Surgery Godfather-Chapter 1482 - 1109: The Unbearable Past

Yang Ping’s wedding stirred up the entire global medical community for many days, and a romantic love story spread throughout the provincial city of Nandu. The wedding, attended by numerous medical bigwigs from around the world, highlighted by a high-spirited song from Manstein, beautiful fireworks and drone performances, and overwhelming congratulations, left a deep impression on all.

Now, the excitement has subsided, and the doctors and scholars from around the world have returned to their respective countries, bringing rich exchange results back to their posts and starting their own work.

Yang Ping has resumed a normal life. In fact, it is normal life that he and Xiao Su prefer—quiet, allowing them to freely do what they love, uninterrupted. True happiness is the peacefulness of everyday life, not the brilliance of fireworks.

With their child still young, Xiao Su decided to take some time off to care for the child full-time. She also uses her spare time to work out. Xiao Su has always had a fitness habit, which is how she maintains her perfect figure.

Yang Ping used to love running and has maintained this habit. However, now he also joins Xiao Su in working out. No matter how busy he gets, he takes time to work out because health is the foundation of everything. With a good body, he can better do what he loves and enjoy life.

When he first arrived at the department in the morning, he bumped into Little Five, who had just returned from the ophthalmology department. A special patient in the ophthalmology department was undergoing emergency surgery in the operating room, and they requested assistance from Little Five for technical guidance. Yang Ping asked, "What kind of patient would the ophthalmology department need our consultation for?"

Usually, the ophthalmology department rarely requests consultations from the Surgical Research Institute. It’s hardly ever more than a few times a year, so what kind of case is this?

Little Five said: The patient had glass fibers pierced into their eye, which needs to be removed under a microscope. The ophthalmologists admitted the patient for emergency surgery. When they looked at the operating table, oh my god, there were dozens of short and long "fine needles" stuck into the eyeball. These "fine needles" are almost invisible to the naked eye because the diameter of a single glass fiber is about 1/20-1/5 of a hair’s width. The ophthalmology department knew our department’s microscope skills are extremely high, so they requested one of our doctors to help remove these "fine needles" that can only be seen under a microscope. I happened to arrive early; the resident on duty had gone to the emergency department and hadn’t returned, so I had time to take a look.

That’s quite a story. Yang Ping was familiar with glass fibers as they are encountered frequently in daily life, in items like umbrella handles, mosquito net rods, fishing rods, and so on. But how did this patient get so many glass fibers stuck in their eye?

Glass fiber can be scary but is certainly better than asbestos. Both have similar microstructures like "fine needles" or "fine threads." If inhaled into the lungs, small amounts of glass fiber can often dissolve and disappear over several months. However, asbestos can stay in the body for up to 15 years, especially if inhaled into the lungs, where it lingers for long periods, continuously irritating and damaging lung tissue. This chronic damage can lead to cellular mutations in the lungs and eventually lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists asbestos as a Group 1 carcinogen. It’s banned in many countries worldwide, including China, although it’s still used in some rural areas of the country.

Glass fibers are somewhat better, with E-glass and "475" glass fibers listed as Group 2B carcinogens, while continuous glass fibers are listed as Group 3 carcinogens. Thus, their relative harm is less severe compared to asbestos.

"How did it go, did you handle it for them?" Yang Ping asked.

Little Five replied confidently, "It was a piece of cake. I removed all the fine needles, not leaving a single one behind. Now the entire hospital knows our institute’s laparoscopic and microscopic skills surpass other departments. So, whenever there’s a challenging case in this field, they consult us. Last time, gynecology had an emergency case where a female patient had live loaches in her uterus from wild swimming. Zhang Lin was called in to remove them, and he did so with ease, extracting several of them."

In fact, surgery is something that’s easier to learn when you’re young. Both Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and Sanbo Hospital now use a mentor-apprentice system. The hospitals have clear regulations: if a mentor’s apprentice doesn’t meet the technical standards for surgery within the specified period, the mentor loses their qualification to perform surgeries and the apprentice is reassigned to a new mentor until they meet the standards. The previous mentor can only regain their qualification after the apprentice meets the standards. This system prevents mentors from being unwilling to pass on their skills.

In hospitals, many senior doctors worry about teaching their apprentices too well, fearing they’ll be outperformed. This leads to an unwillingness to genuinely teach younger doctors. Of course, you can’t blame senior doctors entirely. Most hospitals lack a systematic, standardized training system for young doctors. Even if such a system exists, it’s often outdated and essentially non-existent.

Many department directors have absolute power and often monopolize surgical skills under the pretext of "patient safety," dominating the operating table for decades, leaving many department doctors capable only of holding retractors.

In essence, this is because department directors fear being surpassed by other doctors and use their administrative power to monopolize surgical techniques. This situation isn’t uncommon. For example, in some departments, only the department director knows how to perform a particular surgery, not because they’re superior, but because they never taught other doctors and didn’t send them for external training. As long as they’re in charge, they’re the only one who knows how to perform the surgery.

Sanbo Hospital’s Surgical Research Institute is different. Training for doctors starts from the standardized training student level. At least in terms of hands-on skills, they receive long-term, systematic training at an optimal age, mastering many surgical techniques. This puts them ahead of most hospitals. In most hospitals, standardized training students and graduates lack any systematic training. Instead, they’re seen purely as a source of exploitation. They aren’t viewed as objects of cultivation but rather as workhorses who aren’t even afforded the respite that actual horses can get. Even catching a breath is considered a crime for standardized training students.

One standardized training student accompanied Zhang Lin for a consultation and got to show his skills on the operating table, feeling particularly accomplished. He secretly shared his proud moment with other standardized training students, who were envious and all eager for an opportunity to display their skills. After all, they’ve been training for a long time and are quite skilled.

Seeing all the standardized training students gathered around, Zhang Lin pulled out a piece of paper for everyone to sign. This was because the first month’s subsidy from the fund established by Wang Changxin to support medical students and standardized training students was about to be distributed. They needed to sign and verify their personal information and bank accounts. If everything was correct, they would submit it and soon receive their first subsidy. Although the subsidy was not much, only 6,000 yuan for now, it could solve their living problems, at least alleviating worries about daily subsistence.

Discussing this, everyone was both grateful to President Wang and filled with resentment. Life for standardized training students at Sanbo Hospital was relatively better, whereas elsewhere, they lived in "dire straits," with extremely low income and overwhelming workloads. The fund established by Wang Changxin to support impoverished standardized training students was a fantastic initiative. Many survivors lack basic living security and rely on family support. Those with better family conditions manage while those without continue to rely on family support even after graduating from university or obtaining a graduate degree. This is absurd, but common in the medical field: no money, extreme workloads, and immense physical and mental pressures, which have led to standardized training students committing suicide from the stress in recent years.

Hearing the students talk about this, Yang Ping was reminded of his own difficult days as a graduate student and standardized training student. His mentor never provided guidance, treating him like a workhorse. On top of heavy clinical duties, he had to assist his mentor with research projects, write papers, compile books, conduct postoperative follow-ups, and more. The mentor assigned him everything without any concern for his capacity to bear it, including child pickups, homework tutoring, dog-walking, and taking the dog to the vet. Staying up until one or two in the morning was routine, and pulling all-nighters was commonplace. Looking back, he felt it was a miracle he hadn’t died of sudden cardiac death during those years.

Once, he was so exhausted that he experienced chest pain, fearing a heart attack from overwork. He took some time to do an EKG, which delayed taking the mentor’s dog to the groomers, and he was scolded harshly by his mentor. He could only endure this because he came from a rural area and worked hard to get into graduate school. He didn’t want to worry his parents by stirring up trouble.

Finally, one day, he exploded. He had stayed up three consecutive nights revising a research proposal for his mentor, but it never met the mentor’s satisfaction. The mentor threw the proposal in his face and scolded him bitterly. If it weren’t for the presence of doctors, the mentor would have almost slapped him. He couldn’t hold back anymore and yelled at the mentor, "What the hell! I’m quitting. Anyone who wants to do this can do it. You think you’re so great just because you flaunt the title of mentor? You’re nothing but a complete idiot!"

"You can forget about graduating!" the mentor retorted viciously, it was the last semester of his graduate studies.

After his outburst, he walked away coolly and then cried in his dorm. He knew that, having clashed with his mentor, graduating was now impossible. A senior had had a similar fallout and ultimately did not graduate. Taking up the phone, Yang Ping told his father everything in full detail, expressing his desire to leave graduate school. Surprisingly, he felt relieved afterward, expecting rebuke for being unambitious. But his father did not scold him. Instead, he calmly said, "It’s just a graduate degree. If you don’t want to continue, so be it. You won’t starve without it. At worst, come back and work as a barefoot doctor. But you can’t let yourself be bullied without putting up a fight. Go to the school dean and talk it over. If they refuse, we’ll escalate. It’s not our fault, so why shouldn’t you graduate? What right does he have? Can you handle this? If not, your dad will come and talk to the dean. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go higher up. We’ll find someone to resolve this."

This was Yang Ping’s first time experiencing his father’s assertiveness. With his father’s support, he felt much more confident. Knowing the worst outcome was manageable, no graduation seemed not so daunting. So, he told his father, "I can handle it."

Thus, he went to the dean to lodge a complaint with determination. Intervened by the dean, he successfully graduated. Moreover, his mentor’s attitude softened significantly and no longer assigned him excessive tasks. To this day, Yang Ping harbors little affection for his graduate mentor. Instead, he sees Director Han as his true medical mentor. Moreover, Director Han happens to be Yang Ping’s doctoral mentor as well.