Great Doctor Ling Ran

Chapter 189: Freelance Surgeon

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Wang Zhuangyong could no longer stay in the treatment room, much less the resuscitation room. So, Ling Ran brought Wang Zhuangyong along to visit the wards every day.

And since they visited the wards more than they used to, Ling Ran actually managed to receive the [Sincere Gratitude] achievement from two stubborn patients.

“Will I only be able to perform ward rounds in the future?” Wang Zhuangyong felt resigned and worried. “I can’t feel the atmosphere of a hospital if that’s the case.”

“What kind of atmosphere are you looking for?” Ling Ran asked in reply.

Wang Zhuangyong did not know how to answer. He spoke as if he was bemoaning his fate, “I have seen abrasions since I was little, but why would I feel sick when I see muscles and tendons?”

Ling Ran corrected him, “You vomited because you saw the muscles and tendons of a living person. Is it because it moves?”

Wang Zhuangyong shivered all of a sudden, as if he just thought of something. He shook his head immediately, “Please stop talking about it, it makes me nauseous.”

“Maybe you can focus on sutures. Then, in the future, you can perform absorbable sutures in a department like the Department of Plastic Surgery.” Ling Ran thought that if he guided Wang Zhuangyong with his Master Level of Appositional Suturing Technique for some time, Wang Zhuangyong should be equipped with good suturing skills.

For medical students who just graduated, performing sutures was the best way to reflect their real abilities. Even Ling Rang himself had proven himself through this.

“I did practice a lot.” Wang Zhuangyong moved his lips and said in slight embarrassment, “But there are fewer chances for me to close wounds now.”

His practice in the treatment room had enraged the nurses completely. In a hospital, if a junior doctor made the nurses mad, his life would become miserable.

Ling Ran thought again, and asked, “How about osteopathic massages? Do you want to learn the osteopathic massage?”

“Nope.” Wang Zhuangyong shook his head without any hesitation.

“Then there’s no other choice.” The surgical techniques Ling Ran mastered were based on the foundation of other skills. It meant that even if he taught someone the steps of the M-Tang technique, he could not guarantee that the person could perform the entire procedure smoothly.

Wang Zhuangyong could not help but sigh. “I know it doesn’t make any sense that a surgeon can’t look at muscles and tendons. If I still can’t make it in the end, I’ll just switch to the Department of Internal Medicine.”

“It is actually good to become an internist, too.”

“But it means that I wasted my rotation in the Emergency Department. You seem to be enjoying your work in the Emergency Department,” Wang Zhuangyong said, and he laughed.

The past few days, he either vomited in the treatment room, or he followed Ling Ran to perform ward rounds. He did not see Ling Ran perform any surgeries as the chief surgeon. Still, he admired Ling Ran because people acknowledged Ling Ran as Doctor Ling.

“Working in the Emergency Department doesn’t mean you need to deal with blood all the time. If you really can’t enter the treatment room…” Ling Ran thought for a moment and said, “How about this? I’ll introduce Doctor Yu to you.”

Wang Zhuangyong’s hope was rekindled. He asked, “What is Doctor Yu’s specialization?”

“She still mainly works in the Emergency Department. But if we talk about her specialty, Doctor Yu is better at writing research papers.” Ling Ran stopped for a while and said, “She is also well-read in other fields. If you work under her for a period of time, you will definitely learn something instead of nothing.”

Wang Zhuangyong nodded in agreement. “Learning something is better than learning nothing.”

…..

Ling Ran passed Wang Zhuangyong to Yu Yuan and explained his situation to her. Then he left them for his work.

The Emergency Department just renovated a quad-room into a seven-bed room, making more space for the ward at last.

Ling Ran was reluctant to fill up all the beds in one go. He carefully selected the patients every day, and he only wanted patients with multiple severed fingers.

After all, patients with only one severed finger will end up occupying one bed, while a patient with ten severed fingers will also end up occupying one bed. But the time they spent in the operating theater was greatly different.

Of course, Ling Ran had yet to get a chance to meet a patient with all ten fingers cut off. In the field of finger replantations, it was very rare to see ten severed fingers. Each time such a case appeared, the doctor who performed the surgery could write at least one medical case report and publish the paper.

If there was a patient with ten severed fingers, any Hand Surgery Center would try their best to grab the patient. They would also send out their best doctors to treat the patient.

Based on the perspective of surgical studies, the treatment and recovery of ten severed fingers was completely different from eight or nine severed fingers. The skill required to replant all ten fingers was at least one level higher than what was required for eight or nine severed fingers.

However, even Huo Congjun could not find such rare cases out of thin air. Therefore, Ling Ran could only wait for patients with more severed fingers to schedule them into his surgery timetable. Ling Ran would select cases of two severed fingers only when he did not receive any other cases that day with more than two severed digits.

Even so, those seven beds did not even stay empty for one week. Fortunately, there were patients who were starting to get discharged, thus allowing Ling Ran to carry on with his work.

Naturally, this was only based on Ling Ran’s perspective.

In actuality, it was terrifying for other doctors in the Hand Surgery Department to watch Ling Ran perform multi-fingered replantations every day. In Yun Hua Hospital, it was common for doctors to perform single-finger replantations every day. It was rare to see a doctor who deliberately looked for multiple severed fingers every day.

After Ling Ran performed several multi-fingered replantations for a few days, Chief Physician Wang Haiyang from the Hand Surgery Department stopped him outside the rehabilitation ward.

Wang Haiyang had worked with Ling Ran before, and had also observed Ling Ran for quite some time. He spoke to Ling Ran in a teasing manner, “The observation rooms in your Emergency Department are almost completely filled up by you, right?”

Ling Ran heard what he said, and asked in surprise and delight, “Did Department Director Huo make a deal with you again?”

“Ha! He wishes. I have a suggestion, and I want to ask if you’re interested,” Wang Haiyang said.

“Oh?”

Wang Haiyang smiled mysteriously. He took Ling Ran by the arm to a quiet corner. “Do you know what a freelance surgeon is?”

“They take the airplane to perform surgery in other hospitals?”

“That’s about it.” Wang Haiyang nodded and went straight to the point, “Do you want to do it?”

Ling Ran looked at Wang Haiyang with uncertainty. Doctors who became freelance surgeons were either experts in their field, or the best in their region.

To be known as an expert, or the best, would mean that they not only needed skill, but also reputation. Ling Ran definitely had enough skill, but he did not have the reputation just yet.

Logically speaking, there would only be two reasons why a hospital would hire a freelance surgeon: Either the hospital would like to learn a skill from the surgeon, or they needed to seek help from other hospitals because the patient’s condition was too complicated.

Whatever the reason which drove a hospital to hire a freelance surgeon, that freelance surgeon could not be said to have been hired based on his skill alone. If it was for the first reason, the hospital would definitely need a freelance surgeon with a high reputation. This could make the other doctors become more motivated during lessons, or that reputation was necessary to build a long-term relationship between the hospital and the surgeon. If it was for the second reason, the patient would want to know that the surgeon was some sort of chief physician or a member of a committee before they would entrust themselves to the surgeon with their minds at ease.

Since he was part of a competitive market at the national level, Ling Ran could only be considered a rising star in the Changxi province. But when compared to the lead doctors in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, he did not have any advantage at all.

Wang Haiyang saw the hesitation in Ling Ran, and he actually felt relieved. He was not afraid of dealing with complicated tasks, he was only worried that the doctor he was going to work with would end up being immature.

When he saw Ling Ran’s knowledge on the situation, he was actually relieved. He said, “Actually, the hospital invited me. I’m thinking of bringing you along. The surgery is not complicated; it’s just a two-fingered replantation. The pay for a freelance surgeon is 10,000 RMB. Anyway, I bought the tickets. We can split the pay equally, what do you think?”

Ling Ran asked, “Since the surgery is not complicated, why did they hire someone from outside?”

“The patient was sent to the Yiyuan County Hospital, it would take them a five-hour drive to our hospital. However, if we took the high-speed rail to go there, it would take less than two hours.”

“They can still make it even if the trip here takes five hours…” Ling Ran had seen patients from Yiyuan county before.

Wang Haiyang chuckled, “The patient is rich, and he knows someone in the hospital. If we rush over now, we can still spend some time to read through the patient’s information on the way there. So, by the time we arrive, we can perform the surgery straight away. We will be back at Yun Hua Hospital around dinnertime. Isn’t this a good deal for us to earn 5,000 RMB each?”

In a prefecture-level city, the price for a freelance surgeon was usually between 5,000 RMB to 15,000 RMB. It was very rare for the surgeon to be paid up to 20,000 RMB unless it was for complicated surgeries like craniocerebral or cardiovascular surgeries, which required more than one chief surgeon.

In truth, if they hired freelance surgeons from Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, the price would be much higher. The round-trip tickets and accommodation fees would also cost more.

Wang Haiyang urged Ling Ran to decide. “What’s your decision? If we perform the surgery as freelance surgeons, it will be easier for the patient as well because he can just rest in the local hospital. You also don’t have to worry about insufficient beds…”

One of Wang Haiyang’s sentences changed Ling Ran’s mind. He nodded and said, “Alright, I don’t have any surgeries arranged this afternoon, after all. But I don’t have a medical license yet…”

“Don’t worry, neither do I.” Wang Haiyang grinned. According to the law, doctors who did not possess a multiple state medical license could not be considered a surgeon when they worked outside their hospital.

It could be said that there were thousands of high-end in the country who practiced illegally every day.

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