A moment later.

The data came through.

Jiang He scrolled down the page, line by line, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

The situation was indeed extremely tricky.

Fortunately, the step-up approach to minimally invasive therapy he had recommended was working.

The doctors at the local hospital must have seen his plan and immediately performed a percutaneous catheter drainage or interventional embolization.

Without that step, the girl wouldn’t have made it this long.

’Jiang He mentally mapped out the progression of the disease.’

The interventional embolization had bought them some time, but not much.

Given the current rate of infection and the load on her organs, the progression toward multiple organ failure was irreversible.

She had seventy-two hours at most.

If there was no fundamental surgical intervention within two or three days, she would be beyond saving.

Jiang He quickly replied:

[Conservative treatment is pointless now. The only way out is immediate surgical intervention—a retroperitoneal necrosectomy.]

[But the difficult part is that once the abdominal cavity is opened, the pressure change will very likely cause diffuse oozing or even massive hemorrhage deep inside. The chief surgeon will have to perform blind vascular blockage and suturing within an extremely narrow, deep space.]

[Go ask your doctors if they can do it.]

Just as he sent it, the private message icon flashed. The other party replied: [Understood.]

Jiang He leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the screen for a long time.

’This guy must have taken the plan to discuss it with the doctors.’

"Sigh..."

He let out a deep sigh, his heart heavy.

In 2008, the mortality rate for severe pancreatitis was already stubbornly high, let alone for a case of infectious necrosis complicated by deep vascular erosion.

The surgical plan he proposed was theoretically feasible, but it placed extremely demanding requirements on the surgeon.

’Blind vascular suturing in a deep, narrow space... This was the exact ultimate practical exam question Professor Wang Xiaoqing had used to challenge him just this morning.’

Performing this maneuver in a clean, well-lit simulated operating room was already daunting enough to make most clinicians back away.

Let alone inside a real patient’s abdominal cavity, which would be full of unexpected complications...

Jiang He had no idea how the doctor on the other end of the screen would react upon seeing this plan.

He could only click on the general surgery section of Dingxiang Garden, trying to distract himself.

He opened a few posts asking for help but couldn’t bring himself to type a single word.

Every few minutes, Jiang He couldn’t resist switching back to the private message interface and refreshing the page.

...

「At the same time.」

Outside the Department of Critical Care Medicine at Nanshan Medical University Affiliated First Hospital.

Gu Yizhou’s eyes were bloodshot as he gripped his phone tightly.

He had once been a high-flyer at the Medical School, but now he was just one step away from breaking down.

Even when he clenched his fists and pressed them against his knees, the physiological tremors born from fear refused to stop.

Gu Yizhou gritted his teeth as his tears fell silently onto the phone screen, blurring the text.

He wiped his face haphazardly with his sleeve and continued to stare intently at the screen.

Finally, [Zhiyu] replied.

Gu Yizhou held his breath.

Retroperitoneal necrosectomy... deep, narrow space... blind vascular suturing...

As a medical student, he knew just how difficult this was.

But like a drowning man grasping at the last straw, he pushed himself up against the wall and stumbled toward the office.

The office door was ajar.

Gu Yizhou burst in, "Director Liu..."

Liu Jianbang looked up. Seeing it was Gu Yizhou, a flicker of pity crossed his eyes. "Yizhou."

"Director, Zhiyu replied! He said there’s still a chance! Please, look at this..."

Gu Yizhou handed over the phone, his hand still trembling.

Liu Jianbang finished reading the contents on the phone, hesitated for a moment, and said,

"Yizhou, you’re a medical student, so I won’t beat around the bush. Theoretically speaking, the plan he’s proposed is completely correct."

A glimmer of light burst forth in Gu Yizhou’s eyes. "Then let’s do it! Director, let’s do the surgery!"

Liu Jianbang fell silent for a moment before saying, "Yizhou, theory is theory, and reality is reality. There’s simply no room to perform this surgery. The mortality rate for deep blind suturing is too high. Perhaps... only if a department director from Beijing Peking Union Medical College Hospital, or a top surgeon from Hushang Ruijin flew in to operate, would there be a chance to even attempt it."

Gu Yizhou stood there, stunned.

’If they didn’t even have a chance to try, then what was the point of knowing the answer?’

"No one dares to do it... No one can do it..."

Gu Yizhou muttered to himself, returned to the hallway, and slid down to the floor again.

His girlfriend’s parents were there, but they didn’t understand medicine at all and were on the verge of collapse.

Therefore, Gu Yizhou, the one who understood medicine, was the only one who could communicate with the doctors and make decisions.

Looking at the pleading eyes of his girlfriend’s parents...

The sense of helpless despair was a hundred times stronger than when the director had issued the critical condition notice.

With trembling hands, Gu Yizhou sent a message to [Zhiyu].

[Master, I asked.]

[The director said your plan is feasible, but... but he said it’s too difficult. If there’s one mistake, she’ll die right on the operating table.]

[They don’t dare to do it.]

[Master, I’m begging you, is there any other, more conservative treatment method...?]

After the message was sent,

Gu Yizhou buried his head deep between his knees, his suppressed sobs echoing in the empty, dimly lit hallway.

’I have to pull myself together quickly.’

’After I’m done crying, I still have to take care of my girlfriend’s parents and reassure them that we’ll find a way.’

...

「In the men’s dormitory.」

Jiang He fell silent.

There was no other plan.

In the face of this level of tissue necrosis and organic hemorrhage, any medication was just a drop in the bucket.

But he also understood the director’s refusal.

The technical barriers for surgeons were incredibly high. Forcing someone to perform such a difficult operation was tantamount to treating a human life as worthless.

The first principle of medical ethics: Do no harm.

If the chief surgeon lacked the skill to perform deep blind suturing, the patient would die a horrible death on the operating table, not even leaving behind an intact body.

If they didn’t operate, the patient might survive for another two or three days in the ICU on life support. The family would at least have a psychological buffer, a chance to say a dignified final goodbye through the glass.

But if they forced open the abdomen for the sake of "trying their best," only to have the patient die on the table with their belly cut open, that wasn’t saving a life—it was murder.

Attempting a job you’re not equipped for is the greatest irresponsibility toward a human life.

He was silent for a few seconds, then replied:

[Which hospital are you at right now? What city?]

Gu Yizhou: [I’m in Yangcheng, at Nanshan Medical University Affiliated First Hospital.]

Seeing this message, Jiang He wasn’t particularly surprised.

’When Professor Wang Xiaoqing gave him the test question today, he had already suspected this possibility.’

So, Gu Yizhou was in luck.

’—Because at Southern Medical University, there’s Yang Xu... and there’s me.’

Although this kind of deep blind suturing would be a challenge even for Yang Xu, with his decades of clinical experience combined with his own new surgical plan, the success rate could absolutely be increased severalfold.

Jiang He immediately began typing on his keyboard:

[Give me ten minutes. I’m going to contact Professor Yang Xu, the top surgeon in hepatobiliary surgery at Southern Medical University. I’ll ask him if he has time right now and if he’s willing to take on this surgery.]