Chapter 45: The Second

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was Monday.

Ling Ran woke up very early. He fried an egg, cooked porridge, and breathed in the 'fresh' morning air as he walked to the hospital.

The Ling family did not own a car because Madam Tao Ping did not have a driving licence, and to Ling Jiezhou, a car was not something essential to Madam Tao Ping so naturally it was not a necessity. Ling Jiezhou also could not afford to buy a car because the value of a car depreciated fast.

Ling Ran was fine without it. When he was in the medical institute, he did not need a car. Now, when he was doing his internship in Yun Hua Hospital, he also did not desire a car (unless the system gave him a Transformer, and it must be the kind that even a C-licence holder could drive).

"Ling Ran, get changed and get into the operating theater."

Just as Ling Ran entered the Emergency Department, he saw the sight of the somewhat bustling department and was immediately called upon.

Ling Ran swiftly put down his belongings and asked the nurse on duty, "What happened?"

"There has been an accident on the highway, the patients are on their way. It's a more serious situation, so we've sent someone to receive the helicopter." The nurse on duty had stayed up the whole night, and she looked at Ling Ran with her bloodshot eyes.

"To receive the helicopter?"

The nurse on duty purposefully explained, "It's a helicopter rescue, Jin Hui Airlines has a helicopter in Yun Hua, so some insurance companies and banks would sell their helicopter rescue services. If you meet an accident, you can just make a call and use the helicopter to take you to the provincial hospitals or our hospital. We would see this happen once every two or three months."

"Oh, I see."

"Calling for a helicopter rescue yourself is very costly. It's a few ten thousand per hour."

"Oh."

"I think it's around thirty thousand for an hour."

"Oh."

"Doctor Ling, good luck!" The nurse on duty did not have anything else to say, so she lifted her small arms and waved at him for a bit.

"Thanks." Ling Ran let out a breath. He was to take part in the resuscitation once he had arrived for work. There was a feeling like he was going for a match without warming up. He could not help having many concerns in his heart.

After he passed through the treatment room and turned at the corridor, he took the lift. After all, the dressing room of the operating theater was on the fifth floor.

The standard in Yun Hua Emergency Department's operating theater was quite high. The dressing room was two hundred square meters large, and the bathroom and other facilities were made according to a tertiary grade A hospital's standards. That standard, naturally, referred to the standard that all tertiary grade A hospitals use when they build an entire floor of operating theaters to be used by the entire hospital, not just the Emergency Department.

Yun Hua's Emergency Department could afford such a luxury because it had a large and stable source of income—the Hemodialysis Department.

In many hospitals, the Hemodialysis Departments were all independent departments, especially in some secondary hospitals. The income from providing services to patients with uremia and so on could cover a lot, especially in low-level tertiary hospitals like the grade B hospitals in Cangping District. The Hemodialysis Departments were more valuable compared to the added sum total of a few surgery departments.

However, in Yun Hua's Emergency Department, Huo Congjun, who desired to make the Emergency Department great, would never permit the Hemodialysis Department to be independent. Instead, he took the opportunity to integrate both of them, by letting the operating theater and the dialysis room have a shared dressing room and so on. This was to greatly boost the Emergency Department's surgical conditions, and to allow opportunities for expansion.

Ling Ran stripped naked in the dressing room and came out after he put on his scrubs. He heard Zhao Leyi giving orders.

"Are the personnel from the Cardiology Department and Cardiovascular Surgery Department here yet? Ask them to come quickly. Tell the General Surgery Department and the Orthopedics Department to hurry up and send someone here to take a look. And ask the Hand Surgery Department to see whether the arrangements for elective surgeries are done."

On Sundays, Zhao Leyi was the attending physician on duty. Before he could pass the shift he had received a call, so he must continue on.

The scrub nurse came to inform him, "Operating Theater 1 is ready."

"Then use Theater 1." Zhao Leyi did not have any other opinions in this regard.

Operating Theater 1 was the largest operating theater in the Emergency Department, and the facilities there were the most complete compared to the other operating theaters. This operating theater was suitable for the situation today as they had to treat multiple patients in one go. From the current information he received, the patients' conditions were very bad; there were injuries on many parts of their bodies. The doctors might need to perform many surgeries at the same time.

Zhao Leyi looked to his left, then his right, and he found that under him, there were only two resident doctors on duty plus a medical intern—Ling Ran. To patients who sustained multiple serious injuries, these were far from enough. It would be better if he had a chief resident to help him rather than two residents who just completed their standardized training.

Based on Zhao Leyi's observations, two resident doctors could only operate the retractor for this level of surgery.

Zhao Leyi quickly made his decision. "Ling Ran, you'll be the first assistant."

Although he did not like Ling Ran, he could not afford to be picky now. Doctors were never blinded by their emotions. Regardless of the grudges they held, they had to restrain themselves when lives were at stake.

"Alright," Ling Ran replied. He went and stood opposite to Zhao Leyi, where the first assistant's position was supposed to be. The two resident doctors looked at each other briefly, but they did not say anything.

After a few minutes, a patient who had an infusion bag attached to him was pushed in by a few people. Then came a voice quickly reciting information about the patient, "The patient is still conscious, his pupillary light reflex is normal. His spine, abdomen, and four limbs are injured and bleeding. We suspect that there is internal bleeding in the abdomen..."

"Lab team, check his blood and perform an X-ray scan. Ultrasound team, push the CT scanner over here..." Zhao Leyi was organizing the team for the surgery calmly. He then immediately said, "Are the personnel from the other departments here yet? If they are, then just let them in. Judging from this situation, there's no way to transfer the patient, so just let them perform the surgery here."

Car accident patients were the Emergency Department's most common patients, but they were also the ones with the most complicated injuries.

With a population of nearly a hundred million in Yun Hua City, there were on average five car accidents every day, and out of these five accidents, there would be one dead and five injured.

Such a high frequency caused Yun Hua Hospital to receive at least one car accident victim nearly every two or three days. The patients' injuries varied, some were light, but others were severe. The lightly injured could be discharged after applying some iodophor. On the other hand, the severely injured would require joint treatment from multiple departments.

Yun Hua Hospital's Emergency Department was very good, but they did not have the ability to perform a thoracotomy.

The General Surgery Department could operate on pretty much everything up to the duodenum, but they could not perform surgery on their own when it came to the liver, the gallbladder, the pancreas, and the spleen.

The Orthopedics Department could do relatively much more. They could independently perform Level 2 surgeries and a small number of Level 3 surgeries, but they only performed these surgeries because they wanted the patients to pay to their departments.

But as of right then, the patient was in such a grave condition that the Emergency Department had to call for the other departments to help them. That meant that they could no longer care less about which department would receive the patient's payment; this was an emergency surgery organized by multiple departments. Zhao Leyi was just temporarily occupying the main post. He needed to ensure that the patient's vital signs were stable so as to make sure that the patient had the physical strength to undergo the surgery.

"I will now prepare to cut open the leg's tourniquet," Zhao Leyi shouted on purpose to remind Ling Ran after he had confirmed that the blood and liquid transfusion, along with the medicine at hand, were prepared.

Ling Ran hummed his acknowledgement without lifting his head.

The patient's condition was indeed complicated, but if they just focused on one single injury at a time, the patient would not be that difficult to deal with.

Ling Ran had analyzed the patient's condition with his mastered Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control and he did not think that it was complicated. Indeed, the patient did meet a severe car accident, but it was only a common type of car accident.

Ling Ran stared at the patient's injuries while looking at Zhao Leyi's operation and asked in his mind, 'System, who is the best in the world at Barehanded Bleeding Control? To what extent can his skill achieve?'

"Adam Rhys Davies is the best in the world at barehanded bleeding control," the system only answered the first question.

Ling Ran remembered that when he was reading some research papers, he had read about this man. While he was recollecting his memories of the past, he asked, 'Is the Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control further divided into sublevels? If there is, what is his?'

"There are no sublevels in perfect level. Adam Rhys Davies' groundbreaking barehanded bleeding control technique is considered to be at Legendary Level; he is the best in the world."

'There's a Legendary Level...' Ling Ran was a bit surprised. He stopped asking questions for a moment before he resumed them. 'Well then, what is my ranking for barehanded bleeding control?'

"The level of your barehanded bleeding control ranks 126th in the world, thirteenth in China, second in Changxi Province, and first in Yun Hua City."

'There's someone better at barehanded bleeding control in Changxi?' Ling Ran did not expect that.

"Ling Ran, get ready," Zhao Leyi cut the tourniquet, and at once, blood gushed out while making squirting sounds from the patient's leg injury. It sounded like the Baotu Spring[1], but a Baotu Spring that was about to die out.

Ling Ran only looked at the injuries without saying a word.

"Ling Ran, apply pressure on the gauze," Zhao Leyi said.

When Zhao Leyi did not immediately receive a reply, he quickly shouted, "Ling Ran!"

"Coming." Ling Ran's tone was bleak and weary. He sounded like an old sage sighing.

At the same time, his hands moved past the injury like lightning. He grabbed the patient's upper thigh, and then he observed the upper thigh meticulously. This was to allow him to make a better judgment.

In an instant, the pressure of the gushing blood went down immediately. Then, the blood immediately stopped flowing.

Using the Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control to deal with the injuries sustained by a common car accident victim was actually overkill.

There was no need to apply pressure on the gauze.

[1] Baotu Spring: Baotu Spring is a culturally significant artesian karst spring located in the city of Jinan, Shandong, China.