Chapter 349: An Unmatched Talent in the Operating Room

Training opportunities usually go to young doctors in their thirties or forties. They have the most potential, and after they return, they’re able to contribute more to the hospital.

After witnessing Zhou Can’s incredible skills, Director Wang was sincerely and deeply impressed.

He couldn’t help but wish he could gain the same abilities Zhou Can had.

He thought to himself, “If even a trainee from Tuyu can be this skilled, imagine if a chief physician like me went to Tuyu for a few months of advanced training—I’d probably be even better than Zhou Can!”

But what he didn’t realize was that Zhou Can, even though he was just a trainee, was truly one of a kind.

Zhou Can’s abilities put most trainees to shame. Honestly, even an average associate chief physician would pale in comparison.

If Director Wang, as a chief physician at County People’s Hospital, went to Tuyu Hospital, he probably wouldn’t even make a splash.

“Director Wang, Dr. Zhou—the patient’s heartbeat is back to normal!”

Head Nurse Liu called out in delight.

Once the blocked artery was cleared and blood flow restored, the heart’s circulation returned to normal. Of course, the heartbeat followed suit. The heart’s movements are a complex, precisely tuned process.

The sinoatrial node, located at the junction of the right atrium and superior vena cava, has the highest rate of automaticity. Excitation starts there, setting the pace, then travels to the atrioventricular node, down the bundle of His, and finally stimulates the left and right ventricular muscles to complete a heartbeat. A disturbance at any point in this conduction system can cause serious arrhythmias or even cardiac arrest.

It’s not as simple as most people assume—just contracting heart muscle and neural signals firing off.

The heart is tightly connected to every other organ in the body.

Take the kidneys, for instance. They’re in charge of the body’s fluids and, among other things, filter the blood.

If the heart starts feeling overworked and needs a break, it can actually ‘send a message’ to the kidneys: “Kidneys, little brother, I’m running nonstop around the clock here. The owner just doesn’t cut me any slack, stuffing themselves with high-salt foods that make the blood thicker and my job harder. I’m exhausted. You gotta help me out—or we’re all in for trouble if I go down.”

Once the kidneys get that emergency signal, they can’t help but shudder—time to get serious.

The heart’s the big boss. If it stops, everyone’s done for.

So the kidneys start tweaking the ‘pump’ system. They ramp up the removal of sodium, pulling more of it out of the blood and flushing it out with urine.

With that, blood viscosity drops, things get back to normal, and the heart’s workload lightens.

This just goes to show that every organ in the body plays a unique role and is closely connected to all the others.

Still, no matter how self-regulating an organ is, there’s a limit to how much abuse it can take. The body might tolerate you partying or eating whatever you want for a while, but not forever.

Keep eating high-salt, high-sugar, or fried foods over long stretches and sooner or later, some organ will crash.

If even one organ goes down, the rest will start to suffer too.

That’s when the whole body breaks down.

You’ll start feeling all sorts of discomfort and the symptoms pile up—that’s what we call getting sick.

There’s an old saying in Chinese medicine: “Illness enters through the mouth.” That’s not just talk.

A lot of diseases really do start with what you eat.

……

As for today’s heart patient, after an emergency interventional surgery, thrombectomy, and stent placement, they managed to pull through.

“Dr. Zhou, thank you so much for today! Our County People’s Hospital can do interventional procedures, but we’re nowhere near your level. If you don’t mind, I’d love to learn from you in the future!”

Director Wang was absolutely thrilled.

Anytime a patient is saved, you can bet every healthcare worker feels genuine happiness.

“I wouldn’t dare say you need to learn from me! We can always share experiences and grow together next time there’s a chance.”

Zhou Can truly believed that helping his hometown hospital raise its standard of care was a great thing. If he had the time, he’d be more than happy to give these county doctors some guidance.

“Dr. Zhou, you’re so talented! I have to say, when I saw you finish the angiography, I was screaming inside—this is coronary angiography! How did it suddenly look so easy?”

Head Nurse Liu’s lively comment sent everyone into laughter.

“And then I realized just how inexperienced I am! Dr. Zhou, you finished the thrombectomy and put in a stent in under seven minutes. And every step was flawless, all in one shot. That completely overturned everything I thought I knew about heart stent surgery. At our hospital, just inserting the catheter takes a chief physician more than half an hour. The whole operation easily takes two or three hours.”

Being fast in the operating room is definitely one of Zhou Can’s greatest advantages.

“Head Nurse Liu, didn’t you train at Tuyu? If Dr. Zhou is this fast, are the other attendings and chiefs at Tuyu even faster? Do their attending physicians wrap up a coronary stent surgery in just a minute or two?”

Director Wang asked, eyes full of curiosity.

Coronary stent surgery has countless technical complexities. Getting it done in one or two minutes just sounds impossible.

But after seeing Zhou Can’s outrageous speed, even if you told Director Wang that Tuyu physicians finish stent surgeries in a minute, he might actually believe you.

“Uh… actually, no. From what I remember, the most skilled surgeon in Tuyu’s Cardiothoracic Department was Chief Hu Kan, and even Dr. Hu operated fairly slowly. It seemed like all their cardiothoracic doctors took their time—they were all about precision. Their surgical accident rates were extremely low.”

Head Nurse Liu had chosen Cardiothoracic for her training rotation.

Most likely, she even had the chance to watch surgeries in the OR.

“Then tell us, how long do ordinary doctors at Tuyu take to complete a heart stent surgery?”

Director Wang pressed on, clearly refusing to give up.

“About two or three hours as well! If things get complicated, it can take seven or eight hours.” Head Nurse Liu took a moment to recall before she answered.

“So, it still takes that long! Not much faster than at our place,” Director Wang nodded, feeling a bit more at ease.

But suddenly, something dawned on him. He turned and looked at Zhou Can.

“Dr. Zhou, does that mean only you are this fast in surgery? Are you really a trainee? As far as I know, trainees usually just sew skin, hold retractors, or run errands. No one ever lets trainees do high-risk procedures like this. But your handling of the stent was way too skilled—you can’t possibly be just a trainee!”

It wasn’t just Director Wang—everyone else had started doubting Zhou Can’s true identity long ago.

“Dr. Zhou and I grew up together. We keep in touch a lot and I can promise you he really is a trainee—he’s not lying to you,” Cheng Dazhuang said, his stare complicated.

He just hadn’t imagined that after only a few years apart, the gap in medical skill between him and Zhou Can—once classmates—had grown so wide.

Watching Zhou Can in that heart stent operation, you could tell his skills were leagues ahead of the likes of Director Wang.

Turns out, in just two years, Tuyu Hospital can take a med student with only one year’s internship and train them into a world-class doctor.

No wonder so many doctors and med school grads would do anything to get into Tuyu’s training program.

The benefits are huge—it’s worth it at any cost.

“I’m really nothing special. At Tuyu, I’m just an ordinary trainee, I swear.” Zhou Can managed a wry smile.

Sometimes, being too good isn’t actually a blessing.

It just makes people suspicious.

And always having to explain himself was starting to give Zhou Can a headache.

“Come on, there’s no such thing as a trainee this skilled. I need to ask around about your background. Dr. Zhou, you’re amazing at coronary angiography and stent surgery—you must be working in cardiothoracic, right?”

Head Nurse Liu was getting more curious by the minute and decided she’d reach out to her contacts from her own Tuyu training days.

As for those contacts, they probably aren’t super high-ranking.

Most are just supervising nurses or attendings at best.

“I’ve done a rotation in Cardiothoracic. Really, you don’t have to check up on me. I’m just a trainee.”

Zhou Can was only here to catch up with an old friend—just visiting this County People’s Hospital.

If people found out his real background, he worried he’d get smothered with too much ‘hospitality.’

He’d seen enough of human nature to expect it.

Just the scent of opportunity, and the management here would swarm in like flies.

“You’re too late to say that, Dr. Zhou! I already sent the news out!”

Head Nurse Liu waved her phone at Zhou Can, looking proud of herself.

She was showing off her WeChat chat screen.

Who she was messaging, Zhou Can couldn’t say.

But with cardiothoracic staff, he was familiar with almost everyone except the brand new hires.

And it wasn’t bragging—Zhou Can’s reputation in Cardiothoracic was real.

“It’s not like I have anything to hide. Ask around all you want!” Zhou Can could only shrug.

“Dr. Zhou, can I ask you a question?”

At last, Tutu, the nurse, spotted her chance to jump in.

Her standing was low; usually, while chief physicians and head nurses talked, she’d never dare interrupt.

But as soon as the conversation eased up, she grabbed her chance.

If she didn’t ask now, she might never get to.

“Go ahead!”

Zhou Can showed no airs at all—he treated both Head Nurse Liu and Tutu the same.

“How did you know the patient’s blood pressure was different in both arms? Can you explain that to me?”

“The principle’s simple, actually! When a patient’s coronary arteries get narrowed or blocked, it’s easy for blood pressure to be uneven between the two sides. Blood pressure isn’t just about total blood volume; it’s also tied to the vessel’s internal diameter, the heart’s pumping speed, and the circulation in the ventricles.”

Zhou Can explained with a smile.

“Most of the time, if blood pressure is different on both sides, you can spot something odd just by looking. For example, the skin on the higher-pressure arm might look redder, almost glowing. If the difference is big, you can sometimes even tell just by feeling the pulse on each arm.”

“So in the clinic, if you run into a case where blood pressures don’t match, you have to be extra careful—it could be heart disease or about to become a major emergency like a stroke.”

Drawing on all his experience, Zhou Can talked at length, making the little nurse nod again and again—she was in awe.

Whenever she looked at him, her eyes sparkled with admiration.

“So that’s how it works! Thank you so much!”

She was genuinely grateful.

Everyone else felt like they’d learned something valuable and made sure to remember Zhou Can’s insights.

Honestly, Zhou Can had picked up so much practical know-how from the top doctors that writing a book likely wouldn’t cover it all.

“The patient’s fine now. I actually stopped by today just to catch up with my old buddy, Cheng Dazhuang, so I won’t take up any more of your time.”

Zhou Can mentioned Cheng Dazhuang on purpose, hoping to boost his friend’s stature in the hospital.

He wanted the others to realize that Cheng Dazhuang had connections.

“Dazhuang, let’s head back to your office and catch up a bit! I’ll be leaving soon.”

Without thinking, Zhou Can glanced at his watch.

It was a casual gesture, but when Director Wang spotted his watch, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

That watch had to be worth hundreds of thousands—a rare luxury.

But he didn’t say anything. If anything, Director Wang’s impression of Zhou Can rose even higher.

“Everyone, I’ll head back to my shift now!”

Cheng Dazhuang said goodbye to Director Wang and the others.

Usually, he’d never get a chance to speak with Director Wang. Most days, the director wouldn’t even give him a second look. That’s just how people are.

But now, with a Tuyu doctor as a friend, everything had changed completely.

Director Wang looked at him with a beaming smile.

“Of course! Dazhuang, take good care of Dr. Zhou. If anything comes up during your shift, just let Dr. Luo handle more of it.”

Look at that warm tone and friendly attitude.

Cheng Dazhuang almost wondered if Director Wang had always been this nice.

“Thank you, Director Wang!”

Cheng Dazhuang quickly gave his thanks.

Meanwhile, Dr. Luo Jian was feeling secretly frustrated—looked like all the work tonight would land on him.

“Don’t worry, Dr. Cheng! I’ll handle things in the ward—you spend time with your friend.”

Whether he wanted to or not, any doctor with social sense had to say that at a time like this.

Even if it took gritted teeth.

That’s just knowing how to adapt.

With Zhou Can by his side, Cheng Dazhuang walked back to the third-floor office, feeling as lucky as if he’d just won the lottery.

“Acan, you’re amazing! In just a few years you’ve become this skilled. You’ve got to teach me more in the future.”

“Come on, didn’t I tell you? If you ever have a medical question, hit me up on WeChat. If I can answer, I will. If I can’t, I’ll ask my teachers for help.”

Zhou Can really was that confident.

He’d gotten to know plenty of chief physicians at Tuyu Hospital.

Most of them were leading experts in their departments.

“Ha, that’s awesome! Now I actually feel hopeful about passing my physician’s exam. I have to say, having a friend like you is pure luck for me.”

Cheng Dazhuang was all grins and powered up with new drive—his confidence and ambition reignited.

Seeing his friend snap out of discouragement made Zhou Can genuinely happy.

……

Not long after Zhou Can and Cheng Dazhuang left, Head Nurse Liu turned to Director Wang in shock. “No wonder Dr. Zhou is so incredible! Do you know his background?”

“What background?”

Even though Director Wang knew she was setting him up, he could only press her for the answer.