783: The Way Forward

The Way Forward

Ling Ran first drew the anatomical structures of Chen Xiaowang's abdominal cavity on a piece of paper based on the information he had obtained from the Virtual Human along with the examination results.2

For surgeons, cholecystectomy was mainly difficult due to the variations in the structures of patients' cystic artery and bile ducts. The variation was so great that if a person were to categorize humans based on the differences in the structures of their gallbladder arteries and bile ducts, the list might be so long that it could not even fit into a book.

Naturally, Chen Xiaowang's cystic artery and bile duct varied from those of other humans too.

There was a very obvious abnormality to his cystic artery, as it branched out very early into two arteries. This condition was known as a double cystic artery.

This was considered a very normal abnormality, and tens of thousands of people might exhibit the same abnormality. If the person did not receive surgery related to the gallbladder or bile duct, this abnormality would not be obvious at all. It neither caused any discomfort nor affected a person's health. It would not even affect the organs around it to a significant extent. It could be said to be even more insignificant than neighborhood committees outside Beijing. 

However, if doctors failed to pay attention to this abnormality during cholecystectomy, it could easily lead to problems.

To prevent bleeding, during cholecystectomy, doctors had to first interrupt the blood flow of the cystic artery. As ordinary people only had one cystic artery, doctors just need to clamp their cystic arteries with a hemostatic forceps. However, in cases of patients with double cystic arteries, doctors may make a mistake and only interrupt the blood flow of the first cystic artery. And when this happened, the second cystic artery was almost guaranteed to be accidentally damaged during the process of the surgery. Major hemorrhage was almost a certainty, and a good prognosis would become impossible.

"Double cystic artery!" Ling Ran rose and wrote this down on the whiteboard in his office.

Not only did this serve as a reminder for himself, but also for other doctors to take note of.

Accidental damage sometimes happened because the chief surgeon made a mistake, but there were times when it happened because the chief surgeon did not manage his subordinates well by forgetting to give them a reminder.

"Edema in the gallbladder, and there's inflammation."

"The bile duct enters the hepatic duct after running parallel to the hepatic duct for a distance."

As Ling Ran wrote on the whiteboard, he drew simple diagrams every now and then.

The ability to draw anatomical diagrams were essential to doctors, so it was only natural that other doctors were able to understand what Ling Ran was trying to convey.

Not only did the doctors in the Ling Treatment Group understand it, but doctors from other treatment groups were also sizing up the whiteboard in curiosity.

"Chronic cholecystitis, and the gallbladder has shrunk a little. These aren't really a problem. The most difficult part is that the patient can only afford a recovery time of two and a half days."

"I really don't believe that companies nowadays overwork people to this extent."

"Employers of companies have to make a living, right? As doctors, even though we are super tired after working day and night, we still carry out freelance surgery during the weekends. Why are we doing all these?"

"Some people chase after money, and some chase after their dreams. Some chase both at the same time. Truth be told, this has nothing to do with us. From what I know, whenever Huawei executes a project, they aim to be two years ahead of their peers. If their employers were to take short breaks, those breaks would accumulate over the course of time into a long period of time. Then, wouldn't their predecessor's hard work to race against time become a waste?"

"But they should still have their basic rest time, shouldn't they?"

"Basic rest time? I don't know how you were like as a student, but from I know, all the students who abide by the basic rest time either have no problem scoring 985 marks in their college entrance examination at all or can't even pass after their second try. Which type are you?"

Right after someone talked about school, the doctors' office in the Emergency Medical Center immediately became a lot livelier.

Huo Congjun slowly walked over to Ling Ran and asked, "Have you made your decision?"

"Yes," Ling Ran said.

As Huo Congjun looked at the diagrams that Ling Ran drew on the whiteboard, he shook his head and said, "Why would you trouble yourself over this? There are so many patients waiting for you to operate on them. Why don't you just pass this case over to an ordinary doctor? Moreover, truth be told, isn't the patient's request to recover in a span of two and a half days a little too much?"

Ling Ran said, "It's also an opportunity for self-improvement."

Huo Congjun asked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"Improving patients' prognoses and shortening the recovery time can be seen as an area of improvement when it comes to cholecystectomy." Ling Ran was actually speculating that this was the way to elevate his cholecystectomy skills from Specialist Level to Master Level.

Unlike the other skills he possessed, Ling Ran learned cholecystectomy from scratch.

Now that he had gone from Novice Level to Specialist Level, Ling Ran did not actually have many ideas as to how to go forward.

Cholecystectomy in itself was a relatively simple surgery, especially when it was done using a laparoscope, and most doctors could complete it without any issue. Even though doctors always strived to reduce damage and improve accuracy, all of this often felt a little vague, and it was not a true indicator of improvements in skills.

Without a doctor who was better at cholecystectomy to guide him, Ling Ran did not know how to improve further.

Without realizing it, Chen Xiaowang had raised a problem for Ling Ran to solve. He could even be said to have pointed Ling Ran in the right direction.

*Ding*

This was when the system's notification appeared.

[Mission: The Way Forward]

[Mission Details: Complete 50 abdominal surgeries where the patients' recovery time is less than 60 hours]

[Mission Reward: Intermediate Treasure Chest]

Ling Ran's eyebrows scrunched up.

Since the mission was only limited to abdominal surgeries, the only abdominal surgeries he knew how to perform were hepatectomy, cholecystectomy, splenectomy, and appendectomy. Moreover, orchiectomy was probably not included.

Out of these abdominal surgeries, it would be impossible for a patient who underwent hepatectomy to recover within 60 hours. A hepatectomy would be considered successful if the patient did not die within three days of the surgery, and it was perfectly normal for a patient to only be transferred out of the ICU three days after hepatectomy.

However, there was a slim chance that this would be possible with emergency splenectomy. This was especially true when the patient was relatively young, as they often recovered well from emergency surgeries. However, it would be a little bit of a fairytale for a patient to be able to recover in sixty hours after undergoing a splenectomy.

Hence, the only surgical methods that were suitable for Ling Ran when it came to completing this mission was cholecystectomy and appendectomy.

"We have to pay attention to his postsurgical care too," Zuo Cidian said, "Good postsurgical care is important for a fast recovery."

"We'll have to tell the anesthetist to put in extra effort too." Lu Wenbin offered his suggestion too.

"Should we also aim to use the best surgical instruments and medical consumables?" Ma Yanlin licked his pale lips with his pale tongue and suggested feebly.

Ling Ran nodded and said to Zuo Cidian, "Note all this down, and we'll figure out a way to go about it."

Huo Congjun became interested in the matter too when he heard this. "If you guys are really doing this, you can advertise yourself using the promise of fast recovery time. Hmm... since the patient is an employee in an internet company, he should be pretty rich, shouldn't he?"

Zuo Cidian understood what Huo Congjun was implying, and he immediately said, "He's definitely richer than us. Their insurance coverage is excellent too. Moreover, since they're so busy racing against time, they probably receive excellent financial compensation."

Huo Congjun nodded in agreement. "If the patient were an idiot who has no time and no money, there would be no need for him to strive for fast recovery time, right? Since he's making this request because of the situation in his company, there should be many similar cases among his colleagues, shouldn't it?"

"From what I heard from the patient, he has many colleagues with similar problems. There should be a lot of patients who are receiving conservative treatment for appendicitis, colitis, and cholecystitis…" Zuo Cidian combed his hair with his finger as he supported Huo Congjun's statement.

As expected, Huo Congjun nodded and said, "Then, let's start a project team and go about it as though it's a research project. Doctor Zuo, go ahead and do the paperwork. I'll allocate some funds for you guys."

All of the doctors in the Ling Treatment Group nodded. The expressions of the other doctors in the office did not change, as though they did not hear anything.

pqdm.com