Chapter 423: Save Lives and Heal the Wounded

Most problems encountered in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery were centered around the bleeding of the liver and uncontrolled blood loss. Hence, the specialties of the department were bleeding control and hepatectomy. These were the skills all the doctors in the department spent their days practicing and studying.

There were many surgical approaches to hepatectomy: the pringle maneuver, using a scalpel, using microwaves, using lasers, the water-jet method…

In reality, surgeons had tried using various instruments a person could find in the operating theater to carry out hepatectomies, such as suction machines, hemostatic forceps, scalpels, and other instruments. It was as if they simply lifted those livers and tried all means and methods to chop parts off them.

You could only imagine how anxious a doctor performing hepatectomy for the first time would feel.

The young attending physician from the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery had been a doctor for ten years. He had witnessed chief physicians and associate chief physicians poke about patients’ livers cut-offs with scalpels, and had also seen doctors tearing off parts of livers using their fingers. But he himself had never touched a patient’s liver with a scalpel.

It was such a dangerous task!

The young attending physician fixed his gaze on Ling Ran as Ling Ran recklessly chopped off the patient’s damaged liver slice after slice.

As he gazed at the young and handsome Ling Ran, the large and damaged liver, and the blue and green operating theater, the young attending physician suddenly found everything unreal.

It was as if he was in a movie.

“#4 surgical thread. Double ligation.” Ling Ran’s voice suddenly rang out and roused everyone from their reveries.

“The hepatectomy… is completed?” Even Lu Wenbin, who was acting as Ling Ran’s assistant, was extremely shocked.

Of course, it was partly because this was his first time participating in an emergency hepatectomy.

A few doctors raised their heads in unison to look at the operating theater.

“He took less than five minutes.” The young attending physician quietly lowered his head.

Ling Ran’s speed was not considered shocking, and the young attending physician had heard of cases where surgeons took a shorter time than that to complete a hepatectomy. However, he was still astonished to witness a hepatectomy that was carried out with such skills with his own eyes.

“That’s all for the hepatectomy. We’re going to carry out bleeding control next.” Ling Ran breathed a soft sigh of relief.

Even though his maneuvers seemed reckless, he did that to apply suitable pressure to the liver so that the necrotic parts could be separated.

Even though Ling Ran wore a relaxed expression throughout the process, he could not ignore the pressure and risk involved in performing such a surgery.

Forget the other things, even the surgeon’s grip on the liver was important, as the liver might rupture if too much force was applied. However, the grip could not be too loose either, as the liver was covered in blood and was pretty slippery. If it were to slip out of the surgeon’s hand…

“All the exposed tubular structures that can be seen with the naked eye must be ligated,” Ling Ran said as he held a needle holder, “Yu Yuan, you will be checking if I missed anything.”

“Alright.” Yu Yuan stood on a stool which was stacked on top of another stool and had a clear view of the operating field. She fixed her gaze on the wounded area and tried to identify all the structures.

Even though Ling Ran was renowned for being meticulous, he still wanted to put his assistants to good use. In addition, it was always better to be safe than sorry when it came to this kind of surgery.

Ling Ran ligated the tubular structures at lightning speed.

“Put on a pair of scrubs for me.” Huo Congjun’s voice rang beside the young attending physician, giving him a shock.

“Oh, alright.” The attending physician quickly tore open the plastic wrapper around a pair of scrubs and put it on for Huo Congjun.

Huo Congjun then went to the operating table and asked, “Is there anything I can help with?”

Ling Ran’s eyes brightened when he heard that. He had a chief physician as his assistant before, and it was a very pleasant experience. He quickly said, “Prepare to carry out wound packing through the omentum.”

“Alright,” Huo Congjun answered clearly and loudly. He then started preparing the gauze and got the patient’s omentum ready for the procedure.

Even though doctors in the county hospital also carried out wound packing, whatever Ling Ran was doing now was a lot more advanced.

Of course, a person should lower their expectations when it came to county hospitals, as the Emergency Departments of county hospitals had also done their best. They never tried to attempt the impossible, and always adopted the best method within their range of capabilities.

After all, requesting Emergency Departments to have doctors who knew how to carry out hepatectomies were already in a rather high demand. In truth, even most General Surgery Departments in county hospitals did not dare to perform hepatectomies. If those Emergency Departments could perform hepatectomies, those problems could already be solved through inpatient consultations of the Emergency Departments.

Huo Congjun’s heart swelled with pride as he watched Ling Ran’s maneuvers.

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This was exactly what the Emergency Medical Center of his dreams was like—for the doctors to be able to rescue all the patients who were sent over. It was especially true for patients who sustained trauma, as this was the Emergency Medical Center’s primary focus.

“I’m done.” Ling Ran was extremely quick.

When it came to hepatectomy, the quicker a surgeon was, the better the patient’s prognosis would be. For a major surgery like this where half the liver was resected, the patient’s survival rate was directly proportional to the prognosis.

Huo Congjun assisted Ling Ran with the wound packing before putting the drainage tube in place…

“Okay!” When Huo Congjun saw that Ling Ran was done, all the muscles in his body became relaxed. He glanced at the monitor and asked Su Jiafu, “How’s the patient doing?”

“Um… stable?” Su Jiafu did not know why Huo Congjun asked him this question, as the former military doctor had always looked at the monitor by himself.

Su Jiafu had no choice but to do a double-take, as he suspected that Huo Congjun might have asked him that question as a test.

Huo Congjun smiled. “It’s a good thing that he’s stable now. Hmm, we’ll see what happens next.”

Ling Ran, too, breathed a sigh of relief and gestured at Lu Wenbin to perform abdominal closure. He then took off his gloves and said, “The area of the wound is very large. We have tried our best to carry out bleeding control, and what happens next is truly up to the patient himself.”

“He’ll survive this,” Huo Congjun said firmly after he turned and glanced at the patient’s face.

Ling Ran asked out of curiosity, “Why are you so sure?”

“He’s the only son, and his parents are still around. I would really look down on him if he doesn’t fight hard to stay alive.”

Ling Ran was stunned for a moment.

“I’ll carry out the abdominal closure. This is the least I can do for him.” As Huo Congjun spoke, he dragged a stool over and positioned it in front of the operating table with his leg. He then said to the scrub nurse, “Lower the table a little. Yup, that’s right. Give me a needle holder.”

Huo Congjun sat on the stool and extended his hand to ask for a needle holder. After the nurse lowered the operating table, he started performing abdominal closure.

“As a matter of fact, it has been a while since I last sutured any patient.” Huo Congjun made a few stitches and chuckled.

Su Jiafu sat behind Huo Congjun and stared at the back of Huo Congjun’s head with a profound gaze. He stroked his stool repeatedly with his hand. It would be extremely agonizing for an anesthetist to not be able to sit down after working for such an extended period of time. Fortunately, he always carried two stools with him nowadays.

“Young Lu, come and act as my assistant,” Huo Congjun ordered.

“Alright.” Lu Wenbin immediately walked toward the operating table. He stood in front of Su Jiafu and chuckled a few times. “Doctor Su, would you mind passing me the stool?”

“Go ahead.” Su Jiafu stood up in resignation and gave the stool to Lu Wenbin.

Lu Wenbin happily sat on the stool and wheeled himself toward the operating table. He started assisting his department director by trimming the surgical thread and holding up the abdominal structures using a pair of forceps.

Su Jiafu was speechless as he stared at the monitor. He thought using his brain, which managed to score him six hundred marks during his college entrance examination. ‘If this continues, it’ll be my turn to die a sudden death!’

“Doctor Ling, well done on the surgery.” The young attending physician from the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery took the initiative to walk toward Ling Ran and extended his hand for a handshake.

Ling Ran lowered his head and looked at the young attending physician’s hand. Before he could say anything, Zuo Cidian immediately went forward and said, “I’m sorry, but Doctor Ling doesn’t like to shake hands…”

“Oh, okay…” The young attending physician was a little annoyed. But then, he had a change of mind. ‘Why am I even jumping to conclusions? He’s so excellent that he would be able to become an associate chief physician if he were to enter the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery.’

“Is there anything wrong?” Ling Ran asked.

“Nothing much… I just wanted to commend you on how well you executed the surgery.”

“Thank you.”

The young attending physician started singing praises of Ling Ran, “I went to this conference and watched a chief physician carry out blunt separation of the liver using a scalpel before. Even though he did it very skillfully, his performance didn’t captivate me as much as yours. When I saw how well you separated the necrotic parts of the patient’s liver just now, I really find it a waste of talent for you to stay in the Emergency Department.”

“Hey,” Huo Congjun suddenly shouted and said, “What’s your name again? We’re done with the hepatectomy. It’s time for you to take your leave.”

“Oh… Alright…” The young attending physician obediently left the operating theater with his head lowered.

Huo Congjun coughed a few times and said, “Ling Ran, come with me to meet the patients’ family members later. You’ll be telling them about the surgery.”

“I’ll be doing that?” Ling Ran pointed at his own nose.

“Yes. As part of the Emergency Department, our main job is to save lives and heal the wounded. Now that you have just saved a life, you should be the one explaining things to the patient’s family members, don’t you think so? Wait, let me finish up the abdominal closure…”