Chapter 194: Modesty

Although Kong Xiangming felt a little embarrassed, he still went up and sutured the skin.

It was, after all, the flap of the finger. There were a lot of capillaries and fats beneath it. The surgeon had to be very meticulous during the suturing. Kong Xiangming would rather swallow his pride and suture it once in front of Wang Haiyang as well as Ling Ran than go around and ask for help should there be problems in the future.

He often enthusiastically invited famous doctors from various hospitals as freelance surgeons. However, he did not always get the chance to suture the flap.

Ling Ran left the chief surgeon’s spot, looked at the screen, and fell into deep thought. He only took off his gloves after Kong Xiangming completed the suture and after Wang Haiyang announced that the surgery had ended.

“Sorry to trouble you, Chief Physician Wang, Doctor Ling Ran.” Kong Xiangming shook their hands respectively and helped them step open the operating theater’s door.

The group of people departed one after another, leaving behind only a junior doctor to manage the operating table for subsequent procedures. This was also something that Yiyuan County Hospital took rather seriously. If it had been Yun Hua Hospital, the doctors would have all left swiftly.

“Chief Physician Wang, it’s lunchtime now. Please don’t be in a hurry to leave. Let’s sit together and eat in the canteen, shall we?” Kong Xiangming showed boundless hospitality by extending the invitation.

Normal freelance surgeons would leave after they had performed their surgeries. If they stayed around after one surgery, it meant that they were waiting for a second surgery.

However, while the chief physicians from the Cardiology Department could perform three coronary bypass surgeries in one go, doctors from the Hand Surgery Department could not perform three finger replantation surgeries in one breath. Finger replantations were emergency surgeries, so it was impossible for them to get all patients together to receive surgery.

However, Wang Haiyang was not in a hurry. He looked at Ling Ran and smiled before he said, “Then let’s go to the canteen for a meal. We won’t drink. After that, we’ll rush back.”

“All right. Even if you wanted to drink, I wouldn’t have the courage to offer you wine. It’s very troublesome right now,” Kong Xiangming grumbled a little before he led the group to the canteen. He apologized as he excused himself and said, “Let me go and notify the family members. The patient should have woken up from the anesthesia by now.”

“Of course, it’s only your responsibility to do so.” Wang Haiyang smiled and nodded.

Kong Xiangming hesitated for a moment before he smiled again and asked, “Let’s make an estimation. Do you think the patient will be able to get an ‘excellent’ during his hand function assessment?”

“Ling Ran, what do you think?” Wang Haiyang had given up his position as chief surgeon during the most important blood vessel anastomosis and nerve anastomosis. His judgment was no longer very accurate for the surgery.

Ling Ran said, “The chances of obtaining ‘excellent’ won’t be high,the chances of obtaining ‘good’ for the test will be higher. There’s a chance that the finger may suffer necrosis.”

“What?” Kong Xiangming did not expect Ling Ran to say that.

Wang Haiyang looked at Ling Ran in surprise as well. Based on his memories, Ling Ran’s results when it came to finger replantation surgeries had always been extremely good.

When he thought of that, Wang Haiyang intentionally asked, “Ling Ran, is it because you weren’t used to the machines?”

“The machines were fine. It’s just the quality of the patient’s blood vessels and nerves that were rather bad. We should… review it based on the survival chances of a seventy-year-old elderly patient’s finger after finger replantation,” Ling Ran explained briefly.

From his point of view, the finger replantation surgery was performed well, but there was always a chance for the surgery to fail. For example, the finger replantation surgery for an old seventy-year-old man would have a much higher failure rate compared with a man at the prime of his life.

Wang Haiyang’s expression was rather unpleasant. If he had known that the condition of the patient’s blood vessel was so bad, he might not have become a freelance surgeon for the surgery.

The doctors who were prepared to eat and chat also lost their interest to talk as the atmosphere became moody.

Kong Xiangming was also a little disappointed. He forced himself to smile, and asked, “If that’s the case, I’ll tell the patient… Um, Doctor Ling, what do you think are the chances that the patient will obtain ‘excellent’ in his hand function assessment?”

Based on the grades, obtaining “excellent” or “good” ratings for replanted fingers were rather satisfactory results. If the finger only scored a passing grade, then its functionality would be highly affected. There would also be a lot of sequelae. The functionality of that finger would only be slightly better than that of an amputated finger. One could say that it would not possess any sort of functionality.

In other words, when the patient asked for a famous doctor to come as a freelance surgeon to operate on him, it meant that the patient hoped to receive finger replantation surgery that would help him score an excellent grade during the hand function assessment. He did not just want to obtain a passing grade.

Ling Ran thought about it carefully for a few seconds and said, “The chances of obtaining ‘excellent’ during the hand function assessment is around 90%.”

“What do you mean?” Kong Xiangming furrowed his eyebrows. “Didn’t you just say that the chances of obtaining ‘excellent’ in the test weren’t high, and there was a certain probability of necrosis happening?”

Ling Ran shook his head. “What I meant was there wouldn’t be a high probability of achieving excellence, but the probability of it being ‘good’ is relatively high. Besides, there’s always a certain probability of necrosis anyway. It wouldn’t be a surprise if it happened in seventy-year-old blood vessels. Aren’t we supposed to be a little modest when we explain the situation to the patient’s family?”

Kong Xiangming looked at Ling Ran and was skeptical. ‘I guess you don’t really know how to spell modesty, huh?’

Kong Xiangming summed everything up. “So, you think that there’s a 90% chance of obtaining ‘excellent’.”

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“Yes.”

“What’s the probability of obtaining ‘good’ then?”

“I can’t give you an accurate assessment now. I’d say less than 50%,” Ling Ran replied helplessly. “At most, it’s 50%.”

“The probability of necrosis is less than 10%?” Kong Xiangming calculated via subtraction.

“Under such circumstances, if we only obtain a ‘pass’ during the test, I’m afraid that complications will easily occur.” Ling Ran paused for a while and said, “If the complications are serious, we may need to amputate it.”

Kong Xiangming’s cheek muscles twitched, and he said, “Even so, you think the possibility of obtaining ‘pass’ and necrosis is only 10%.”

“Well, it’s my personal judgment,” Ling Ran said with ease and continued, “I’m just worried that you’ll make unrealistic promises to the patient’s family.”

“Okay, I understand. Doctor Ling, thank you for your explanation.” Kong Xiangming laughed until his cheek muscles were stiff before he looked at Wang Haiyang.

What could Wang Haiyang say? He could only shrug and say, “Doctor Ling has a 95% ‘excellent’ rate in Yun Hua Hospital.”

The doctors present on the scene knew that Ling Ran had performed more than one hundred finger replantation surgeries and replanted less than three hundred fingers. Among those cases, only fifteen fingers obtained “pass” or ended up unsuccessful. Plus, the owners of the fingers that failed and barely passed were different sorts of patients: the inevitable diabetic patients, the commonly-seen patients with hypertension, patients with the Three-Hyper Diseases [1], elderly patients who were similar to Boss Cha, even twenty-five-year-old white-haired programmers, and doctors who stayed up for six months during their internship…

Kong Xiangming easily came to the conclusion that Ling Ran believed a replanted finger with blood vessels akin to a seventy-year-old’s would have a 90% probability rate of obtaining ‘excellent’ during the hand function assessment.

Inexplicably, Kong Xiangming suddenly wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh at himself, then laugh at Ling Ran. He wanted to laugh at Ling Ran in a mocking but relieved manner.

“Chief Physician Wang, Doctor Ling,” Kong Xiangming held both of their hands and sincerely said, “you must try the ox aorta in our canteen. The ox aorta cooked in the skillet is Yiyuan County’s special delicacy.”

Wang Haiyang did not know why Kong Xiangming would suddenly mention ox aorta, but he was convinced that he did not want to continue chatting.

As he watched Kong Xiangming turn away with a smile, for some strange reason, Wang Haiyang found it natural, as though that was how things should happen.

Kong Xiangming returned to the cafeteria half an hour later.

When he came back, he had readjusted his mood before he reported to Wang Haiyang and Ling Ran, “The patient is doing quite well. The color in both fingers is very good, and the edema isn’t very serious.”

Wang Haiyang also breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, “After all, he’s only in his forties and he’s not really seventy years old.”

“However, he won’t be in great condition either.” The blood vessels left a deep impression on Ling Ran during the surgery. Just as the chef started to serve their food, Ling Ran pointed at the ox aorta in the middle. He said, “If you look at the patient’s aorta, you’ll find that while the thickness of his aorta may not reach this level, the hardness should be there.”

Ox aorta referred to the aorta of a cow, so it was very appropriate to compare the patient’s aorta with an ox aorta.

Kong Xiangming laughed. “When the boss wakes up, I’ll tell him this story. Ahh, all of his problems are caused by excessive drinking and eating due to business dinners. A normal person wouldn’t have such symptoms like his.”

Everyone listened and laughed. A doctor under Kong Xiangming took the opportunity to be a little aggressive and asked, “Doctor Ling, when you read the MRI scans earlier, did you notice that the patient’s blood vessels had hardened?”

“Isn’t it written in his medical record?” Ling Ran looked at him strangely.

The doctor was stunned for a few seconds before his face turned red.

“Doctor Ling, please try an ox aorta.” Kong Xiangming stood up and used the chopsticks provided to give Ling Ran an ox aorta. He smiled. “Doctor Ling, see, our ox aorta is obviously white, but do you know why we also call it yellow throat?”

Ling Ran shook his head.

“Because if we had called it white throat, it would be diphtheria, and that’s a disease, hahahaha…” Kong Xiangming laughed out loud as he told them this doctor joke.

Ling Ran and Wang Haiyang looked at Kong Xiangming in a dumbfounded manner. They looked as if they could not wrap their minds around the joke. Kong Xiangming’s men had listened to the joke too many times and could not laugh. The atmosphere became cold again.

Kong Xiangming coughed and cleared his throat. The young doctors who played the comedic role in his witty conversations started to laugh slowly.

Wang Haiyang secretly sighed to himself. ‘His level of humor is so bad that if he were to be in Yun Hua Hospital, he wouldn’t even pass the internship.’

At that moment, Ling Ran burst out laughing.