Path of Medicine With a System

Two weeks passed.

Everyone in the hospital learned about Zhang Fan’s accomplishments. Some looked down on him, some insulted him, and some praised him. However, Zhang Fan appeared to ignore all comments as he continued volunteering for all the work he possibly could.

Superintendent Batu even came over to ask Zhang Fan if he disliked being in surgery department #2. If that was the case, the superintendent was willing to switch Zhang Fan with Guo Qiliang in surgery department #1. Zhang Fan would have agreed to this if it wasn’t for the fact that he had already started studying orthopedic surgery in his System.

Finally, surgery department #2 received their first real patient. An ethnic minority fellow got on his motorcycle despite being drunk and ended up crashing into a tree. However, this fellow was extraordinarily lucky as he was perfectly fine everywhere except for a right humerus (upper arm) bone fracture.

When the ambulance brought him to the hospital, Director Nuar drunkenly said that the surgery should be performed immediately. Director Nuar was already in such a condition that he was no longer able to perform any surgeries unless he was drunk. His extreme alcoholism over the years had made it so that his hands would tremble violently whenever he wasn’t drunk.

Normally, the resident doctor Chen Qifa would perform all the orthopedic surgeries, while Director Nuar would assist him. Whoever was on duty between the two brain surgeons would be in charge of holding the surgical retractors.

Chen Qifa was highly pissed off at how active Zhang Fan had been over the past two weeks. ‘You’re just a newcomer. Why not obediently behave? Why show off so much by hopping around everywhere?’ Since Chen Qifa had tested for but failed to pass the medical license exam dozens of times over several decades already, his way of thinking had become somewhat twisted.

Chen Qifa fully intended to bully Zhang Fan during today’s surgery. When he arrived at the operating table, he commented, “Director Nuar, I accidentally injured my right hand yesterday, so I can barely use any of my strength. I won’t be able to do anything other than hold the surgical retractors today.”

An old veteran like Director Nuar immediately could tell that Chen Qifa was intent on bullying Zhang Fan with this.

The hell with injuring his hand? Director Nuar had clearly seen Chen Qifa eating with chopsticks held in his right hand just this morning. Although Chen Qifa wasn’t targeting Director Nuar himself, Nuar was the only person in the operating room with a medical license. This meant that anything that happened during the surgery would become his responsibility.

Director Nuar paused in contemplation for a moment before responding, “Doctor Chen, you’re a veteran doctor with excellent techniques. You’ll be able to perform this surgery well even with an injured hand. This patient will be recorded as yours after the surgery is complete.” In Kuake City Hospital, the doctors were paid by commission, so the more patients that they saw, the more they would get paid.

Both of them completely ignored Zhang Fan, who was also in the room. It wasn’t that Director Nuar was looking down on Zhang Fan. He knew that everyone had to start as an intern doctor at one point in their career. It was that Director Nuar was quite clear on the skill level of the average intern doctor who just joined a hospital. Although Zhang Fan was skilled at sewing surgical sutures, this only meant that he had clever hands, but couldn’t prove anything else about his skills.

“Director, Doctor Chen injured his hand. Why not allow me to try this surgery procedure? While I was still an intern during my studies, my teacher already allowed me to perform such procedures. You and Doctor Chen can guide me as I perform the surgery.” Zhang Fan had finished studying the traumatic injury course in his System over the past few days. Now that he had an actual chance to perform a surgery, he definitely wasn’t going to give it up.

Chen Qifa was already getting prepared to perform the surgery, but he was immediately angered upon hearing Zhang Fan say this. “Sure, let’s let Doctor Zhang try it out since he’s a college student,” Chen Qifa replied in a distorted tone.

Director Nuar was also quite angered at Chen Qifa. ‘The hell, are you trying to give me a hard time as well? You can’t even pass your medical license examination, so why are you acting so high and mighty? As for you, Zhang Fan, you’re nothing but a novice!’

Although he didn’t say any of this out loud, Director Nuar now had a rather ugly expression. Right when he was about to say something, Zhang Fan spoke up first. “Director, I guarantee that there will be no problems with me performing the surgery. If anything goes wrong at all, I’ll immediately take off my white doctor’s coat, resign, and leave this hospital.”

“Oh my, don’t you sound amazing. I’d like to see if you can really act on your words when that happens.” Chen Qifa looked down on Zhang Fan, and didn’t say anything else.

“This is about someone’s potential life or death. It’s not something to joke about,” Director Nuar said to Zhang Fan in a severe tone.

‘Hmph, you actually realize that a human life is at stake here? Yet you’re completely drunk for a surgery?’ In his mind, Zhang Fan was also looking down on Director Nuar.

“Director, please rest assured. This is only a fractured humerus. If I really can’t handle this surgery, I’ll immediately quit this hospital. Surely you and Doctor Chen will be able to handle the surgery if I’m unable to.”

‘What the hell will it have to do with me?’ Chen Qifa glared, and was about to say something when Director Nuar spoke first. “Alright, then you take charge for this surgery. If you can’t accomplish it, you don’t need to actually quit the hospital. Just learn properly from Doctor Chen in the future.” Basically, Director Nuar was saying that Zhang Fan should become Chen Qifa’s disciple.

Director Nuar was also quite angry with Chen Qifa’s behavior. ‘Damn you, you’re just an unlicensed doctor who can’t even pass the medical license exam, yet you dare to stir up trouble for me? Let me see just how humiliated you’ll be if this novice actually manages to succeed with this surgery,’ Nuar thought to himself.

“Okay, Doctor Zhang will be the head doctor in charge of this surgery. I’ll be the primary assistant, and Doctor Chen will be the secondary assistant. Everyone, wash up and disinfect,” Director Nuar announced.

There were only two members of Kuake City Hospital’s anesthesia department. The disciple was Ma Lihua, a Uighur Muslim woman in her mid-thirties. Since she had her medical license, she was the director of the anesthesia department. Her teacher was nearing fifty years of age, yet her teacher didn’t have a medical license, so the teacher could only watch the disciple become the anesthesia department director.

Ma Lihua was in charge of anesthesia for today’s surgery. She had fair white skin, a tall and curvaceous figure, large eyes, and a high nose bridge. However, her extremely crooked teeth ruined her otherwise beautiful looks. Because of her crooked teeth, not only did Ma Lihua rarely speak, she almost never smiled. This made her appear to be quite a serious individual.

“The anesthesia is ready. Go ahead and begin the surgery.” She nodded at the surgeons without saying anything else.

Zhang Fan’s movements with disinfecting and surgical draping were swift and well-practiced. Director Nuar nodded in approval as he watched from the side. Chen Qifa, who was intent on complaining at any chance he saw, was also unable to find anything to complain about.

Thus began the surgery. This was a simple fracture, the most common type of fracture that Zhang Fan had already practiced in the System countless times already. Zhang Fan was already relatively well-practiced in this type of surgery.

He cut along the injury, peeling back the skin while avoiding any muscle. He then performed hemostatic ligation, all with swift and well-flowing movements.

Old Director Nuar already had the problem with his hands trembling when he wasn’t drunk. Although Nuar had imbibed some alcohol to alleviate this problem, Zhang Fan was swift in his movements to the point where Nuar was unable to keep up as the primary assistant. Since Nuar didn’t want this fresh graduate novice to look down on him, he started panicking a little, which caused his hands to begin trembling again.

Zhang Fan didn’t really care either way, but Director Nuar became covered in sweat from his nervousness.

“Doctor Zhang, let’s take things slow and steady, slow and steady. Look, look, there’s still some bleeding, isn’t there? Please slow down. Doctor Chen, immediately use the aspirator to remove the remaining blood so that our Doctor Zhang can prepare for fluid infusion.”

Chen Qifa was both astonished and outraged to the extent where he almost broke a tooth with how hard he was grinding teeth. ‘What the hell is this? A recently graduated novice can perform surgery so swiftly already? And this (racial slur against Kazakhs) dares to pick at my problems? He’s trembling even more than a waving maneki neko. He dares to lecture me?’

Since Chen Qifa was still a veteran doctor with decades of practical experience, if not the book smarts required to pass the medical license exam, he could tell that Zhang Fan was truly skilled at performing this sort of surgery. Thus, Chen Qifa started venting all his anger on Director Nuar. Chen Qifa was the standard type of person who would act strong against those who were weak, but would act weak towards those who were strong.

Zhang Fan connected the bones, inserted a metal plating, and tightened the screws without even a single pause in his movements. If it wasn’t for the two doctors with him being a burden and slowing him down, Zhang Fan could have actually performed this surgery even quicker.

Ma Lihua from anesthesia was also astonished. “Doctor Zhang, you’re incredible. Which school did you graduate from? Your surgery techniques are outstanding.” She didn’t have any personal benefit conflicts with the surgeons, and she would be able to go home earlier if the surgery was completed faster. Hence, she simply stated whatever was on her mind.

“Haha, I’m still insufficiently good at this and require a lot more practice. I graduated from S University. I wouldn’t be able to accomplish this much without Director Nuar and Doctor Chen’s excellent guidance. Doctor Ma, you must also guide me well in the future.” Zhang Fan was well practiced in the skill of being a sycophant. He didn’t want to make it so that nobody was willing to be his assistant during surgeries in the future if he antagonized everyone else in the surgical department. Besides, he also didn’t even have a medical license yet.

“Young college graduate, you’re truly skilled with words. What could I possibly even guide you in? S University is a top-class university in our country, isn’t it?”

“Of course you’d be able to guide me. Doctor Ma, you’ve seen so many surgeries before. Just a few comments from you would help me endlessly since I’ve just graduated. I suppose that my school counts as a top-level one,” Zhang Fan remarked while blushing slightly.

This was the power of showing off actual skills. If Zhang Fan had been the tertiary assistant here today instead of the head doctor for the surgery, Ma Lihua would definitely have completely ignored him.

“Heehee, you’re so silver-tongued. No need to call me Doctor this and Doctor that. Call me Sister Ma instead. Sheesh, students from top-level colleges are truly amazing.” However, Ma Lihua was someone with low emotional intelligence who didn’t realize that her words had the effect of chilling the atmosphere in the operating room. Apart from Zhang Fan, everyone else in the room had graduated from a technical college instead. Who would be dumb enough to compare themselves to a graduate from a top-level college?

“I’m just a normal student, a normal student!” Zhang Fan’s face was burning up with embarrassment from all of Ma Lihua’s praise. He knew that if it wasn’t for his System, he would be nothing more than a below-average student today still.

Slightly less than thirty minutes later, the surgery was almost finished. It was time for the surgical sutures. “Director Nuar, Doctor Chen, why don’t the two of you finish for now and take a rest? I can handle the rest by myself,” Zhang Fan offered.

“I can sew the sutures. You’ve been performing surgery for so long. You must be tired.” Chen Qifa had given up on holding a grudge against Zhang Fan, having been impressed by his skills.

“Doctor Chen, didn’t you injure your hand?” Director Nuar spoke in accented Chinese like a foreigner would as he was an ethnic Kazakh minority. Right now, each and every word he said landed like a critical blow on Chen Qifa, while Nuar reveled in the latter’s torment. ‘Hmph, it’s your own fault for acting so pretentiously and giving me so much trouble!’

“I should at least be fine with sewing surgical sutures. I can give it a try, give it a try.” Chen Qifa was unable to even raise his head. Well, there was a phrase that a pitiful person would usually also have something hateful about them.

Zhang Fan didn’t have any thoughts about giving Chen Qifa any trouble for his earlier attitude. Zhang Fan’s goal was now far larger than just this city hospital.

“I’m really not tired at all. Both of you have been excellent assistants. All I did was follow your lead, which made it so easy for me. I really enjoy performing surgery with both of you. Doctor Chen, you should rest since your hand is injured. You’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future, don’t you agree?”

In the end, Zhang Fan completed the entire surgery in under thirty minutes. The loudmouthed Director Nuar gossiped about the surgery to the entire hospital. Li Hui, Guo Qiliang, and the other intern doctors all had astonished expressions upon hearing this. Guo Qiliang received the biggest impact as he had never tried to compare himself to Zhang Fan before, not knowing about his skills until now. Currently, Guo Qiliang was unable to even sew surgical sutures properly.

“Damn it all, I should have chosen the internal medicine department, then I wouldn’t be compared to him anymore.” Guo Qiliang was the truly unfortunate passerby that received such a great impact from learning about Zhang Fan’s skills.

Superintendent Batu was delighted and excited upon learning about Zhang Fan’s skills. “I’ve come across such a treasure. Students from top-level colleges are so amazing!”