Chapter 165: Race Against Time Part II
There was no time for blunt dissection. Zheng Ren’s scalpel cut through skin, subcutaneous tissues and adipose layers.
Then, he parted the muscles with blunt instruments. A moment later, the peritoneum was visible.
[The surgeon’s brutal knife work reminds me of ‘surgeries’ 200 years ago…]
[You remember the case where three people died?]
[That was such a long time ago. The surgeon most likely evaluated the severity of the bleed and decided to open up the abdomen. From the looks of it, they might have to perform CPR soon.]
The doctors on Xinglin Garden understood the urgency behind Zheng Ren’s cruel incision but it did not stop their hearts from jumping up to their throats.
In the early days of surgery, speed was of utmost importance as there was no anesthesia. There had been an amputation in which the surgeon sawed off a patient’s leg and in the process, injured himself and his assistant.
The surgeon, patient and the assistant soon passed away due to infection from the wound.
The fatality rate of this surgery was 300%, the highest ever recorded in the history of surgery.
With modern technology, minimally-invasive procedures were becoming the gold standard for surgery and incidents like those were few and far between.
The audience of the livestream was simply taken aback by the unexpected barbarism in this new age.
Zheng Ren placed the scalpel on the surgical drape that covered the patient’s leg and took the curved forceps. He gripped the aspirator in another hand.
The metal forceps pierced the peritoneum. The aspirator was immediately inserted into the cavity.
Warm, dark blood flowed out of the body through the drainage tube.
Within a few seconds, Zheng Ren completed the necessary procedures to safeguard the peritoneum. He did not wait for the pool of blood to be drained before accessing the peritoneal cavity.
Stomach… Colon… Posterior…
The bleeding site was correctly identified and without any hesitation, Zheng Ren used his fingers to locate the left gastric artery and plugged the leak.
Su Yun had just put on new scrubs and was about to take his position as the assistant surgeon.
He figured the surgery was still at its opening stages but when he came back into the operating room, Zheng Ren already had his hand inside the patient.
‘That was quick!’ Su Yun was shocked.
Zheng Ren’s surgical skill was beyond Su Yun’s initial estimates.
How long had he been gone? Ten seconds? Twenty seconds? How was Zheng Ren already plugging the leak?
What was this man’s upper limit? Su Yun eyed Zhen Ren suspiciously as the man worked with fervor.
Zheng Ren noticed Su Yun was standing idle and demanded, “You. Press here.”
His tone brooked no dissent.
It was a direct order from a senior doctor.
Su Yun was snapped out of his daze.
This was an emergency surgery. A misstep could lead to the death of the patient.
Su Yun immediately took up his duty as an assistant surgeon and helped Zheng Ren with the bleed.
His hands free, Zheng Ren took the scalpel and made a 6cm incision on the anterior wall of the stomach.
He got down to business once the leak on the left gastric artery was controlled.
His hands were quick, accurate and steady as if he had done the procedure a thousand times.
Su Yun’s eyes were locked onto the unwavering movements of Zheng Ren’s hands.
Su Yun knew Zheng Ren was incredibly skilled in surgery but firmly believed he could surpass the man.
As a savant who could perform any surgery after witnessing it only once, he was truly surprised to find someone that he could not outdo here, in Sea City.
The past-him would have laughed at the thought. A person who outskilled him? In their dreams!
Impossible!
And yet.
This man and this surgery was happening right before his eyes.
Incredulity filled Su Yun.
Oblivious to Su Yun’s inner thoughts, Zheng Ren was fully focused on the surgery at hand.
In one fell swoop, he sliced open the serous membrane and muscle layer. He proceeded to use a 1-0 surgical suture to ligate the branching arteries beneath the mucosa layer.
As the surgery progressed, Su Yun came back to reality.
He decided to do what a perfect assistant surgeon would do. With a hand on the leak, his other hand worked together with Zheng Ren to speed up the process.
This was an emergency procedure, so the patient did not fast before the surgery. There was still a significant amount of stomach content even though gastrointestinal decompression had been conducted.
Zheng Ren moved the drainage tube into the stomach and ordered, “Get me another drainage tube.”
The matron opened a new kit and moved another aspirator machine to the operating table. Most of the stomach contents were removed after the second drainage tube was set up.
Then, Zheng Ren made an incision at the posterior wall of the stomach and the anterior wall of the pancreatic pseudocyst. Using the aspirator, he drained the pseudocyst before widening the stoma. A 3cm x 2cm opening would ensure a good connection between the stomach and the pseudocyst.
The bleeding was stopped by ligating the arteries on the pancreatic pseudocyst that branched off from the left gastric artery. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
Zheng Ren took a look at the patient’s vital signs. The patient was receiving 7 to 8 units of blood as the surgery went on. Miao Xiaohua’s blood pressure was stabilizing and the signs of atrial fibrillation disappeared.
[This godlike speed…]
[Preparation is key. If they hadn’t used radiological methods to detect the bleed and went with the traditional method, the patient would already be dead.]
[This surgeon is hasty! But I guess that is the essence of an emergency surgery. How I admire the teamwork and sharing policy among the departments in this hospital. In my hospital, you would have to go through protocol and request a consultation.]
[How about you try it without consulting the specialists? As if you would know what to do.]
Once the bleed was stopped, the Xinglin Garden livestream came alive with comments.
At this point, there was a chance the patient would get through this.
There was heavy blood loss which had led to hemorrhagic shock. The patient’s survival would likely depend on post-surgery treatment.
The surgeon’s decision to use interventional radiology to locate the bleed was ironclad.
Many of the doctors who were watching the livestream knew that had they been in the surgeon’s position, the patient would already be dead.
The majority of their time would be wasted searching for the source of the bleed through traditional surgical methods.
The few doctors who had criticized the surgeon’s method were silent now. They watched the livestream with mixed feelings.
In the end, their suspicion of the godlike surgeon was a joke to all.
When the pancreatic pseudocyst was located, Zheng Ren’s hands slowed down.