Path of Medicine With a System

Zhang Fan continued to study hard even though he was now formally a doctor. He would study together with Shao Hua whenever he had free time. She studied accounting, while Zhang Fan constantly practiced English speaking and vocabulary. He would also take walks together with her. Shao Hua and her parents did all of the chores in the home. They would never let Zhang Fan be bothered by such trifling matters. In fact, Shao Hua’s parents even argued much less with each other than before, not wanting to bother Zhang Fan.

Every week, as long as Zhang Fan wasn’t busy, he would always call his parents together with Shao Hua, as well as call his younger sister Jingshu. If Zhang Fan didn’t have the time, Shao Hua would always call on behalf of him. Thus passed Zhang Fan’s days, which were quite plain, just like chicken soup. The flavor was light but nutritious. Zhang Fan’s chicken soup days were filled with bliss.

It was now Zhang Fan’s medical team’s turn to accept patients for today. Two days ago, the emergency department had already sent them two patients even though it wasn’t their turn. However, the emergency department had especially requested Zhang Fan, so the other doctors didn’t say anything. One patient had a closed fracture of the collarbone, while the other had a closed fracture of the ankle joint. Both patients were given one day to rest and recuperate so that the swelling could go down as well as for pre-surgery checkups. Thus, these two surgeries were scheduled for today.

Zhang Fan was on a 24-hour work shift today. One person in his medical team would need to stay in the department for the entire day to be in charge of hospitalization and discharge paperwork. That was because patients might be sent over to them at any time from the outpatient services section.

“Yanan, Brother Xue, which one of you two will stay in the department today?”

“Me!” Xue Fei was more than happy not to have to do any surgeries. Working on surgeries for an entire 24-hour work shift would likely result in no longer being able to feel one’s legs anymore.

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“Alright, I’ll work on the surgeries with Yanan then. Doctor Li, would you prefer to participate in the surgeries or write the medical reports today?” Zhang Fan asked the female rotation doctor who had been assigned to his team. Zhang Fan’s medical team was basically custom-made for him as the attending physician ranked higher than him was the lazy type, while resident doctor Wang Yanan was his disciple.

Doctor Li hesitated for a moment, and then answered, “I’ll write the medical reports, Teacher Zhang.” She was shorter than Wang Yanan, and also on the weaker side. Thus, she didn’t intend to join a surgical department in the first place.

Zhang Fan had originally wanted to do a 70/30 income split for the surgeries vs. writing the medical reports. However, he then calculated it and found that it was rather high for just writing the medical reports. Xue Fei and Wang Yanan also objected to paying so much for the medical reports. In the end, Zhang Fan set the medical report payment at 30 yuan per medical report completed. Separate medical reports were required for hospitalization and discharging a patient, so young Doctor Li would be really busy.

“Alright. You can stay in the department and write the medical reports then. This is my cafeteria card. Buy anything that you like for lunch with it.” Zhang Fan handed Doctor Li his cafeteria card.

“I have my own card, Teacher Zhang. There’s no need.” She felt rather awkward.

“Your money is yours. You’re working in our team and for our sake, so it’s only normal that we should pay for your meals. Don’t be shy.” Zhang Fan handed his card to Wang Yanan, who unhesitatingly stuffed the cafeteria card into Doctor Li’s white doctor’s jacket’s pocket.

“Don’t be shy, take it! You don’t have any bonus money, so you should save as much money as you can,” Wang Yanan told Doctor Li.

“Thank you!” Doctor Li replied with a red face.

“Okay! Begin the surgeries.” Zhang Fan entered the operating room.

Xu Xian and Li Yuze, the two graduate students in the department, had been trying to learn what they could about Zhang Fan. But even though they learned of his reputation, they had never seen Zhang Fan in action before, so they didn’t really believe Zhang Fan’s reputation.

Xu Xian and Li Yuze also had their own surgery to work on. Xu Xian made up his mind that once he finished with his surgery, he would go over to observe Zhang Fan’s surgery.

The ice and snow were beginning to melt as it was spring. Due to governmental support for the border province, many major construction projects were beginning with the spring thaw. In the past, most orthopedic injuries had been due to accidentally falling over, especially for older people who then fractured a bone. Although older people injuring themselves was still common, this type of orthopedic injury had already decreased to become only the third most common type of orthopedic injury.

The number one most common type of orthopedic injury was due to car accidents, especially in the city. Even though it wasn’t possible to drive that quickly in the cities, a car accident would easily cause a shattered bone. The second most common type was due to an accident at work.

All three orthopedic departments had their own operating rooms, although the anesthesiologists and operating room nurses were shared. Still, the operating room head nurse really favored Zhang Fan, so she would always arrange things especially quickly for him.

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“Hey, Zhang Fan, you’ve finally escaped the internal medicine departments. Now that you’ve been permanently assigned, you haven’t even treated me to a meal?” The operating room head nurse greeted Zhang Fan from far away when she saw that he had changed into surgical attire and entered the operating room.

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“Hello, head nurse. As you know, I have many surgeries. I figured that I’d treat all the operating room nurses to a meal during some weekend,” Zhang Fan responded with a smile. Although he was wearing a surgical mask, the head nurse still felt really comfortable because she could tell from his eyes that he was smiling.

“What, who among my nurses have you fallen in love with? Tell me in secret. I’ll definitely help you conquer her.” The head nurse then intentionally came over right next to Zhang Fan. The distance between them seemed like she was touching him, but there was still a tiny bit of distance. However, Zhang Fan could smell the fragrance on her body and see her white neck up close, and even saw a faint hint of her cleavage. It seemed like she was wearing a black bra!

“Haha, I really haven’t. I already have a girlfriend!” Zhang Fan took a small imperceptible step backwards! He really couldn’t handle the head nurse! He could only be defeated by a mature woman like her who had high emotional intelligence. If he didn’t retreat, the head nurse would surely laugh at him forever!

“It’s not like you’re married yet. Besides, those who are married might also get divorced. Honest, the girls working under me are all really nice. You should get some more experience while you’re still unmarried. Otherwise, you’ll regret things.”

“Zhang Fan!” Wang Yanan finished changing and exited the women’s changing room. She went over to the operating room already, but saw that Zhang Fan hadn’t arrived yet. She then came over to see that Zhang Fan was chatting with the head nurse, so she called out to him, which ended up rescuing Zhang Fan.

“Head nurse, I’m going to a surgery now.” Zhang Fan was about to slink away along the wall.

“Haha, go! Your little disciple is getting jealous!” the head nurse said this as if she was a cat!

“Haha!” Zhang Fan didn’t dare to reply anymore.

He entered the operating room only to receive a glare from Wang Yanan. “You’d better stay away from her. Otherwise, I’ll definitely report you to Shao Hua.”

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“What are you even thinking? Hurry up and wash your hands and disinfect.” Zhang Fan didn’t care at all. Wang Yanan was too young to understand still, but Zhang Fan understood quite well. The head nurse definitely had no romantic interest in him. This was simply her way of interacting with others.

“Hmph! Do you think that she’s only passionate towards you? She treats all the slightly more skilled doctors the same way. I’ve seen it several times,” Wang Yanan whispered to Zhang Fan. She was whispering because the operating room nurse and anesthesiologist had already arrived. She really had matured. If this had been before, she would have said such things out loud!

“Keep blabbering. Hurry and wash your hands. Otherwise, I’m going to start without you.” Zhang Fan was unable to explain it as Wang Yanan still wouldn’t understand. Although Wang Yanan was only one year younger than he was, Zhang Fan was mentally around a 40-year-old’s age!

Zhang Fan washed his hands, disinfected, and draped. In the operating room, everything required standardized movements. Nobody was allowed to talk loudly. This was in order not to bother others, and also because the louder one spoke, the more likely it was for spit to fly out from one’s mouth and contaminate the surgery area.

Handwashing would require washing all the way up to the elbows. After the handwashing was finished, the doctor would need to keep his hands and arms straight in the air in order to ensure they were sterile. Requirements were even higher for the doctor’s hands. Rings, watches, and so on were all forbidden. If the doctor’s hands had any open wounds, then the doctor would be completely forbidden from performing surgery!

There were usually three layers to draping. The three layers added together would be about four centimeters. The specialized drapes would cover the patient’s entire body. Only the part of the body for the surgery would be revealed.

The surgery began. The first patient was the one with a collarbone fracture. This was easy, incredibly easy for the current Zhang Fan. There was zero difficulty in this surgery for him now. However, even if it wasn’t difficult at all, Zhang Fan was still highly vigilant. No matter how small or major the surgery, it would be important to treat them all the same. Otherwise, a medical incident would occur sooner or later.

Wang Yanan wanted to perform the surgery, but she saw that the bone had been shattered severely, so she didn’t request to be the primary surgeon.

“Here, touch this location. The collarbone is slightly curved. Also, look at this broken portion. This is the most fragile part of the collarbone. When you put a metal plate here, you absolutely need to adjust the metal plate’s shape. Otherwise, it won’t adhere tightly to the bone. In that scenario, either the metal plate will break or the bone won’t fix itself properly in a few months from now.”

Zhang Fan kept explaining the important points to Wang Yanan as he performed surgery. Firstly, Wang Yanan was really respectful towards him. Any teaching doctor would like such a student regardless of gender. Secondly, Zhang Fan and Shao Hua getting along so well was also thanks to Wang Yanan helping out at the beginning. Back then, Zhang Fan had said that he would definitely help Wang Yanan secure her position in orthopedic department #1. Thirdly, she truly was treating Zhang Fan as her teacher. This was a way of helping each other out!

About half an hour later, the first surgery concluded successfully and the anesthesia ended.

The medical equipment nurse and operating room nurse hurriedly cleaned up the medical equipment and all the drapes on the ground. They then placed everything in a tube that led to a room for cleaning this equipment.

The hospital had special employees who would clean up all the medical equipment used in operations. They were waiting behind that tube. They would take away all of the contaminated medical equipment.

Around 15 minutes later, the anesthesiologist announced, “Let’s wash our hands!” Wang Yanan washed her hands and disinfected.

They were sent a constant stream of patients. Three car accident victims arrived with open fractures. There was also a construction worker who was injured at a work site with a foot fracture that was also an open fracture. Near the end of the work shift, yet another open fracture arrived.

What was an open fracture vs. a closed fracture?

This was quite simple. An open fracture would be an injury where the bone was showing. This type of injury would require surgery as quickly as possible in order to prevent osteomyelitis. The longer before a patient received injury, the higher the chance of osteomyelitis.

Meanwhile, closed fractures were broken bones that didn’t penetrate the skin. These usually required the swelling to go down before a surgery could begin. If there was too much swelling, the surgeon wouldn’t be able to sew up the skin after the surgery! This would be even more so for places where the skin was thin. The swelling would absolutely have to go down first. This was why some patients would only receive surgery around three to four days, or even a week, after being hospitalized. This wasn’t because the doctor was waiting for a red packet. It truly wouldn’t be possible to do the surgery!

Wang Yanan began to have a hard time after completing four surgeries. She really was tired after working for the entire day. Her back and legs were really sore. She was getting slightly hunched over after the fourth surgery ended. However, there were still more patients. The emergency department had already called to tell them that a hip bone fracture patient was soon arriving.

“You should go get some rest and tell Xue Fei to join me,” Zhang Fan told her.

“It’s fine. I can still go on.” Wang Yanan felt that she could still keep going because Zhang Fan was still persisting.

“Listen to me. Surgery isn’t something that can be done by doing as much as possible in a single day. Go get some rest!”

“But why aren’t you getting any rest?”

“I’m one year older than you. Hurry and go get some rest.” Zhang Fan definitely wouldn’t say something like “because I’m a man.” Otherwise, Wang Yanan would absolutely refuse to leave.

“Okay, I’ll go get some rest.”

Meanwhile, the day shift had already ended in the department. “How come you haven’t left yet?” Xue Fei was playing on his cell phone while eating a boxed lunch as he said this to Xu Xian, who still hadn’t left.

“Ah, I’m in no hurry. I still haven’t finished writing my medical reports.” Xu Xian and Zhang Fan had both finished their surgeries at the same time. Xu Xian needed to write medical reports and offer medical advice to the patients, which was why he didn’t have the time to observe Zhang Fan’s surgery, even though he had really wanted to. There was an especially high number of patients today, so he was waiting for Zhang Fan to ask for his help so that he could go and compare himself to Zhang Fan.

This was a common problem to those who were really smart. They would be unwilling to submit to others. There was nothing wrong with this. If you wanted to make progress, you would need to have an attitude and spirit that weren’t submissive.

Orthopedic department #1’s nurse station didn’t seem like it was time to get off work at all. There were so many patients today that the day shift’s nurses were working overtime even though the night shift nurses had already arrived.

The orthopedic department #1 head nurse Lian Juan didn’t leave, either. There were too many new patients hospitalized today. She needed to watch over things, otherwise there would easily be an incident.

“Does patient #8 still have fluids? He rang his bell!” Liao Juan commanded the nurses from the nurse station.

“Head nurse, this patient has two sets of medicine. This set is vitamins. Please help me change it as there’s too much for me to do alone!” a nurse requested.

“You only know how to order me around!” Although Liao Juan was complaining, she still instantly went over to help change the medicine.

“Sigh! Xue Fei, your Zhang Fan really is like a maneki neko. He has so many patients when it’s his shift,” Liao Juan commented to Xue Fei after she finished changing the medicine. She saw that he was idly eating his food while playing on his cell phone.

“Have you eaten yet? Come eat with me if you haven’t,” Xue Fei offered.

“You’re only calling me after you leave nothing but leftovers? There’s no sincerity in your offer at all. We’re ridiculously busy. None of us nurses have gotten to eat dinner yet. Go buy some Kentucky Fried Chicken for us.”

Xue Fei was just about to find some excuse not to do anything when Wang Yanan dragged her leaden body into the department. “Go to the operating room. There’s yet another patient for us. It’s a hip bone fracture.”

“Hey! Why is it so busy today?” Xue Fei remarked as he got up to go to the operating room. If he still didn’t do any work now, that would really be considered shameless of him.

Rotation doctor Little Li was both in pain and happy. No other department would give a rotation doctor any money for writing medical reports. That was work that you were supposed to do regardless! But in Zhang Fan’s medical team, he paid her money as well as paid for her meals. It was just that there were so many medical reports. She had barely gotten up from her chair all day. Still, she was happy that she had earned over 100 yuan today already.

Xu Xian glanced at Wang Yanan, but didn’t say anything. ‘That’s five surgeries you’ve worked on. You probably won’t be able to take any more even if you’re as strong as a bull!’

Another car accident occurred during rush hour. The ambulance brought over two more bone fracture patients. Then, it became 11:00 p.m., yet Zhang Fan was still busy performing surgeries. Xu Xian had been waiting in the department for all this time for Zhang Fan to ask for his help. The end result was that Wang Yanan had a meal, took a nap, and then returned to the operating room. However, Zhang Fan didn’t come out at all.

Xu Xian checked the time again. It was almost 1:00 a.m. now. Zhang Fan had been performing surgeries nonstop since about 9:00 a.m., which caused Xu Xian’s face to pale. No matter what Zhang Fan’s surgery skill level was like, Xu Xian could only admit that he didn’t have as much stamina as Zhang Fan. Surgery, especially orthopedic surgery, was a physically demanding job!

Meanwhile, Little Li who was writing medical reports no longer felt any happiness. She only felt pain!

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