Chapter 58

Over the weekend, Yang Ping enjoyed his leisure time by entering the system space to read books.

He collected all relevant books about pelvic acetabular fractures and had them all on his bookshelf.

Now, Yang Ping could confirm that whether it’s reading or practicing surgery in the system space, the efficiency is higher than in the real world.

While reading in the system, Yang Ping almost never forgot what he read, and his understanding and insight into the knowledge were very fast.

The only drawback was that he needed points to support reading time, but it was quite generous to trade one point for one minute.

Yang Ping read book after book about pelvic acetabular fractures, preparing theoretical knowledge for future surgeries.

He thus spent his rare free weekend.

Director Han returned on Sunday night and attended the shift on Monday.

He brought good news. The establishment of the Orthopedics Research Institute in collaboration with Fudan University Medical School had been finalized. Representatives from the other party would come to sign the agreement this week.

Next, it would be the preparation. The location was not a problem; Sanbo had an eight-story building that was not in use, and it wouldn’t be a problem to use one floor.

This building used to house a day surgery center, but it failed and was abandoned, with operating rooms and wards kept idle.

Money wasn’t a problem either. Sanbo had a fund supported by overseas Chinese. The money for equipment and scientific research could come from this fund, simplifying operations.

After the shift, Director Han called Yang Ping into the office and thought for a moment before saying, “Be well prepared for next year’s doctoral exam. You must pass.”

Then his tone softened, “If you’re really too busy, you could also follow the exemption pathway, but it might be a bit more troublesome.”

Director Han still hoped that Yang Ping could earn his doctorate by passing the exam and secure a spot in the doctoral program genuinely.

Yang Ping used to perform well academically, but he didn’t pursue further studies at the time to join the workforce earlier. Now he had the opportunity and naturally, he wouldn’t let it pass.

Moreover, studying under Director Han, he would likely have plenty of operational experience in the department.

Yang Ping also didn’t want Director Han to worry about him. Exemptions were not up to Director Han alone. It definitely involved a lot of favor-pulling and networking.

Now that the system had a reading feature, he could spend more time on it. With his previous foundation, he should have confidence in making the grade.

“Director Han, I’ll definitely pass,” Yang Ping said.

After chatting with Director Han for a while and then reporting Professor Zhang’s surgical situation to him in person, Director Han was very satisfied.

Director Han led everyone to visit Professor Zhang, make rounds, and go to the operating room.

Sure enough, in the shoe cabinet of the operating room, there were two pairs of brand new slippers with Yang Ping’s name marked.

The operating room originally had plenty of slippers, which were all cleaned and sterilized for use by the surgeons.

However, some doctors prefer their own pairs. As long as it meets the cleaning and sterilization requirements, the operating room would allow doctors to bring their own slippers.

Every day, the logistics staff would open the doctors’ shoe cabinets, take out the worn slippers, and put in disinfected ones.

The operating room bustled with excitement. The entire orthopedic department had eight operating rooms, the trauma orthopedic department had three, the sports medicine department had one, and the spine and joint departments each had two.

The patient on whom Director Han was the chief surgeon had already been anesthetized, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu begun disinfection.

The arrangement of the surgeries in the operating room followed not only the principle of urgency but also the status of the chief surgeon.

Like Director Han, his surgeries were always arranged first. Although Tian Yuan was also an associate chief physician, she was young and often performed follow-up activities. Directors Ouyang and Bai had more seniority and had a higher priority than Tian Yuan.

But for the surgeries of Yang Ping and Song Zimo, no matter how skilled you are, you have to wait in line.

The qualifications and status of a doctor, like the gentry families of ancient times, cannot be achieved in a day.

Therefore, the growth of a doctor, no matter how skilled you are, it’s always one step at a time.

The difference is that some people move fast while others move slow. Dreaming of a meteoric rise might be possible in other professions, but it’s not for doctors.

Just like Yang Ping, reattachment of the severed finger amazed the world and moved both heaven and earth, but still had little impact on promotion. He still needed to work on his topics, prepare his papers, whatever was needed as usual.

Yang Ping was lucky enough to meet a valuable person like Director Han. If he were a little less lucky and met a mean and narrow-minded department director who could find any excuse to take away his surgical privileges, no matter how capable he was, he would be suppressed. Eventually, he could only leave in resentment to become a chief in a surgical hospital, surviving on his craft for a few years.

The start of the surgery was lively, with the sounds of ping pong, and the hum of hammers and saws, and the stench of burnt flesh from the electric knife’s cauterization.

Orthopedic surgeries have distinct characteristics compared to other surgical disciplines. Some people joke that orthopedic surgeons are carpenters.

The way they work with hammers, saws, nails, and screwdrivers does resemble that.

While it might seem so, this is only a superficial impression. The field of orthopedics is extremely broad, with the most varied categories of surgery. There are over a hundred different procedures for the correction of Hallux Valgus alone. A common orthopedic textbook is heavy enough that you need to exert some strength to lift it. If we consider the full set of “Campbell’s Operative Orthopaedics”, a girl might not be able to lift it, and an out-of-shape guy would have to rest several times when carrying it upstairs.

Today, Director Han’s team performed six operations: an acetabular fracture, a proximal humerus fracture, a humerus diaphysis fracture, a radius and ulnar fracture, a femoral diaphysis fracture, and a tibia and fibular fracture.

The first operation, an acetabular fracture, led by Director Han was completed in half an hour.

None of the rest are complicated. Song Zimo performs three surgeries, and Yang Ping performs two. Since I’m now their senior, I should give them as many opportunities as possible.

They finished operating around seven in the evening and went back to the ward. Yang Ping checked the patient’s most recent test results.

Director Han said, “The Overseas Chinese Building called, said they have a female patient with a double fracture of the radius and ulna, we’ll go take a look.”

The Overseas Chinese Building is the VIP ward at Sanbo. Only the wealthy and influential people live there. The eight-story Overseas Chinese Building houses patients from the third to the eighth floors.

Some rooms can’t be booked just by being rich, Dean Xia has to personally sign off for each patient to stay.

Only department directors have access to the patient records in the Overseas Chinese Building, or doctors temporarily authorized by the medical affairs department. Ordinary doctors can’t even look at the medical records.

A few curious interns wanted to follow them over to the Overseas Chinese Building to take a look.

Director Han said:

“Xiao Song, Xiao Yang, you two come with me to the Overseas Chinese Building, the rest should stay.”

The Overseas Chinese Building is a stand-alone building with its own garden.

When Sanbo was newly built, this area was not yet developed. The government was very generous and approved a large tract of land for it. If it were today, they would never give such a large piece of land.

Dean Xia often says, “With such a vast area, we ought to accomplish some things.”

There are corridors connecting each building, marble railings give a feeling of grandeur and stability. To be honest, Yang Ping has not been to the Overseas Chinese Building after so long working here.

The Overseas Chinese Building only has one entrance. The first floor has a reception desk with very pretty and eye-pleasing nurses. There are a few security guards patrolling the hall.

There are elevators specific to each floor, they took the elevator to the seventh floor and swiped their card to enter.

The nurse at the nurse station immediately guided Director Han to the doctors’ office.

The doctors’ office is spacious and bright, even the computer monitors are a few inches bigger than the ones in the ordinary ward.

The seventh floor houses surgery patients and is managed by Director Zhuang, who is from the general surgery background.

For VIP patients, if surgery is needed, it is done by specialists from respective departments, while daily management is undertaken by their own doctors.

“Female patient, twenty-five years old, left radius and ulna comminuted fracture. This patient is a reporter from the city TV station.” Director Zhuang introduces.

The doctor in charge calls up the X-ray images that are displayed on the digital reading screen.

The left radius and ulna comminuted fracture, displacement is very obvious.

Just as they were looking at the X-rays, Director Han received a call and talked for several minutes. It seemed to be Dean Xia.

After hanging up, Director Han said, “Let’s go see the patient!”

Director Zhuang, along with the nurse in charge, led Director Han to the patient’s room, with Yang Ping and Song Zimo following behind.

The nurse in charge knocked on the door.

“Come in!” A woman’s voice.

Pushing the door open, the female patient was wearing a hospital gown, her left upper limb was in a plaster cast and suspended in front of her chest, her right hand was holding a cell phone as she was on a call, “The doctor is here, I won’t talk to you any longer, I tell you I won’t have surgery, I won’t.” She hung up the phone, sounding like a little girl throwing a tantrum.

“I’m sorry, please take a seat.” The patient still has good manners.

This? Yang Ping recognized her, wasn’t it the female reporter who was first to make trouble at the press conference? How come it’s her.

Even though he was wearing a mask, she recognized Yang Ping, like long-lost classmates meeting again.

She clenched her dress sleeve in her right hand, wanting to point at Yang Ping but realized it’s impolite.

She retracted her hand, nodded, “It’s you, Doctor Yang.”

It felt like Yang Ping had done something wrong and now he was caught by her, it had an “enemies often cross each other’s path” feel to it.

This left Director Han and Director Zhuang wondering what had happened.

“You know each other?”

“Of course, we do.” The female patient said.