Great Doctor Ling Ran

Panda Novel

At the waiting room of the Emergency Department’s Operating Area.

Huo Congjun laid out his tea set. He used an induction cooker to boil a pot of aged white tea and filled up the teacups, which were in front of everyone. He smiled and said, “Please excuse me for this simple and crude set up.”

“The tea’s quite good.” The white and plump Department Director Bai drank a cup. He then picked up a piece of mung bean cake and said, “I’ve heard that Yun Hua Hospital’s mung bean cake is famous. People would queue up just to buy it, right?”

“The second canteen’s Master Chef Guo comes from Suzhou. Su-style mung bean cake is smooth, and it fits the tastebuds of the people in Yun Hua. I’ll give you each a portion later for you to bring home and try.” Huo Jun also smiled and took a piece of mung bean cake. He bit off a third of it.

“Do you think you can bribe us with a box of mung bean cakes?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I just want to fight for my chance fair and square.” Huo Congjun cackled.

“Well, you are staging an unfair competition right now.” Department Director Bai ate a piece of mung bean cake in two to three bites. After that, he no longer took any. He used his stubby hand to pick up his teacup and tasted the tea.

After Department Director Bai graduated with a degree in Trauma and Orthopaedics from the military hospital, he was quickly transferred to the Gynaecology Department. Hence, he gained a pair of small and deft hands.

The hospital environment twenty years ago was incomparable to the present. Male obstetricians were always not accepted by the medical community back then. But because Department Director Bai showed exceptional results when he used his small hands to rescue many pregnant women in critical condition, he only stayed in the Emergency Department for less than three years before he was snatched by the Gynaecology Department.

During an era when various medical instruments and facilities were not developed, and there were many pregnant women from overseas as well as critically ill pregnant women, Department Director Bai saved countless lives from death’s door. He also rescued many families with his skilful, small hands.

As of this day, Department Director Bai had been promoted to become the Department Director of the Maternal and Child Health Department of the Maternity and Child Care Hospital in Changxi Province. Under his jurisdiction were the Maternity Emergency Unit, the first, second, and third divisions in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department, High-Risk Obstetrics Department, the Prenatal Diagnosis Center, the Birth Center as well as other departments. He was living a much more comfortable life than Huo Congjun.

Department Director Bai was also the most powerful foreign aid that Huo Congjun had found.

As a doctor who had lived for many years, Department Director Bai had seen too many medical experts. He met many foreign freelance surgeons. As he thought about Ling Ran’s age, he felt that Huo Congjun’s plan was unreliable.

He said, “We’re here to understand the actual current situation of your department. Old Huo, you gave us a show. We’re happy to have seen it, but what are we supposed to say when we go back for our meetings? There’s a young, twenty-year-old doctor in Yun Hua Hospital’s Emergency Department. He’s exceptionally talented and was able to perform a tendon anastomosis in no man’s land under thirty minutes? The attendees of the meeting would laugh, and we wouldn’t be able to continue with the meeting.”

Huo Congjun listened and laughed. “What is it about having the operation done in thirty minutes? Haven’t all of you seen how well the surgery was performed earlier?”

Department Director Bai nodded slightly. “I do admit that it was well done, but you can’t exaggerate it too much. Yun Hua Hospital has Doctor Pan, who’s a department associate director, but even he can’t finish a surgery using the M-Tang technique in thirty minutes. Furthermore, even if it was done quickly, you can’t guarantee that the results of the surgery will turn out good. We’ve been doctors for many years. I believe there’s no need for me to explain this logic?”

“We’ll know whether the surgery went well by examining the patient’s prognosis.” Huo Congjun’s quick temper seemed to have disappeared as he patiently answered Department Director Bai’s question.

The two of them had a long friendship. If they were actors in an opera, they would be in a two-man comedy act as actors who had practiced their routine countless times.

The people next to them listened thoughtfully.

Some of the questions, which the others originally found inconvenient to ask because of their good relationship with Huo Congjun, were resolved in the dialogue between the two.

Department Director Bai saw this and smiled. He nodded at Huo Congjun and picked up another mung bean cake. He smiled and said, “I can’t help it. My weight loss plan for today has been destroyed by old Huo.”

“You’re blaming me now?” Huo Congjun ​​laughed.

Department Director Pu from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital smiled slightly and said, “Mung bean cakes are good. Li Shizhen mentioned before that you can grind the mung beans, sift it to obtain the powder, and make Er Dun cakes [1]. After some research, they found that an Er Dun cake is very similar to the present mung bean cake. It can be consumed to reduce heat and avoid contracting the plague…”

The group of few people had some tea and finished all the mung bean cakes. They quoted a lot of things that Li Shizhen may or may not have said.

When they were stuffed with tea and cakes, someone came in to notify them, “We’re ready to start the surgery.”

“Let Ling Ran start the operation first. We’ll be right on our way.” Huo Congjun poured some tea for everyone and said, “Let’s part ways for a quarter of an hour. Do whatever you want to do, then we’ll gather back here after a while.”

“You certainly make good arrangements, old Huo.” Department Director Bai did not deny the goodwill. He got up and went to the toilet.

The other doctors who had their fill also had their own plans.

…..

The doctors who were present when Ling Ran declared that he only needed thirty minutes to finish a single-finger laceration surgery thought he was just bragging about his abilities. They did not mention it again. Even Huo Congjun himself thought that Ling Ran had boasted about himself a little too much.

Other tendon repairs could indeed be done thirty minutes if they were not in no man’s land. In fact, thirty minutes was more than enough. For example, when a surgeon performed debridement and sutures, they also performed various tendon anastomoses as well. It was very simple. All they needed to do was pull the two tendons together and stitch both of them together. If one’s skills in suturing were better, then the surface of the suture would be smoother. For those whose skills in suturing were poorer, the suture would end up a little crooked, but it was still fine.

However, the biggest difference between common tendon anastomoses and the M-Tang technique would be the differing suture force.

Take the common Kessler suture as an example; it was a single-stranded suture, which meant that the thread would penetrate one end of the ruptured tendon, and at the same time, penetrate through the other end of the same ruptured tendon. Then, they would be pulled together, thereby connecting both ends of the tendons together.

The double-modified Kessler suturing technique was a looped suture. The surgeon would insert the thread into one side of the tendon, connect it to the other side of the tendon, pull the thread out, insert it again, connect it to the first side, and then form a loop.

The M-Tang technique was a triple-stranded suture, and in order not to damage the tendon excessively, there was great emphasis on how to pull the three core suture strands.

Even with simple calculations, it was easy to gauge that the M-Tang technique would require three times the time needed to perform the Kessler suture technique, plus the difficulty would also be three times harder.

In fact, being able to complete a single-finger suture using the M-Tang technique in an hour was already considered quick. Considering the possibility of accidents during an operation, it was normal to estimate that the operation would be completed in one and a half hours or even two hours.

Ling Ran’s statement of being able to complete the surgery in half an hour was considered very boastful, at least in Yun Hua City itself.

However, Ling Ran’s Master Level M-Tang Technique had long since been certified by the system as the best in Yun Hua.

After he obtained the experience of performing three thousand upper limb dissections, Ling Ran’s understanding of tendon surgery also went up.

He cut open the skin of the patient’s arm, confirmed the location and state of the ruptured tendon, picked it out, and began the suturing.

Suturing was the first skill that medical students learned. It was also the first skill that Ling Ran acquired. Similarly, it was also the most-used technique in surgery.

Ling Ran’s Master Level M-Tang Technique and Master Level Simple Interrupted Suture would be enough to let him turn a tendon into a Transformer.

Ling Ran looked down at the patient’s head. He shook his head and tried again.

*Hiss*

The airtight access door was opened again.

Huo Congjun, Department Director Bai, and the others entered, laughing and talking as they did.

At this moment, Ling Ran voiced his orders, “Scissors.

“Check.

“Count the gauze.”

When the doctors heard this, they were immediately dumbfounded. Everyone knew that this meant the surgery was done. So, they all looked at Huo Congjun.

Department Director Bai coughed and said, “Old Huo, it’d be boring if you put up a show like this.”

“If this was just an act, I’ll eat everything on the operating table,” Huo Congjun snarled and cried out, as though he had been treated unjustly. He asked Ling Ran, “Are you done?”

“Yes,” Ling Ran looked at his watch and said, “I expected to take thirty minutes, but in actuality, I only took twenty-one minutes.”

Then, Ling Ran looked at Ma Yanlin.

“I did inform them about the starting time of the operation…” Ma Yanlin said in an aggrieved tone.

“We knew that the operation had begun.” Huo Congjun waved his hand, but he could not tell the three individuals that they were stalling for time in the toilet, could he?

But the mung bean cake was really oily, and the tea improved digestion…

“How long do we have until the next surgery? I remember that it’s still a single-finger laceration,” Huo Congjun asked.

Ma Yanlin rushed to answer, “The patient has arrived at Operating Theater 3. Preparations are ready.”

“Can you continue?” Huo Congjun asked Ling Ran again.

“Yes.” Ling Ran then looked at Lu Wenbin and said, “I’ll leave the rest of the suturing to you?”

“Ah… sure! Yes!” Even though Lu Wenbin did not have a chance to show his talents and obtain praise, he gained a chance to operate on a patient. For a moment, he did not know if he should be happy or worried.

Ling Ran took off his surgical gown and the other things. Then he threw them into the bucket. He washed his hands again and went straight to Operating Theater 3. He told Huo Congjun, “Could you help me tell the patients scheduled later that their operation can be scheduled earlier?”

As long as he had surgeries to perform and a continuous source of patients, Ling Ran did not care if he was tired or not.

“All right,” Huo Congjun agreed without hesitation and said, “Perform the operation well.”

“I will,” Ling Ran said as he walked into Operating Theater 3. While he observed the MRI scan and other related scans at the door, he allowed the nurse to help him put on a new surgical gown.

Huo Congjun smiled at the others and said, “Please continue to observe him. I’m going to make a call.”

*Hiss*

*Hiss*

Huo Congjun went out to make a phone call. After about ten minutes, he came back. He noticed that Department Director Bai and the others were staring at the operating table, which was located at the middle of the operating theater.

“How is it? Has it started?” Huo Congjun asked.

“Holy moly, he’s almost done.” Department Director Bai’s emotions surged. “We can’t even do a cesarean section that fast!”

Huo Congjun was also amazed. He turned his head and looked at the expressionless Ling Ran. A mischievous intent rose in him. He coughed and said, “Just being fast alone won’t tell us the results. We still have to pay attention to the quality…”

“You’re impossible. You’re still pretending even when you’ve gotten such a gem.” Department Director Bai pursed his lips, but he glanced at his own rough, short hands. They were once smooth and short. He secretly pondered in his heart, ‘Does this Ling Ran happen to also be exceptionally gifted in tendon repairs?’

Translator’s Notes:

1. Er Dun cake: A traditional pastry throughout China, also known as mung bean cakes (Green Bean Cakes).

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