Famous Among Top Surgeons in the 90s
Chapter 522 - Chapter 522 【522】Chief Surgeon

Chapter 522: [(522)] Chief Surgeon Chapter 522: [(522)] Chief Surgeon She was truly going to be the chief surgeon.

She had prepared for this for a long time. Surgery relied on several basic skills: aseptic technique, incision, hemostasis, and suturing. She had practiced these fundamental skills many years before her rebirth, and after her rebirth as a medical student, she adapted quickly to the clinical environment.

Xie Wanying calmed her thoughts while scrubbing her hands at the sink.

She entered the operating room and put on the surgical gown. Liu Chengran and another rookie, student Li Qi’an, had completed the sterilization of the patient’s surgical area.

The team was ready, and the surgery began.

“Scalpel,” Xie Wanying extended her right hand.

The nurse passed her the scalpel.

The scalpel was short and sharp. Holding it in her right hand, the overlapping cold and heat at her fingertips nearly caused them to tremble, the joints ready to stiffen. This was no longer a cadaver in the anatomy lab, nor any inert material from practice. Her eyes could clearly see the rise and fall of the skin on the patient’s abdomen with each abdominal breath, a living human body lying before her.

Her heart contracted, feeling as if standing there with the scalpel was the difference between killing or saving a life in just a moment’s thought.

With a snap, she brought the scalpel to the skin of the abdomen without delay, making an incision. Beads of blood rolled out, soon becoming a small stream.

The first assistant pressed a gauze to the bleeding on the skin.

“Continue,” the teacher commanded.

Xie Wanying’s hand, robotic-like, picked up the electrosurgical unit as if executing a program.

The first assistant glanced at the second assistant standing dumbfounded beside him and spoke, “What are you stunned for?”

Li Qi’an’s mind was in a daze, not expecting his classmate to be the chief surgeon without any tremor, the incision made too swiftly. In contrast, he, the second assistant, had not yet adjusted to the state of surgery.

An emergency operation had come up suddenly during the night shift. His breath fogged up the mask with heat and moisture. Li Qi’an was sweating all over, feeling his limbs becoming a little stiff. Teacher Liu called him dazed, and he truly was.

Smack! The teacher, holding hemostatic forceps, gave a sharp strike on the back of his hand. It hurt him terribly, pain causing his brows to rise sharply.

“You dare to fall asleep on me!”

“I’m not sleeping, Teacher!”

He was just stunned, not asleep. Li Qi’an’s pitifully twisted mouth was hidden behind the mask.

“Hand him the retractor!” Liu Chengran instructed.

The nurse passed Li Qi’an the retractor. He had handled retractors before–Li Qi’an gripped the gauze-wrapped retractor, feeling the tension mount in his chest and his entire body beginning to tremble.

Liu Chengran could not spare any attention for him, he had to keep a close watch on the chief surgeon student’s actions.

This was the student’s first time as chief surgeon, and he, as a teacher, had to be even more alert, determined not to let any of the student’s movements escape his critical eye. He was arguably more nervous than the student.

Anything could happen when a rookie took the stage for the first time.

There was no medical student who could perfectly perform their first surgery as chief surgeon. There were bound to be corrections made by the teacher at various points in the procedure. He was well aware of that as a teacher.

“Your positioning with the electrosurgical unit is not close enough to the flesh, what are you so afraid of?” Liu Chengran pointed out with the suction tip to Xie Wanying across from him.

In the tense atmosphere of the surgery, the teacher’s words were thunderously clear, causing her eardrums to throb. Xie Wanying knew she had to clear her head even more. Not being close enough meant that the cauterization for hemostasis wouldn’t be deep enough and could easily bleed again. Why wasn’t it close enough? Because she was scared. She didn’t expect to encounter fear, just like Teacher Xiao Sun. It turned out this was what being a chief surgeon entailed, there truly were psychological barriers.

Cauterizing for hemostasis was something she had practiced, and Teacher Xiao Sun, knowing her dexterity, had allowed her to try it a few times during surgery. It was in her mind, her thoughts, but when it was her turn to be chief surgeon, her heart just wasn’t ruthless enough.