Chapter 149 - Fan Tianshui, The Security Guard (1/2)

The patient suffered from an acute but simple case of cholecyst.i.tis.

During the transfer of the patient to the emergency department, Zheng Ren noticed that Su Yun and Xie Yiren had gone to prepare for the surgery.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, informed consent procedures were handled by a junior surgeon. The junior surgeon would transport the patient to the operating room and begin anesthesia and disinfection. Once surgical drapes were in place, the junior surgeon would notify the senior surgeon.

Zheng Ren’s “junior” had declared himself flawless but had left Zheng Ren here to handle the informed consent procedure. In Zheng Ren’s eyes, such disrespect was a major failing.

It was not a simple blemish on Su Yun’s character, but a crater.

Fortunately, it was still daytime. The emergency ward was relatively quiet, so Yang Lei and Chang Yue came upstairs to a.s.sist with the patient, relieving Zheng Ren of his task.

Half an hour later, the patient was ready and the family was informed of the ins and outs of the procedure. Yang Lei wheeled the patient into the operating room.

Zheng Ren was appreciative of the advantages granted by his status as chief resident.

The downside of such a position, though, was that he was responsible for anything that went wrong with the surgery as the most senior staff member. If complaints and accusations came up, the chief resident or department chief would not be long for the hospital.

Zheng Ren had once heard of an obstetrics and gynaecology department chief in another hospital who pushed the blame onto their subordinates whenever a problem arose.

In the end, their subordinates resorted to calling the chief whenever something happened to a patient. They recorded the chief’s instructions on the patient’s charts. If the chief did not pick up their calls, the subordinates would note that down as well.

It did not take long before lack of sleep caught up to the department chief. They were demoted as a result of their deteriorating health.

It was an extreme example of the responsibility of a senior surgeon. Zheng Ren was only a chief resident. Moreover, with the aid of the System, his diagnoses and treatment selections were infallible.

He changed his clothes and entered the operating room.

The Chu sisters had completed anesthesia and Su Yun was arranging the surgical drapes over the patient’s body.

Zheng Ren had arrived just in time. He washed his hands, put on the surgical scrubs and stood at the lead surgeon’s position.

The patient had a mild case of cholecyst.i.tis that necessitated only a laparoscopy. Su Yun got the necessary instruments ready while Yang Lei scrubbed in. The surgery commenced.

It was a simple cholecystectomy. Zheng Ren took less than 20 minutes to remove the gallbladder. He took the specimen out of the operating room to show the family.

Su Yun and Yang Lei performed the rinsing and closing of the wound.

The whole team functioned like a well-oiled machine.

Yang Lei made the last st.i.tch. Soon, the patient stirred from anesthesia.

Yang Lei admired the Chu sisters’ ability to time their anesthesia accurately. They had to be extremely familiar with the patient’s rate of drug metabolism and the surgeon’s speed in practice.

It would be disastrous if the patient were to wake up mid-suture.

The surgery had taken less than an hour. Yang Lei waited for the patient to be fully awake before moving them. Once they were gone, the operating room was quiet again.

The three ladies snuck off to the on-call room with snacks in hand. They whispered conspiratorially like schoolgirls as they munched on their junk food.

Once the patient had left the operating table, Chang Yue got to work. The surgery journal was the only paperwork Zheng Ren had to do. Everything else fell under Chang Yue’s job scope.

She was happy to do it.

Zheng Ren’s surgeries were always neat, which made paperwork a breeze. Furthermore, she did not have to work night s.h.i.+fts.

Hence, Chang Yue never grumbled about her job. She happily tended to patients in the ward and the paperwork.

On the other hand, Yang Lei’s existence was immaterial in the emergency department wards. The same had happened when he was stationed at the first general surgery ward. Most patients did not even know he existed.

He made rounds three to five times a day to record case progression, and yet patients could never remember his name.

There had been only one emergency case in the day s.h.i.+ft so far, which made Zheng Ren uneasy. He had a superst.i.tion: a day without at least three surgeries meant a large-scale emergency was looming around the corner.