Surgery Godfather-Chapter 1993 - 1351: What the Hell, Is This a Township Hospital?

Chapter 1993: Chapter 1351: What the Hell, Is This a Township Hospital?

Zhou Daping and a few villagers sat on the bench outside the operating room, and no one spoke. Their hands and clothes were still stained with blood, but no one thought to wash it off. They just stared at the red indicator light on the operating room door, like drowning men staring at a lighthouse on the sea.

Zhou Daping’s left arm had been bandaged, the white gauze standing out starkly against the dusty gray sleeve. He forgot about the pain. His mind was full of the two words Li Min had just said.

Open chest!

Zhou Fusheng from Chalu Village, fifty-three years old, had driven agricultural vehicles in the village all his life, delivering fertilizer in spring and hauling rice in autumn, and doing some transport during the farming off-season. His wife passed away ten years ago, and he raised their son by himself, supporting him to attend high school in the county town, where he achieved excellent grades and is about to take the university entrance exam next year.

Now he was lying on the operating table, his chest cavity open, his heart exposed under the shadowless lamp.

Zhou Daping didn’t dare think any further.

In the operating room, Li Min stood at the chief surgeon’s position.

This was his first time as the chief surgeon in the laminar flow operating room at Guandu Hospital. The light from the shadowless lamp was cold and bright, shining on Zhou Fusheng’s pale open chest wall, and on his own hands wearing sterile gloves. The instrumental nurse stood to his right, the patrolling nurse behind his left, and the anesthesiologist stared at the digits bouncing on the monitor. Everyone was watching him.

He recalled the first day he arrived at the Sanbo Research Institute three years ago for advanced training. Yang Ping took him on a tour of the operating room, stopping in front of a huge glass window, pointing inside at a heart bypass surgery that was underway.

"Township health centers don’t need to perform heart surgeries," Yang Ping said, "but you need to know how to handle emergency chest openings."

Li Min had asked then, "Can I learn it?"

Yang Ping glanced at him.

"Of course you can learn it!" he said.

At this moment, Li Min held the surgical knife, the blade suspended above Zhou Fusheng’s sternum.

The knife fell!

An incision at the center of the sternum, the electric saw cut through the sternum, spreaders opened it. The pericardium had been opened, and the dark red blood accumulation was slowly cleared with a suction device. The heart appeared, still beating, but the beats were weak and erratic, like a bird trapped in a net.

Li Min’s eyes searched the heart’s surface. On the anterior wall of the right ventricle, near the location of the anterior descending branch, was a crack less than two centimeters long, slowly seeping blood with each heartbeat.

Found it!

He began to sew.

This was the action Li Min had practiced the most. In the simulated operating room of Sanbo, he had stitched pig hearts more than ten thousand times. From the initial clumsy unfamiliarity, to later being able to complete a perfect cushioned suture in thirty seconds. Yang Ping never said "not bad" or "very good," but merely nodded after one observation.

That was already the best evaluation.

Later, he was fortunate to sew a real heart in the emergency department. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

At this moment, under the shadowless lamp, his fingers drew the needle and thread through the myocardium, once, twice, thrice, tying knots, cutting the thread.

The bleeding stopped.

On the electrocardiogram monitor, the chaotic curve began to stabilize. Blood pressure climbed slowly from 75/40 to 90/55. Blood oxygen saturation rose from 88% to 94%.

Li Min straightened his back, covered the surgical area with wet gauze and a sterile drape, and glanced at the monitor. The vital signs were stabilized, no longer declining.

He breathed a sigh of relief: "Stay with him, call me if anything happens, I’m going to the next operating room."

In the next operating room, the elderly director had already completed the disinfection and draping for Chen Dongxiu.

Li Min changed his surgical gown and gloves, the elderly director stepped aside to make room for the chief surgeon and went to the first assistant’s side.

...

Zhou Daping and a few villagers waited outside the operating room. He still hadn’t sat down, pacing back and forth outside the operating room.

"Zhou Daping!"

Zhou Daping turned his head, seeing Liang Jianguo leading several people hurrying over.

"What’s the situation? Why are you here?" The village chief was surprised and angry; the injured should be quickly sent to the county.

Zhou Daping wiped his sweat: "They’re all having surgery inside?"

The village chief didn’t react immediately, pausing momentarily and then asked: "Surgery here? Didn’t you say the injury was serious, almost hopeless?"

"Yes, this... that..." Zhou Daping didn’t know how to explain.

The village chief was fuming, Zhou Daping, oh Zhou Daping! Foolish...

"Zhou Daping, you? You see what you’ve done..." The matter of life and death was urgent, now was not the time to criticize Zhou Daping, the village chief was like an ant on a hot pan, slapping his head, his brain running fast.

He promptly picked up the phone to call the county for support, moments later, the response from the county: "We contacted the county People’s Hospital, they said it might be too dangerous to send them over now, the bumps on the way could worsen the illness, the People’s Hospital rushed to dispatch a team to support."

Seems this was the best plan, hanging up, the village chief glared at Zhou Daping: We’ll settle accounts after, with such severely injured, you leave it to a township hospital for surgery, fooling around, not knowing the gravity, this is no small matter.

Zhou Daping was startled by the village chief’s glare, just as he was about to explain, the village chief went to answer another call.

"Director Zhang, yes, yes, I am Liang Jianguo, I am now at Guandu Hospital, I’m not very clear about the situation, just that it is very serious, I’ll let the doctor report to you..." Village Chief Liang looked around, not seeing a single doctor.

"Zhou Daping, where is the doctor? Find a doctor to report the condition to Director Zhang, Director Zhang from the county People’s Hospital is on the way with a team..."

Where’s the doctor? Right!

"Doctor..."

Zhou Daping was so flustered by the village chief he got confused.

There were only about twenty doctors in Guandu Town now, all involved in the rescue, none were leisurely nearby.

"Nonsense!"

Village Chief Liang could only reply: "Director Zhang, all the doctors are currently engaged in the rescue..."