The Surgeon’s Studio

The busy, sleepy night was soon over.

When Chang Yue came to work looking energetic the next day, Zheng Ren had not yet woken from his slumber.

Upon noticing the notes left by Zheng Ren, she personally took the patient’s medical history again to verify each point before starting her busy day.

Indifferent and calm, Zheng Yunxia completed the hospital admission process without repeatedly expressing her gratitude.

In a sense, the interventional radiological treatment for her hepatic carcinoma was the first elective surgery performed in the emergency department.

The general surgery department was slightly unhappy after being informed of the situation, but Old Chief Physician Pan forcibly shut them down with a simple, “You do it then if you’re so good.”

Not all hepatic carcinomas could be treated with surgery.

Like Zheng Yunxia, patients with cancer recurrence after surgery were considered to have contraindications for surgery.

The only suitable treatment for her was catheter embolization. Once the tumor tissue had shrunk, she could undergo radiofrequency ablation therapy.

Since she was the first elective surgical patient, everyone placed a high value on this case and even took the unprecedented act of having a small meeting for preoperative discussion.

Chang Yue explained the patient’s condition before placing the imaging films that had been taken before and after the surgery on the radiographic film viewer. The tumor’s shrinkage was evident at first glance.

This was undoubtedly exciting news. Although Old Chief Physician Pan had gained some knowledge in interventional radiology through reading, he had never expected the effect of the surgery to be this obvious.

“Chief Physician Pan, I’ve something else in mind.” It was Zheng Ren’s turn to speak. Even though he was staring at the films, he was actually focused on a different issue.

“Go ahead.” Old Chief Physician Pan looked intently at the two contrasting films with a persistent gleam in his eyes, as if he was thinking about something interesting.

“The operation is expected to begin at half-past eight tomorrow morning. What should we do if there is an emergency case within that time?” asked Zheng Ren.

“Will the Earth stop spinning in your absence?” Old Chief Physician Pan waved his hand and replied, “I can handle both emergency resuscitation and surgery. Haven’t you heard of the phrase ‘an old ox makes a straight furrow’?”

Zheng Ren smiled.

Su Yun glanced at him contemptuously and thought, ‘If this guy wasn’t good at surgery, he would have been verbally destroyed.’

Old Chief Physician Pan, who was once a chief physician in charge of a ward specifically for senior officials in the military hospital before his retirement, was an elite powerhouse of diagnosing and treating patients.

Had it not been for the fact that he was getting old, which weakened his physical state and slowed his ability to learn new surgical techniques, the Sea City General Hospital emergency building would have been completely renovated a long time ago.

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen more emergency patients than you have,” Old Chief Physician Pan assured Zheng Ren.

Since his words made sense, Zheng Ren stopped worrying about it and began to explain the procedures he would perform tomorrow.

The surgery plan, especially the part involving the 3D image reconstruction of the 64-slice CT scan, sounded very easy and straightforward.

Old Chief Physician Pan recalled that the first surgery had been completed only after four hours and asked worriedly, “This tumor-feeding artery was located using the 3D reconstruction of the CT scan; what if there is an accident?”

“There won’t be any,” answered Zheng Ren with a smile.

“There won’t?” Old Chief Physician Pan was taken by surprise.

“Yes, because I’ve done the 3D reconstruction of the CT scan myself, and there is only one abnormally proliferating blood vessel,” Zheng Ren said confidently, “Although the newly-grown artery is relatively thin and more difficult to superselect, the chance of success is still high.”

Despite the man’s ‘modesty’, Old Chief Physician Pan stared at him doubtfully and thought, ‘Since when did this kid learn to do a 3D reconstruction of 64-slice CT scan?’

“Okay.” Old Chief Physician Pan remained suspicious, a quality that all competent clinicians had to possess.

Deny nothing and doubt everything. The facts would speak for themselves.

Yang Lei, who was sitting invisibly in the corner of the room, looked shocked as well.

As a clinician, he had often ordered 64-slice CT scans and had seen numerous 3D image reconstruction of CT films, but had never heard of any clinicians who personally performed the imaging tests in the CT room.

Since when had Zheng Ren unknowingly become so proficient at his job?

That was impossible… Yang Lei remained skeptical and decided to observe Zheng Ren’s surgery tomorrow.

Although the surgery was alien to him, he could at least read simple films and know if the surgery was successful or not.

Only Chang Yue and Su Yun, who had gone to the CT room with Zheng Ren that day, understood that these were the results of his hard work.

The 3D reconstruction of CT scan had been finished from the surgeon’s perspective after almost two hours, and the results were completely different from ordinary 3D image reconstruction of CT films.

It was just like clothing: no matter how fitting ordinary pieces were, tailor-made suits were still superior in every aspect.

Of course, it came with a price—the surgeon Zheng Ren’s precious rest time.

As mentioned last time by Sister Zhao, the deputy chief of the CT room, Zheng Ren’s expertise in 3D reconstruction of 64-slice CT scans and interventional radiology alone were enough for him to get a job with an annual after-tax salary of one million yuan in southern hospitals regardless of his skill at surgery.

Custom configurations and standard equipment, was there no difference between them?

Half an hour later, the preoperative discussion was interrupted by a case of acute appendicitis referred to the emergency department. The group started to get busy again.

Chief Physician Pan stared at his competent soldiers and felt a great sense of satisfaction.

He had never expected the emergency wards to become so successful a few months ago.

Even in his youth, it was beyond his power to establish the Sea City General Hospital emergency wards all by himself.

These young doctors were very good.

The day continued with only three to four surgical cases being admitted to the emergency ward. As long as the cases arrived before the latter half of the night, nobody would complain as both Su Yun and Zheng Ren could settle them quickly.

The next morning, Old Chief Physician Pan rushed to the emergency ward to check on Zheng Yunxia’s preoperative preparations, going over every detail again to ensure a smooth operation.

There were no issues, so he asked Su Yun to wheel the patient into the operating theater before walking with Zheng Ren to the locker room and chatting along the way.

“Little Zheng, you’ve worked hard recently,” Old Chief Physician Pan said, “Enjoy yourself in Beijing for a few days, and don’t worry too much about the emergency department.”

Had Zheng Ren been speaking to Chief Surgeon Liu, he would have wondered if he was prohibited from performing surgery ever again.

However, Old Chief Physician Pan was merely suggesting it out of pure kindness so that he could get some good rest.

Zheng Ren smiled and kept quiet.

“You should pay more attention when you visit Imperial Capital,” Old Chief Physician Pan tirelessly advised, “Social networks, especially high-class connections, are very important. I’ve spoken with my comrades in 301[1] and they said there had been an important breakthrough in the new surgical technique research. Can you guess what it is?”

Zheng Ren was momentarily stunned. How could he guess it?

However, looking at Old Chief Physician Pan’s playful, childlike gaze, he had no choice but to make a few wild guesses.

Without a doubt, every answer was wrong.

“Let me tell you, this is a world’s first surgical technique,” replied Old Chief Physician Pan happily.

[1] Located in Beijing, the 301 Hospital (Chinese: 三〇一医院) or People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (Chinese: 中国人民解放军总医院), which includes the PLA Postgraduate Medical School (Chinese: 中国人民解放军医学院), is a military hospital that is a direct subsidiary to the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission and the largest general hospital under the auspices of the People’s Liberation Army. Its mission includes assuring the health of PLA and China’s leaders.