The Surgeon's Studio

Peace settled over the days to come.

The weekend passed in relative tranquility.

The emergency department faced little ruckus in these two days. A total of five appendices and three gall bladders were removed. The patients were admitted in the day, allowing Su Yun and Yang Lei to complete the procedures while the sun was up.

As chief resident, Zheng Ren only stood watch in the observatory room.

Su Yun was an impeccable assistant and, without Zheng Ren in the operating room, he was able to stand out. His methods were practised and his hands were steady in execution. With his surgical performance, he was on par with a department chief.

A prefecture-level hospital department chief who could perfectly complete minor surgeries.

Occasionally Zheng Ren had wondered if Su Yun had a System of his own. The man learned new things at an extraordinary speed. As a doctor from a cardiothoracic background, he operated the laparoscope with incredible precision.

How Su Yun mastered his skills had nothing to do with Zheng Ren.

Zheng Ren was grateful he could leave all the minor surgeries to Su Yun.

Recently, Zheng Ren and Xie Yiren had gotten used to the new carpool arrangement. Every day, Xie Yiren would drive Zheng Ren home and they would happily chat in the car. The awkwardness from before had subsided over time.

On Monday morning, during the morning rounds, Old Chief Physician Pan expressed his approval for the orderly manner in which the emergency department had facilitated admissions during the weekend. A brief inspection later, he went back to his own office.

When Old Chief Physician Pan left, Chang Yue called Zheng Ren over.

“Chief Zheng, that old man you brought into the wards; I think there’s a problem with him,” Chang Yue said.

“What’s the problem?”

“I’ve been talking to his children and asked about their family. The old man’s elder brother passed away three months ago from lung cancer. Apparently, since then, his wife has ordered him to stop smoking,” Chang Yue said.

This was a family of long-living people; how enviable.

“And?”

“The old man was a chronic smoker, so quitting was obviously not easy. But the family was strict about it. I’m sure you would know a thing or two about that,” Chang Yue said playfully and shot him a look. Zheng Ren was confused.

“So the old man faked being sick. He’s been saying he has frequent urination and goes to the toilet once an hour. Then, he comes back from the toilet with the smell of smoke on his clothes. A cigarette an hour is pretty plausible to me,” Chang Yue detailed.

Zheng Ren’s brows furrowed.

No wonder the old man wanted to stay in the hospital; he was avoiding home so he could smoke his cigarettes.

“Have you told the family?” Zheng Ren asked.

“Not formally, but I think the children are giving the old man a pass on the issue,” Chang Yue replied.

The old man’s children were in their sixties, so their observation skills might be on the lower side.

Moreover, they had watched their father smoke for their entire lives. The smell of tobacco would not be noteworthy to them.

However, the hospital could not house the old man forever.

Zheng Ren smiled and said, “Thank you for your trouble.”

“Hm?” Chang Yue seemed to sense there was a deeper meaning to the words.

“I assume you followed the old man into the toilet every hour?” Chang Yue’s expression suggested Zheng Ren made the wrong assumption.

As a doctor, it was not uncommon to go to the toilet to check on the patient’s stool.

It was no one’s favorite task, but for the sake of the patient, one had to do it.

Chang Yue’s expression was neutral as she said, “I instructed his caretaker to notify me whenever he came back from the toilet. That’s how I caught wind of the smoking.”

“…”

“Now, I’m handing the case back to you.” Chang Yue turned and left for the computer terminal to key in some patient details.

Regardless of her methods, Zheng Ren was grateful to have Chang Yue. Her attention to detail was paramount to solving the case.

Zheng Ren frowned as he tried to figure out his next step.

“Chang Yue, what do you think we should do?” he resorted to asking when he could not find a good solution.

“There’s nothing much we can do. Just tell the family the truth.”

Chang Yue’s idea was not great, but at the moment, that was the only option they had.

As a unique case, Zheng Ren gave the old man special attention.

After all, he was at an age where death could take him despite a clean bill of health.

They had to make sure the old man had adequate care. A sudden death could spark a lawsuit if the family was unreasonable.

Although old age was not something they could treat, Zheng Ren refused to step on a land mine and treaded carefully.

He had to inform Old Chief Physician Pan about this ticking time bomb.

Zheng Ren exchanged a few words with Chang Yue and noted down a preliminary plan before heading to Old Chief Physician Pan’s office.

His phone rang before he could reach the bottom floor.

“Hello.”

“Oh, Director Zhang. Yes, yes. We’re good on this end.” A smile broke out on Zheng Ren’s face.

“Alright, then I’ll inform Old Chief Physician Pan about this. I’ll take a day off to visit the Secondary Hospital. I’ll update you if I have any news.”

With that, Zheng Ren hung up the call.

Director Zhang from the Secondary Hospital was fully committed to the TIPS surgery collaboration. In one weekend, he was able to prepare five patients with decompensated cirrhosis for the procedure.

Five was less than desired.

Zheng Ren mulled over the ten surgeries he had to complete for the mission. Perhaps it would not be as easy as he thought.

After all, 95% of interventional surgeons have never completed a single TIPS surgery in their entire career.

‘One step at a time, one surgery at a time,’ Zheng Ren thought.

He arrived at Old Chief Physician Pan’s office and found the door open. He peeked inside and saw a nurse sobbing in the office chair.

‘What was going on?’

Old Chief Physician Pan noticed Zheng Ren and shot him a look. He spoke to the nurse in a kind voice, “Little Song, rest assured, we will handle this complaint. Zheng Ren, you’ll see to this.”

Zheng Ren was speechless.

He was here to inform Old Chief Physician Pan about the land mine he just encountered, but now the old chief was throwing another mine in his direction.

How frustrating. What was the complaint about?

The nurse’s sobs earned her no pity from Zheng Ren. He tried to guess what her complaint was about.

“Little Song, what happened?” Zheng Ren walked over and asked.

At the question, the nurse let out a cry and the subsequent sobs were louder than before.

“I want to quit! I’m done working here!” Nurse Song shouted through the cries.

“Come now, let’s talk it out. There’s nothing to worry about with Old Chief Physician Pan here,” Zheng Ren consoled the nurse.

After a few minutes of convincing, the nurse finally calmed down and was able to tell them about what had happened.