn’t this a bit inappropriate?”
Lin Qianlong’s statement meant that Lu Cheng’s day shifts were canceled, implying he could skip day shifts and only work nights, which was fewer shifts than others.
“Zhang Tiesheng, do you think this is appropriate?” Lin Qianlong asked.
“It’s appropriate, how can it not be? Teacher Lu’s time should be spent where it matters most.”
After a polite remark, Zhang Tiesheng directly explained, “Lu Cheng, working a few more day shifts won’t be of much use. It’s better to use the free time to teach us some surgical techniques.”
“If it weren’t for your professional title not being promoted yet, I would even apply to Director Lin to have your night shifts canceled as well, and have you on permanent surgical call.”
As Zhang Tiesheng was speaking, the voices of Professor Tong Yuan’an and Tian Zhuang could be heard from outside. Tian Zhuang was asking Tong Yuan’an some basic questions.
Lin Qianlong quickly stood up: “Professor Tong is back from rounds… He specifically told me this morning that he had something to discuss with you… Xiao Lu, you should go see him quickly.”
“Okay.” Lu Cheng also stood up, packed the three noodle boxes, and took them out of the Director’s office.
After Lu Cheng left, Lin Qianlong scratched his hair and sighed, “To be honest, Xiao Lu is excellent, but being his leader is truly…”
“It can lead to psychological distortion if you do it for too long.”
Zhang Tiesheng could understand Lin Qianlong. Lin Qianlong was the Director of Emergency Surgery. Previously, when Lu Cheng could perform tendon suturing, it was already beyond Lin Qianlong’s scope of practice and was an uncontrollable disease type, meaning he had to listen to Lu Cheng.
Now, Lu Cheng had almost completely surpassed Lin Qianlong in all aspects, which made Lin Qianlong, as the director, feel somewhat out of place.
It was rather comical for a director not to be the “top expert” in the department.
“Director Lin, there’s nothing that can be done about someone like Xiao Lu. You can’t suppress him; it’s better to go with the flow,” Zhang Tiesheng echoed Lin Qianlong’s earlier sentiment.
“I didn’t say I wanted to suppress Xiao Lu. I was thinking that if there was an opportunity, it would be great to keep Xiao Lu here.”
“It’s a pity that the hospital platform is too small…”
Lin Qianlong said with a sigh: “Otherwise, your lives in the future would be much easier than mine. Why would you need to argue with the surgical department over one or two types of surgeries?”
…
In the cramped space outside the fire escape of the Emergency Surgery office, Tong Yuan’an was smoking.
“The current situation is as it is. This time, the organizer for the Provincial Microsurgery Young Physician Competition in Xiang Province is the Second Hospital.”
“These people, to save trouble, are cutting off the registration list from the county level…” Tong Yuan’an finished and spat.
Lu Cheng was naturally quite speechless. Standing with his hands at his sides, he was helpless: “Teacher Tong, actually, I was too arrogant before. Even if I competed this year, I probably wouldn’t achieve good results.”
“Actually, the teachers at the Second Hospital haven’t done anything wrong. If they allow all county hospital personnel to register, it would indeed increase the burden of organizing the competition significantly.”
The preliminary selection for the provincial microsurgery skills competition was organized by the Second Hospital, with Xiangya Hospital as a co-organizer. Therefore, they only had a right to suggest rules.
Initially, Xiangya Second Hospital probably did not anticipate such a large number of participants.
It was actually easy to understand. Such competitions and academic conferences offer opportunities for public-funded travel, learning new things, broadening horizons, or even improving one’s standing.
Perhaps winning a second or third prize in a provincial competition was meaningless, but what about upon returning?
In the county?
If the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital won a third prize in the province, and the People’s Hospital did not win any, wouldn’t that be a propaganda benchmark?
Therefore, everyone signed up with the principle of “give it a shot,” as registration fees and travel expenses were all reimbursable.
“Nonsense, this is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs!”
Tong Yuan’an said, “If they are doing this for just the provincial competition, what if a national competition is held in our Xiang Province in the future?”
“Of course, this is not something that can be decided by just the two of us. Our Hand Surgery’s Big Boss has gone to negotiate with Boss He from the Second Hospital and Boss Song from Microsurgery.”
Lu Cheng heard the implied meaning in Professor Tong’s words: “Teacher Tong, are participants in the Microsurgery Competition not limited to Hand Surgery personnel?”
“Of course. Microsurgery and hand microsurgery are two different specialties. Urology, neurosurgery, and general surgery can all participate.”
“Microsurgery, microsurgery; as long as it’s minimally invasive, anyone can participate…”
Tong Yuan’an glanced at Lu Cheng and said with a smile, “Are you starting to panic now?”
Lu Cheng remained silent, implicitly admitting it.
He had considered things too simplistically.
“Teacher Tong, after all, I lack experience,” Lu Cheng replied honestly.
Lu Cheng had stayed at Zhongnan Hospital before, but he was only in standardized training and didn’t even have a master’s supervisor. What kind of worldly experience could he have?
He was busy enough with his ward rounds every day, plus all the clinical learning tasks. Where would he have the free time to care about the specific specialties of the hospital?
“You can rest assured about this. Even if doctors from other county hospitals cannot participate, you can,” Tong Yuan’an reassured him.
Lu Cheng shook his head: “Teacher Tong, I’m not worried about myself not being able to participate. I’m just worried that I might not achieve good results even if I do participate…”
Lu Cheng felt a sense of desolation.
Even if he could participate, fundamentally, many doctors from county hospitals still couldn’t.
Without Tong Yuan’an’s support, no matter how excellent Lu Cheng was, he would have the same treatment as other doctors from county hospitals.
Let alone the qualification for a national competition, even the qualification to participate in a provincial competition might not be possible.
This was the real world, a reality of strength. You had to accept it, whether you liked it or not.
The layered reality had already filtered out a group of excellent individuals. Although some were merely holding positions without contributing, overall, county hospitals were inferior to prefectural city hospitals.
This was the case everywhere; individual cases were just exceptions.
Sorrow for a fellow creature in distress!
…
Tong Yuan’an was an associate professor at Xiangya Hospital, and his status in Long County was extraordinary, in a league of his own!
However, in the microsurgery field of Xiang Province, he was still just a regular guy, unable to change much.
This year’s Xiang Province Microsurgery Young Physician Skills Competition adopted a registration system for prefectural city hospitals and a recommendation and invitation system for participants from county hospitals.
In other words, for the Xiang Province Microsurgery Skills Competition, personnel from prefectural city hospitals’ microsurgery departments could register normally. Personnel from county hospitals could only be recommended by associate chief physicians from prefectural city hospitals or be individually invited by the organizers.
The Great Dao has fifty, and Heaven’s evolution has forty-nine, leaving a sliver of hope.
However, it was inevitable that more than 90% of people would be excluded from the entry threshold. Lu Cheng was among the remaining 10%.
Lu Cheng did not wallow in the “sorrow for a fellow creature in distress” emotion. After receiving the notification and his entry pass, he immediately began making arrangements to buy tickets and book hotels…
October 23rd, Friday, light rain.
Lu Cheng finished his shift on the 22nd and returned home to rest. After waking up in the afternoon, he had a meal and then rushed to the high-speed train station in Shashi City.
On the high-speed train, Lu Cheng chatted with Mu Nanshu, who had already returned to Hanshi City, while watching the scenery rush by outside the window.
Lu Cheng said, “So, what’s the plan now? Can we only do supplementary experiments at the last minute?”
“Yes… If the original data is lost, we can only do supplementary experiments…”
“I also just found out that Professor Xie was quite ungentlemanly. He even…”
Mu Nanshu hesitated: “Of course, Professor Xie is considered a good person; at least he gave his student a chance to graduate.”
“Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to graduate normally.”
“Well, what I mean is, Professor Xie wasn’t magnanimous enough. If Professor Xie had been truly magnanimous, he should have given his doctoral student the article from his Ph.D. thesis as well as the paper for this research project.”
The situation Xie Yuan’an encountered was essentially an “equivalent exchange”!
Professor Xie’s doctoral student was working on a project that was too large, to the point where the doctoral student had no output by the time of graduation and could not graduate normally, thus delaying their graduation.
So, Xie Yuan’an used one of his relatively smaller articles to exchange with Professor Xie’s doctoral student. This allowed the doctoral student to graduate normally.
Then Xie Yuan’an continued to work on the research project, and the ownership of the article belonged to Xie Yuan’an.
However, it was only discovered now that the doctoral student of Professor Xie had fabricated data during the early stages of their experiments.
Moreover, he himself had now forgotten which data was fabricated and which was real…
Lu Cheng said, “It’s good enough that they can graduate properly. Why should they be given everything?”
“If this kind of thing gets on social media, it will become another ‘small essay’!”
From Lu Cheng’s perspective, Professor Xie did nothing wrong; he was just not generous enough.
But at that time, Xie Xiao was only an associate professor. Where would he get so many articles to freely give to his doctoral students?
He had more than one doctoral student. Was he a sow that could give freely?
“Xie Yuan’an said she wants to video call you,” Mu Nanshu sent a message, ending it with a period.
Lu Cheng: “???”
