Surgery Godfather

As long as the shock is corrected and blood pressure is maintained normally, there shouldn’t be a major problem.

Director Tian and Yang Ping take off their surgical gowns, and the doctors beside them immediately come over to help.

“There are many fractures, be wary of fat emboli and pulmonary emboli!” Director Tian instructs Dr. Tao.

Director Miao removes his surgical gown, the scrub underneath is almost half soaked.

“It’s all right.” Director Tian reassures Director Miao.

He is a highly reputed director of a major department, known as the famous doctor of Shipo, but the situation just now was indeed intense. It was too much for him, and he is still a bit scared.

Director Miao acknowledges, “It was dangerous. I was lucky to have you guys.”

Surgery is like this. Although accidents are low-probability events, when they occur to specific patients, it is a matter of life and death.

“Pay attention to laryngeal edema in ICU later. The tube can be removed only after the edema subsides. If it hasn’t subsided, keep it. Even after removal, always keep the tracheal intubation and tracheotomy kit at the bedside, just in case.” Director Tian further instructs.

As the Chief Surgeon, some things are worth emphasizing over and over again.

Director Miao takes note of the professor’s words and reminds Dr. Tao, “Xiao Tao, remember this. Brief the ICU doctor clearly later. Stick to it closely.”

Dr. Tao responds, and several doctors move over stools. Director Miao, Director Tian, and Yang Ping all sit down.

The patient needs to be observed for a while and can be transported away only after confirming that there are no issues.

“In a situation like this, I remember Director Han and I once encountered it. It was so memorable, the patient’s condition was even more serious than this. His heartbeat and respiration suddenly stopped, and we performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation on the operating table. Finally, we saved the patient. This is relatively better, with no cessation of heartbeat or respiration. The judgment of anaphylactic shock should be fast and accurate, the rescue time is only a few minutes. If the rescue is correct within these few minutes, the chances of successful treatment are very high.” Director Tian speaks confidently.

All doctors listen attentively. They faced even dire cases and saved those patients. No wonder they could deal with the situation just now calmly and decisively.

The professor is really a professor, for good reason.

“Professor Tian, how did you determine it was anaphylactic shock just now?” the anesthetist asked. He had just carried out the rescue exactly as Professor Tian directed, but still didn’t understand it.

“Yes, Professor Tian, how did you make the diagnosis so quickly?” Director Miao was also very interested.

“Such a sudden drop in blood pressure, the first consideration is shock. There are only a few types of shock: cardiogenic, hemorrhagic, traumatic, allergic, infective, neurogenic, and burn-related shocks. After considering this patient’s case, Burn-caused, neurogenic, and infective could be ruled out. Traumatic is also ruled out as the acute phase of the injury has passed. Hemorrhagic isn’t the cause as there was very little blood loss during surgery. So the possibilities left are cardiogenic and allergic shocks. For cardiogenic, there would be reactions in the ECG waveform on the monitoring screen. I saw the ECG waveform and ruled that out. It left the allergic shock. Drugs or blood transfusion could cause this. The tube used for infusion was running with normal saline, and shock occurred immediately after changing the bag of blood for transfusion from this side. So, I thought of transfusion-related anaphylactic shock. No matter whether it is caused by transfusion or drugs, they both are types of anaphylactic shocks, and the treatment procedure is pretty similar.”

Director Tian explained clearly as though peeling an onion, effectively giving an on-the-spot mini-lecture.

If he doesn’t say a few words at this time, others might think the professor is being conservative, not wanting to teach real knowledge.

It was surprising that he observed so many details during the surgery such as the data on the monitoring screen and noticing when the nurse changed the blood bag.

Director Miao smiles, “You’ve truly learned from Director Han who always demands a clear sight of the monitoring screen while performing surgery.”

The doctors who came to observe felt they had learned a lot. There are so many details involved in surgery, none of which they were aware of before.

“Emergency resuscitation is not about hastily cutting through the tangle, but about quickly untangling it. You need to understand the thousands of different ways things can be tangled up in order to quickly unravel it; otherwise, you’ll only end up creating a bigger mess,” summarized Director Tian.

“When faced with such situations, people tend to get flustered and can only think simplistically. We can’t account for everything,” said a doctor, joining the discussion given the collegial and humble demeanor of the professor.

Feeling less restrained, everyone unconsciously moved closer to Director Tian. “This is where training comes in. Special forces can identify hostages from criminals in a room in just a fraction of a second based only on the profiles they’ve seen, swiftly neutralizing the criminals and rescuing the hostages. That’s the result of training. A layperson entering at that point would definitely be at a loss, taking a long time just to count the number of people in the room, let alone identifying the hostages.”

Everyone laughed at the professor’s humorous remarks, while finding his analogy easy to understand.

After observing for ten minutes, the patient’s vitals remained stable and they were ready to be moved out.

“Shall I take a few of you to rest? You’ve all worked hard,” Director Miao suggested.

“That’s fine. Let’s go to the ICU together to check on the patient. I’ll also brief the ICU doctors. Director Miao, could you please explain to the family that the patient will be moved to the ICU after surgery? This might scare them,” Director Tian reminded Director Miao.

“We’ve already discussed it. It’s safer for the patient to receive monitored care in the ICU after such a major surgery,” Director Miao said as he led everyone to the changing room.

“Great. Let’s head to the ICU together.”

The operating room doors opened, and the gurney bearing the patient was wheeled out, quickly surrounded by anxiously waiting relatives, and two elderly relatives were helped forward.

“How did it go, Director Miao?” the patient’s brother asked.

Given the complexity of the surgery, they were expecting it to last till the evening. Seeing the patient wheeled out just three hours into it, they were worried that it might have been cancelled due to difficulty.

“Director Miao, that was quick. Was something wrong?” the relatives asked anxiously.

“The surgery was very successful! Don’t worry, the professor’s surgical skills are both fast and precise, so there was minimal blood loss.”

“We encountered a very rare complication in the form of an allergic shock, which can be fatal within minutes. Fortunately, we had Professor Tian, who immediately diagnosed it and swiftly initiated treatment. The patient is currently safe and the operation was excellent—”

In short, the professor had not only perfectly performed the surgery but also pulled the patient back from the brink of death.

Director Miao stated passionately, with expressive facial expressions, gesturing intermittently. The relatives’ expressions fluctuated as he spoke. When they heard the final sentence, they firmly grasped Director Miao’s hand, “You are a lifesaver— without you, this—”

They choked back the rest, considering it unlucky to voice.

The relatives then remembered to thank Professor Tian who was the real hero.

They immediately shook Professor Tian’s hand, repeating, “Thank you! Thank you!” in their gratitude.

Their excitement caused them to grip his hand a bit too tight and shake it vigorously.

“This is Professor Tian from the provincial capital who performed the surgery. He’s amazing. He noticed a small hole in the younger brother’s heart that even he himself didn’t tell the doctors about. The younger brother’s injuries were very severe, and he even suffered from an allergic reaction just now. Professor Tian dragged him back from death’s door.”

The patient’s brother narrated the events to the elders and other relatives with vivid detail and a touch of pride in his tone.

The patient’s brother was feeling quite good. Initially, some relatives suggested sending the patient to the provincial capital or Beijing for treatment, but they were not the ones to make the decision. It’s as if they owned the hospitals in the provincial capital or Beijing and could admit anyone at leisure. Now, they could all shut up.

Humph, let those who are in charge be in charge, their foresight is not something these relatives can understand, thought the patient’s brother.

The gurney rolled towards the ICU.