But Little Five just kept it in mind and didn’t say anything for now. He’d just arrived here; first he needed to get along with everyone. If he started pointing fingers right away, people would find it annoying.
At noon, Zhang Lin and Little Five t in the cafeteria. The City Hospital cafeteria was smaller than Sanbo’s, and the dishes were simpler, but at least it was cheap. They each got a tray and found a corner to sit in.
"How is it?" Zhang Lin asked.
"Not bad." Little Five shoveled a mouthful of rice. "I just found quite a few problems. The pre-op evaluation and post-op managent are both a bit casual. I haven’t brought it up yet; I’m afraid it’d hurt the atmosphere when I’ve just arrived. I’ll take it slow later."
Zhang Lin nodded. "Sa on my side. The deputy director’s been working more than twenty years, senior to in qualifications. I have to handle that relationship carefully. We’re newcors here; we can’t start off by ordering people around. We need to blend in first, then slowly change things."
"I know," Little Five said. "It’s just that when I see those nonstandard practices, I get anxious. Back at Sanbo, Professor Yang often said the bottom line for Surgeons is: you must not let a Patient die because of you. With these nonstandard operations, sothing’s bound to happen sooner or later."
"We’ll take it slow," Zhang Lin said. "Let’s observe for a month first, get a clear picture, then look for an entry point. Oh right, I plan to go check out the training room this afternoon. I heard the Hospital has a Skill Training center, but it’s not used much."
"I’ll go too," Little Five said. "Let’s practice for a bit together, get the feel back."
The City Hospital’s skill training center was in the basent of the administrative building. It was fairly large, but the equipnt was outdated. A few mannequins lay in the corner, covered with a layer of dust. The laparoscope simulator was a model from ten years ago, with very low screen resolution. There were almost no Surgery simulators specific for Orthopedics, only a few foam boards and suture models for knot-tying practice.
Looking at all this, Zhang Lin felt a bit heavy-hearted. At Sanbo, Skill Training was a daily, rain-or-shine routine. The training room was fully equipped, from basic suturing to robotic Surgery simulation—everything was available. But here, it was obvious the place had been abandoned for a long ti.
"We’ve got to get this going again," Little Five said. "Equipnt can be added gradually, but the atmosphere has to be built first."
Zhang Lin nodded. "I’ll talk to the dean tomorrow and apply for so funding. Doesn’t have to be much, just enough to get the basic equipnt in place first."
The two of them picked up the relatively clean suture models in the corner and started practicing.
After about an hour of practice, Zhang Lin’s phone rang. It was a call from Wang Shunye: "Director Zhang, the ER just admitted a Patient with a lumbar Fracture, suspected spinal cord injury. Could you co take a look?"
"Okay, I’ll be right there."
Zhang Lin and Little Five went upstairs together. Although they belonged to different departnts, ergency Patients sotis needed a consult, and the two of them were used to discussing cases together.
The Patient was a thirty-five-year-old male who had fallen from scaffolding and landed on his lower back. CT showed burst Fractures of L1 and L2 vertebrae, with the Vertebral Canal compromised by more than two-thirds, and muscle strength in both lower limbs at only grade 2.
"We have to do ergency decompression Surgery," Zhang Lin said after looking at the images. "If we delay any longer, the spinal cord damage will beco irreversible."
Wang Shunye was there too. He frowned, a bit hesitant. "Director Zhang, should we try conservative treatnt first and observe for a few days?"
"We can’t wait," Zhang Lin pointed at the images. "Look here, the kyphotic angle is already over thirty degrees, and the Vertebral Canal compromise is two-thirds. If we delay further, you’ll get spinal cord Ischemic Necrosis. Not even a god could save him then. For this kind of Surgery, the golden window is within eight hours of injury. It’s already been four hours."
Crushed by his montum, Wang Shunye fell silent.
Zhang Lin started arranging the Surgery. He called the Operating Room while instructing the residents to prepare pre-op tests. He spoke fast but in a very organized way; every order was precise and on point, fully displaying his aura as Departnt Director.
On top of that, Zhang Lin liked to show off, so his Departnt Director swagger was in full force, making the Doctors around him have no choice but to be convinced.
"Director Zhang," a young resident asked quietly, "does this Patient have a chance of recovery after Surgery?"
Zhang Lin glanced at him. He was a young man of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, eyes full of worry but also expectation.
"There’s no absolute guarantee. We just do our job; whether he recovers or not isn’t up to us. All we can do is create the conditions for recovery," Zhang Lin said honestly. "But if we don’t operate, the Patient has a one hundred percent chance of paralysis. With Surgery, there’s still about a sixty percent chance he’ll walk again. We Surgeons are always balancing risk and benefit. This Surgery is worth doing—and it has to be done."
Zhang Lin reported the plan to perform ergency Surgery on the trauma Patient to Dean Chen, since it was his first day at work, not even an official workday, and his Departnt Director appointnt hadn’t been announced yet.
Dean Chen really appreciated Zhang Lin’s style. To back Zhang Lin up, he put down what he was doing and rushed to the Operating Room in person.
Once he entered the Operating Room, Zhang Lin’s innate flair for showing off ca out in full. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was a top national Professor doing the Main Surgery.
He stood tall with his back straight, unhurried, carrying real presence.
The Surgery lasted more than two hours. Zhang Lin’s operative style was exactly as he’d described himself: not flashy, but solid. Every step was steady and thodical—decompression thorough but not excessive, fixation firm without damaging adjacent segnts. When the last screw went in, the monitor showed improvent in the Patient’s neurophysiological monitoring.
"Looks promising," the Anesthesiologist said. "The motor-evoked potentials are better than pre-op."
Zhang Lin let out a long breath and realized his back was soaked with sweat. He glanced at the clock: nine in the evening.
"Director Wang, could you handle the closing?" Zhang Lin asked.
Wang Shunye had been assisting at the table the whole ti. He nodded. "Sure, you go get so rest."
Zhang Lin didn’t leave. He stood off to the side, watching Wang Shunye close the Incision, and occasionally reminded him, "Make sure the fascial layer is aligned, or it’s easy to form a dead space." "Use absorbable sutures for the subcuticular layer to reduce scarring."
At first, Wang Shunye felt a bit impatient, but gradually he realized Zhang Lin’s reminders were all very practical—not that condescending kind of guidance, but more like an exchange between Peers.
And he realized this young Director Zhang really did have skills, not just flashy form. Turns out soone coming out of the Sanbo Research Institute really was different.
Previously, Director Wang had heard so rumors about the two new directors—that they’d clung to Professor Yang’s thigh to stay at the Institute, and that they were basically gofers there.
Judging from this Surgery, though, their "gofer" level was sothing else.
As Zhang Lin was about to take off his scrub gown, he noticed Dean Chen was still in the Operating Room and hadn’t left.
"Director Zhang, thanks for your hard work. Look at you, just on your very first day here and we’ve already got you on the table; I feel so embarrassed." Dean Chen quickly stepped up and untied the gown ties at the back for Zhang Lin.
"Not at all. I ca here to do Surgery," Zhang Lin replied politely.
Watching Dean Chen’s gestures from the side, Little Five felt a surge of emotion. It seed the atmosphere at the City People’s Hospital really wasn’t the sa as before.
The Surgery ended, and the Patient was transferred back to the Ward. Zhang Lin stood outside the ICU, waiting for the Patient to wake up; Little Five stayed with him.
"How do you feel?" Little Five asked.
"Pretty good. Decompression was very thorough. Now we just wait and see how he does post-op," Zhang Lin rubbed his eyes.
"I just went over to the next Operating Room to watch," Little Five said. "They were doing a hip Fracture replacent. I noticed their Surgery wasn’t very standardized. I wanted to teach them on the spot, but I held back."
Zhang Lin laughed. "You... So things need to go slow. We’re not at Sanbo anymore—we’re outsiders on soone else’s Territory."
"I know," Little Five nodded.
The two of them looked at each other and smiled. This was a habit they’d ford at Sanbo: after a Surgery, they’d sit together, do a little review, and talk about what went well and what didn’t. They planned to keep this habit at the City Hospital too.
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