Chapter 150: Chapter 150 - 0144 Family Channel

“It made the papers?” Yang Ping asked with some curiosity.

Zhang Lin nodded, “Back then, it was big news that shook G City.”

“You were still in high school in the Northeast at the time, or had just started college at the most, right? I’m surprised,” Yang Ping said, “You make it sound like you were in G City when it all happened.”

“Exactly, I only found out about it when I came to work here,” Zhang Lin shrugged.

While they were chatting, Zhang Lin was about to reveal more details of the story, but a nurse came over needing his attention.

“Hermes’s surgery has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, the external fixator and calcium sulfate have arrived. I asked Professor Zhang on Friday, he said to find you. He would just come to the operating room to have a look,” Zhang Lin told Yang Ping as he left.

“Ok, I got it. Professor Zhang has already mentioned it to me.” Yang Ping knew about it.

Unless there were special circumstances, Yang Ping would be the one to perform the surgeries here. Unless he was the one who initiated the request, expressing his inability to handle the case, he wouldn’t need any extra help.

After Zhang Lin left, Yang Ping was in the dining room alone. He opened WeChat on his phone. Xiao Su had sent him many messages, with a scroll of sledgehammer emoji, she had returned from shopping with her mother.

Yang Ping quickly replied to her WeChat, telling her in detail about the patient from the Overseas Chinese Building. Xiao Su responded with several astonished emoji.

After chatting with Xiao Su for a bit, Yang Ping went to the duty room to put on his white gown and did rounds, checking on the only two patients in the ward.

Luo Xiaohu was hard at work doing leg raise exercises, strengthening his quadriceps, with Father Luo helping count his reps on the side.

“Thank you, Dr. Yang!” Father Luo paused his counting, stood up, and thanked him jovially.

After the surgery, Father Luo, wanting to be cautious, sent the surgery photos to Su Nanchen, and Su Nanchen replied that the surgery went perfectly.

With that, he was reassured. If the son of Professor Su said it was perfect, then it was perfect.

Yang Ping replied with a smile, “You’re welcome, it’s my duty.”

He checked the firmness of Luo Xiaohu’s brace; it was alright. He then corrected Luo Xiaohu’s incorrect exercise movements.

Not only sports medicine surgeries but for all orthopedic surgeries, rehabilitation is crucial. If the rehabilitation isn’t done well, the surgery may be in vain.

Father Luo took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Yang Ping, “Dr. Yang, this is my card. I work at G City High-Speed Rail Group.”

Father Luo understood his strengths and how to leverage them in making friends.

His son plays football and injuries are inevitable. Even though they already knew Su Nanchen, it wouldn’t hurt to know another skilled doctor.

“If you ever have difficulty buying tickets, feel free to give me a call,” Father Luo put forward his advantage promptly.

As a courtesy, Yang Ping carefully looked at the business card, then put it in the pocket of his white gown, “Thank you. As for Xiaohu, the focus now is rehabilitation. Stick to the plan and he should be back on the field soon.”

“Thanks, Dr. Yang,” Father Luo stood tall, slightly leaning forward.

“Would it be okay to add each other on WeChat?” Father Luo thought of it, he had added Dr. Zhang before, but not Yang Ping. Nowadays, WeChat seemed to be more efficient than phone calls.

Yang Ping was very amiable. He took out his phone and showed him his WeChat ID, which was specifically used for patient communication.

He stayed in Luo Xiaohu’s ward for a few minutes, guiding him on rehabilitation.

Hermes was scheduled for surgery tomorrow. Yang Ping wanted to check on him again, but the door to his ward was closed and even locked from the inside.

According to the ward management regulations, all ward doors should not be locked from the inside in case of emergencies where they would need to break the door and waste precious time.

As there was no pressing matter, he decided not to enter. Since the door was locked, Yang Ping left and told a nurse to remind Hermes not to lock his door.

Speak of the devil. Just as Yang Ping was about to leave to rest, Little Five called. His father-in-law had tumbled, resulting in a severe dislocation and fragmentation of his distal radius fracture.

Little Five’s father-in-law had connections at the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and at the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He decided to go to the nearer Provincial Hospital to get an X-ray. Both places suggested surgery due to the severity of the fracture.

He was reluctant to have surgery. Considering both his daughter and son-in-law work at a hospital and the son-in-law was an orthopedist, he informed Little Five and Xiao Qing, who were out at the time.

“Older brother, where are you? I really need your help, is it okay for me to bring him to the hospital now?” Little Five anxiously asked.

Yang Ping laughed, “It’s the weekend, so I am off, but since he’s your father-in-law, I have to rush back. Get him here soon and send me the scans first.”

“I’ve already sent them to you on WeChat.” Little Five felt relieved, how embarrassing it would be if things didn’t go well with his father-in-law’s situation.

Yang Ping studied the X-rays. The severe dislocation and fragmentation of the distal radius fracture was indeed severe, and worse, was an intra-articular fracture. Luckily, there weren’t any loose fragments in the center of the joint, the repositioning seemed manageable.

Distal radius fractures can usually be managed with a cast or splint after manual reduction, but considering the severity of Little Five’s father-in-law’s fracture, surgery would be the only option if he hadn’t come across Yang Ping.

Yang Ping waited in the department for almost an hour until Little Five, pushing his father-in-law in a wheelchair, arrived. Xiao Qing and the mother-in-law came along as well.

“Dad, this is Dr. Yang, my senior and good brother. When Mayor Li’s daughter fractured her bone, she went to him for treatment and managed to avoid surgery,” Little Five introduced succinctly.

Nothing more needed to be said. The city’s mayor’s daughter wouldn’t let just anyone set her broken bones.

“Thank you, Dr. Yang!” Little Five’s in-laws seemed relatively young, only in their forties, and weren’t good at Mandarin. They were local people from G City with local accents.

“Let’s move to the treatment room for reduction and casting!” Yang Ping suggested after briefly looking at the X-rays.

“Xiao Qing, you come over here and push. Little Five is busy enough, you should help out a bit,” the father-in-law said, getting slightly annoyed with his daughter.

Xiao Qing quickly moved over to assist Little Five with pushing the wheelchair.

“It’s fine, you stay with mom, I can manage. Don’t worry.” Little Five was an adaptable guy, no wonder this family liked him.

“I’ll go with dad, you stay here with mom and rest. There’s water for you to drink.” Little Five didn’t want them to worry so he made sure they couldn’t follow.

“You two just rest in the office!” Yang Ping also suggested the same.

Zhang Lin pushed over chairs and offered them water, “Auntie, please sit. They are capable so no worries.”

“This is Little Five’s colleague, Dr. Zhang!” Xiao Qing introduced.

“Dr. Zhang, hello!” Little Five’s mother-in-law greeted.

“Just call me Xiao Zhang, I am very close to Doctor Lu, who is a real talent in the department. I usually learn from him,” Zhang Lin said seriously.

Little Five wheeled his father-in-law into the treatment room and Yang Ping hung the X-ray film on the viewing light in the room.

With the ability to map the brain now, combined with expert technique, this kind of fracture was simple.

“Do you need anesthesia, elder brother?” Little Five was worried that his father-in-law would feel pain.

Yang Ping nodded, “A local anesthesia will do.”

“Dad, after the anesthesia is administered, it won’t hurt. The actual setting of the bone will just take a few seconds. You just need to hang in there,” Little Five patiently explained.

His father-in-law nodded, “It’s all right!”

“Do you have an alcohol allergy?” Yang Ping asked.

“No issue, he’s a drinker,” Little Five helpfully answered.

Yang Ping called a standardized training student over to help, prepared the polymer cast, and then cleaned the sweat off the skin with alcohol.

Little Five brought saline water and lidocaine, diluted them one to one, drew them into a ten-milliliter syringe, and handed it to Yang Ping.

Yang Ping used cotton swabs soaked in iodine to disinfect, from the surface of the skin to the subcutaneous layer, all the way to the fracture hematoma, performing the anesthesia.

They waited for a moment, then began to reset the bone. Little Five and Yang Ping had done this on many fractures, their cooperation was smooth. He held the proximal forearm, while Yang Ping held the distal wrist.

Yang Ping gently felt the fracture site, roughly understanding the situation of the fracture, and a complete image of the fracture presented itself in his mind.

The processes of how to reset and how to stabilize it were already visualized.

“How did you get injured?” Yang Ping chatted with Little Five’s father-in-law to distract him.

“Playing golf, I don’t know how I fell, I braced my right hand on the ground,” Little Five’s father-in-law described the scene at that time.

“Hmm, not bad, you exercise regularly.” Yang Ping tightened his grip on the wrist, and with Little Five, they began to traction.

The traction lasted for two to three minutes, and the anesthesia was very effective, so Little Five’s father-in-law didn’t feel any pain at all.

Judging that the traction was in place, with a click! Yang Ping made a quick move with his hand. The ulna was flexed and the fracture was reset.

Because the anesthesia was effective, the patient did not feel any pain throughout the process.

“Is it done?” Little Five’s father-in-law asked in surprise.

“Done!” Yang Ping said.

The standardized training student took Little Five’s place, freeing Little Five’s hand so he could assist Yang Ping.

While Little Five and the training student maintained the traction, Yang Ping started applying the cast and bandaging it, doing it both quickly and beautifully.

Finally, he gave him a sling to suspend the right upper limb in front of the chest at an eighty-five-degree angle.

“Take him down for an X-ray check,” Yang Ping instructed.

Little Five helped his father-in-law adjust the sling, “Elder brother, later on, I will apply for a medical card and pay for the bone setting and material costs.”

Yang Ping tidied up the garbage with the training student, “One of us, don’t talk like a stranger. What fees are you talking about?”

“Imaging department, do you want me to make a call?” Yang Ping meant, don’t take the normal route, use the special channel, find a familiar person to directly take the X-ray.

It wasn’t a matter of money, Little Five’s father-in-law wasn’t short of money.

Taking this special treatment route for family members felt great and gave a sense of privilege. It demonstrated the superiority of having a doctor as a son-in-law.

No need to register, no need to queue, no need to pay, the best doctor, the best service attitude, and straight through, how cool!

“I’ll handle it!” Little Five, who had strong communication skills, got friendly with the young doctors in all departments whenever he came to Sanbo.

Whoever he found, he managed to take care of it within a few words.

He turned on the speaker phone, and they constantly called him Brother Five on the other end.

“Brother Five, your business is my business, your father-in-law is ——”

Realizing that he misspoke, he immediately stopped, “Brother Five, hurry up and bring him over, I am waiting for you.”

Yang Ping was clear about whether the fracture was properly set, the X-ray was just for the patient’s own reference.

Within half an hour, the X-ray film was brought up, the anatomical bone reduction, that is, the complete recovery, was confirmed.

“Many thanks to Little Five today, otherwise your dad would have had to endure a cut again,” his mother-in-law said contentedly.

“We have to go to work tomorrow, so we won’t go back to the city. We will have to rush back here,” Xiao Qing asked her mom to drive her dad back home.

Mother-in-law got annoyed, “What about dinner? Eating out is not hygienic. How long does an hour’s drive take? Come back and have dinner before going, Little Five, don’t just listen to her. Mom will make you boiled shrimps later.”

“We’ll go back. Dad just had the cast applied, and I want to observe the blood circulation in a while.” Little Five gave Xiao Qing a significant look.

Xiao Qing pouted, and the mother-in-law said, “Look at how dutiful Little Five is, compared to you.”

Little Five used his own medical card to prescribe some pain relieving and swelling reduction medications for his father-in-law.

His in-laws noticed all these small acts of thoughtfulness. They saw in Little Five a reliable support for their old age.

They only had one daughter. If they chose a good son-in-law, of course they would be happy in their hearts.