Time gradually passed. Pressure was relieved from the medulla oblongata, and Zhang Fan cleared away the bone fragments. Now, as long as Zhang Fan didn’t allow the bullet and the bone fragments to damage the medulla oblongata, the patient’s chances for survival would be greatly increased. All that was left was to slowly repair the patient’s arteries.
However, the patient’s arteries were seriously damaged. Not only that, Zhang Fan only had one free hand as he didn’t dare to hand over the bullet he was holding onto with his left hand to anyone else. He could only take things very slowly.
Outside the emergency operating room, Ouyang Hong constantly reported on the current situation to the leaders every 10 minutes. Four hours later, the patient’s sister arrived.
The middle-aged military leader had yet to leave. He remained outside the emergency operating room’s door for all this time. The city leader went outside to receive the patient’s sister.
The patient’s sister appeared to be slightly past thirty. She arrived together with three men who all seemed to be doctors—the three men were all holding onto cases of medical equipment.
The patient’s sister had a frosty expression. She only nodded at the city leader who greeted her. She only spoke for the first time when she arrived right outside the emergency operating room. “How is my younger brother doing?”
Ouyang Hong was called out of the emergency operating room by the middle-aged military leader. The woman repeated her question, and the military leader turned to look at Superintendent Ouyang. Even the city leader was standing to the side. Ouyang Hong could tell that this woman had a very special status. She answered the woman’s question without any hesitation by saying, “He’s currently in the middle of surgery. It’s really likely that he can be saved.”
“Please go inside and confirm the situation. If it’s necessary, please take over the surgery,” the patient’s sister spoke to the three doctors who came along with her.
Without wasting any time, one of the three doctors directly told Superintendent Ouyang, “I am Guo Shubin, the director of the orthopedics spine surgery department at Shuitanzi Hospital.”
Shuitanzi Hospital was well known as one of the best hospitals in Beijing, and even all of China! The director of such an orthopedics department would also be considered one of the best orthopedic surgeons in all of China, much better than anyone at a mere Class A Hospital in a border province!
“Please enter!” Superintendent Ouyang invited him inside in a serious tone.
The three guest doctors entered the operating room. The other two happened to be the directors of neurovascular surgery and anesthesiology in their respective hospitals. All three doctors were considered top class in all of China. When they entered the operating room, they first checked the patient’s CT scans and MRI images. The two surgical directors both instantly started frowning.
“The situation is probably still optimistic. Otherwise, the patient wouldn’t have lasted so long,” guest doctor Director Liang of neurovascular surgery whispered to Guo Shubin.
“Let’s first observe the surgery.” The two guest directors stepped up onto surgical stools to observe the ongoing surgery.
Zhang Fan was currently fully focused on the needle holder for the aspirator. He didn’t notice whatsoever that some more people had entered the operating room.
The field of vision for the surgery was quite clear. Zhang Fan’s dissections were quite purposeful, and he did an excellent job of clearing away bone fragments. He also did an excellent job of protecting the nervous system. He was currently working on repairing the blood vessels. Guo Shubin was quite surprised to see Zhang Fan’s excellent techniques because of how evidently young the latter appeared to be.
Guo Shubin nodded at Director Liang. Both of them went to wash their hands and disinfect themselves. “The primary surgeon is quite amazing. There should be no problem as long as things continue this way. Let us go and help him. The surgical assistants’ clothes are already drenched in sweat. They must be under significant pressure.”
“Okay!”
It would be impossible to replace Zhang Fan at this critical time. The two guest doctors could only replace two of the surgical assistants.
Primary surgical assistant, Director Yu Bin of neurosurgery, turned around, only to suddenly see Director Liang, whom he recognized as the director of neurovascular surgery at the hospital he’d previously studied at. Yu Bin wanted to address Director Liang as ‘teacher’, but felt that he had no right to do so. Yu Bin was also worried about distracting Zhang Fan, so he simply nodded as he allowed Director Liang to take his place.
Director Liang whispered, “Let me take your place. You should go rest a while.” In just an instant, Director Liang and Guo Shubin became Zhang Fan’s surgical assistants.
Zhang Fan was still fully focused on slowly repairing the patient’s blood vessels. He didn’t even notice that his surgical assistants had been swapped out.
Zhang Fan kept repeating the same words. “Surgical scissors, ligation, hemostatic cotton.” One of the head nurses kept gently wiping away Zhang Fan’s sweat.
Director Liang and Director Guo were truly astonished as they assisted Zhang Fan for the surgery. With their skill level, they could instantly tell that the surgery had been done extremely cleanly, with a high level of skill. Zhang Fan had done an especially good job of protecting the patient’s tissue layers.
Director Liang and Director Guo exchanged glances, and could both tell that the other was just as astonished.
“Prepare for the bullet’s removal!” Zhang Fan announced as the guest doctor anesthesiology director also took the place of Chasu City’s anesthesiology director. “Blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate?”
“Blood pressure is 90/60, heart rate 80, breathing rate 18,” answered the guest doctor anesthesiology director.
“Immediately lower the blood pressure!”
The guest doctor anesthesiology director didn’t need to first discuss anything with the cardiology director. He directly started using the necessary medicine as he had also been constantly observing the progress of the surgery.
“Blood pressure is now 70/50. This level can be maintained,” the guest doctor anesthesiology director immediately reported to Zhang Fan.
“Director Yu, prepare more hemostatic cotton. This blood pressure is still too high. If any bleeding occurs at all, immediately use the hemostatic cotton to stop it. Remember to be gentle, you must be gentle! Recently repaired blood vessels are incredibly fragile.”
“Okay!” Director Liang didn’t waste any words, mind how Zhang Fan was ordering him around, nor mind that Zhang Fan didn’t even notice that he wasn’t Director Yu Bin.
….Although it had been more than a decade already since anyone had ordered him around like this.
Zhang Fan began to remove the bullet. He progressed so slowly that it was almost impossible to see him move. Zhang Fan held his breath and did his very best to prevent his hand from shaking.
This was the final step. If anything unexpected occurred, all the previous hard work would be wasted.
Removing the bullet took somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds, but it felt to Zhang Fan as if several centuries had passed. He finally successfully removed the bullet. He was now completely drenched in sweat. Things had been truly fortunate. The repaired blood vessels didn’t bleed, nor was the medulla oblongata damaged.
The surgery was a success! Zhang Fan placed the bullet down on a plate and let out a huge sigh. “Begin the spine fixation,” he said. But when he turned around, he finally noticed that his surgical assistants had been changed out for some people he didn’t recognize!
“Oh!” Zhang Fan was quite surprised by this development!
“Doctor Zhang, this is Director Liang, the neurovascular surgery department director from Zhongyong Hospital,” Director Yu Bin hurriedly introduced.
“Oh! Oh! Nice to meet you, Director Liang.”
Zhang Fan was a bit too surprised to digest the information right now, and before he could do so, Director Liang said, “Doctor Zhang, you’re really amazing. Director Guo from Shuitanzi Hospital and myself have truly learned much from you.”
Even though Zhang Fan wasn’t acquainted with the two directors, he was truly astounded by the names of hospitals they came from—those were two of the best hospitals in China!
“Doctor Zhang, let’s begin. Allow us to witness your spine fixation. If you’re too tired from the earlier surgical work, you can also feel free to leave it to me,” Guo Shubin offered.
“Oh! I’m fine. Let’s begin, then.” Zhang Fan didn’t say much else. He was quite selfish about performing surgeries himself because of wanting to grind experience for his System. He would never be willing to give up his surgery to another! Besides, the remaining part of the surgery would be far easier.
“Doctor Zhang, who was your medical professor?” Guo Shubin had now taken over the position of primary surgical assistant for this part related to the spine. He felt that such a young expert must have been carefully taught and raised by an older veteran doctor. Otherwise, it should have been impossible for someone as young as Zhang Fan to complete this highly difficult surgery. Although there were plenty of talented people out there, it would be impossible for them to improve so quickly without an outstanding teacher.
“I learned a little from Superintendent Lu of Bluebird City Hospital.” Zhang Fan didn’t want to tell others about his System, so he could only pretend that he gained his skills elsewhere. Although Shuitanzi Hospital was an amazing hospital, Superintendent Lu also had considerable skill himself!
“Oh! So old Lu is beginning to teach orthopedic surgery!” Guo Shubin almost broke a tooth with how hard he was gritting his teeth. He knew that Zhang Fan was just spouting a rubbish excuse. Guo Shubin knew that Superintendent Lu had been an expert general surgeon, so at most Zhang Fan could have learned top-level general surgery techniques from Superintendent Lu, not orthopedic surgery techniques!
“Haha! Old Guo, won’t you figure everything out if you just take Doctor Zhang back with you?” Director Liang joked around. He was the type who enjoyed watching a good show. He also felt that it was impossible for such a skilled young doctor to have no outstanding teacher behind him. If Guo Shubin took Zhang Fan with him, Director Liang figured he could watch a good show since he guessed that Zhang Fan’s teacher had to be about on the same level as Guo Shubin.
“I have several doctorate degree students who aren’t bad at all. Besides, I don’t have the time to teach someone else’s student.” Although Guo Shubin was saying this, he still constantly stared at Zhang Fan with great desire. As long as Zhang Fan showed any signs of being willing to go with him, Guo Shubin would instantly take Zhang Fan back with him to Shuitanzi Hospital. Guo Shubin had already reached the pinnacle of the Chinese medical field in surgery, so now his greatest wish was to successfully teach a student who was even more amazing than he was. It would take someone magnanimous to be able to think this way.
But right now, Zhang Fan didn’t want to immediately go to one of the best hospitals in China. Here at Chasu City Hospital, a Class A Hospital in the border province, it was already extremely difficult for him as an orthopedic surgeon to get approved to perform general surgeries. If he went to one of the best hospitals in China and still acted that way, he figured it would be no different from slapping others directly in the face. Even someone like Director Guo wouldn’t be able to protect him then.
Spine fixation, sewing the sutures, and putting on the neck brace were all completed. The surgery was now completely finished!
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