Chapter 26: Leveling up

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

After the traumatic injury department’s morning meeting, Director Lin Cong brought Zhang Fan and two postgraduate students that recently graduated to the operating room.

The two medical students Ding Lei and Wang Guiyang had both just recently finished medical grad school. Ding Lei specialized in joints, while Wang Guiyang specialized in the spine. Right now, both of them had been accepted to BCU Hospital to further their studies in other medical specialties. Today, Lin Cong’s main job was to observe Zhang Fan’s and the two recent graduates’ abilities.

Lin Cong showed the CT scan of the patient with a severely shattered femur to the other three. “Doctor Zhang, take a look at this CT scan. Do you have any guarantee of being able to perform this surgery?”

“It will be a little difficult, but it probably won’t be a problem,” Zhang Fan stated after checking the CT scan.

Ding Lei and Wang Guiyang exchanged glances. What they both thought was obvious. ‘Man, he’s really bragging. This is a really difficult surgery, yet he’s saying there won’t be any problems?’

Lin Cong was also rather surprised by this. The difficulty of this level for the traumatic surgery department was such that it could only be handled by the doctors with the second-highest level certification. A young doctor from the border province who was here to study actually claimed that such a surgery would only be a little difficult? Lin Cong decided to let Zhang Fan be in charge then.

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“Alright, I’ll be the primary surgical assistant. Ding Lei, hold the patient’s leg. Wang Guiyang, disinfect. Doctor Zhang, look over the CT scan more carefully as you’ll be the primary surgeon for this operation today.”

“Okay, Director.”

Wang Guiyang could barely wash his hands properly as he was confused with what was going on today.

The surgery began with connecting the bone and cleaning up the extravasated blood. The bone was severely shattered, so it would be impossible to deal with all the tiny bone fragments with just a single metal plate. Zhang Fan first used Kirschner wires to hold the fragments together as he corrected the shape of the metal plate so that it adhered better to the broken bone.

The metal plate was made with professional standards. Although it was quite standard, every individual’s bones would still be different. Zhang Fan had deeply imprinted muscle memory thanks to his System, so he was able to correct the shape of the metal plate as if the latter had been customized for this patient.

“Truly excellent. His skills are quite something.” Lin Cong watched Zhang Fan perform surgery in admiration.

“Damn it, could you somehow be even better? Did I go to a fake medical grad school!?” Ding Lei and Wang Guiyang were both astounded. They both knew that it would take them more than five years of actual working experience before they could handle being the primary surgeon for such a difficult surgery.

The graduate students still had sharp eyes. Ding Lei discovered a problem, and instantly asked, “Doctor Zhang, why are there so few screws on this side?”

“What Doctor Zhang? Call him Teacher Zhang in the future. He’s worked hard on our country’s border. He probably knows more than enough to be your teacher,” Lin Cong told the graduate students.

“Teacher Zhang,” Ding Lei and Wang Guiyang addressed Zhang Fan in unison.

At a Grade 3 hospital like BCU Hospital, being addressed as teacher meant that a doctor had significant accomplishments. Most doctors here were simply addressed as doctor, especially since this was a hospital with an advanced medical level. Everyone here had constantly worked hard at accumulating experience in the operating room.

It was quite common that one doctor wouldn’t respect another unless there was complete suppression through the difference between skills. Being better by only a small margin wouldn’t be good enough. That was why “teacher” wasn’t a mere title in the major hospitals. It would truly be a sign of respect.

“I’m just slightly more well practiced. I’d feel awkward about being called teacher since I just recently finished my undergraduate studies.” Zhang Fan felt rather awkward. However, his awkward refusal to be called “teacher” gave the two grad students a critical hit.

“The medical field depends on the foundational basics combined with clinical experience. Just the basics will never be enough. However, it’s relatively more difficult to improve one’s clinical experience, which is why you don’t need to feel awkward,” Director Lin Cong exclaimed.

After the surgery was finished, Ding Lei and Wang Guiyang were in charge of plastering the cast. Since the bone had been shattered severely, a cast was required to stabilize and strengthen the bone. Zhang Fan wanted to personally do this as all he wanted was to grind more experience, but Lin Cong wouldn’t let him.

Later in the traumatic injuries department’s meeting, Lin Cong announced, “From now on, Doctor Zhang Fan will be working together with my team. Zhang Fan will also be able to approve or deny our team’s decisions on difficult surgeries.”

Lin Cong was the boss of BCU Hospital’s orthopedic surgery department, and all members of his personal team had master’s degrees. All the doctors in the department were astonished to hear this. Zhang Fan was basically obtaining the position of vice team leader here. All vice team leaders in other departments would have at least the second-highest level national certifications in their fields, but Zhang Fan…

“He came here with intent!”

Zhang Fan and the other border province doctors were given rooms in a BCU Hospital dormitory specially set aside for them. However, Zhang Fan hadn’t returned to this dormitory even once after the first day. He simply put two changes of clothes and some toiletries in his locker and started living in the hospital itself.

Zhang Fan could order food to be delivered directly to him from the hospital cafeteria. The traumatic injury department also had places for him to shower and sleep. Also, Zhang Fan didn’t have to write any of the medical reports. There were five master’s degree holders in Lin Cong’s medical team, but none of them dared to ask Zhang Fan to write the medical reports after Lin Cong’s announcement. Zhang Fan was more than happy to concentrate solely on performing surgeries.

Zhang Fan no longer cared whether it was day or night. If he was tired, he would stop and find a place to take a nap. Whenever he was awake, he would go request a surgery to perform. He was willing to undertake all surgeries, no matter if they were big or small. Not only that, he also participated in the emergency department’s as well as other departments’ surgeries.

With what was seen as his hard work ethic, just the fact that he was willing to work so hard made all the traumatic injury department doctors truly impressed with him, not to mention his skill level. It seemed as if the phrase “the hospital is a doctor’s home” had truly manifested itself upon Zhang Fan.

“From now on, even if our department’s resident doctors don’t have Doctor Zhang’s skill level, you must at least have Doctor Zhang’s work ethic. There will only be two days off per month from now on. If you can’t take it, then transfer to a different department. Aren’t you all embarrassed that he’s both more talented and working harder than you all?” Lin Cong had truly gotten angry at this departmental internal meeting. He had personally observed Zhang Fan’s work over the past two weeks. It seemed to him that Zhang Fan was as hard working as an ascetic monk.

“I truly believe that Doctor Zhang will become a renowned doctor after another ten years. Not only is he talented, he’s even so hard working. The heavens will be so unjust if he doesn’t make a name for himself,” Lin Cong exclaimed in private to Huo Qinghua.

Four days later, Zhang Fan finally successfully leveled up his orthopedic surgery experience in his System. This allowed him to access new, higher-level courses. The higher-level courses in traumatic injuries were joints, spine, microscopic orthopedics, and so on. These were now all available to him. Also, Zhang Fan was allowed to choose an entirely new subject area to study. After mulling it over for a while, Zhang Fan chose to activate the general surgery courses.

General surgery meant that surgery would be used to heal problems related to the liver, gall bladder, pancreas, stomach, intestines, blood vessels, thyroid, and breast tumors, along with traumatic injuries and other illnesses. This surgical field was the largest category under surgery, as well as the foundation for all other surgery types.

Zhang Fan had originally wanted to start studying internal medicine as his basic knowledge of internal medicine was only average. However, he didn’t want to waste his opportunity to study here at BCU Hospital. Zhang Fan was astounded after he activated the general surgery course. There were more than 10 level two courses under general surgery, and leveling these courses would require him to perform a minimum of more than 5000 general surgeries.

Of course, there were even higher-level courses after those. What could he do? Grind! Since the heavens had given him this opportunity, Zhang Fan would never waste it. He had never given up before just because he was previously poor. No matter if it was in a mud pit or on the streets, he would always try his best to move forward, and never give up on any opportunity that he was given.

There was once a phrase that he had heard: “A child without an umbrella must learn to run forward with all his might.” Zhang Fan was just like someone who was drowning that clutched onto a life-saving stalk of grass. He needed to make his best effort to survive.

Thanks to Zhang Fan’s hard work motivating everyone else, all the newer doctors and graduate students in the traumatic injury department worked their hardest to improve themselves. Since these doctors had been able to obtain jobs at the best hospital in the entire city, almost all of them had previously been top students. The advantage top students had was that they were willing to work hard.

“Doctor Zhang, there’s an emergency patient.” Zhang Fan was still drowsy when a nurse woke him up from his nap.

Zhang Fan’s many years as a food seller had taught him some life experience—that he could get other people to like him by giving out small benefits.

In order to make things easier for himself at the operating table, Zhang Fan often purchased meals or drinks for the regular nurses and head nurses. This wouldn’t cost him much money, nor were the nurses short of money, but what was important was the attitude. It took only a few days for all the nurses to also be approving and take good care of Zhang Fan.