Great Doctor Ling Ran

“I have looked through the research paper and shall ask a few questions. You’re Ling Ran, right?” Qi Zhenhai was not prepared to let Ling Ran talk about the research paper or the operation all over again. Not only would it be a waste of time, he also did not expect that he could find any loopholes by listening to it one more time, since he did not manage to find any even before.

Ling Ran remained seated in the corner of the office. His spot was not obvious, but he had attracted everyone’s attention. Ling Ran straightened his body slightly in his seat. He had an excellent demeanor—he looked just like an ally of justice.

Qi Zhenhai furrowed his eyebrows and quietly sucked his stomach in. He felt even more displeased when he said, “First of all, how confident were you when you decided to perform the barehanded bleeding control during that moment? Did you consider the consequences should you ever fail?”

Ling Ran straightaway skipped the first question and said, “If I fail, it would have caused the patient to die, and it may have also caused serious bleeding during or after the operation, liver failure[1], ascites[2], biliary fistula[3], bleeding or tearing in digestive tract…”

Qi Zhenhai had first thought that Ling Ran would explain himself. But after listening to Ling Ran for over half a day, what he heard from Ling Ran sounded just like the recitations of medical complications.

“Since you knew that there were so many serious consequences, you still chose to rashly perform barehanded bleeding control?” Qi Zhenhai’s voice sounded a little agitated.

Ling Ran calmly looked at him and said, “Yes.”

“Yes… yes what?”

“I knew that there would be serious consequences. But I have decided to carry on with barehanded bleeding control.” Ling Ran repeated the details as he answered. He felt that there was really something wrong with Qi Zhenhai’s comprehension ability.

At the same time, Qi Zhenhai had also confirmed that there was something really wrong with the mindset of the intern before him. He said sternly, “You do know what you just said, right? You’re admitting that you have committed medical malpractice!”

“But there was no accident.” Ling Ran would not get intimidated or scared because of Qi Zhenhai’s sternness.

Qi Zhenhai could not find his tongue for a moment there.

Even as the ‘beacon of humanity’, in the great United States, medical malpractice would also require bad consequences to occur before it could be identified as one, despite the country boasting the highest number of medical lawsuits in the world every year.

Meanwhile, Ling Ran’s barehanded bleeding control was neat and tidy, not to mention that the end result was great as well, so good that it could be used to promote the use of this technique, so naturally, he could use it for accidents.

Huo Congjun chuckled and said, “Well said. There was obviously no incident.”

Qi Zhenhai forced a smile. He got himself some breathing space and changed his train of thought. Then, he said in a caring tone, “Let us not talk about the patient, let us talk about yourself, Ling Ran. You’re so young, and your skills are also not bad. You have a great bright future ahead of you. Has it ever occurred to you that you could have possibly ended your own career that time by performing the barehanded bleeding control?”

“I have thought about it,” Ling Ran answered.

“If you have thought about it, why did you still do it then? Did someone command you to do so?” Qi Zhenhai was thinking about spreading the flames of war.

Ling Ran felt strange and glanced at him. Then he said, “Judging based on the situation in that moment, it would benefit the patient the most by performing barehanded bleeding control. That’s the fundamentals of medical judgement.”

Qi Zhenhai did not expect to receive that kind of answer.

Unexpectedly, Department Director Liu laughed out loud and said, “Yes, yes. Young men these days are now very capable of thinking on their own. Hm, even though medical procedures remain important, but the most basic judgement like what sort of judgement we should make in an operation, and what could benefit the patients the most, all of those build the foundation of our skills. If we are to ensure that we comply to the medical procedures and give up on the best therapeutic plans, wouldn’t that already be putting the ‘unimportant’ before the ‘important’?”

Knowing clearly that Doctor Liu was talking to him, Ling Ran still refuted, “The patient had lost blood and entered shock. It was difficult to perform normal bleeding control. I believed that it met the specifications of the medical procedures to perform barehanded bleeding control.”

Department Director Huo was one step slower than Ling Ran in answering, but he still said, “We are all from the Emergency Department. Honest men do not deal underhandedly. If we were lucky, we would have found the bleeding point very quickly during the exploratory laparotomy. The patient could still be rescued. If we were unlucky and we did not immediately turn the liver over, it would have been a great suspense to see if the patient would have survived or not. So, being extremely conservative or old-fashioned would be like looking upon human lives as if they were grass. You need to analyze what sort of therapeutic plans would really be the best therapeutic plans for the case. We cannot put the unimportant before the important.”

Qi Zhenhai was being attacked by people in the entire room. With indignation, he said, “Ignore medical procedures and you will not be a doctor for long. That is what we call putting the unimportant before the important. One medical incident can end a doctor’s career for good!”

He was looking at Ling Ran when he said that.

Compared to the old and cunning Department Director Huo, the young Ling Ran seemed more like a good way for him to get out of his predicament

However, Ling Ran’s thoughts would not follow the direction that Qi Zhenhai expected. During the conversation just now, Ling Ran had carefully thought about this matter as he immediately said, “Doctors are like cells that should try their best to play their roles for as long as they could. But if one loses the basic functions of a cell in order to survive longer, that cell should only be known as a cancer cell.”

Ling Ran’s tone was calm. He would just say whatever came to his mind, but it sounded different to the ears of each audience member.

A few chief physicians and associate chief physicians who were older had sunk into silence after hearing Ling Ran’s words. The young doctors were in quite a disagreement with those words and they glared at him, itching to debate against Ling Ran. They had even started whispering to one another.

Department Director Huo came up with a summary and took a quick peek at Qi Zhenhai as he spoke. “The old without morality are hateful. Those who would do anything to stay at the top are not decent people. If you keep thinking about how to climb higher all the time, it would be better that you transfer to administration earlier.”

Of course, it was not possible that Qi Zhenhai would transfer to administration. He had advantages for being a doctor. What sort of advantages would he have if he went over to administration?

Nevertheless, that was not the important point of the dispute.

Huo Congjun’s patronizing comments, which sounded threatening, and Department Director Liu squeezing him out, either by design or accident, had caused dull pain and misery to Qi Zhenhai’s heart.

“We shall call it a day for now then. I still have a meeting to attend this afternoon.” Qi Zhenhai was unwilling to continue arguing with them anymore, or rather, he no longer wished to be the target for scolding.

Qi Zhenhai decided that any consultation session where Huo Congjun would join in from henceforth must be arranged to be held at the provincial hospital. At least he would have a group of his lackeys to wave the flag and shout to support him.

After having fun with the scolding, Huo Congjun grinned and said, “If you want to leave, I shall not see you out then. But you should remember to do one thing though, Doctor Qi.”

“Oh?” Qi Zhenhai stood at the door and looked back.

Huo Congjun looked at the table and said, “The Weibo thing you posted, or whatever it is, you had better delete it. I shall pass up the report tomorrow at this time.”

There was not a trace of a smile on Qi Zhenhai’s face anymore. He stared at Huo Congjun for a moment before he turned around again and left.

Qi Zhenhai was also able to roughly guess the contents of the report without Huo Congjun’s explanation. Instead of saying it was a discussion, it would be better to describe today’s outpatient consultation to be a struggle session[4]. When the record of the meeting went out, he was definitely not going to have a good time.

Qi Zhenhai could be completely unconcerned with what Huo Congjun said or wrote if he was the director of the provincial Emergency Department. Perhaps he would not even concern himself with whatever Huo Congjun said or wrote if he was an old chief physician who wanted nothing.

But his dream was to push the provincial hospital to work on the establishment of a Burn Center. He could not be said to have no dreams at the moment.

“Old Du, please assist me in sending Doctor Qi out.” Huo Congjun smiled in the manner of a man who got what he wanted.

All the doctors there seemed like they were infected as they sported similar smiles.

But Department Director Liu was staring at Ling Ran as thoughts raced in his mind.

Translator’s Notes:

[1] Liver failure: The inability of the liver to perform its normal synthetic and metabolic functions as part of normal physiology.

[2] Ascites: The abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen.

[3] Biliary fistulas: chronic pipe-like ulcers. They can connect the gallbladder with the biliary tree, and rarely involve the gastrointestinal tract (internal fistulas) and the abdominal wall (external fistulas).

[4] Struggle session: A form of public humiliation and torture that was used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao era, particularly during the Cultural Revolution, to shape public opinion and humiliate, persecute, or execute political rivals and those deemed as class enemies (Source: Wikipedia).