Surgery Godfather

Chapter 227: Chapter 0212: Assistant

“Raise it higher, increase the abduction angle, haven’t you had breakfast? Stand further away from the surgical table!”

As Zhang Lin was disinfecting, he instructed Director Wu to lift his hand, speaking in the same tone as if he was training an intern.

The surgical area was prepared ahead of time, all the underarm hair was completely shaved off with an electric razor.

Zhang Lin disinfected the underarm area multiple times as its wrinkled skin is a hotspot for bacteria.

The yellow iodine disinfectant was quickly applied to the surgical area and its surrounding prescribed regions, leaving no spots untouched.

“Brother! Keep your body further away, what’s the need to be so close? Can’t you lift your hand? Which school did you graduate from? Who’s your tutor? Let your director send you back to school to relearn!”

Song Zimo, dressed and gloved, with his hands placed in the protective pouch on his chest, fussed unceremoniously.

If it’s any farther, I can’t reach, it’s so exhausting!

Director Wu was already short in stature. Now, in order to maintain a distance while raising his hand, he was standing in a particularly awkward posture, almost on tiptoes.

This posture was very tiring, the arm was so sore that it could hardly stand, but he couldn’t let go. If he did, the arm would fall, contaminating the sterilized area, thereby wasting all the disinfection effort.

He only hoped these guys would hurry up so he could be relieved.

“Hold on a bit more, Little Five, put on sterile gloves, lift it from the elbow with a small drape, Zhang Lin, disinfect his hand again.”

Song Zimo directed Zhang Lin Xiaowu.

Several young doctors observing around seemed willing to take Director Wu’s place for a while.

But they didn’t dare to step forward. The patient who was about to be operated was too important. The people that Yang Ping brought didn’t seem easy to communicate with, especially this guy wearing glasses—he looked very fierce.

If anything went wrong, they would not only be scolded by the “guy with glasses” but also by Director Wu. So they all chose to watch quietly.

Director Fu was running late for some reason. He only arrived now to see Director Wu with his hand raised, looking miserable.

“Director!” Director Fu was anxious and wanted to substitute for him.

“Be conscious of sterilization, step aside!”

Before Director Fu even got close, he was scolded by Song Zimo.

Then looking at Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, and Dean Xie who were engrossed in conversation, he wondered what had happened just now. Why was Director Wu raising his hand? A junior doctor should be doing such tasks.

Dean Xie, while engaged in conversation, got a call and stepped out to answer it.

Yang Ping looked at the few young doctors in the operating room, all were familiar faces, and he took the initiative to greet everyone.

With his greeting, the young doctors daringly approached him to exchange a few words.

Before this, they all thought that Yang Ping was ignoring them—a misunderstanding!

Right after he got off the car, he was surrounded by Dean Xie and Director Wu and didn’t have time to acknowledge them. He probably didn’t even see them.

Everyone was inquiring with special warmth.

“When you have time, come visit me at Sanbo. Little Five is there too.”

“Sure, we will definitely come to visit you.”

Everyone knew Yang Ping was busy, so they didn’t stick around for too long.

Yang Ping stood up to check on the progress of the surgical preparation. Seeing Director Wu raising his hand he spoke, “What are you guys up to? Why is Director Wu holding up his hand? He’s Director Wu, my former director.”

“Director Wu? My apologies; you look too young, I didn’t realize.”

Zhang Lin laughed and, using a sterile drape, took control of the patient’s upper limb from Director Wu’s hand.

That’s more like it. There’s no need for you to show off; your boss used to be just a junior doctor under me. Unruly and disrespectful!

At this point, Director Wu carefully let go of his hand. This arm was truly damn hard to lift. From his neck down his entire upper limb to his fingers, everything was sore and almost numb.

He couldn’t hold on any longer if Yang Ping didn’t step in to help.

“It’s okay, it’s all about team collaboration, all for the patient!” Director Wu pretended to be magnanimous, while secretly thinking about throttling Zhang Lin.

Director Fu handed him a piece of tissue. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. There was also a large wet spot on his surgical gown.

Yang Ping, through the sterile drape, reassured Jiang Baicheng, “Mr. Jiang, don’t be nervous. Look, our Director Wu is here to assist with your surgery personally.”

Saying it in such a way was mainly to put the patient at ease, implying that the Chief Surgeon was about to step in, not just to stand by and give instructions.

“Director Wu, let’s go scrub our hands and get to the table!”

“Let’s go, time to scrub.”

Yang Ping was nice; he wasn’t showing off at all. After all, he was one of their own. Instantly, Director Wu felt a sense of affinity for Yang Ping.

“These guys are usually spoiled by me, arrogant and disrespectful. Please don’t take it personally, Director Wu. I will scold them good after this.”

Yang Ping said regretfully.

“That’s okay. They are still young and hot-headed.”

Having been scolded a couple of times, Director Wu found Yang Ping’s words comforting.

After the hand was disinfected, Zhang Lin hung the holding forceps on the sterile drape of the table.

He draped a small cloth over the hand and started to pull it.

Little five let go, and together with Song Zimo, they laid out the draped cloth, a one-time set of shoulder arthroscopy specific drape.

The base drape, the middle drape were aligned perfectly. In the end, Zhang Lin Xiaowu also wore the surgical gown and laid out the large drape together with them.

All types of intricate tubes were quickly expanded and connected. Zhou Can helped the patrolling nurse from the hospital to connect the lines and turn on the device under the table.

Connected optic fiber, one by one: the host, light source, screen, scraper, plasma cutter—all were turned on and had their parameters set.

With Song Zimo focusing the camera on the white field, the pre-surgery check was done. Time to get to work.

By the time Yang Ping stepped onto the stage, Song Zimo had already established the path, completing the groundwork which a junior doctor would do.

Upon Yang Ping’s arrival, Song Zimo respectfully vacated the Chief Surgeon’s position, handed over the control of the lens to Yang Ping. Yang Ping took over the lens, examined the displayed image on the screen, and began the surgery—first performing a shoulder arthroscopy.

“Zhang Lin Xiaowu, let’s go prepare the tendon.” Song Zimo led them away to the instrument table to prepare the tendon.

For such a surgery, there would be too many people if they didn’t move away; the table was enough with just two people.

Just one more person needed for the preparation of the tendon would suffice, usually their surgeries only required two or three people.

There were so many of them today, especially Zhang Lin Xiaowu, purely for the sense of participation, there’s a surplus of people even without him.

They stepped away, leaving only Yang Ping and Director Wu on the stage.

“Could you help with the tension on the limb!”

Yang Ping said, looking at the screen.

Director Wu looked around, he was the only one left beside Yang Ping, the only assistant.

Tension? He was the only one who could help with that.

“Oh!”

Director Wu watched Yang Ping who was solely focused on the screen and didn’t pay him any more attention, leaving Director Wu with no choice but to help with the tension on the limb.

The benefit of operating on shoulder joint from the beach chair position is the mobility of the limb, making it particularly suitable for complex reconstructive surgery.

The drawback is that you cannot use the traction frame for tension, and an assistant has to provide manual tension to help open up the joint space. This type of work is taxing and laborious.

“Director Wu, since you’re here, please give your full cooperation to Professor Yang, I’ll be stepping out for a while.”

Dean Xie returned after a call, greeted them, and temporarily left the room.

The camera moved around in between the joints like a spiraling dragon, while the probe was like an extension of the fingers, meticulously inspecting the entire internal structure of the shoulder joint.

Surgery has a certain beauty to it, this guy is truly skilled.

Director Wu helped with tension while watching Yang Ping’s surgery unfold.

Back at the People’s Hospital, Yang Ping simply held the mirror a few times and did not let him perform even a simple arthroscopic inspection, he wondered how his surgery could be this proficient.

It wasn’t just Su Nanchen praising him, his was truly nationally ranked first-class skill.

Although Director Wu was a chief physician with two to three decades of work experience and had undergone several refresher courses, he still had clinical experience. It’s just that compared to Yang Ping, he was woefully inadequate, yet compared to other doctors, he was still capable.

This kid, in just half a year, his skill level has risen to such an extent, Han Jiangong of Sanbo is really remarkable.

Huang Jiahui was focused on the progress of the surgery, ready to supply the consumables at any time.

She was very familiar with the products now, like this line, what material it was made of, what was its molecular formula, how many strands are twisted into it, its diameter, length, how much Newton force it can withstand, she knew it even better than the product manual.

With this kind of operation, if too many materials are opened at once it would occupy the space of the instrument table, yet if too few materials are prepared, it would disrupt the rhythm of the surgery.

Thus, she had to cater the materials to the rhythm of Yang Ping, one by one at the table.

The wrapping and other waste would be placed into her recycled bags, which she’d take with her after the surgery, without leaving any of her own generated waste behind in the operating room.

She had also received strict training on how to open sterile packed consumables, such as from which part the membrane should be torn, how to open the box, how to maintain absolute safety after opening to ensure it’s not contaminated and also how to quickly place it on the instrument table.

Upon inspection, she started with the subacromial decompression to solve the problem of acromial impingement.

Without saying a word, she reached out her hand and the drill was passed to her.

Meanwhile, Su Nanchen watched from the side. No wonder during a surgery in the first affiliated hospital, even with help from two other nurses, they were still off rhythm.

The mutual understanding and coordination between his little sister and Yang Ping were simply seamless.

From the moment Yang Ping stepped on the stage, he hadn’t spoken a word or even glanced at the instruments table.

Every time he stretched his hand out, he didn’t need to say the name of an instrument or what he was going to do, as soon as his hand began to move, the instrument would be passed to him, never too early or too late.

Both the chief surgeon and surgical nurse moved synchronously, at the same height from the surgical table, and instruments would meet hands, each time with pinpoint precision, as if they had rehearsed this surgery countless times.

Feeling puzzled, Su Nanchen wondered, wasn’t Xiao Su working in an operating room? Didn’t they have their own separate operating room in Sanbo’s integrated orthopedics? How did she come here today?

How could these two have such a practiced surgical coordination? How would Yang Ping end up taking her with him when performing these impromptu surgeries?

With many unanswered questions, he didn’t voice it out as it was still time for work after all.

If these two were to be placed in the first affiliated hospital, the sight would make their mother and father gawk in surprise.

They didn’t even need to ask about the size of the drill bit, they just kept operatic smoothly, without ever handing over the wrong instruments or sizes, even during particularly complex steps, the instruments were never misjudged.

Having a hard time seeing through his little sister, Su Nanchen puzzled, were they a natural pair—

“Pull stronger, don’t flop around!” Yang Ping’s tone was serious and not to be challenged.

Having the strong aura and authority of a chief surgeon, he would be mistaken for a great professor.

Director Wu applied more strength, and his breakfast was almost all used up.

This work was particularly exhausting as it needed consistent application of force, as lifting your arm or leg for just a few minutes, with this tension, you can’t let go until the chief surgeon said stop.

“Lower your elbow a bit, don’t interfere with my movements.”

Director Wu didn’t understand and loosened his grip, and the position of the member immediately changed, shifting the view on the screen slightly.

Pop! There was a crisp sound, and the probe hit his hand.

The pain receptors in the periosteum of the metacarpal bones immediately reacted, it was a hot, stabbing pain, wave after wave, continuously.

“Professor Yang takes his surgery seriously, we often get hit by him, I have callouses on the back of my hand.”

Song Zimo came to console Director Wu.

“Is that so!”

Director Wu twitched a corner of his mouth, forcing out a stiff smile.

“Old Wu, you see, it’s important to get the degree of acromioplasty right, too much can lead to acromial fractures, too little won’t be complete and symptoms won’t be relieved,” Yang Ping said kindly, as if he was a completely different person from the one who had smacked his hand earlier.

This kid was really into his surgeries, hitting his hand without hesitation, was he even aware of the fact that he just hit himself?

No matter what, he needed to grit his teeth and see this surgery through, Mr. Jiang was awake after all.

But this smacking of hands, apart from being painful, was also quite humiliating.

The surgery continued, the high difficulty operation just beginning.

Director Wu’s physical strength was faltering.