Surgery Godfather

Chapter 320: Chapter 0304: The Princes

“After the Lantern Festival, Yang Ping’s parents wanted to return to their hometown. Yang Ping advised them to stay a bit longer, but they insisted on leaving.

The local clinic had been closed for nearly a month, making it inconvenient for villagers to seek medical care as they had to go to the neighboring village.

Yang Ping and Xiao Su drove his parents to the high-speed railway station. His parents saw that their son had made significant progress in his career and had done well, even performing surgeries overseas. They saw that he had found such a good girlfriend, and they were satisfied with both his career and love life. The old couple felt exceptionally gratified, acknowledging that their child had truly grown up and had a world of his own, which they should not disturb too much.

After saying goodbye to his parents, Yang Ping felt melancholy. Xiao Su comforted him, clinging onto his arm as they walked.

During the time Xiao Su spent living with his parents, she won their hearts with her knowledge, politeness, and thoughtfulness. Thinking of his future with such a wonderful wife, Yang Ping felt relieved and sweet.

On returning to the hospital, they started another day of hectic work. Both material and spiritual motivation kept everyone energetic.

Life is just like this. Only when you have covered the basics can you afford the luxury of dreaming.

“Little Five, I’ve been preparing to conceive recently, so I won’t be able to work around radiation. Please take care of those tasks for me.” Zhang Lin seemed in good spirits. He took out his personal radiation dosimeter, examined it for a while before putting it in his white gown pocket.

Orthopedic surgeons often use C-arm X-ray machines, so they inevitably get exposed to some radiation. The personal dosimeter can monitor the amount of radiation received.

“Really? I thought you had decided to delay having a child. Are you considering it now because you’re well-fed and in the mood?” Little Five was somewhat doubtful.

Zhang Lin was in high spirits: “Reproduction, such a divine act, becomes vulgar when you mention it, how shallow! This is an economic-based family strategy. If our financial strength can afford diapers and milk powder, naturally, it’s time for a family planning adjustment. Unlike you, we plan our child scientifically, not an accidential byproduct of impulsive behavior at midnight.”

“No wonder there are fewer pimples on your face recently, Zhang Lin. Is that also a byproduct of midnight impulses? Let’s go to the operating room right away and not waste time. I’m off to the main operating room to assist Director Gao in surgery. Let’s get today’s surgeries done. There are a few simple ones that you’re in charge of, did you review the procedures yesterday?” Song Zimo urged them.

Director Gao had another case of a four-ligament reconstruction of the knee. The patient was a professional athlete, with ruptures in both the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, as well as in the posteromedial and posterolateral structures. Every time a surgery like this is needed, Director Gao invites Yang Ping to guide him.

Before publishing his paper, Yang Ping taught Director Gao the surgical method described in it. Director Gao meticulously learned it and performed dozens of similar surgeries. Under Yang Ping’s careful guidance, he mastered the surgical method and grasped some of its nuances.

Now, when Director Gao performs complex reconstruction surgeries of the multi-ligament knee, he equals his senior – Guan Sheng from this hospital. If he continues to accumulate more case studies, soon he’ll surpass him.

Old Gao now adopts a modest attitude, completely disregarding the age gap, treating himself as Yang Ping’s student. At this moment, he is performing surgery.

Yang Ping, dressed in his surgical gown, stood by and watched. For each critical step, Director Gao would ask Yang Ping numerous questions, until he thoroughly understood.

A 3-liter bag of saline, hung at a height of 1.5 meters from the ground, was being injected into the knee joint cavity through a connected inlet pipe.

In arthroscopic surgery, to create more operating space, a specific gas or liquid is often injected into the surgical cavity.

In laparoscopic procedures, carbon dioxide is often used to inflate the abdomen and create space for the operation.

In arthroscopy, substances like saline are used to inflate the joint cavity and maximize the operating space for better observation and operations.

Director Gao was a good learner. He tried to emulate Yang Ping throughout the entire surgical procedure.

On entering the joint cavity and after inspecting all the structures in the knee, he confirmed the rupture of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. Then he asked his assistant to begin preparing the allograft tendons.

In knee ligament reconstruction, using one’s tendon is the best option, also known as an autograft tendon.

However, for multi-ligament reconstruction, many tendons are needed. Thus, using one’s own tendons can’t meet the demand, and allograft tendons are a better choice.

Allograft tendons, also known as homograft tendons, are harvested from human donor bodies and, after special treatment, are stored in a specialized warehouse for future use.

There are also heterograft tendons, which are animal tendons. But they are not used in medicine.

As he positioned the anterior cruciate ligament tibial stop, Director Gao turned his head and asked, “Doctor Yang, could you please check if this position is accurate?”

Although Director Gao knew how to position, in order to be precise and individualized, he needed to consult Yang Ping. Therefore, as he sought high-quality surgery, he was not satisfied with just passing, instead aiming for excellence.

After Yang Ping assured him the position was good, Director Gao dared to drill the tibial tunnel.

After completing the tunnel in the tibia, a plasma knife burns a dot on the lateral wall of the femoral intercondylar fossa.

“To find the geometric center of the ligament footprint, one must recognize the difference between the bone surface of the footprint region and the non-footprint region. This difference is subtle and requires rich experience to recognize. This is the best positioning method. All other methods, such as bone spur positioning, residual positioning, and two-step positioning, have certain errors and cannot precisely locate the original ligament footprint’s geometric center,” Yang Ping shared without reservation, knowing that teaching another person his medical techniques could save more patients.

“Each time I perform cruciate ligament reconstruction, I follow your method to find the geometric center of the ligament footprint. Now I have some insights. Do you see, is this the footprint region? The bone surface is a bit rough compared to the surroundings,” Director Gao drew a range with the probe.

“Correct!” Yang Ping confirmed the range drawn by Gao.

An associate chief physician watching from the side suddenly understood. Director Gao had been making frequent visits to the Comprehensive Orthopedics department in recent months. He had learned from them, and now he was far ahead of everyone else.

When Yang Ping’s papers are published in the future, many doctors will improve their ligament reconstruction skills. However, the shared method is a universal version, simplified for everyone to easily grasp, and naturally not as potent as the advanced version Yang Ping personally taught.

Director Qin of the Spine Surgery department stood on the side, seeking to learn from Director Gao in his spare time.

Seeing this scene with Director Gao, he finally understood. Director Gao’s skills had improved rapidly recently, performing a series of difficult surgeries. All thanks to clinging to Yang Ping.

In the past, when performing such a surgery, if it was for an elderly patient, functionality wasn’t as important, just doing it for show would suffice. If it was for a professional athlete, Gao would not dare to touch it. Now, he dares to perform this kind of surgery on professional athletes.

This guy was also favored by Director Han. For the soon-to-be-established Sports Medicine Center, everyone thought another director would be parachuted in, but instead, the position was left for Old Gao.

The Big Orthopedics department held a status within Sanbo Hospital akin to a hospital within a hospital. Its affiliated center departments had equal status with other centers within the hospital, and their powers and treatment were much higher than that of ordinary department directors.

Currently, in Orthopedics, only Tan Boyun has such treatment. The sub-specialties under the title of the center, Old Han delegated all powers. The hospital gave many privileges, equivalent to a feudal lord.

Looking at people like Tan Boyun, if he wanted to recruit someone or equipment, he could make the decision. Even the performance distribution within the department was under his control. Having full autonomy over personnel, finances, and materials, everyone in the hospital envied these lords.

But not everyone had the strength to be a lord. You need ability to foster a team of talents, to build a business scale, to seize the academic high ground.

Director Qin was ashamed. Old Gao, in his current form, treated a young man as a teacher, invited him to give advice during surgery, nodding and bowing, it was a bit embarrassing. Director Qin could certainly not do it.

Yang Ping was excellent, but Old Qin’s seniority was there. No matter what, he couldn’t lower his head to a young man twenty years his junior and call him his student.

However, the attraction of being a feudal lord was strong. Not only income but also the status within the hospital, the academic status in the industry, Director Qin was in a dilemma.

“Doctor Yang, what do you think of this point?” Director Gao asked sincerely.

Yang Ping carefully examined it: “Good, make the tunnel according to this point.”

Listening to his tone, Director Gao addressed Doctor Yang as if he were his teacher, which made Director Qin’s face turn beet red.

The reconstruction of Director Gao’s anterior cruciate ligament was completed, and now the reconstruction of the posterior cruciate ligament was started.

“Director Gao, the several sets of arthroscopic equipment you applied for have arrived. The equipment department has also tuned them. When would you like to try the new equipment?” The nurse leader of the operating room came in.

“The surgery tomorrow will use the new equipment. Why hasn’t the new plasma knife arrived yet?” Director Gao seemed dissatisfied.

The authority! Here was the power of a feudal lord!

“It should arrive soon. They wouldn’t dare to delay your application,” the head nurse explained.

The equipment department staff were like lords, usually disregarding Director’s requests and finding various excuses to delay.

But when a center director urged them, they ran errands immediately, not daring to delay.

It came to power in the end. Center directors were all members of the hospital committee, holding votes.

According to the system of Sanbo Hospital, those votes could dismiss the director of the equipment department. If a few center directors got together, they could gather enough votes to skin the director of the equipment department alive.

Who wouldn’t want to be such a feudal lord in the hospital?