Surgery Godfather-Chapter 2014 - 1359: Sense of Awe (Part 2)

The attending doctor began to ask about the medical history, conduct examinations, and perform auscultation. Chen Xi stood by, watching and jotting down notes in her notebook.

After the examination, the attending doctor asked, "Do you have any other questions?"

The elderly man was taken aback, opened his mouth, then closed it again.

The attending doctor waited for a moment, seeing he remained silent, and turned to leave.

Chen Xi suddenly remembered what Yang Ping had said.

She stepped forward: "You can ask any questions you have, there’s no need to hold back."

The elderly man looked at her, hesitated for a moment and said, "I... I just want to ask," his voice trembled a bit, "for this surgery, will I be able to survive?"

There was a moment of silence in the ward.

The attending doctor stopped walking and turned around.

Chen Xi looked at the elderly man, saw the fear in his eyes, and recalled Yang Ping’s words: You have to manage the patient’s fear, anxiety, and despair; you need to give the patient confidence, comfort, and hope.

She thought for a moment and said, "Professor Yang will personally do this surgery. He has performed thousands of bypasses without a failure up to now."

The elderly man looked at her, the fear in his eyes reduced significantly, but there was still a hint of it.

"What... what if it doesn’t work out?"

Chen Xi didn’t know how to answer.

The attending doctor came back, standing by the bedside.

"Sir," he said, "all surgeries carry some risk, but this risk is very small. You have hypertension and diabetes, and your heart function isn’t good. Not doing the surgery comes with even greater risk. Doing it holds hope. Not doing it offers none."

The elderly man listened and slowly nodded.

"Then... then I’ll do it."

Upon leaving the ward, Chen Xi still thought about the fear in the elderly man’s eyes.

Lin Yuan followed another team, examining another patient.

The patient was a woman, forty-three years old, with a brainstem tumor, who had undergone surgery three days ago. She lay in bed, her face pale, and when she saw the doctors come in, her eyes were fixed on them.

After asking about the medical history, the attending doctor asked, "Do you have any other questions?"

The woman opened her mouth and said, "I... I just want to ask, can I still work in the future?"

Lin Yuan was taken aback.

"What kind of work do you do?"

"I’m a high school teacher," the woman said, "I teach twelfth-graders; the kids are about to take their graduation exams..."

Lin Yuan thought for a moment.

"You need to rest now," he said, "at least for a month. After a month, if your recovery is good, you can gradually resume work. But you shouldn’t overwork, stay up late, or get emotionally agitated."

The woman listened, her eyes reddened.

"Then... then what about my students? I’ve taught them for three years, I don’t feel comfortable handing them over to someone else; I know each of their weaknesses..."

Lin Yuan didn’t know how to respond.

The attending doctor walked over, smiling, "Teacher Meng! I understand your concern for your students, but don’t worry, other teachers will take care of them," he said, "Your most important task now is to recover. Once you’re well, you will be able to teach many more classes in the future. If you’re not well, you won’t be able to teach this class either."

He added, "You need to understand that the earth will not stop rotating because of anyone’s absence. Even though my words might be harsh, that’s the reality. During your absence, your students won’t stop learning and will continue to prepare for the college entrance examination. Your worry is unnecessary—you should be more concerned about yourself and getting better quickly."

The woman nodded, tears streaming down.

Lin Yuan felt that the attending doctor’s words might have been too blunt, potentially hurting feelings.

After leaving the ward, the doctor told him, "Sometimes our words and actions may seem unkind, but it’s precisely this which helps them quickly rebuild their mindset to understand the world and recognize their current reality."

They continued their rounds until 10:30.

There were twenty people, each followed four teams, focusing on over a dozen patients, and each person’s notebook was filled with notes.

At 11:00, Li Guodong called them to the demonstration room.

"Let’s hear what you’ve learned from today’s rounds," he said.

Someone raised their hand.

"The questions patients ask are different from what I imagined."

"What questions?"

"A patient with a cervical spine tumor, I asked if she had any questions, and she asked if she could eat watermelon. I thought she would ask about the illness, treatment, or prognosis, but instead, she asked if she could eat watermelon."

Li Guodong nodded.

"How did you answer?"

"I said she could eat it, but in moderation because watermelon has a high water content."

"And?" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The student thought for a while.

"She seemed very happy."

Li Guodong smiled slightly.

"Why was she happy?"

The student was momentarily stunned.

"Because... because she could eat watermelon?"

"Because she feels that being able to eat watermelon means she can still live and experience a normal life," Li Guodong explained. "Remember, the questions patients ask sometimes aren’t about the questions themselves. When she asks if she can eat watermelon, she’s actually asking: Can I still live like a normal person?"

Li Guodong looked at them.

"Professor Yang said, ’Do you have any other questions’, is not just a polite phrase. It’s a means to reach into the patient’s heart. Whatever the patient asks, you must seriously answer. If you can’t answer, make a note of it, research it, and tell the patient the next day. That way, the patient will trust you. When the patient trusts you, they will listen to you. When the patient listens to you, they’ll get better."

"Tomorrow you’ll follow surgeries. At 8:30, head to the surgery center together," Li Guodong instructed them.

The next day at 8:30, at the surgery center.

Twenty people changed into scrubs, standing in the hallway. The smell of disinfectant was strong and the light from the surgical lamps seeped through the door crevices.

Li Guodong walked over.

"There are five surgeries today," he said. "One bypass, one valve replacement, one brainstem tumor, one scoliosis correction, and one laparoscopic radical surgery for pancreatic cancer. You’ll divide into five groups, four people each, following one surgery."

He started calling out names.

Chen Xi was assigned to the bypass group, and Lin Yuan was assigned to the scoliosis correction group.

The operating room door opened, and they walked in.

The instrument table was laden with a variety of surgical instruments. The patient was already anesthetized, lying there with a green sheet covering them, exposing only the chest area.

Yang Ping stood in the position of the chief surgeon, washing his hands. The nurse helped him put on his surgical gown and tied the straps.

Chen Xi stood in the corner, finding a spot within the safety zone with a good view.

"Come over here!" Yang Ping said.

She walked over.

"Stand here," Yang Ping pointed to the screen on the wall, "You need to watch the video to see clearly."

The surgery started.

Yang Ping picked up the surgical knife and made an incision on the patient’s chest, cutting through the skin, subcutaneous fat, dividing the muscles, retracting the ribs, and opening the pericardium—

The heart was exposed.

A pulsating heart, red and wet, beating rhythmically.

Chen Xi held her breath.

Yang Ping began harvesting the blood vessels. The great saphenous vein, taken from the left leg, a long pink elastic band-like vessel. He placed the vein in heparin saline, preparing it by removing excess tissue, ligating branches, and checking for any leaks.

Then, he started the bypass.

The ascending aorta, clamped with a sidewall clamp. He punched a hole, creating a four-millimeter diameter opening. Then the anastomosis began, suturing one end of the vein to the aortic hole.

Chen Xi stared at the screen, not daring to blink. The needle holder in Yang Ping’s hand, threading the needle in and out, with a one-millimeter stitch distance, and a 0.5-millimeter edge distance, precise to the exact degree. He made twelve stitches, each on the same plane, each distanced the same.

The anastomosis site was completed. Yang Ping released the sidewall clamp, the blood flowed past, causing the venous graft to bulge, pulsating.

Then came the second anastomosis site. The coronary artery’s left anterior descending branch was opened, and the other end of the vein was sutured onto it. Again, twelve stitches, the same one-millimeter stitch distance, and 0.5-millimeter edge distance.

Anastomosis completed. The clamp was released, the blood flow resumed, and the color of the myocardium changed from dark red to bright red.

The ECG changed, the ST segment came down.

Yang Ping looked at the monitor and nodded.

"Close the chest!"

The whole surgery took less than an hour, appearing clear, smooth, and clean—pleasing to the eye.

As the surgery concluded, Yang Ping took off his surgical gown and washed his hands.

Chen Xi still stood there, staring at the already closed chest; she didn’t know why, but when she first saw that vibrant heart, an inexplicable sense of awe welled up inside her.

She didn’t realize that this sense of awe is exactly one of the essential qualities of an excellent doctor, a quality she naturally possessed.