Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1028 - 849 Rushed Today Part 2

Chapter 1028: Chapter 849 Rushed Today Part 2

Doctor Chu was responsible for exposing the heart and the coronary arteries, opening the chest, revealing the heart by opening the pericardium, and dissecting the coronary artery and its branches seamlessly.

Doctor Chu’s most frequent task during surgery was to open the chest to expose the heart; once the heart was exposed, he would meticulously hand over the next steps to Director Wen.

"Scrub in!"

With the prelude complete, it was time for the heavyweight to enter the stage. Director Wen, accompanied by Director Zhang, scrubbed in and stepped up.

They donned their surgical gowns and sterile gloves, and the patrolling nurse helped them with the head-mounted microscopes. Both directors, fully equipped, stood at the operating table. Although they knew the infant’s heart would be very small, they were still a bit surprised upon seeing it at that moment.

The heart was smaller than a walnut, and the coronary arteries were pitifully thin, not even as thick as a strand of hair. Director Wen turned his head, asking the patrolling nurse to flip down his head-mounted microscope, as he reexamined the coronary arteries and their branches under the microscopic view. They were so thin! How to proceed with such size? This was entirely different from adults.

Director Zhang, who had come from Shanghai, had previously performed vascular anastomosis on a 14-month-old child; he had installed two bridges during that time. This was his first time seeing a one-month-old infant’s vessels, which were far finer than those of the 14-month-old, and it was a true test of his microsurgical skills.

"The child was born prematurely, right?" asked Director Zhang.

Director Wen replied, "Yes, indeed!"

"The blood vessels are much finer than expected. Let’s not rush; we’ll take our time."

Before coming here, Director Zhang had specifically trained for 1-millimeter vascular anastomosis, but training was one thing, and real action was another. The pressure was immense for Director Zhang.

"Take the internal mammary artery!"

Director Zhang began smoothly to harvest the artery, and after extracting it, passed it to Doctor Chu for processing. Doctor Chu cleaned some of the connective tissue around the internal mammary artery and then cut it into sections as instructed by Director Zhang.

Once everything was ready, they began the vascular anastomosis. However, because the vessels were so fine and suspended, Director Zhang felt that his hand movements were clearly not precise enough, failing to reach the state he attained in his training days.

As he was about to place a stitch, the heart would beat, moving his needle aside. He did not dare to continue suturing, possibly because he hadn’t caught the rhythm of the heart’s pulsation.

Director Zhang regulated his breathing, trying hard to find the rhythm of the heart’s beats. It took at least a dozen attempts before he managed to place a reluctant stitch, and even then, he felt the quality was poor.

Seeing Director Zhang struggling, Director Wen suggested:

"Please call Professor Yang to come take a look and lend a hand!" he commanded the doctors below.

A doctoral graduate immediately ran out to Professor Yang Ping’s operating room, "Professor Yang, Director Wen is asking for your assistance. The coronary artery has been exposed, but the vessels are very fine, and they are experiencing difficulties."

The cervical spine exposure was almost complete here, so Yang Ping instructed Song Yun, "Set up the self-retracting hooks properly, pad with gauze, make sure there’s complete hemostasis, and then wait for me. I’ll go take a look and be right back."

As Yang Ping planned to finish the child’s coronary anastomosis before starting on this side, he had not yet scrubbed in.

"Professor Yang?" Director Zhang was unaware of who Professor Yang was that Director Wen referred to.

Director Wen explained, "He’s a distinguished professor in our orthopedics department, highly skilled in performing vascular anastomosis under the microscope. We discussed preoperatively that if we came across exceedingly fine vessels, we would ask for his assistance. We are getting older, and such delicate tasks should be tried by younger hands."

"That could work. You even have a special professor? From which hospital?" Director Zhang was curious, as he wanted to take a break and catch his breath.

"Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, the young man who published 13 CNS papers," highlighted Director Wen.

Upon hearing about the 13 papers, Director Zhang immediately understood, "You mean that young man? He’s in the operating room now?"

Before Director Wen could answer, Yang Ping entered with washed hands, and the leading doctoral graduate helped him into his surgical gown and microscope.

"The vessels are really fine, less than 1 millimeter, and it’s a bit challenging. We’ve been struggling for a while and have only placed one stitch," Director Wen briefed him on the progress of the surgery.

"Has the internal mammary artery been harvested?"

"It has been."

As Yang Ping was arranging his sterile gloves, he approached the operating table. Director Wen moved aside to make room, and Yang Ping looked into the thoracic cavity, then turned his head to have the doctoral graduate adjust his head-mounted microscope.

The vessels were indeed very fine, challenging the directors, but if he was going to help, he might as well complete the surgery for them.

"How many bridges are needed? Pass the sutures over here, and place a curved plate next to me with ophthalmology scissors in it," Yang Ping said as he took the needle holder from the nurse and began.

"Two," said Director Wen.

Director Wen thought Yang Ping would take some time to study before proceeding, but the young man was eager to get started right away.

These types of surgeries were normally recorded, but there was no screen for observers here, so Director Wen and Director Zhang could only watch directly into the thoracic cavity. Yang Ping sutured and cut the thread himself as seamlessly as stitching leather, without any signs of trepidation. In just a few minutes, a few dozen stitches were placed, and two bridges were completed.

"It’s done!"

As he spoke, the vascular clamps had already been released, and the two grafted arteries began to pulse. Yang Ping gently pressed around the vessels with a piece of gauze, then released, confirming good blood flow with no signs of leakage.

"I have another surgery waiting. Directors, I’ll head over there," said Yang Ping.

Without lingering, Yang Ping immediately started to remove his gown and gloves, ready to scrub in for the surgery on his side.