The Surgeon's Studio

After breakfast, they arrived at Sea City General Hospital. On the way, Zheng Ren transferred 1000 yuan to Feng Xuhui, telling him to accept it first before telling him his intentions.

He went to a nearby Sinopec Petrol Station to get a gas card. He was prepared to give it to Sister Zhao. Su Yun was right. He was embarrassed to trouble Sister Zhao all the time. Although he was usually reluctant to socialize, he still had to maintain certain relationships.

When he arrived at the department, Zheng Ren still went around the ward before Old Chief Physician Pan made his own ward rounds.

Professor Rudolf Wagner was lying in a ward bed, fully dressed. He had been recording all kinds of data and indicators while in the ward. When he was tired, he decided to rest on the bed next to him for a short while.

When Zheng Ren entered, the professor was sleeping, his snoring akin to thunder.

The patient blinked his eyes and looked at Zheng Ren innocently and pitifully.

If not for the professor, the patient would have recovered faster, Zheng Ren thought to himself.

Coming out of the ward and preparing to hand over his shift, Zheng Ren saw a couple in the corridor and looked around cautiously.

“Who might you guys be looking for?” Zheng Ren walked over and asked with a gentle smile.

“Excuse me, might you know where Teacher Zheng is?” the man asked.

The man was not tall. He was about 1.65 meters tall, with a stocky build and a fierce face. There seemed to be a gloomy aura emanating from his face.

The first thing Zheng Ren suspected was that he had a liver disease.

Looking at the System’s panel on the upper-right side of his vision, the diagnosis was hepatitis-B cirrhosis formed after the resection of a malignant liver tumor.

“That would be me,” Zheng Ren continued to smile.

“It’s you?” The man was a little surprised. He looked Zheng Ren up and down a few times.

“Well, who was the one who sent you here to me?”

“Chief Wang from the Secondary Hospital.” The man finally chose to believe Zheng Ren’s words. He smiled apologetically and said, “Teacher Zheng, I found something growing in the left lobe of my liver during a routine physical examination six months ago. Later, I went to the Secondary Hospital to have it removed.”

“What happened after that?”

“I thought I had recovered. I think it’s been almost since the New Year? I went for another check-up. Now, there’s another tumor growing on the right lobe of my liver. The Department Chief of the hepatobiliary and pancreatic department of the Secondary Hospital said that there’s no way to treat it.” The man continued, “He asked me to look for Chief Resident Wang of the Interventional Surgery Department. Chief Resident Wang looked at it and shook his head. He said that if there was a possibility of treatment, only you could do it, Teacher Zheng.”

This was…a patient who had been sentenced to death.

Zheng Ren knew that cirrhosis accompanied hepatitis-B. There were many small nodules on the liver, and each of these small nodules could potentially become cancerous.

After a lobe of the liver was removed after surgery, they could not continue with another surgery if another tumor grew on the other side of the liver. Besides, the probability of this occurring was almost 50%.

The patient and Zheng Yunxia were in a similar situation.

“Let me take a look at your scan,” Zheng Ren said.

The patient hurriedly handed the scan in his hand to Zheng Ren.

When he entered the office, there were still more than ten minutes before his shift would end. Zheng Ren inserted the patient’s scan into the scanner and took a look.

After the left lobe of the liver was removed, a 15cm large tumor grew on the right lobe of the liver!

In other words, the patient had basically lost all normal liver function.

No wonder the General Surgery Department and the Interventional Surgery Department in the Secondary Hospital refused to admit him for treatment. The patient in front of him could no longer continue with the usual treatment measures.

This was the sort of situation one would see in television dramas. After that, the doctor would solve the problem and say, “Let’s go back. We can eat whatever we want.”

Zheng Ren rested his chin on his hand and fell deep into thought.

The patient’s expression was a mess. Anxiety, fear, hope, plenty of other emotions could be seen on his face. However, Zheng Ren did not outwardly tell him that there was no way to treat him after seeing the MRI-enhanced film. This gave the patient some hope.

A few minutes later, Zheng Ren asked, “What kind of medical insurance are you covered by?”

“I’m an employee of the city!” The patient’s hope was greatly increased.

“Well, we can try,” Zheng Ren said. “But whether it will succeed or not is hard for me to say.”

“That’s fine!” The patient became excited all of a sudden, his face trembling slightly.

“Let’s go through the admission procedures first,” Zheng Ren said. “Then, we’ll do the preoperative check-up. If there’s nothing wrong then let’s do the surgery as soon as possible.”

The patient grabbed Zheng Ren’s hand and held it tightly. He was trying to shake his hand but it also felt as if the man was drowning and holding onto his hand like a piece of wood as he attempted to keep afloat.

“Teacher Zheng, what medicine will you be administering to me and how effective is it? I’m fine with anything as long as my insurance covers it!” the patient said.

Zheng Ren nodded and asked Chang Yue to admit the patient into the hospital.

After his shift, Zheng Ren brought the patient who had just completed the hospitalization procedures to the ward to discuss his condition in further detail.

Zheng Ren was a little worried about this patient. He was different from Chang Yue when it came to talking with patients or their families. He mainly talked about what options the patient had based on their condition that would allow them to get better.

The patient’s name was Li Chen. He was 52 years old and a local employee at Sea City.

When he came to the ward, Zheng Ren went straight to the point and said, “Old Li, there are a few requirements you must fulfill. Otherwise, no matter how hard I do things on my end, your chances of success will not be high in the long run.”

“Yes, yes.” Li Chen nodded hurriedly and listened carefully.

“First, you must control your temper. Don’t be impatient and try not to be angry whenever you can help it. This is very important. You must remember this. If you want to live, you must control your temper,” Zheng Ren said seriously.

Li Chen was a little hesitant but still nodded.

“Old Li, to put it bluntly, liver patients usually all have bad tempers,” Zheng Ren said. “In the past, you could have a short fuse but now, you can’t be that way no matter what. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes. I understand,” Li Chen quickly replied.

“Second, you can’t drink alcohol. When you eat, you have to pay attention to your diet as well.”

Zheng Ren nagged him for nearly ten minutes before he exited the ward.

This patient’s condition was even worse than Zheng Yunxia’s. Other than her dark complexion, her movements and mental state were normal. She was just like an ordinary person with no physical signs of her actual illness.

This was also the reason why many patients with liver cancer were unable to be treated once their condition was discovered.

Tumors were not painful or itchy. Who would go to the hospital and spend a few thousand yuan just for a check-up when they did not even feel that sick?

Many patients with hepatitis-B were not meticulous with their examination and treatment.

Zheng Ren left the ward. He was not in a hurry to go to the office. Instead, he began to ponder.

He felt that his attitude toward patients had changed recently. Had he become more positive? Or was he turning into someone who was more soft-hearted?

Li Chen could be taken as an example. Previously, all Zheng Ren would care about was the fact that he needed surgery. He would do his best by personally performing the 64-slice CT scan with 3D-image reconstruction.

This morning however, he had actually explained his condition to him for more than ten minutes.

What was going on?

Zheng Ren thought about it for a long time but still could not figure it out.

While pondering, the professor’s voice came from behind him. “Boss, good morning… Yawn.”

While speaking, the professor yawned loudly.

“Morning, Lil Fugui.”

“Boss, I’m going to remove the patient’s urinary catheter today. Do you think it’s okay?” Professor Rudolf Wagner asked.

The professor could make the decision on his own but out of respect for Zheng Ren, the professor still reported to Zheng Ren over and over again, letting him make the decision instead.

..

..

Author’s note:

One of my patients joked that if I wrote a book, you’d probably be in it. He himself smiled and said ‘alright’ toward it. The names in this chapter are all from real people. It’s been three years now and nothing has happened to them since then. It’ll be good if it keeps this way.