Zheng Ren took a drag on his cigarette after exiting the System’s operating room. He then crushed the butt and placed the second half of the cigarette back into the box.
Chang Yue used to tease him about this.
However, it became a habit that he found difficult to change. Besides, there was no need to change it either.
When he arrived at the operating room, the patient was positioned accordingly. Dr. Zhou greeted Zheng Ren from the operating console room.
“Brother Zhou, you’re here.” Zheng Ren began to scrub in.
“I’m troubling you at such a late hour. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t accompany you,” Dr. Zhou said with a smile.
“Right, who’s the guy inside?” Dr. Zhou asked, pouting.
“Oh, he’s a professor from Germany. He’s here to observe,” Zheng Ren answered briefly.
“…” Dr. Zhou was at a loss for words.
A German professor here to observe? More like he was gracing them with his presence. Instead, you use him like a servant and made him do all the work while you stand outside chatting happily like a department chief.
Even though Dr. Zhou had questions, he only gave him a smile and kept quiet.
He asked a neutral question. “Which university is the professor from?”
“He’s Professor Rudolf Wagner from Heidelberg University,” Zheng Ren answered. He saw that the professor had completed the preoperative work and notified Dr. Zhou before entering the operating theatre.
Professor Rudolf Wagner, Heidelberg, why did that all sound so familiar?
The surgery had begun.
People were waiting excitedly for the live surgery broadcast in Xinglin Garden.
The interventional doctor from the Class Two Grade A Hospital in Horqin Right Middle Banner of Inner Mongolia had set a unique ringtone on his phone. Once he heard it, he would spring up like Pavlov’s dogs and switched on his phone at the speed of light.
The interventional doctor and the chief of general surgery were exchanging formalities over a meal after the surgery. The chief was not very pleased when he saw him suddenly whip out his phone at the table.
“It’s the live broadcast in Xinglin Garden,” the interventional doctor explained.
The general surgery chief’s face lit up. He logged into the broadcasting room of Xinglin Garden with his subordinates’ help.
The general surgery chief was disappointed when he saw the diagnosis.
It was not a general surgery. Embolization on the lumbar arteries?
From an anatomical perspective, the lumbar arteries supplied blood to the abdomen. There would be serious consequences after the embolization.
Medical care in Canada was really so advanced if they were able to perform surgeries like these.
“Too bad Chief Han from ortho is not here. He’d be very interested in this.” The interventional doctor’s eyes were fixed on the screen. The general surgery chief thought about it and dialed Chief Han’s number.
The hospital was not very big. Even though they had over a thousand employees, most of them were office staff and at least 20% of them usually skipped work.
The department chiefs were very familiar with one another.
The live surgery broadcast was just an excuse for them to gather and drink. It was also for them to brag about the surgery they performed today.
In Xinglin Garden, half of the viewers were shocked after reading the diagnosis.
Embolization of the lumbar artery?
Why did it sound so far-fetched?
[Why would they embolize the lumbar artery. Thoughts, anyone?]
[Yeah, the patient has an advanced tumor. What’s the point of lumbar artery embolization?]
[Thanks for the invitation. Let me explain to you guys briefly from an orthopedics surgeon’s perspective.
To remove the spinal cord tumor, it would involve complicated operations to resect the vertebra. In order to reduce the amount of blood loss that could lead to death, the patients should undergo embolization on the tumor arteries, with selective sectioning radiography on the chest and spine 24 or 48 hours before the surgery.]
[Uhm, not too long ago, our hospital did the first spinal cord tumor resection. We did not perform embolization and the patient lost 6 liters of blood. Blood was flowing out even under constant transfusion. The orthopedic surgeon almost peed his pants.]
[You guys can do it even without an interventional doctor. It’s quite easy to do the lumbar artery embolization with a Gelfoam sponge.]
[if it was that easy, would the professor be doing this? Why do I feel that besides the appendectomy that I missed, the surgeon’s broadcasts are becoming less frequent but with an improvement to surgery quality over time? All of his surgeries are extremely difficult to pull off.]
Before the surgery had begun, everyone was happily exchanging their views and opinions.
In the hybrid operating room, Professor Rudolf had inserted the catheter in the femoral artery and fixed the arterial sheath in place, waiting to assist Zheng Ren in surgery.
The professor had gone down a rabbit hole with no end.
Only a few days ago, Professor Rudolf Wagner was the world’s top surgeon. He had probably not done any preoperative work for at least a decade long.
However, he had accepted his fate in such a short period of time and became an “excellent” assistant.
Zheng Ren was used to Su Yun inserting the arterial sheath beforehand so that he could start the surgery immediately. However, he was not bothered by whether it was Su Yun or Professor Rudolf doing the preop.
He went on the operating stage and inserted the micro-guide wire. The surgery had now officially started.
When Zheng Ren intentionally avoided the lumbar artery and started the embolization on other smaller branches, many experienced orthopedic surgeons went berserk.
[What surgical method is this surgeon applying? Isn’t the surgery over after inserting the Gelfoam sponge into the lumbar artery? The main event is the vertebral resection.]
[Ya, why is the surgeon performing embolization on the branches?]
[That’s so strange.]
Everybody was baffled on why he was trying to complicate such a “simple” surgery.
Indeed, more artery embolization would significantly reduce blood loss but at the same time, it would amplify the overall risks.
It was not worth it.
Time passed as Zheng Ren embolized one artery after another with the assistance of Professor Rudolf Wagner.
Even the professor could not understand his methods at the beginning.
However, he was still the world’s top interventional surgeon. He understood Zheng Ren’s intention 5 minutes into the embolization.
Professor Rudolf could sense Zheng Ren’s ambition to “complicate” this surgery.
What was supposed to be a simple surgery had turned into a complicated operation.
Was this the reason why Zheng Ren brought him along to the 64-slice CT scan with three-dimensional image reconstruction? Was he trying to show him something?
Once again, Professor Rudolf was overthinking and got all excited.
Based on his professional judgment, Professor Rudolf had guessed that Zheng Ren also did a 64-slice CT scan with three-dimensional image reconstruction prior to performing the prostate interventional surgery.
Zheng Ren must be trying to teach him the embolization techniques through this surgery.
What a selfless young man, Professor Rudolf Wagner thought.
The professor paid full attention since it was related to the prostate embolization surgery, which was his main concern.
Dr. Zhou was totally lost in the middle of watching Zheng Ren and the German Professor from the operating console room.
He did not know much about interventional surgery, but the surgeons from Imperial Capital told him that it would only take around twenty minutes.
How long had it been?
