Surgery Godfather

Chapter 324: Chapter 0308: Killing Two Birds with One Stone

In the vast world, anything is possible, even a human spinal disc being able to move around within the spinal column.

If Director Qin hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it. The spinal canal was so tiny, how could such a large piece of tissue move around in it?

Yang Ping explained the case all the way to Xiao Su, who became increasingly interested and questioned Yang Ping tirelessly.

Just when they returned to the department, Director Qin personally called to express his thanks and wanted to arrange a dinner with Yang Ping, his tone extremely humble and courteous.

To build a closer relationship seemed to require a meal. This kind of socializing did not suit Yang Ping’s introverted character, but one had to bend with the wind.

In the afternoon, Xiao Guoqiang came over for a check-up. His nerve had grown past his wrist and reached his palm, showing no signs of stagnation. The hope of restoring full hand feeling and mobility was very high.

Such cases could have topped the international top journals thirty years ago, but now it’s different, the tide of technology is no longer focused on this.

Due to necessary debridement of vascular and nerve ends during the operation, and to minimize vascular and nerve suture tension, bone shortening was necessary when replanting.

Each interface was slightly shortened, and the whole right upper limb was shortened by about five centimeters compared to the left one. This made it look very uncoordinated.

However, Xiao Guoqiang didn’t mind. He was already satisfied with saving this arm. Being shorter was better than being non-existent.

After examining Xiao Guoqiang, Yang Ping told him, “In the future, you can opt for orthopedic extension to lengthen your forearm, palm and fingers proportionally. This will restore the normal length of your upper right limb, but not now, you will have to wait at least a year.”

“Extension is possible? You’re saying my arm can be as long as the left one?” Xiao Guoqiang was somewhat disbelieving, thinking that Dr. Yang was just trying to comfort him.

However, Xiao Guoqiang knew that Dr. Yang never lied about medical matters. If it were really possible, he could have an arm with no significant defects in appearance.

“Don’t get too excited yet. We still need to wait until your nerve function is fully restored. Whether the nerve can grow over the last bit is still uncertain. The success rate is high, but it doesn’t exclude the possibility of stopping at some point,” Yang Ping’s words were very objective. He had an overall plan for Xiao Guoqiang’s treatment, advancing step by step, slowly.

“I plan to get married on May 1st, and I will invite everyone to celebrate together,” Xiao Guoqiang happily said, turning to look at his gentle and considerate fiancée.

The shy primary school teacher’s cheeks were flushed, showing bashfulness. A hero matched with a beauty, it’s a good thing since ancient times!

“Continue to receive functional training in the Rehabilitation Department until your nerve function is fully restored,” admonished Yang Ping.

Xiao Guoqiang was very obedient. He wanted to return to his job as soon as possible. Although it was dangerous, he loved his job and felt a sense of honor doing it.

At five in the afternoon, Yang Ping’s cellphone gave a QQ Mail alert of a new email.

Upon opening it, it wasn’t spam. It was an email from AJSM in the United States. There were actually three emails, all reply emails from AJSM reviewers.

One was just received, the other two were received around noon and one o’clock, which he failed to check.

Converted into U.S. time, it should be late night and early morning.

Do Americans work this hard? Don’t they sleep?

The feedback from the three reviewers was very brief:

“Brilliant, you have solved a difficult problem.”

“Incredible, you have summarized the data we need.”

“Congratulations to you, and to me, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a manuscript like this.”

The editors had not much revision opinions on the article, just correcting some grammatical habits, indicating that it would be published as soon as possible.

With AJSM, the average peer review period is three months. It has only been a month now, and the editors have already responded and indicated that they will arrange for publication as soon as possible. Yang Ping began to wonder if he had submitted to a high-quality fake journal.

One of the reviewers was actually Professor Robert. Yang Ping looked up Professor Robert’s personal information. This professor was actually the director of the Sports Medicine Center at the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States and the current president of the North American Society for Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy.

AJSM, the journal with the highest impact factor in orthopedics, had accepted both his papers at once. This was indeed unprecedented.

Yang Ping found Song Zimo and told him, “The AJSM reviewers have replied. Both papers have been accepted in one go, and the editor is arranging for publication as soon as possible.”

Song Zimo was also a bit incredulous, “AJSM? They have replied now, haven’t they got the wrong publication? Nowadays there are many scam journals for making money. You didn’t submit to a high-quality fake, did you? They didn’t ask for dollars, did they?”

In these times, doctors have also become targets for scams. Because promotion needs to have papers published, many doctors are so busy with their clinical work that they don’t have time to write papers.

What to do? Buy!

Where there’s demand, there’s a market. This is an open secret. The numerous business cards surrounding each job title examination site show how hot this market is.

Scammers have also come up with new means. They create a whole set of fakes, from journals to websites. It’s said that the printing paper for the journal is even better than the real one.

And they offer package prices. With just a few thousand yuan, your paper can be successfully published. They claim it can be checked online and will be worry-free for job title promotion.

For doctors who don’t usually publish papers, this is such a time-saving offer. Who wouldn’t want to make money with it? They believe it’s true, so they transfer the money.

The scammers kept their promises. The paper was published on time, and a fake journal was ceremoniously sent to you. And indeed, the fake website does show the published paper.

It’s not until job title promotion when it’s found out that the journal is fake. They were tricked.

Yang Ping showed Song Zimo his email. Song Zimo helped him collect these materials, and he checked them again carefully. It was accurate. For a high-ranking scholar who had his doctoral thesis published in The Lancet, he would not make such a low-level mistake.

If the journal is genuine, then it’s a done deal, and moreover with one stone killing two birds!

Awesome!

Song Zimo holds up two thumbs in approval.

Liang Fatty feels a bit upset. There have been rumors going around the hospital that he was trying to woo a flight attendant on an airplane.

He was wronged. All Liang Fatty did was find the woman attractive, glanced at her a few times, and then ordered an orange juice due to his palpitations. Now, people are saying that he was hitting on the flight attendant, and even worse, harassing her.

His potential romantic interests who had faith in him, now began doubting his character. Just like that, any potential success was nipped in the bud.

People are brainless. A toad wishing to eat swan meat, not considering if the toad is of high grade. If it was Song Zimo chasing the flight attendant, that’s plausible. But this toad, Liang Fatty…

But who needs intelligence for rumors? Just go with what feels good.

“I’ll look into this for you, bro. Whoever started this rumor, I’ll give them a slap.” Zhang Lin console.

Yang Ping, seeing the dejected look on Fatty’s face, said, “Fatty, why bother? You’ve been sulking over it for days. In my opinion, you should be thanking the person who started the rumor. It’s essentially a tailor-made matrimonial ad that raises your value.”

Thinking about it, Fatty realized, wasn’t this implying his infinite charm? His worries instantly vanished. You are strong as the wind, blowing over the hills.

“Yeah, brother’s right. You should be thanking this guy…” Zhang Lin agreed with this perspective.

Yang Ping gave him a look, and Zhang Lin immediately avoided him and stopped talking.

Director Han appears at his office door. Old Han is now permanently based at the Orthopedic Research Institute and rarely comes over.

“Come, Xiao Yang, have a seat!”

Old Han sought out Yang Ping specifically. The doctoral exams were approaching, and he planned to give Yang Ping half a month’s leave to prepare. After all, there’s a lot to cover for the PhD exam, not to mention, the English part alone poses a problem to many.

“The doctoral exam is approaching. You tell me how long a break you need, and I’ll approve it. Just make sure you get good results.” Old Han was sorting through some tea leaves.

“Let’s have some Sabah Black Tea. It’s something you guys bought, let’s try it together.”

Yang Ping had brought it back from Malaysia after performing a surgery. Old Han hadn’t had the heart to open it yet.

“I don’t need a break, we’ll just go on as usual. On the exam days, I can take a break.” Yang Ping hadn’t thought about taking time off.

In truth, what was the need? He had plenty of preparation time. Plus, if he really had to revise, he could just go into the System Space and focus on studying for a few months. It would only cost him a few thousand points. He was not someone short on points now.

He had originally thought the system was weak, but the more he used it, the more he realized that this system was unstoppable. Just the system library alone, made learning limitless.

“No break? Every day I see you doing surgeries in the department and taking naps at noon, I never see you reading. Even if you read after going home in the evening, it’s not enough. Judging by your lively appearance in the morning, you don’t seem to stay up to study either. You knew you had to take the exam, I didn’t get you an exemption this time.” Old Han voiced his worry. Being good at practical stuff doesn’t mean that you are good at taking tests.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a doctoral exam, after all. Just a few exam papers, how tough can they be?” Yang Ping reassured Old Han.

Old Han stared at him. This confidence, it was as dominating as when he was doing surgery.

“Have some tea. This black tea isn’t bad, right?” Yang Ping felt uneasy under his gaze.

Old Han shifted his gaze, “Are you sure you don’t need a break?”

“I don’t!” Yang Ping remained calm.

“How’s your paper coming along? Any news?” Every time Old Han came, it was a regular push.

“The two papers submitted to AJSM have passed the review. The editor says they will be published soon.” Yang Ping said nonchalantly.

“Both papers passed?”

AJSM, it’s the apex in the world of orthopedics, this was no laughing matter.

“Yes, the papers were reviewed by Professor Robert.”

It was rare to see two papers published in top journals simultaneously, but for this lad, the unusual was commonplace. Many of the surgeries he did, were performed better than anyone’s, so it was only natural to widen one’s perspective when assessing this extraordinary person.

“Once you pass the doctoral exam and your papers are published, I’ll talk to Dean Xia about a promotion.” Director Han said leisurely.

Promoting someone with lesser qualifications to a higher position was more common in private hospitals or ordinary first-rate hospitals, but was quite rare in a provincial-level teaching hospital. Yang Ping’s promotion to associate professor based on these few papers was still not a certainty.

If he had papers published in ‘Science’ or ‘Nature’, it might be enough. However, those journals generally focus on basic research, and clinical articles are rarely published there.

If one seeks to rank surgical medical techniques, proficiency, unsurpassable expertise in performing surgeries, is just the first level. Higher up is the innovation of surgical methods, enhancing the safety, simplicity, and effectiveness of operations, a significant contribution. Then there’s the innovation of theories, and above that, is the revolution of basic theories.

So, if a surgeon is only good at their craft, they will always be just a “craftsman”.

“Dean Xia is already considering this.”