By now, everyone could tell that the injured patient definitely had some type of special status. However, the high difficulty of the surgery required for the patient would be no joke. Even if the position of hospital superintendent was offered as reward for success, it still would be impossible for the orthopedic vice directors to accomplish this surgery.
The orthopedic vice directors and the director of neurosurgery all fell silent. Ouyang Hong had now given up hope on being able to save the patient. She mentally prepared herself to face her bosses’ fury or potentially even being fired from her position of superintendent. But just as she turned around to leave, orthopedic surgeon Li Hongtu suddenly spoke up.
“If there’s no other way, how about we ask Zhang Fan? I feel that he’s already reached the peak of orthopedic surgery. In fact, I’m even a little insufficient as his surgical assistant.” Li Hongtu was truly the nice person type. At a moment like this, nobody else dared to say anything, because they would have to take responsibility.
“Contact Zhang Fan immediately!” Superintendent Ouyang ordered the director of the hospital administrative department.
Actually, Zhang Fan had already been woken up by all the sirens and ruckus at the hospital. His apartment was quite close to the hospital, and he could tell that something major was going on there. He had already put on his clothes and was walking towards the hospital.
Zhang Fan saw many military cars, police cars, and military personnel when he arrived at the hospital. He could also smell the scent of smoke that seemed like it came from a battlefield. At this moment, his cell phone rang. Zhang Fan saw from the caller ID that the call was from the director of the hospital administration department.
“Hello, Director?”
“Where are you? Hurry and come to the hospital right now. There’s an emergency.”
“I’m already at the hospital entrance.”
“Excellent. Hurry and run!”
The director of the hospital administrator hung up, and then happily told Superintendent Ouyang, “Doctor Zhang is already at the hospital entrance.”
However, Ouyang Hong’s expression didn’t change one bit. Since even the veteran orthopedic vice directors weren’t confident that they could successfully accomplish this orthopedic surgery for the patient, she felt that putting her hopes on a fresh rotation doctor would be nothing more than a joke.
“Hurry, check the patient’s condition immediately! Is there any hope left?” Right when Zhang Fan arrived at the emergency department, the emergency department’s head nurse immediately dragged him into the emergency treatment room, while Li Hongtu handed Zhang Fan the patient’s CT scan and MRI images.
After two minutes of checking the patient’s medical information, Zhang Fan said, “It will be difficult!” Ouyang Hong’s disappointed expression changed to an expression containing some anger. “What percent chance do you think you have to succeed?”
“10%. The medulla oblongata is considered a taboo location for surgeons to interfere with. Luckily, the shattered bone absorbed most of the impact from the bullet. It’s likely that edema has already started appearing. When the edema surpasses a certain level, the patient might die at any moment. And if anything at all goes wrong with the surgery… There’s almost zero room for mistakes in this surgery. We can’t afford even a single mistake,” Zhang Fan said after some consideration.
Ouyang Hong felt her hopes suddenly reviving. A 10% chance was already quite high when considering the fact that neither orthopedic vice director dared to accept this surgery. Meanwhile, Zhang Fan had pointed out the dangers of this surgery the moment that he arrived, and even indicated that there was a low success rate, which meant that he at least had a low guarantee, which was better than none.
“You must take responsibility for your words. Keep in mind that this is no game!” Ouyang Hong informed him with a steely expression.
“I understand. I’ll take responsibility,” Zhang Fan said while directly facing Superintendent Ouyang.
Time was of the essence here. Nobody dared to waste any time. Superintendent Ouyang said, “Immediately draft up the surgery plan. I’ll go report to my superiors.” Ouyang Hong then left the room. Xue Fei, who happened to be on night duty tonight, took advantage of her momentary absence to secretly come up to Zhang Fan and squeeze his arm twice, whispering to him, “It really will be highly difficult. Be careful!”
This was friendship, true friendship. Xue Fei was risking antagonizing Superintendent Ouyang for the sake of reminding Zhang Fan. Xue Fei had observed the entire incident so far from the sidelines. He understood quite well that perhaps everything would go excellent for Zhang Fan if the latter successfully completed the surgery, but that there would be dire consequences too heavy to bear for an ordinary civilian doctor should Zhang Fan fail the surgery on someone with such a special status.
“Thank you, Brother Xue!” Zhang Fan whispered back to Xue Fei.
Zhang Fan felt that it was his responsibility as a doctor to try his best to save this patient. If he didn’t have his System, he wouldn’t speak up or try anything, but since he had his System, no matter who the patient was, as long as the patient was right before him, Zhang Fan would simply treat him as a patient who needed his best treatment. Zhang Fan would try his very best for the sake of any patient, even if there was only a 1% chance of success.
The moment that Zhang Fan gained his Medical System, he would only proceed forward on the path of medicine while never retreating! He would hot-bloodedly charge forward! Since the heavens had given him such a miraculous opportunity with his System, he would be willing to challenge even the god of death for the sake of the patient’s life.
“I’ll act as your surgical assistant!” Li Hongtu volunteered.
“Count me in as well.” Yu Bin, the director of the neurosurgery department, also volunteered.
“Me too.” Chen Qi joined in the volunteering.
This was just like how others would dare to follow in a time of crisis as long as someone stepped up first. The three volunteering to be Zhang Fan’s surgical assistants were all some of the best surgeons in Chasu City Hospital. For the younger doctors with lower ranking, even if they dared to try, they wouldn’t be given the opportunity. However, Zhang Fan had left Li Hongtu and Chen Qi with far too deep of an impression back when he was in their orthopedic departments. They both felt that Zhang Fan’s orthopedic surgery techniques were already the best in all of Chasu City.
Meanwhile, right outside the emergency treatment room, Ouyang Hong was reporting the situation to the military leader and the city leader. “There’s only a 10% chance to save the patient. There’s also not much time left. It’s estimated that the patient only has 40 minutes left in his current condition. The more time passes before starting the surgery, the lower the chance to save him.” Superintendent Ouyang spoke quite swiftly and simply while expressing all the important points.
The two leaders hesitated, but knew that there wasn’t much time left to discuss it with anyone else right now. The middle-aged military man gritted his teeth, and said, “Do it.” He paused for a moment, and then spoke in a tone as if this was a last-ditch effort. “Immediately start the surgery.”
The city leader didn’t say anything to Ouyang Hong, but he nodded when Superintendent Ouyang looked in his direction.
The surgery for the patient thus began. The director of the anesthesiology department personally administered anesthesia for the patient. All of the nurses in the operating room were the most skilled head nurses at the hospital. Since this surgery would involve the medulla oblongata, neurosurgery director Yu Bin acted as the primary surgical assistant. The secondary surgical assistant was Li Hongtu, and the tertiary surgical assistant was Chen Qi.
Ouyang Hong was the leader of the surgery’s backup support team. The surgeon vice superintendent was the vice leader of the support team. Cardiology department director Ren Li, respiratory department director Jumabieke, the director of the neurovascular surgery department, and the director of the medical imaging department were also on standby right outside the emergency operating room should they be needed.
Zhang Fan made an incision around the bullet’s point of entry. He adjusted the aspirator to minimum output, and also planned for everything he could think of that might happen. He gently moved aside shattered bone with his ophthalmic forceps and took things as slowly as possible.
“Breathing rate, heart rate, blood pressure!” Zhang Fan also had to constantly check on and ask for the patient’s vitals as he carefully performed the surgery.
“Breathing rate 16, heart rate 63, blood pressure 80/50 mmHg,” the director of the anesthesiology department told him.
“They’re all dangerously low.” Zhang Fan now had a better grasp on the patient’s exact condition. Zhang Fan then asked, “What’s the lowest possible value for blood pressure?”
“Any lower will cause the patient to go into shock, and the infusions won’t be able to keep up. Let me discuss it with the cardiology director.” The head nurse in charge of the operating room left and asked cardiology director Ren Li to come inside.
The blood pressure started lowering. Ren Li told Zhang Fan, “Doctor Zhang, it can’t go any lower than this. You also can’t maintain this for very long, otherwise the infusions won’t be able to keep up, and the patient will start getting blood clots and reperfusion injury.”
“Okay!”
At this time, Zhang Fan had finally finished clearing away the shattered bone fragments that he could see. His left hand solidly held onto the aspirator in order to affix the bullet in place. His hand didn’t tremble one bit. However, Zhang Fan and primary surgical assistant Yu Bin were both completely covered in sweat due to how incredibly tense they were.
If Zhang Fan’s left hand trembled even slightly right now, the bullet might slide forward or to the left or right by a few millimeters, which would likely result in the patient’s death. The aspirator was just a plastic soft tube that was really light. Yu Bin held onto it with both hands. Although he wasn’t able to remain as motionless as Zhang Fan could due to the latter having assistance from his System, Yu Bin did his very best to prevent the aspirator from moving as much as possible.
The doctors’ coats were completely drenched in sweat. Although the operating room was air conditioned, it was of no use. The doctors’ body temperature was beyond the point of being cooled by air conditioning due to all the adrenaline they had right now.
“Hemostatic cotton, 1/5, two-layer gripping.” Zhang Fan currently only had his right hand free. He could only request medical equipment by telling the nurses.
He reached out his hand and instantly received what he had just requested. He then gently inserted the hemostatic cotton to stop the patient’s bleeding.
“Sutures. Fine thread, small needle. Shorten the thread.” Zhang Fan began sewing sutures to repair the arteries.
His surgical assistants were so nervous that they barely dared to breathe. They gently stopped the bleeding as Zhang Fan continued to sew. Zhang Fan slowly and gently moved the bullet as the hemostatic cotton continued forward to prevent bleeding. A single person’s hand shaking slightly here would likely cause the surgery to instantly fail and the patient to die.
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