Plague Doctor

Chapter 56: Surgical Job List

CHHK! CHHK!

The sound of the saw cutting through bones resounded throughout the operating room, which made it incredibly grating on the ears.

Gu Jun watched Primary Surgeon Zhu saw a little bit of the patient’s clavicle kinks at a time. Then using a manual wire saw, thoroughly cut the inner clavicle. Primary Surgeon Zhu held the handle of the wire saw firmly and pulled the saw back and forth with all his strength. There were spirally distributed teeth on the hacksaw wire. A single pulling action brought debris of countless bone fragments with it.

The more horrifying the sound of the saw grinding on the bone grew, the more it grated on everyone’s hearts.

Perhaps at this time, the patient’s ability to lose consciousness was kindness in itself. Patient No. 25 had no syncope or cardiac arrest, although all physical indicators had reached a hazardous point. The role of the local anaesthesia was too limited, and he continuously issued an unbearable wailing as though he was being tortured by demons.

“Hold on for a while longer.” Zhu Ruiwen called the circulating nurse to wipe his sweat. He leaned his head down to offer the patient a few comforting words, regardless of whether or not the other delirious party could hear, “Everything will be fine soon.”

When doctors said such sentences, it was best not to believe them.

The tragic bone sawing was finally completed, and the subclavian muscle was cut off. Zhu Ruiwen asked Gu Jun to help pull the patient’s malformed limb in a forward and downward direction, which exposed the stretched brachial plexus nerve and subclavian arteries and veins. The primary surgeon and first assistant began to process and cut off the exposed sensitivities.

This was the most challenging part of amputation surgery for patients suffering from the Banyan Malformation Disease. One was because the flow of black fluid disrupts the area of surgical operation. The other was that some nerves and blood vessels were also malformed, and a conventional cut makes it difficult to sever. And so, there was a need to make a cut in a deeper position. This was also the main content of the surgical video played on the day of the competition which left the teachers and students stunned.

Now, Gu Jun was pulling the patient’s malformed limbs forcefully and keeping it steady. He couldn’t help but be shocked by the techniques and steadiness displayed by these veterans. A few unruly thoughts crossed his mind. “I can still do suture ligation, but there is still much I have to learn. I hope my time here will allow me to grow and nurture my skills.”

After Zhu Ruiwen and Zeng Jianguo treated the nerves and blood vessels, they made an anterior incision, opened the anterior flap, separated the large pectoralis major and small muscles that had been twisted into a ball, and cleanly cut off the humerus and the coracoid process.

KACHA! All tissues of this malformed limb were disconnected from the torso.

Suddenly, the malformed limb that Gu Jun was pulling became an independent existence.

“Ah, alright,” Zhu Ruiwen said softly. The operation was basically a success at this point. “Second assistant, hold on to it first, then put it in the bag.”

A professional male nurse walked over with an orange medical bag that displayed the Phecda Department logo. Gu Jun carefully packed the severed limb inside the bag, and the male nurse pulled on the bag chain then brought it outside the operating room. The malformed arm must have been reserved for research or anatomical dissection.

This male nurse did not attend the previous pre-operation brief. No one also introduced who this man was, and remained expressionless. However, Gu Jun had a strong hunch that he was a corpse guide.

If the operation fails, the patient’s cadaver would also be handled by this person.

However, the condition of patient No. 25 took a turn for the better. Gu Jun found that the patient’s delirium weakened as soon as the affected limb was completely cut off. He was not in as much pain as before, but still incoherently muttered some words. Gu Jun endured the urge to ask, “Have you seen me before?” not daring to get distracted. After all, there was still the final procedure of ligation.

The others did not become lax, and the operating room continued to be busy.

Everyone rinsed the wound first. After ensuring complete hemostasis, a negative pressure drainage tube was placed in preparation to suture the front and rear free muscle ends to cover the side of the chest wall. Finally was the ligation of every layer of muscle.

After Zhu Ruiwen and Zeng Jianguo stitched the deeper layers of tissue, they handed the operating table over to Gu Jun and Li Hualong.

Both Zhu Ruiwen and Zeng Jianguo had already greatly exhausted their physical strength. No matter regarding the success or failure of this operation, they will commence the next operation 15 minutes after the end of their break. Now that Gu Jun was here, they could sit down on a stool with peace of mind and rest. However, they still need to pay attention to keep their hands sterile.

At present, nurses such as Sister Chen could also appreciate Gu Jun’s exquisite stitching technique. In contrast, Li Hualong seemed like an amateur.

Time slowly passed. When the operation was approaching the three hour mark, Gu Jun and Li Hualong had finished stitching the superficial tissue and bandaging the wound under pressure while the patient was still in a semi-conscious state. The operation was a success!

This was how everyone loosened up. There were no words of jubilation. Everyone tried to avoid talking in the operating room. Except for several nurses who were left to deal with the aftermath, the four doctors and anesthesiologists walked outside the operating room to re-wash their hands, sterilize, and change their surgical gowns and gloves. They were back after about 15 minutes.

As soon as he walked out of the operating room, Zhu Ruiwen beamed warmly and praised, “Ah Jun, you performed exceptionally well. Hualong, you did well too.”

Although Gu Jun seemed to have lost his mind in the beginning, it appears that it was nothing. Zeng Jianguo and Yan Haizhe also praised, “Young people indeed have a bright future.”

“Having talents like you, the medical department will have no problem in the future. ”

“Hehe…” Li Hualong laughed wryly, knowing that the one they were really complimenting was Gu Jun and were only offering words of encouragement to him.

“I still have to thank Team Leader Zhu for the opportunity,” Gu Jun said modestly. He was not someone who didn’t understand human relations and exchanged pleasantries. “Teacher Zeng, Teacher Yan, you are overly praising me. The real mainstays here are you seniors. We, the younger generation, are still far away from your expertise.”

This was indeed the truth. The forequarter amputation was just one of the many types of amputations. Just learning this amputation alone would keep him busy, let alone anything else.

Hearing his words, the three senior doctors immediately felt his words very pleasing to the ears. Being admired by talented young people was truly a great feeling.

The five people took off their gloves and washed their hands. They went to the front hall for a rest first, and then went to the room for rinsing and disinfection.

As Gu Jun walked, he was busy sorting out the matter in the operating room and the vision he had just witnessed. This was his second successful attempt at life-saving, and it shouldn’t be a problem to count him as a participant.

The system interface in his mind suddenly popped up prompt bars continuously.

‘You participated in a successful two-star surgery (from Low to High, 1 star to 10 stars) and opened a list of surgical jobs!’

“The proficiency of the Hands of Dexterity has increased by 2000. The level is now second-tier (7000/30000 proficiency)”

“Due to successfully opening the surgical job list, you have received the following reward: 1 HIDDEN mission. Please check.”

Gu Jun frowned in surprise, and immediately opened the system with a thought. He wanted to find if there was indeed a “surgical job list” in the system. He then clicked to view it.

[Surgical Operation- Star – Results -Personal Contribution / Ranking]

[Canine thoracotomy – One star, Success – Personal contribution 65% / Rank 1]

[Forequarter Amputation – Two stars, Success – Personal contribution 7% / Rank ]

Gu Jun checked it out and found that the system should be evaluated based on his memories. In that canine thoracotomy, he ranked first with 65% contribution, Wang Ruoxiang ranked second at 25%, Cai Zixuan was at third place with 8%, and the circulating nurse, Cao Yue, was fourth with 2%.

For this operation, Primary Surgeon Zhu was first with 45%, First Assistant Zeng was second with 30%, he was third place at 7%, and the others divided the remaining 18% with Li Hualong accounting for 3%.

Gu Jun did not complain about the results of the degree of contribution, because according to the workload, importance, and substitutability, such allocation was also reasonable.

However, he wanted to protest against the loophole for the system’s ratings regarding the surgical operations. “One star for canine thoracotomy is acceptable, but isn’t it a bit excessive to only give two stars for forequarter amputation? What are the surgical operations rated above three and four stars? Craniotomy, heart transplantation or organ transplantation? Then what are operations rated even higher?!”

Well, the loophole was one thing. After a cursory scan, Gu Jun discovered the immense benefits which the system’s new feature offered.

Every time he opened the log of every operation to view the details, he seemed to be able to relive the actual sensations at the time of operation. He was able to look at himself from a third-person perspective so he could closely observe even the most subtle operations he made, seeing the areas he did well, as well as his inadequacies.

“With this function,” Gu Jun’s heart suddenly felt a wave of adrenaline, “I could make rapid strides in improving my surgical skills!”

For the current situation where time was the most lacking resource, this feature was especially precious.

After rewatching the operation for a while, Gu Jun went to take a look at what the other prompt bar said. He opened this mission log, Sure enough, he saw one more HIDDEN mission added to the list.

He immediately looked at it. What he was most concerned about were the mission rewards.