Chapter 392: A Contest on Surgery Day

Surgery day.

Director Shi Shuo woke up early.

After breakfast, he received a message from Professor Fan, who had once been his graduate student and later stayed at the First Affiliated Hospital; Professor Fan had already driven to the building downstairs to pick up Director Shi.

The two were preparing to go to the Second Affiliated Hospital to "observe" a surgery.

Once in the car, Professor Fan said, "Teacher, Deng Chaohong at the Second Affiliated Hospital is simply too arrogant now!"

"He is a bit," Director Shi said.

"They aren't skilled in sports medicine, and in recent years, the most common procedure at the Second Affiliated Hospital has been joint replacement. Yet they think they can do anything, and now they've even reached their hands into our bowl."

Professor Fan was very unhappy because Zhao Dali was his patient and should have undergone arthroscopy yesterday.

Anyone would be unhappy if a patient strongly requested discharge right before surgery to go to the hospital next door for the procedure.

Such behavior is a lack of trust in the surgeon.

"The patient with the rotator cuff injury a while back, the one with knot impingement syndrome, it's said they went to the Second Affiliated Hospital for that. After the surgery, they say the recovery was very good," Director Shi said.

"They got lucky with one surgery, how many more do they plan to fake? I don't believe their luck can stay this good forever!"

"Let's watch and see."

"Teacher, you cannot give way. Although this area..." Professor Fan said while driving, glancing at his director out of the corner of his eye.

Shi Shuo seemed to be resting with his eyes closed, but Professor Fan understood his teacher and knew his temper was not as good as it appeared.

Especially when he was angry and preparing to erupt, he looked as calm as water—a thunderclap in the silence—just like now.

"Xiao Fan, let's go see first. What if they actually have some new breakthrough?"

"Teacher, to be honest, I'm not convinced. A breakthrough? What kind of breakthrough could the Second Affiliated Hospital have? They only know how to do joint replacements," Professor Fan smiled, trying to make his tone sound more peaceful.

In Director Shi's generation, Zeng Guofan was popular for a while; Director Shi was always quoting things like Zeng Guofan's Family Letters.

Professor Fan didn't understand it, but every generation has its own habits; he didn't understand it, nor did he dare to question it.

He didn't know how many times he had heard phrases like "poisonous snakes in front, fierce tigers behind" or "one must maintain a calm spirit when facing major events."

So he didn't want to be too rash.

The two arrived at the Second Affiliated Hospital, where Director Sui had also arrived early, standing at the entrance of the ward to receive them.

"Director Sui, your department is flourishing; surpassing the top orthopedics departments in the country is just around the corner. Congratulations," Director Shi said with a sarcastic, cynical tone as soon as they met.

"Old Shi, look at what you're saying," Director Sui smiled. "I already told you, it was the patient's own choice; it has nothing to do with me. I can't even keep up with the joint replacements here. I looked into vertebral surgery a while back, but I really didn't have time to study it carefully, so I gave it up."

Director Sui made it very clear: he didn't even have time to study vertebral surgery, so he certainly wouldn't touch the sports rehabilitation surgeries of the First Affiliated Hospital.

After ushering Director Shi and Professor Fan into his office, Director Sui chatted with them for a while; he knew the other party had come with ill intent today, but Director Sui didn't really care.

Professor Deng Chaohong's skill level was not low; the hospital recognized it, and Director Sui recognized it too.

But the fact that Dean Zhao had sent his own son to work under Deng Chaohong was something Director Sui kept in mind, and he had been looking for a time to knock Deng Chaohong down a peg.

Look, didn't the opportunity just arrive?

As for sports medicine, Director Sui really had no interest in it at all.

Modern medicine has deep barriers; isn't doing five or six joint replacement surgeries a day satisfying enough? Why bother doing sports medicine surgeries that are exhausting and thankless?

The market for this is limited; even if you do it well, it's just for a few people from the Sheng Tixiao or sports teams, which is meaningless.

It wouldn't be bad to use Director Shi's blade to knock Deng Chaohong down a peg; Director Sui didn't mind.

Dampening Deng Chaohong's arrogance without having to do it himself—isn't that a pretty good thing? As for the First Affiliated Hospital coming to stir up trouble, that's the next issue.

After the shift handover, Director Sui wasn't in a hurry after the patient was sent to the operating table, chatting with Director Shi in the office.

It wasn't until the phone call came that he and Director Shi went to the operating room to change clothes, preparing to observe the table.

Upon entering the operating room, the patient had already been anesthetized, and a young doctor was performing blood drainage on the left lower limb before applying the pneumatic tourniquet.

Pressure at 68kpa, the steps were standard, clear, and precise.

Director Shi watched the young doctor's movements coldly, an inexplicable feeling rising in his heart.

The Second Affiliated Hospital must have been coveting sports medicine surgery for a long time; the young doctor's technique was nimble, not a bit worse than Professor Fan beside him—he must have performed countless similar surgeries.

Tang Yan waited for the tourniquet ligation to finish, and before Ji Xiang could say "Scalpel," she slapped the scalpel into Ji Xiang's hand.

Ji Xiang didn't speak, directly making the small anteromedial incision for the approach.

Deng Chaohong stood right beside Ji Xiang, acting as the assistant for the arthroscopic surgery.

Seeing this positioning, Director Shi was stunned for a moment.

"Director Sui, what is this..."

Director Sui was also a bit surprised; he had thought Deng Chaohong would be the lead surgeon, but he hadn't expected it to be a teaching surgery with Ji Xiang as the lead.

This is a Level 4 surgery; how could they let a Standardized Training Student do it!

But Director Sui didn't speak, nor did he stop them. If Deng Chaohong wanted a wake-up call to be even more intense, then he would grant it to him.

"Who is this? Your new Attending Professor?" Seeing Director Sui didn't speak, Director Shi continued to ask.

"For the Physician Qualification Examination, Doctor Xiao Ji got the top score in the country, a perfect score," Director Sui said.

"..." Shi Shuo was startled; so it was him!

For over twenty years, a perfect score paper had finally appeared in the Physician Qualification Examination, and this matter had already spread far and wide; he hadn't expected that at the Second Affiliated Hospital, he was already able to lead a Level 4 surgery with the help of a teacher.

No wonder his technique with the tourniquet just now was so proficient; so he was the recipient of the perfect score.

Ji Xiang incised the skin, performed blunt dissection and hemostasis, then inserted the arthroscope and instruments respectively, sequentially exploring the suprapatellar pouch, medial and lateral recesses, lateral space, and intercondylar notch, seeing no obvious damage to the cartilage surfaces of the patella or the medial and lateral femoral condyles.

His technique was seasoned, unhurried, and had the style of an old surgeon.

The more Shi Shuo watched, the more surprised he became.

Operating an arthroscope isn't difficult, but to be as precise and measured as Ji Xiang, one couldn't possibly do it without the tempering of a hundred or so surgeries.

Immediately after, Director Sui saw Ji Xiang explore and find the stump of the anterior cruciate ligament; although it was an incomplete rupture, the torn part was severely damaged, and a small portion had already been absorbed.

The posterior cruciate ligament was continuous, and Ji Xiang used a probe hook to test its elasticity, which was good.

Having reached this point, Shi Shuo did not see anything unusual; it was just that the young practitioner's technique was very steady and the precision was also high.

Could they be considered an Elite-level practitioner? Shi Zhuren evaluated in his heart.

However, at the next step, Shi Zhuren watched, stunned.

(End of chapter)