Surgery Godfather

Dr. Yu from the Overseas Chinese Building sent a WeChat message: “Doctor Yang, you’re amazing. Indeed, it was an inferior vena cava thrombus. A clot was about to break off, that was close! We asked the cardiology emergency team to intervene last night and they put a filter in.”

It turned out to be an inferior vena cava thrombus. It seems that physical examinations are not only important, but also require skilful hands.

If it weren’t for the extraordinary palpation ability gained during orthopedic training, I wouldn’t have made such an accurate diagnosis.

It seems I should take the opportunity to improve my examination skills. Although there are many gaps in my knowledge, system points are always short.

While washing my face and brushing my teeth, I casually entered the system space. To my surprise, my points had increased by 1,000 to a total of 10,000.

I have not had any recent tasks, so how did I earn points?

I checked the point tracking record and found a new entry under the last task: Successfully diagnosing an inferior vena cava thrombus by physical examination, avoiding a fatal pulmonary embolism, rewarded 1000 points.

When did that task get assigned? I didn’t accept this task, did I?

Yang Ping was really confused. Could the system have made a mistake?

Just as I was wondering, the mechanical female voice said, “After a recent system evaluation, the host performed well and the daily reward mode has been activated to supplement the task reward system.”

Daily reward? Yang Ping inquired.

The system was more patient with this, the mechanical voice continued to explain, “Yes, in daily medical treatment activities, if significant positive outcomes are produced for the patient, you will be rewarded certain system points. It mainly focuses on surgeries and rescues.”

This is good, providing an additional way to earn points. Otherwise, I’d only be able to rely on system-assigned tasks. It can be rather passive when there are no tasks and you’re left empty-handed.

Although this channel does not offer many points, it is very stable. Over time, small amounts add up to make a substantial difference.

This is essentially like having a basic salary. At least I won’t go hungry.

After the morning handover, Director Han led everyone on ward rounds. All patients were stable.

Wang Feng gifted everyone a caricature. It was a scene of several doctors operating under the shadowless lamp. Everyone chatted with him for a while. He was quite optimistic and did not look like a patient with AIDS. His girlfriend was taking good care of him.

After the rounds, when we returned to the office, we saw Director Zhuang from the Overseas Chinese Building. He was standing by the office window enjoying the view and saw Director Han and his team.

Director Zhuang greeted Director Han and then shook hands with Yang Ping, “Xiao Yang, I’m really grateful for what you did yesterday. If you hadn’t made the diagnosis in time, we would have all overlooked it. The thought is terrifying.”

Director Han said with joy, “Director Zhuang called me this morning to thank you in person. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted on coming.”

Director Zhuang laughed and said, “Definitely, I must express my gratitude in person. Director Han, arrange for us to get together some time. It’s been a while since we all got together. You set the time. I know you all are busy and I wouldn’t dare to decide on my own.”

“I’ll check and call you back,” said Director Han.

Knowing they were about to head into surgery, Director Zhuang didn’t wish to impose: “You’re busy. I’ll leave now. Let’s get together sometime soon. When I have spare time, I need to talk to the Dean about this.”

I felt as if Yang Ping were a relative of Director Zhuang, the respect he was showing was immense. Personal thanks, an invitation to dinner, and even going to talk to the dean about it.

However, making friends with such an influential figure from the Overseas Chinese Building couldn’t be too bad. It would make many things easier in the future. For instance, when I go home for New Year, I won’t need to vie for high-speed train tickets. A phone call, and someone would deliver it to me.

Do I get a holiday for New Year? No!

After seeing off Director Zhuang, Director Han said: “Xiao Wu Zhang Lin, go to the operating room to prepare for surgery. The two of you come to my office, where is Tian Yuan?”

“I just saw her doing the rounds.”

“Ask her to come as well.”

Several of us sat down in his office. Director Han took a sip of hot tea and said: “There’s a patient with a severe pelvic fracture in Shipo County People’s Hospital. It’s quite a serious case, and rather complicated. For now, they are conducting a skeletal traction. Director Miao invited me to assist with the operation. The consultation form was faxed to the medical department yesterday. I really can’t get away, so I told Director Miao I’ll send someone else. They will probably traction for about ten days before they can operate. Tian Yuan, you lead Yang Ping and Song Zimo there next Sunday. The radiographs are with me. I’ll email them to you guys later. Have a look in advance and make a plan.”

Everyone took a look at the radiographs. Good heavens, the pelvic acetabulum was all fractured. It was a mess.

Director Han is sending himself too, isn’t he going to lend a hand to Director Tian?

If I could complete the system’s training for pelvic fractures, I could definitely help Director Tian. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to buy the training package.

Now that there are daily point rewards, with ten days until we go to Shipo County, there might be a chance if I can keep doing surgeries crazily.

Once the decision was made, it was immediately put into action.

In the operating room’s changing room, Yang Ping put on his cap and mask in front of the mirror, saying to Song Zimo, “I’ll handle all surgeries for the next ten days—don’t interfere. Also, speak to President Guo about my taking over his emergency cases for that period too.”

Shocked, Song Zimo asked, “What do you mean? You’re not even sparing the emergency operations?”

Yang Ping nodded and said, “Don’t ask questions, just help me get it sorted,” before walking away.

Touching his forehead, Song Zimo mumbled to himself, “Okay! It’s settled!”

Zhang Lin asked Little Five, “Is big brother okay?”

Little Five couldn’t figure it out either. Looking thoughtfully around and seeing no one else, he said mysteriously, “Eighty percent chance he has won over Su Yixuan and is raising money for a diamond ring by doing some extra surgeries for a commission.”

“If that’s the case, I should stock up on instant noodles.” Zhang Lin nodded.

“What’s it got to do with you?” Little Five replied.

Zhang Lin said, “I’m raising money for a red packet! I can’t be stingy—it can’t disgrace our brothers.”

“Good point, also help me buy a box while you’re there. I like the braised beef flavor.” Little Five said seriously.

The word from Song Zimo elated the boss. He was indeed delighted that someone intended to relieve him from the surgical duties – he wasn’t hearing things wrongly, was he?

“Are you sure?” President Guo seemed a bit puzzled.

Song Zimo assured, “Definitely. Big Brother has been studying some operations recently and needs to collect cases. There will be a lot of cases, so…”

“Alright, what if we let Big Brother collect even more cases, so he could cover the entire month?” President Guo was generous.

Song Zimo rolled his eyes at him and dropped a remark, “Hmm, remember where the operating room door is?”

“Over there?” President Guo was a bit confused. Young Master Song’s words were always so cryptic.

Unable to do anything, Song Zimo had to serve as an assistant for ten days.

Zhang Lin and Little Five pulled out all the stops to persuade Director Tian’s team to schedule surgeries, all for the sake of research, hoping for their support.

Before they could extend their reach to other groups, Song Zimo promptly curtailed all attempts. It was different with Director Tian, considering they were all brothers. Reaching out to other groups would not be well-received.

President Guo’s days were quite splendid, watching dramas in the duty room, with snacks provided by Zhang Lin and Little Five.

Since taking over the hospital, he had not had such an easy time. Fate worked in mysterious ways — sometimes, when it wants you to have a good time, you don’t even have a choice to not enjoy it.

After ten days, Yang Ping lay in the duty room, exhausted. He began to do some tallying.

12,000 points… accumulated painstakingly from daily rewards of a few tens to a couple of hundred points, were added to the previous 9,000 points, making it a total of 21,000 points.

Finally, he could afford the 20,000-point pelvic-acetabular surgery training.

Accumulating more than 20,000 points was not easy, but it filled the last gap in trauma orthopedics.

Yang Ping entered the system space. He still had 5,900 out of the 6,000 anatomy cases left from the super cultivation method.

He started with a few dozen partial dissections of the pelvis. Not wanting to waste the specimens, after the partial dissections, he carried out full-body dissections.

After completing the dissection of the specimens, Yang Ping went ahead with the training for pelvic-acetabular fractures.

Pelvic-acetabular fractures are high-risk and difficult, so the system training package starts from 3,000 cases.

He purchased 3,000 cases of pelvic-acetabular fracture surgery for 20,000 points.

It started with few hours per surgery, then reduced to half an hour, and later, the fastest cases were completed in just ten minutes.

It wasn’t until the system assessed his proficiency at performing these surgeries as perfect that he left the system space, having spent several months there.

Looking at his skill upgrade, trauma orthopedics had reached the master level, indicating that all the branches within trauma orthopedics had been mastered.

The foundation was finally laid!