The Surgeon's Studio c1-799

by Black Ursa Prime

  [The feeling is mutual, but that surgery was done beautifully.]

  [What the hell is interventional radiology? Can I have a show of hands of those who didn't understand the whole operative process?]

  Countless comments flew across the screen. Even as doctors, they were bewildered by the cross-disciplinary surgery broadcast.

  However, none of them could criticize this surgery after witnessing the effect of treatment.

  Preoperative diagnosis was definitive: placental abruption and hemorrhagic shock; two terms that were more than enough to induce hypertension in any experienced doctor.

  Those terms were equivalent to aggressive resuscitation and a life on the brink of death.

  [Will the embolization of uterine arteries cause the uterus to necrose? I would appreciate it if anyone can enlighten me.]

  [I've the same question in mind too.]

  [...]

  [Thank you for the A2A. Instead of using embolization coils or other embolic agents, the host surgeon chose to use an absorbable gelatin sponge due to its expandable properties after absorbing blood to form an embolism for hemostasis. Since the gelatin sponge dissolves in one week, the bleeding points in the uterine arteries have already clotted and restoring blood supply to the uterus won't cause a hemorrhage again.]

  Xinglin Garden was indeed a professional website. Someone would definitely show off their knowledge and respond to questions almost instantaneously.

  [One week? The uterus will necrose by then, right?]

  [Go back and read the anatomy atlas. Here is a hint, pay attention to the source of uterine arteries and the branches that supply the uterus.]

  [The uterine functions won't be affected. Rest assured, questioner.]

  The uterine arteries embolization was complete within a few minutes.

  The smoke dissipation signified that the surgery was successful.

  The next few steps would be blood transfusion, v.a.g.i.n.a.l packing and induction of labor.

  However, subsequent procedures were simple and there was ample time to study and change the treatment plan if the need arose.

  The most difficult part actually lay in those few minutes of uterine artery embolization.

  When the surgery objectives—saving the patient's life and reproductive ability—had been fully achieved, the atmosphere in Xinglin Garden live broadcast room became lively again.

  [I've an urge to further my studies, but I'm scared after hearing that it's a private hospital that had registered an official account for advertis.e.m.e.nt.]

  [It looks like the hospital isn't led by Putian Medical Group1, so don't worry and feel free to further your studies there.]

  [Yes. If the host surgeon works in Putian Hospital and chose not to use a synthetic mesh for hernia repair, they would have been forced to resign after the surgery was complete.]

  The live broadcast room soon became quiet following the exit of thousands of viewers who failed to understand the surgery.

  Even though viewers were leaving one after another, a few people kept entering the room to watch the replay of the surgery.

  Most of these doctors were interventional radiologists who just registered new accounts in Xinglin Garden.

  This group of doctors was a minority in the nationwide medical field but were indispensable. It was why Sea City General Hospital had no choice but to perform a hysterectomy; it did not attach enough importance to interventional radiology.

  There were only a few doctors working in interventional radiology and their skills varied tremendously. Therefore, they had reached a consensus that highly skilled interventional radiologists were scarce in the medical world.

  For example, a tertiary hospital in Sorcery Capital specializing in hepatobiliary surgery could finish an interventional radiological treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma within ten minutes. That was absolutely shocking.

  …

  …

  Zheng Ren ignored Su Yun, who seemed to be provoking him with ill-intended criticism. Transferring to the emergency department just to assist him in surgery? What a ridiculous joke.

  Ten to fifteen minutes of wound compression was needed to achieve hemostasis.

  Xie Yiren was busy discarding all disposables and cleaning various surgical instruments post-surgery in the operating theater.

  Moreover, at least two nurses' signatures were required to confirm the usage of blood bags.

  Xie Yiren carried out these tedious tasks in an organized manner. The bored Chu sisters also assisted her and performed any tasks that were within their powers.

  These young staffers had slowly developed a harmonious relationship after getting along well with each other in the past few days.

  The patient's blood pressure, based on the readings on the monitor, had begun to stabilize and gradually increased a minute later. Staring at the 100-percent surgery completion rate in the System panel, Zheng Ren knew that her uterus had been saved.

  Ding-dong!

  The System's mission completion notification sound was music to his ears especially after a successful emergency rescue operation. The feeling was comparable to that of a senior consultant approaching him with a thick red packet after completing a surgery while saying, "This is a bonus from the hospital management."

  It was a beautiful dream, but a distant one as nobody actually gave a bonus for such a reason.

  Except for the System, of course.

  [Emergency Room Mission: Save A Mother-To-Be accomplished. The surgery completion rate is 100 percent. 100 skill points, 1000 experience points and a silver c.h.e.s.t obtained. Time spent: 23 minutes and 15 seconds. The remaining time is converted to 9405 experience points.]

  Ding-dong!

  [Special Mission: Alone Without Assistance accomplished. The surgery completion rate is 100 percent. Mission Reward: A set of lead apron with radioactive energy conversion properties awarded and the host's interventional radiology skill is upgraded to the Master rank. The remaining time is converted to 9405 experience points.]

  Zheng Ren was again surprised by the System's unconstrained creativity.

  He knew that the System had been prompting him into learning interventional radiology ever since it started giving him various tempting offers.

  However, he was born in the general surgery department and simply could not comprehend the purpose of interventional radiology, which was why he had given up every time.

  This time, upon encountering this emergency case, the System had seized this opportunity and gave Zheng Ren a special mission with an irresistible reward—an interventional radiology skill upgrade to the Master rank.

  Was the System trying to lead him down a path of no return in interventional radiology?

  What could Zheng Ren possibly do about it? However, he would not mind at all since it could improve his overall skill as well. As the older generations said, knowledge was no burden, and he firmly believed in that wisdom.

  'If I had put more effort into interventional radiology in the beginning, perhaps I could have saved fifty hours of surgery intensive training time. Damn, what a pity.'

  The fact that Zheng Ren had poured a massive amount of experience points into the Shop shattered his heart to pieces.

  There were still a few minutes left until complete clot formation, so without wasting any time, Zheng Ren started calculating the skill points and experience points in his inventory.

  Despite completing two missions, his general surgery skill tree remained the same at 2044 points, but there were 1529 skill points, 2 skill books and a silver c.h.e.s.t in his inventory. Adding the experience points from the mission rewards to the remaining 9920 points, he currently had 28730 experience points in his savings.

  These experience points were more than enough to purchase a set of surgical equipment, but they would be insufficient if he wanted to master a surgical technique.

  'I need to work harder," Zheng Ren thought.

  Regarding the random lead apron with some magical transformation pow
er, Zheng Ren failed to locate it and presumed that it was stored somewhere in the System.

  Zheng Ren decided to leave the silver c.h.e.s.t, which could contain special rewards, aside for the time being. He was afraid that opening the c.h.e.s.t would release mystical rays that could attract the attention of the nancy boy—Su Yun, who was currently standing beside him.

  Yes, for ordinary people like Zheng Ren, the handsome Su Yun was a typical nancy boy.

  In this era where appearance ruled the world, Su Yun would attract an incredible amount of attention no matter where he was. Plain-looking bachelors had no choice but to weep alone in a corner.

  At least, that was what he had convinced himself of in order to comfort his fragile heart.

  Ten minutes later, Zheng Ren stopped compressing and dressed the femoral artery puncture point. Then, he transferred the patient to the stretcher trolley and let Chief Su of the obstetrics department to send her back to the ward.

  Zheng Ren believed that Chief Su would not encounter any issues explaining the patient's condition to her family members.

  They would likely be exhilarated after knowing that both the patient's life and uterus had been saved.

  Regarding the fetus… Its death was fated and there was nothing they could do about it. Gestational hypertension was extremely difficult to treat and its pathophysiology remained poorly understood even until now.

  Zheng Ren gazed after the slowly vanishing stretcher trolley before taking his lead apron off.

  His surgical gown was completely drenched in sweat.

  A stressful event such as an emergency rescue operation would cause the body to secrete a large amount of catecholamines, hence the diaphoresis. In addition, an airtight lead apron weighing more than ten kilograms had to be worn throughout the interventional radiological treatment process. That alone was more than enough to induce perspiration in its wearer.

  'An interventional radiologist's life is really difficult,' Zheng Ren thought.

  Why did the System insist on guiding him to interventional radiology? It was a good question, but Zheng Ren had no answer for it. Putian Medical Group, an organized group of entrepreneurs from Putian, Fujian province that dominates most of China's private hospitals. These hospitals, though mostly licensed, have poor regulations and often incite controversy regarding their unsafe practices. Putian hospitals have also been reported to charge exorbitantly large sums of money from their patients.

  Chapter 76 - New Guy Reporting In

  After the surgery, Zheng Ren jotted down the emergency meeting minutes and the details of the surgery. Then, he went for his usual ward rounds.

  Chang Yue was in one room, chatting with the family members. Zheng Ren did not consider it slacking off as communication was part of a doctor's responsibility.

  If Zheng Ren and Chang Yue were to fuse into one person, they would be the perfect doctor.

  Hmm, the thought was slightly disturbing. Zheng Ren shook his head and crushed the idea.

  The patients in the ward were doing well, and some were even being discharged.

  Most of the patients were locals who opted to leave once they regained mobility. Even a single room in the hospital could not compare to the comfort of one's own home.

  Those who stayed in triple-bedroom wards had to deal with overcrowding as visitors flitted in and out. Sometimes, it felt hard to breathe in such rooms, and patients were thus often eager to be discharged from the hospital.

  The hospital did not have many foreign patients as Sea City was neither the blessed city nor the vice city of the nation1. Regardless of medical insurers' pleas to remain in the hospital, patients were still discharged accordingly.

  The last room had Cen Meng's uncle.

  Cen Meng was in the room reading as his uncle rested with closed eyes.

  It was an open surgery, so recovery was much slower.

  There had been patients who left the hospital just one day after laparoscopic surgeries.

  Zheng Ren had even heard of escaped patients gorging themselves and developing pancreatitis as a result.

  Zheng Ren entered the room and gave Cen Meng a faint smile. There was nothing to say between the two of them. Now, it was strictly a relationship between doctor and patient's family.

  He meant Cen Meng no harm but was not about to forgive the man. Even though Cen Meng had knelt before him in sincere apology, Zheng Ren held onto his grudges.

  The awkwardness between the two was palpable to Chang Yue.

  She ignored the two chief residents and headed straight to the patient's bed to start chatting with the patient.

  The conversation captured Zheng Ren's attention and he found out Cen Meng's uncle was a fan of Japanese cuisine. Generally speaking, Japanese cuisine was mostly based on ocean fish which had relatively fewer parasitic worms.

  There were unscrupulous businesses in the country that intentionally served freshwater fish as ocean fish. Freshwater fish had a higher incidence of parasitic worms. Ingestion of these infected fish could lead to a case like that of Cen Meng's uncle.

  Of course, luck and consumption volume were at play here.

  Zheng Ren had once met a septuagenarian who loved essential oil massages. He had the habit of getting said massages twice a day. Three months later, he developed acute kidney failure due to overexposure to some unknown substances in the essential oil.

  At the end of his ward round, Zheng Ren was very impressed with Chang Yue.

  She was impassive toward him but incredibly sincere when dealing with patients. She knew about Cen Meng's uncle's love for fresh seafood and proposed a recovery plan with that in mind. The hospital was lucky to get a resident like her.

  Zheng Ren had no doubts that Chang Yue would never treat him with such warmth. Without much fanfare, he went back to his office to do some reading.

  He was a single dog for a reason.

  Zheng Ren was a homebody, his home being the office and the operating theater.

  As the days passed, the weather got colder, and yet the emergency department was heating up.

  In two days, Zheng Ren treated eight acute appendicitis patients and four with acute cholecystitis.

  The long-term main mission was to become the best general surgeon. He still had six unused skill points from surgery completions. Among the eight appendectomies, two had perforation at the appendix while one was gangrenous. Based on their classification, the three procedures were second-grade surgeries which warranted double points. From the appendectomies alone, Zheng Ren was awarded 11 completion points.

  The four cholecystectomies were done through laparoscopy and thus considered a third-grade surgery. He gained 16 points for them.

  A total of 27 points were added to his store. He also completed three main missions related to the vascular system, giving him another three points.

  From all this, Zheng Ren was rewarded with 30 skill points and 3000 experience points, reaching a total of 1549 experience points1. After all those surgeries, his general surgery skill tree was up to 2065 points.

  He was one step closer to the Master rank. His heart was filled with glee.

  Zheng Ren just needed to focus on completing surgeries. He never thought this day would come. When he was with the first general surgery department, the surgeries were all done by the chief resident and he had no chance to learn.

  This was hands-on experience. As older doctors would say, even the dumbest person would be able to perform an appendectomy after practicing a hundred times.

  It was all about practice.

  Going home was unnecessary to Zheng Ren. He figured that he should simply take a day off and move his belongings to the hospital.

  At the house, he ran into Xiao Zhao and they talked for a while.

  The livestream had initially been a huge success but reports of it being a breach of privacy soon emerged.

  Hence, Xiao Zhao's livestream was suspended.

  Xiao Zhao was not saddened by the fact. Instead, he believed this was a blessing
in disguise. He was in the midst of testing a few public websites, as he planned to edit the surgery videos and upload them to an open access site.

  Zheng Ren was amused by Xiao Zhao's eagerness.

  Zheng Ren had no brains for business and marketing. He knew nothing about Weibo or other public websites and thus left such matters to Xiao Zhao. He only urged Xiao Zhao to keep it on the down-low.

  Packing a suitcase with some clean clothes, Zheng Ren went back to the emergency room.

  As he stepped into the corridor, he saw a detestable figure.

  Su Yun had an unmistakable profile. Zheng Ren had a severe, irrevocable case of face blindness but Su Yun's face still stood out.

  There was only one figure standing in the hallway and Zheng Ren recognized Su Yun immediately.

  "Chief Zheng, I'm reporting in." Su Yun noted the suitcase behind Zheng Ren but made no moves to help. He leaned against the wall, striking a pose that seemed juvenile to Zheng Ren.

  For a moment, Zheng Ren felt that Chu Yanzhi and Su Yun would make a good couple. Chu Yanzhi also had that childish habit of cheering for herself before an anesthesia procedure.

  However, Chu Yanzhi was much more tolerable since she was a young and pretty lady.

  Su Yun, on the other hand, was inexcusable.

  Zheng Ren tamped down his disgust and forced a smile. "Why are you here?"

  "I'm reporting in, didn't you hear? Did the radiation exposure damage your auditory nerve? Or maybe the nephrotoxicity caused a loss of hearing? That's a bit over-the-top from just one procedure," Su Yun answered.

  This man deserved a beating.

  Zheng Ren cursed internally. He lost out in looks and wit when it came to Su Yun. He walked away with his suitcase, ignoring the man.

  "What's wrong? Am I not welcome?" Su Yun doggedly followed Zheng Ren all the way to the on-call room. He leaned against the doorframe like a boneless person with a mysterious smile on his face.

  "Not really," Zheng Ren said, "You should report to Old Chief Physician Pan. I doubt he would want someone like you."