Surgery Godfather

Chapter 101: Chapter 0099 Director Yang

Everyone chatted until midnight, and got up early at five in the morning to freshen up.

Director Jiang came by early in the morning and led everyone to the cafeteria for breakfast. Having over fifty people in the dining hall was quite a spectacle that attracted many gazes.

After breakfast, the group of over fifty people headed to the hospital conference room to receive their work assignments.

The urological surgery team was to be split in half between the People’s Hospital and the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

For Obstetrics and Gynecology, two were assigned to the People’s Hospital, and the rest were sent to the Women and Children’s Health Hospital, and the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Those assigned to other hospitals would have a shuttle service to and from their residence, arranged by the County Health Bureau.

The Orthopedics and Operating Room staff were all retained at the People’s Hospital. The newly formed Orthopedics Department at the People’s Hospital needed a lot of support.

For those staying at the People’s Hospital, Tang Yuan would be the acting deputy dean, Professor Yang Ping the acting director of orthopedics, Song Zimo the deputy director of orthopedics, Su Yixuan the head nurse in the operating room, and the others were doctors and nurses without administrative duties, tasked with guiding clinical work.

After all tasks were assigned, Director Jiang personally escorted those who were delegated to other hospitals over for the turnover.

For those remaining at the People’s Hospital, Dean Pan and the Head of Medical Affairs led everyone to their respective departments to participate in the handover of duties. In order, Orthopedics, Urology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Operating Room were each paid a visit.

The departments assigned to personnel must wait for Dean Pan before the turnover could take place.

Hospitals at the grassroots level have broad categorizations for their divisions, including Orthopedics, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Otorhinolaryngology. Surgery comprises Neurosurgery, Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, and Urological Surgery. Doctors didn’t specialize in these departments.

Orthopedics had just been branched out from Surgery.

The director of Orthopedics, Director Zeng, was a seasoned doctor. Short and with a reddish face and neck, he had an acquaintance at the First Attached Hospital in the provincial capital and took advantage of this connection to attend further training in Orthopedics there for a year.

He was very cooperative with the dispatch of technical support from higher level hospitals because it had no impact on him since the people above would only be in position for two weeks. Moreover, he had the chance to learn something new.

By eight o’clock, Director Zeng was waiting with all the doctors and nurses. The Orthopedics department, including the Director, comprised only five doctors and ten nurses.

It wasn’t until half-past eight that Dean Pan arrived.

Seeing Dean Pan bringing in a group of doctors in their twenties, Director Zeng was very disappointed. He had hoped to learn some skills from professors. These youngsters wouldn’t be able to bring much to the table.

He was quite unhappy. He felt that the medical aid provided this time was somewhat sloppy. He felt that despite being a grassroots hospital, they were still a bona fide People’s Hospital. It was inappropriate to give the impression of making up the numbers by just bringing in some fresh graduates.

After everyone was situated, Dean Pan announced, “Starting from today, the medical team from Sanbo Hospital will officially be stationed at our hospital for two weeks. There are four doctors assigned to our orthopedics department. Let me make the introductions: Professor Yang Ping, who will be serving as our director of orthopedics, Professor Song Zimo, acting as deputy director. We also have Dr. Zhang Lin, Dr. Lu Xiaowu, and Dr. Tang Fei. Let’s all give a warm round of applause.”

Everyone applauded, and Dean Pan turned to look at Director Zeng, “Director Zeng, we expect wholehearted cooperation in assisting Director Yang. During these two weeks, everyone should take this opportunity to learn from the professors. Now, Director Yang will say a few words.” Dean Pan clapped his hands.

In this kind of situation, he had to say something. Yang Ping calmly said, “I’m very grateful for the opportunity and am pleased to be able to work with you all. In these two weeks, we will be learning from each other and making progress together. Thank you all in advance for your help.”

Yang Ping bowed slightly, and there was warm applause.

“Director Yang, I’ll be going to the next department. You guys continue what you need to do and feel free to contact me if there’s any problem.” Dean Pan shook hands with Yang Ping and then left.

After Dean Pan left, Director Zeng said, “Director Yang, would you like to bring everyone on rounds? Currently, there are thirty beds in the department, and twenty-one patients are admitted–”

Director Zeng reported the current situation of the department, which dealt mostly with limb fractures, waist and leg pain, neck and shoulder pain that were treated conservatively. Patients with slightly serious conditions would usually go to the Shipo People’s Hospital.

The director was coming, and Director Zeng had originally been quite apprehensive, fearing that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the director’s thought process. However, now that a few young doctors in their twenties had been dispatched, the humble attitude he had prepared had relaxed a lot, and he didn’t sound nervous at all when speaking.

Some of the nurses were secretly glancing at Song Zimo, thinking how handsome the doctors from big hospitals were. They thought it was so cool how young some of the professors were. Song Zimo was sitting at the desk, appearing nonchalant.

Others were looking at Tang Fei. A woman doctor in Orthopedics? And she’s so pretty.

“Do we have any emergency or difficult cases in the department? If so, let’s take a look first.” Yang Ping asked for Director Zeng’s opinion.

Yang Ping was, at first, being modest and showing respect to the host, but Director Zeng thought that this young doctor didn’t have much to offer and lacked confidence. Many young doctors from big hospitals didn’t have much surgical experience.

Director Zeng spoke with a noticeable laxness, fully abandoning his humility, saying, “We don’t have any emergencies. There is one tough case, but it’s nothing to look at. They’ve been to the provincial capital to see it, and after being hospitalized for over a month there, there was no improvement. Even the professors there at the provincial hospital didn’t dare to perform surgery. The patient was discharged and has been pulling through here at our place for a few months now. Their financial condition is okay, so they’ve been staying with us for some months now.”

Yang Ping could perceive the change in Director Zeng’s tone, but he didn’t mind.

He said, “Let’s take a look at this patient then. Bring over his X-rays and medical records.”

“Xiao Li, go get the medical records.” Xiao Li went to retrieve the medical records.

“Several big professors from the provincial capital have already seen this–” Director Zeng then listed a few prominent directors that Yang Ping recognized, all of whom were professors from the First and Second Attached Hospitals and the Provincial City People’s Hospital.

“There’s no rush, let’s observe and learn from this difficult case.” Yang Ping didn’t argue with him.

Yang Ping carefully read through the case file, and then examined each imaging slide. There was a huge bag of images, including X-rays, CTs, and MRIs, all of which had been done, some multiple times.

On the way here, Yang Ping had already purchased a training module for reading medical images in the system space. It covered imaging of the spine, pelvis, extremities, trauma, and bone diseases, amounting to hundreds of thousands of images.

The diagnosis in the file was chronic osteomyelitis of the left femur. Locking intramedullary nail surgery had been performed a year ago, but there had been a post-operative infection. The entire femur, including the proximal and distal ends, was severely infected. The skin and muscles were deficient, exposing the nail.

This patient indeed posed a challenge; Yang Ping stroked his chin thoughtfully.

Director Zeng looked somewhat disdainful, but it didn’t show in his expression.

Putting on a show, are we? The city’s senior director didn’t manage to handle it, yet here you are pretending to be an expert, even appearing to be very serious about it.

Yang Ping didn’t think these images were consistent with chronic osteomyelitis. The devil-style training in the system space endowed him with extraordinary abilities to interpret images.

“Let’s go see this patient first.” said Yang Ping. The other patients could wait.

Director Zeng was slightly impatient, but he didn’t show it. He had no choice but to take Yang Ping to visit the patient, with everyone else following behind.

“This patient has some influence. He has been seen by many hospitals and is experienced.” The subtext was to just go through the motions and not take it too seriously.

Yang Ping picked up on his meaning and said, “Understood.”

When he got to the bedside, Director Zeng introduced briefly: “This is Doctor Yang from the city, who is very concerned about your condition and has come to see you.”

The patient was a young man, only twenty years old. He had seen so many hospitals and was tired of it, so his attitude was rather cold and aloof.

From the main complaints, present illness, medical history and so on, Yang Ping re-asked everything.

The patient was slightly impatient: “It’s all written on the medical record.”

Yang Ping seriously said: “Do you want your leg to get better or not? If you do, cooperate a little. If you don’t really care about it, and want to stay this way for the rest of your life, I have nothing more to say.”

The young man was naive, listening to the young doctor, it seemed like he could heal his leg. This was interesting, he thought, let’s see what he has to say.

Even though he was not enthusiastic, at least he was not resisting anymore.

“Do you often lose your temper like this?” Yang Ping was not annoyed and asked him.

He said, “I have a fiery temper, I can’t hold it in over small matters.”

“How tall are you and how much do you weigh?” Yang Ping asked.

“One meter seventy-six, forty-eight kilograms.” The young man replied.

He looked very thin.

“Do you often have loose stools, more frequent bowel movements?” Yang Ping asked.

The young man said, “Yes, how did you know? I have chronic stomach and colon inflammation. Sometimes I have bowel movements several times a day, always loose. I’ve had colonoscopies, but nothing has been found.”

“Do you have no strength for running, do your limbs feel weak like you’re going to fall after a long run?” Yang Ping pursued further.

The young man immediately sat cross-legged on the bed, his mood improved a lot: “Yes, yes, back in school during Physical Education, after running three laps, my whole body would go limp, I couldn’t even stand.”

“Show me your hands.” Yang Ping counted his pulse and felt his palms.

“Aren’t you afraid of the cold wearing just a vest in the morning?” Yang Ping noticed his vest.

“It’s so hot, what’s there to be afraid of?” The young man answered succinctly.

“Take off your glasses, let me have a look.” Yang Ping pointed at his glasses.

The young man cooperated and took off his glasses. Yang Ping carefully checked his eyes.

Director Zeng couldn’t stand it any longer, what were these questions about? Everyone was waiting to do rounds.

“Director Yang, why don’t we do rounds first, and come back to him when we have time?”

Director Zeng said, suppressing his dissatisfaction.