The Surgeon’s Studio

Preoperative preparations were completed with commendable efficiency. The general hospital doctors and nurses did quality work, as expected.

 No one wanted the young lady to lose her reproductive ability, especially when she had no children yet.

 Obstetric and Gynecology Department Chief Su was informing the family about the surgery. He had little faith in Zheng Ren’s abilities but respected Old Chief Physician Pan’s judgment. The preparation and the blood transfusion for the patient took some time but the most time-consuming process was informing the family.

 It took skill to deliver bad news to family members calmly and persuade them to make the right decision.

 Chief Su decided to have a go at it.

 It would not impact preparation for his surgery, so why not?

 Shielded by lead glass windows, the other department chiefs stood in the control room and watched Zheng Ren’s lonely operation.

 Anesthesiology Department Chief Wang raised a question, “I heard the guy did 49 appendectomies a few days ago.”

 “Yes. The young man has great qualities. He has high quality work, good work ethic and is reliable.” Old Chief Physician Pan gave a positive review of Zheng Ren.

 Quality work, strong work ethic and the willingness to work. It was the ultimate praise for a doctor.

 Su Yun stood at the back of the room with his back against the wall. His jet-black hair was tousled and the way they fell across his face was indescribably pretty. He silently observed Zheng Ren’s movements in the operating theater. The way Zheng Ren opened the catheterization kit indicated proficiency, and even local anesthesia was accomplished swiftly.

 The Seldinger technique was used to access the femoral artery and a vascular sheath was inserted. Each step was done expertly. This surgery was getting interesting.

 Su Yun’s eyes gleamed.

 He turned heads whenever he walked around the hospital. The bold would come up to him and take their chances. However, inside the control room, no one paid him any attention. All eyes were fixed on Zheng Ren even if they could not decipher his actions.

 On Xinglin Garden, a livestream started.

 Hundreds of doctors flocked to the stream within a minute of going live. The livestream was akin to an observation class. Many who joined did not even read the case study but typed away regardless. Doctors who did not know what was going on flirted with the pretty robot nurse. The livestream was brimming with excitement and activity.

 [Salute to the surgeon! He’s starting another surgery.]

 [I rewatched the worm removal surgery at least ten times, my balls are on fire!]

 [High temperature can reduce sperm motility. Are you trying to save on condoms? Even condoms are not a guarantee, though.]

 [Agreed. A few days back, our hospital delivered a newborn who had a condom clutched in his hand.]

 [That’s one fortunate baby. Bless me with some of his luck.]

 Most of the doctors in the livestream were general surgeons of various ranks. Their typing speed could match that of an esports gamer and the screen was filled with comments. One could say that there was a camaraderie among the viewers.

 A moment later, the bullet comments vanished.

 The viewers noticed the surgeon was performing local infiltration anesthesia over a large surface area.

 The injector was used to administer the anesthetic. It did not remain in the subcutaneous layer and was pulled out after injection.

 [Can’t tell what the god is doing.]

 [Judging from the position, could it be a femoral artery ablation?]

 [What are you going to do with a femoral artery ablation? A bypass surgery wouldn’t require you to touch that artery. Perhaps a thrombectomy? Congrats to the endovascular comrades, you guys will have something new to learn today.]

 A few messages shot across the screen. They were surprised to see the livestream change to the view of the catheter needle and vascular sheath.

 Then they saw the guide wire snake out.

 Once a predefined length of the guide wire was inserted, another view appeared below the initial livestream. The second screen showed the guide wire travelling along the artery.

 [It’s an interventional radiology-assisted surgery? Is this a different surgeon?]

 [Maybe this anon is a marketer from some private hospital who selected some surgeries as advertisement?]

 [I feel the same way but logically speaking, a private hospital wouldn’t advertise something simple like an inguinal hernia repair. It costs a few hundred yuan per surgery, there’s no profit for them.]

 [Also, a private hospital wouldn’t do 49 appendectomies overnight.]

 As the viewers debated the surgeon’s origin, the guide wire had moved along the femoral artery and entered the bilateral internal iliac artery.

 The contrast agent was administered. A pall of black smoke appeared on the image of the uterus.

 Although the general surgeons had little experience in interventional surgery, they knew that the black smoke was due to the radiation from the contrast agent.

 [I’m an endovascular surgeon. The surgeon’s guide wire doesn’t look like a standard Cobra guide wire. It seems to be extremely soft and flexible.]

 [And yet the surgeon has managed to guide the wire from the femoral artery into the internal iliac artery in a single attempt. Even with the Cobra wire, I couldn’t guarantee a success on the first try.]

 In the operating control room, there were two 40-inch LCD screens displaying the ongoing surgery.

 Those in the room were all chiefs of their respective departments. None of them practised intervention surgery, but that did not stop them from lobbing criticism and unnecessary commentaries.

 Not everyone could perform surgery but anyone could make disparaging remarks.

 The ICU chief did not even give Zheng Ren the benefit of the doubt. He was waiting expectantly for the whole drama to end so that Chief Su could start the hysterectomy after obtaining the family’s consent.

 However… This surgery was progressing without a hitch…

 The femoral artery puncture saw blood at the first attempt.

 Not everyone had such skill, and it was doubly difficult when the patient had low blood volume due to hemorrhaging. ‘This could be attributed to the nitrite poisoning cases a few days back’, the ICU chief reminded himself.

 When the guide wire was inserted, Zheng Ren switched on the imaging system. The image was broadcasted to the control room screens and the ICU chief saw the guide wire was at the branching of the internal iliac artery.

 Now, the level of expertise required to achieve this was astounding.

 The contrast medium showed that there was a massive bleed in the uterus, more severe than previously estimated.

 The ICU chief was slightly panicked. If too much blood was lost, by the time the family members agreed to a hysterectomy, the patient might not survive.

 Through the Xinglin Garden livestream, the doctors could see the severity of the bleed. A nervousness ran through the viewers.

 Even though they did not know the identity or location of the patient, the doctors online went into emergency rescue mode.

 [My god, that’s a lot of blood! Looks like an aortic rupture.]

 [Must be a placental abruption that tore open the uterine artery. What else can it be?]

 [The blood pressure is dropping. The patient might go into cardiac arrest due to hypovolemia.]

 [The god is in the middle of an emergency rescue, not some… Damn, he’s livestreaming this. He can’t be that confident?]

 The numbers on the vital signs monitor were evident to all who witnessed. The patient had lost too much blood and was on death’s door.