Surgery Godfather-Chapter 2003 - 1355: It Can Be Done

At 2:17 in the afternoon, Xu Zhiliang was woken up by his phone vibrating.

He opened his eyes and saw the ceiling light in his office; he was lying on the three-seater sofa in his office, feeling extremely tired.

The phone was still vibrating. He reached for it and saw it was the resident doctor calling.

"Director Xu, there’s an emergency patient, said to have been transferred from another city. The family specifically asked for you."

Xu Zhiliang sat up and rubbed his face.

"What’s the situation?"

"Brainstem glioma, the outside hospital didn’t dare to operate. The family said they researched online and found you’re the best at this."

Without hesitation, Xu Zhiliang got up.

"Ask the family... to wait in my office, I’ll be right there."

He hung up, stood up, and walked to the sink. Cold water gushed from the tap; he splashed some on his face and used his wet hands to smooth his messy hair. The reflection in the mirror looked a bit haggard, with dark circles under his eyes, a shirt wrinkled like pickles, and a stain at the collar from splattered coffee the day before.

He stared at the person in the mirror for a few seconds.

Three years ago, he was a night shift doctor in the emergency department, dealing daily with trauma, stomach pumping, and CPR, going home to sleep and waking up to continue work. Back then, he thought his life was set, being able to see the end of his career, blessed to work in a hospital like Sanbo until retirement.

Later, Yang Ping transferred him from the emergency department, taking him to the general surgery department, which wasn’t yet called the institute.

To this day, he couldn’t figure out why Yang Ping chose him, a stammering emergency doctor always with his feet barely touching the ground.

But he didn’t ask, and Yang Ping never cared to explain, knowing it would be pointless to ask.

He put on the white gown, buttoned it up, and left the office.

Zhao Xiaofeng saw Director Xu come out and immediately followed him.

---

The family member was a woman in her forties, her eyes swollen and red, sitting on the bench in the neurosurgery office. She clutched a stack of images so tightly that the edges were creased. Seeing Xu Zhiliang enter, she shot up, wanting to speak, opened her mouth, but then swallowed her words back, her shoulders shaking.

Xu Zhiliang gestured for her to sit down.

"Let me see the images."

She handed the images over, her hands trembling.

Xu Zhiliang took them, turned around, and walked to the view box, putting the images up one by one.

Diffuse brainstem glioma, located very deep, invading the medulla. On the images, the tumor mixed with normal brain tissue, making the boundaries indistinguishable. This kind of position and type is every neurosurgeon’s nightmare. He had seen many cases at Yang Ping’s place, all referred from hospitals across the country, finding Sanbo as a last resort.

He looked at them for ten minutes, carefully examining each one, then turned around.

"Where’s the patient? Does he... know his condition?"

"He knows! He’s under observation in the ER," the woman finally managed to speak, her voice hoarse as if she’d been crying for a long time. "Director Xu, we came from Anhui, visited several hospitals, all said they couldn’t do it. I researched online, saw you’ve done many such surgeries, so... I’m begging you to take a look..."

Xu Zhiliang interrupted her.

"How old is the patient?"

"Nineteen."

"Nineteen?"

"My son." The woman’s tears welled up again, "He just finished his college entrance examination; fainted on the day he was filling out the application forms. They checked at the hospital and said there was something growing in his brain. We’ve been to several hospitals, including Beijing and Shanghai; they all said the location was bad, and didn’t dare touch it. Then a doctor said, go to Sanbo, there’s a doctor surnamed Xu who specializes in this... Director Xu, he did very well, his entrance exam scores..."

"Talk about the illness, not unrelated matters!" The resident interrupted the family member, knowing Director Xu disliked families going off on tangents.

Xu Zhiliang said nothing.

He thought back to when he was nineteen, just admitted to medical school, full of expectations for the future, completely unaware of something like "brainstem glioma." Back then, his biggest worry was calculus being too difficult and not being able to memorize anatomy.

He said, "Let me see the patient."

---

The patient lay on a bed under observation in the ER. Very thin, nearly six feet tall, weighing less than a hundred pounds. His eyes were hollow, lips pale, but eyes very bright.

Seeing Xu Zhiliang come in, he tried to sit up, but was pressed back down by Xu Zhiliang.

"Lie down... and talk."

"Director Xu," the boy’s voice was weak, but his enunciation was clear, "my mom said you can do my surgery."

Xu Zhiliang didn’t answer. He bent down and began the examination.

Fingers moved in front of the eyes, eyeballs followed. Pupils reacted normally to light. Facial sensations normal. Opened mouth, stuck out tongue, shrugged shoulders, limb muscle strength normal. Coordination tests, finger-to-nose test, heel-to-shin test, all normal.

He straightened up, pointed at Zhao Xiaofeng, indicating for him to inquire about the medical history. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Zhao Xiaofeng stepped forward immediately, "What do you... feel right now?"

The boy thought for a moment.

"Just... sometimes I feel dizzy, see things a bit double visioned. Nothing else. I can eat and sleep; it’s just that my mom keeps crying."

When he said the last sentence, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly as if smiling.

Xu Zhiliang looked at him.

This kid doesn’t know how dangerous he is. The tumor has already invaded the medulla; if it progresses further, respiratory and heartbeat centers might go wrong at any time. He can still eat, sleep, and joke because he’s young, has a strong constitution, and is also lucky.

Or maybe he understands the danger and uses this way to comfort his mom.

"Get admitted," he said to the family member, "arrange... pre-surgery checks."

The woman’s tears welled up again.

"Director Xu, you mean... it can be done?"