System Came When the Doctor was Thirty

”They’ve already started the disinfection, and the patient hasn’t even entered the operating room yet.”

The circulating nurses chatted about Tian Zhiliang, ”Director Tian, I’ll call right away.”

Tian Zhiliang privately believed that the significant increase in emergency surgery deaths over the past month was due to the lack of cooperation in specialized emergency consultations, leading to treatment delays.

Lu Cheng was meticulously reading the CT scan, and after three minutes, he roughly diagnosed the patient and approached the operating table to report, ”Director Tian, although this patient has an open wound, it doesn’t involve any solid organs.”

”There are no obvious vascular injuries, most likely intestinal injuries and contusions. We don’t need to be in such a hurry.”

Hearing Lu Cheng’s words, Tian Zhiliang’s heart relaxed slightly, ”Hm, okay.”

”Let’s perform an exploratory laparotomy first. If there’s bleeding, we’ll handle it, and leave the rest to the specialists.”

After becoming the director, Tian Zhiliang increasingly appreciated the ’specialist triage’ system, as it alleviated some of the pressure on him.

Lu Cheng left the room to wash his hands, put on a gown and sterile gloves, and then stood opposite Tian Zhiliang, ready to assist.

Tian Zhiliang spoke with a slight tremor in his voice, ”Lu Cheng, you perform the laparotomy, and I’ll assist you.”

”Huh?” Lu Cheng sounded slightly surprised.

Could it be that during these few days I’ve been away, Tian Zhiliang developed some psychological shadow?

Tian Zhiliang’s eye twitched, and his voice tightened, ”You perform it.”

”Okay.” Lu Cheng didn’t hesitate, took the scalpel, and smoothly incised the patient’s abdomen.

In emergency surgery, every second counts; time is life, and unnecessary delays are a waste of time.

Lu Cheng’s incision skill had some flair. Although not at the expert level like his suturing skill (Specialization 20/20), it still surpassed many surgeons.

Lu Cheng was decisive in his incision, with a clear and straightforward exposure process.

To expedite the surgery, Lu Cheng invested some skill points, directly elevating his incision skill’s fundamentals to ’Expert Level’!

This made Lu Cheng’s incision and exposure process even smoother, making further deep abdominal exposure with minimal bleeding, and the cut surfaces were clean.

However, while the cut surfaces were clean, the exposed abdominal organs still showed muddy congestion, which couldn’t be corrected merely by perfecting incision fundamentals.

Lu Cheng immediately began cleaning the congestion.

This relied on the foundational skills of wound cleaning. Lu Cheng was quite proficient, still at (Specialization 20/20)!

”Director Tian? Lend a hand.” As Lu Cheng worked, he noticed that Tian Zhiliang had failed to keep up several times, prompting a reminder.

Tian Zhiliang, as if returning from a mental escape, lightly shuddered, ”Hm, alright.”

After roughly cleaning the congestion and blood clots, Lu Cheng began assessing the injury’s general state: ”The intra-abdominal hematoma originates from organ contusions, with minor bleeding, slight oozing. There are focal hemorrhagic spots on the liver surface, ruptured unnamed vessels...”

”Why is it that when you do a laparotomy, you always seem to have such luck?” Tian Zhiliang asked at the right time, his voice resentful, emotions slightly twisted.

Lu Cheng looked up again, ”Huh?”

Tian Zhiliang shook his head lightly, ”Nothing, don’t mind me.”

”Oh, alright.” Lu Cheng clamped the ruptures of two unnamed arteries with hemostatic forceps and said,

”Director Tian, there’s nothing much left for us to do in this surgery. We’ll leave the rest to the hepatobiliary surgery team.”

”This is just a relatively routine liver contusion.”

Just then, Song Daoneng from hepatobiliary surgery entered the operating room, smiling warmly, ”Dr. Lu, what is it that you’re handing over to me now?”

Lu Cheng replied with a smile, ”Director Song, it’s just a minor liver contusion with superficial bleeding, right up your alley.”

”Please have a look, confirm it, and then Director Tian and I will step down and leave.”

Song Daoneng began putting on his gown and sterile gloves, and after examining for two minutes next to the OR table, he said, ”Well done, Dr. Lu and Director Tian.”

...

Upon leaving the operating room, Lu Cheng smiled and said, ”Director Tian, this patient could have been directly referred to hepatobiliary surgery without us needing to operate.”

Tian Zhiliang rubbed his face hard with his left hand and confessed, ”I did the same with a patient on the 4th.”

”The patient bled out massively and died.”

”Last night, I operated on another, and that patient also died from massive bleeding. There were no apparent arterial ruptures on the CT. How did this happen?”

Tian Zhiliang’s expression and eyes were filled with agony, as if he were doubting his entire life and felt targeted everywhere.

Lu Cheng finally understood why Tian Zhiliang seemed so distressed now.

Cutting is wrong, not cutting is wrong.

Encountering a few such cases can indeed create psychological shadows.

When Xiao Zhaoxi was still around, he took most of the major responsibilities. If Tian Zhiliang ran into cases he couldn’t handle, he could still ask for help.

Now he’s at the ’top tier’ of emergency surgery, and with Lu Cheng taking leave, any unexpected situations have to be faced by Tian Zhiliang alone, pretending to be ’Xiao Zhaoxi’ and pushing through.

Other specialties’ pressures can be endured; medicine is a matter of life and death.

If an emergency diagnosis fails to diagnose ’unconventional’ cases leading to death, during the review, the medical department and leaders won’t listen to many reasons.

”Director Tian, medicine is chaotic.”

”Once it’s over, it’s over.” Lu Cheng comforted.

With Xiao Zhaoxi absent and no absolute substitute found within the hospital, Tian Zhiliang had to step up.

Regardless of whether Tian Zhiliang’s capabilities were enough, he was currently the best emergency surgery could offer.

”Lu Cheng, thank you, really, for your help.”

”Today was truly troublesome.” Tian Zhiliang knew his mindset was problematic, as was his state, but he had no solution.

”No problem, Director Tian. You said it yourself earlier, we’re brothers. If you need help when you’re on duty, feel free to call me.” Lu Cheng stated.

Tian Zhiliang nodded, taciturnly uttering, ”Okay.”

After speaking, Tian Zhiliang walked straight out of the dressing room in his scrub clothing without leaving with Lu Cheng.

Lu Cheng didn’t need to be on call, nor was he the director in charge of surgery, so he could rest directly, but not Tian Zhiliang.

Watching Tian Zhiliang’s back, Lu Cheng pondered for a moment, his gaze turning pensive.

”Zhou Yi, Xici Chapter 2” — ”When virtue does not match one’s position, disaster will surely follow”!

...

When Zhang Zhong from gastrointestinal surgery arrived at the operating room, Song Daoneng and his team were nearly done with the surgery.

”What the heck, Brother Song, how did you finish so fast?”

”I just stepped out for a smoke.” Zhang Zhong quickly began putting on his sterile surgical gown.

Song Daoneng replied, ”This surgery was initially handled by Lu Cheng from the emergency department. Check out this surgical field.”

”Is this even an emergency surgery? It’s more like a straightforward elective procedure, isn’t it?”

”Zhang Zhong, the mesenteric artery branch sutures will be for you to handle, alright?”

Zhang Zhong, with crab-like sidesteps, approached while wearing gloves, tilting his head to view the surgical field, ”Is Lu Cheng back from leave?”

”Yes!~” Song Daoneng nodded.

Zhang Zhong nodded, ”That’s good, then. It means we won’t be easily implicated.”

”Given the current situation, anyone on the same shift as Tian Zhiliang is really out of luck.”

Song Daoneng replied, ”Tian Zhiliang isn’t having it easy either, just unlucky.”

Zhang Zhong refrained from adding fuel to the fire, being a deputy chief physician himself, he had seen and experienced his share of unforeseen incidents: ”Luck is too uncertain; relying solely on luck isn’t enough.”

”In hindsight, we were too naive.”

”The emergency surgery department has progressed, and hospital leadership wouldn’t easily let it revert to its old status.”

Song Daoneng pondered and asked, ”How’s Brother Wei?”

The vice chief physician of the gastrointestinal surgery department, Peng Weiyuan, lost a patient on the operating table while operating with Tian Zhiliang.

Zhang Zhong put on his gloves and took over the surgery, ”He’s a bit depressed at the moment.”

”Brother Song, don’t try to pry info from me. My relationship with Brother Wei is good.”

Both Peng Weiyuan and Zhang Zhong were deputy chief physicians. While Peng was feeling down, Zhang Zhong couldn’t afford to appear too gleeful.

Rivals might be rivals, but in the medical field, few wish for others to make mistakes just to advance.

Zhang Zhong changed the subject, ”Anyway, thinking about it, Lu Cheng is pretty awesome.”

Song Daoneng chuckled, ”He’s indeed someone Dean Yao thinks highly of; he’s got something special.”

Zhang Zhong replied cautiously, ”Under a constant reputation, there’s no one useless. It might really not have been just Professor Chen Song promoting Lu Cheng.”