Chapter 120: Chapter 120 - 0117: Don't Give Up Easily

Under the operating light, the human figures blurred.

“What’s the panic? Calm down!” a stern reprimand rang out.

Then came a kind voice, “Xiao Hong, Xiao Han, look. The tumor has invaded the front of the aorta, the aorta is about to rupture. If we delay any longer—”

“Remember, don’t easily give up on any patient!” The voice was firm and deep.

Had it not been for the teacher’s call through the train station broadcast, that patient might have died on the train.

Director Han tucked away his memories.

Today’s scene bore a striking resemblance.

“Don’t easily give up!”

These words were deeply engraved in his heart.

Director Han took a sip of tea, even a few tea leaves found their way into his mouth and he chewed on them.

“It’s not a bad thing for a doctor to become well-known. Only when you are known can more patients get to know you, trust you, come to you for treatment. In this way, your medical skills can save more people.”

When Director Han said this, his eyes fell on Yang Ping, who had been silent.

Actually, Yang Ping was contemplating. To compete for the Golden Knife Award, he needed to fully develop his orthopedic skills, which required a large number of points. With only five months to go, he wondered whether he could achieve this.

He entered into the system to check his stage mission—helping Sanbo Hospital to establish the strongest Orthopedics Department in G City. Sixty percent of the task was already complete, but progress had stalled, with a gap of forty percent left.

Yang Ping didn’t understand why, having achieved sixty percent, the remaining forty percent seemed so elusive?

If he completed this stage mission and gained five hundred thousand points, lighting up the orthopedic skill tree seemed achievable.

But how exactly to complete the remaining forty percent?

“Does everyone have confidence?” Director Han asked.

“Yes!” Everyone answered loudly.

“Xiao Yang, any problems?” Director Han called out specifically.

Yang Ping answered seriously, “Should be no big problem.”

‘Should be no big problem’, which means there’s no problem. Director Han felt relieved.

Although his words were casual, everyone could feel his confidence.

Yang Ping had always been deeply invested in medicine, and was very serious and focused in his work. Through the recent system training, this character and disposition seemed to have intensified. This serious focus made him seem extremely confident, a quiet confidence.

Having eaten their fill of the king crab and finished their meeting, everyone dispersed to attend to their own tasks. Director Han returned to his office, and the others stayed back in the doctors’ office to chat. The excitement of registering for the Golden Knife Award hadn’t worn off yet.

Dr. Jin peeked his head in, saw that everyone was having a meeting, gestured a greeting, but didn’t come in, for fear of disturbing everyone.

“No problem, you continue. I have never been here, in the Orthopedics Department. Since it’s opening today, I came to have a look.” said Dr. Jin.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Director Tian stood up: “Old Jin, there’s nothing much going on. We’re just chatting. Come on in.”

Dr. Jin struggled to lift something from the floor and entered. It seemed quite heavy.

“You don’t have to bring gifts for the department’s opening. This set of Campbell’s Operative Orthopaedics is our gift to you, Xiao Lei and I. Both the Chinese and English versions.”

The four volumes of each set, eight in total, were quite heavy; so much so that Dr. Jin found it difficult to carry them even with both hands. He carried them into the office and then took them out one by one, placing them on the table.

“Didn’t you guys already gift a set of human skeleton to our department?” Director Tian pointed to a human skeleton in the office that was identical to a real one.

“That was from the department, this is from us personally, just a token.”

Dr. Jin looked around: “This place is not bad, it doesn’t need any renovations. It’s move-in ready.”

Director Tian instructed Zhang Lin to put the books on the shelf and took Dr. Jin on a tour of the office. The two were on good terms.

Xiao Lei also arrived, complaining: “Why is Old Jin so fast? I told him that I was changing clothes and asked him to wait for me, but he didn’t.”

It wasn’t long before Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo arrived, also carrying gifts. Zhang Lin received them: “It’s enough that you’re here, no need to bring anything.”

The two said: “These are some stethoscopes, percussion hammers, measuring tapes, and twenty pens. All are high-end stuff. They’re our gift to you.”

Zhang Lin quickly poured tea for everyone.

Fatty also arrived, accompanied by a chubby young doctor, with both of them carrying a box each.

They put the boxes down in the office.

“Who is this?”

Little Five asked while helping to unload the boxes, as he hadn’t seen the young doctor before.

“This is Director Bai’s graduate student. He has just finished his theoretical courses and is about to start his clinical training. He just came from Nandu Medical University this month. Everyone here is his senior.” Fatty introduced.

The young man shyly greeted everyone as his seniors.

“A box of dry rations and snacks, a box of Luochuan apples for emergencies when you’re on duty. Shall I help move them to the duty room?” Fatty pointed at the boxes.

“Just leave them here, we’ll carry them later.” Little Five invited them to sit down.

“My fellow brothers, feel free to drop by more often, don’t hesitate! We are still one big orthopedic family.” Yang Ping came over to chat with everyone.

“Old Ding and his crew will be here later. When I finished my surgery, they were still operating. They asked me to deliver a message.” Fatty’s eyes narrowed into a line as he spoke.

“Considering Brother Yang is leading the group, don’t forget us when you have any lectures or learning opportunities.” Fang Yan raised his tea.

“We learn from each other,” Yang Ping said to Fang Yan.

Director Tian took a stroll with Dr. Jin and returned to the office.

“Young Fang!” Director Tian greeted. Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo used to be in his group, but now they belong to Dr. Tan Boyun’s group.

“Boss Tian, you’ve abandoned us now.” Fang Yan joked.

Director Tian patted his shoulder: “We just started here, and there aren’t many patients. When we have more patients, you can come back and help.”

Fang Yan happily said, “I’m ready to be summoned anytime.”

Dr. Jin looked around and observed, “Director Han is visionary and decisive. With the opening of the Orthopedic research institute and the Asian Orthopedic Summit Academic Conference, our Orthopedics Department will rise. I heard there’s a lot of real equipment in the Orthopedic research institute, including a 3D printer from Germany?”

“Yes, why don’t I show you now? The software has been installed and debugged,” Director Tian said.

Dr. Jin said, “No, I’ll take a look when it’s officially launched. I have a surgery this afternoon, I need to leave early.”

After seeing off Dr. Jin, Director Tian and the others stayed for tea and then left.

Yang Ping asked Little Five to hang up the film again and began to study the MRI of the newly admitted patient. He noticed a synovial signal in the lateral popliteal tendon fissure. Even if there was, there would only be a small amount of synovial signal, but this patient had a large synovial signal.

He simulated the motion of the knee joint in his mind using the images constructed from anatomy training. When the joint was active, the excess synovium was pulled out of the popliteal tendon fissure and moved to the lateral tibio-femoral joint space, causing impingement. During arthroscopy, two small holes were made connecting the joint with the outside, eliminating the negative pressure and creating the water pressure to expand the joint. This caused the synovium to enter the popliteal tendon fissure, making it difficult to detect and treat with arthroscopy. This isn’t a classic cause of knee joint impingement and isn’t described in textbooks.

“Let’s go check on the patient again!”

Yang Ping took everyone back to the ward, examined the patient carefully, and confirmed that the impingement was caused by the popliteal tendon near the lateral side.

The medical history, examination, and imaging all support a definite diagnosis of a rare case of synovial impingement in the right knee joint. The sneaky synovium hidden in the popliteal tendon fissure was the reason the two previous surgeries were ineffective.

“Madam, now we understand your condition. Your diagnosis is clear, the synovium is hiding in the popliteal tendon fissure on the outside. The synovium is cunning. When you walk, it comes out and jams the joint, but during surgery, it hides, which is why it evaded our interventions in the two previous surgeries. We will conduct another surgery to remove it, and your symptoms will be relieved,” Yang Ping said calmly and clearly.

“Doctor, I trust you. You make the decision for me.” The patient was very convinced by Yang Ping’s confident and focused attitude. She believed that she was here to solve her problem.

“We will arrange your surgery for tomorrow. It will be arthroscopic, minimally invasive. If all goes well, you can be discharged the day after tomorrow. Have your daughter come today, I’ll speak to her.” Yang Ping instructed her. As per the practice, the children of elderly patients needed to come in for a discussion and to sign before the surgery.

“Okay, I’ll call her now. Both of the surgeries I’ve had were minimally invasive. The first one was at Fuer and was performed by Professor Gu, and the second one was at Fuyi and was performed by Dr. Su. This time, I feel that Dr. Yang has hit the nail on the head. You are not married yet, are you, Dr. Yang? You are so young.” The patient was a talker and began to reach for her phone as she spoke.

After explaining the situation to the patient, Yang Ping returned to his office to study the film.

Song Zimo pointed at the MRI and asked, “Are you saying this abnormal signal is the hidden synovial tissue?”

Yang Ping nodded, “In the popliteal tendon fissure, there’s hidden synovial fold. Cut it off, and the problem will be resolved.”

“Have you performed many arthroscopies?” Song Zimo had never seen him performing an arthroscopy.

Yang Ping said, “Quite a few.”

Song Zimo muttered to himself, if he says he’s done quite a few, then it means he’s done a lot.

“Director Han said he would let us practice arthroscopies this afternoon. You can show us then?” Song Zimo suggested.

Yang Ping laughed, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll crush your confidence?”

“Cut it out!” Song Zimo held his head up high.

Xiao Su sent a WeChat message asking them to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

Both of them preferred quiet places, and found a secluded spot.

“Look, that’s Su Yixuan from the operating room! Is she dating Yang Ping from orthopedics?”

“Yes, they must have confirmed their relationship, otherwise, they wouldn’t be so intimate.”

“They are quite a good match. Su Yixuan is pretty, and Yang Ping is talented. A perfect match.”

“Look at Yang Ping. He really has an extraordinary aura.”

“You’re not falling for him, are you?”

“Even if I was, I wouldn’t stand a chance against Su Yixuan.”

A few young nurses were whispering in the corner, the cafeteria was indeed a place where gossip abound.

Xiao Su put a few pieces of beef in Yang Ping’s bowl: “Are you free this weekend?”

“If you say so, then I am,” said Yang Ping nonchalantly.

Xiao Su smiled softly: “Well then, we’re going shopping this weekend!”