The Surgeon’s Studio

The investigation results came back promptly, and the patient had no contraindications for surgery.

Just as Chang Yue was about to perform preoperative counseling, Su Yun appeared at the doorstep and signaled her to come out with a wave.

“Yes?” asked Chang Yue impatiently. Strangely enough, Su Yun’s charm was impotent here as she was greatly annoyed at him for interrupting her work.

Su Yun was briefly stunned before a sincere smile formed on his face.

Flowers bloomed as if spring had fallen at that moment.

“Since the general surgery department is handling the operation, best if you don’t explain the procedures yourself,” said Su Yun.

“Huh? Why?”

“What is the main point of your counseling?”

“Laparoscopy, of course,” replied Chang Yue whose patience was wearing thin.

“What if laparoscopic surgery fails? They’ll then proceed with laparotomy, which means there is a problem in preoperative counseling. Be careful, you might end up becoming a scapegoat again,” explained Su Yun, who knew that she had taken the blame in the obstetrics department before.

Chang Yue froze for a moment and immediately realized the point Su Yun was trying to make.

“Then…” She shifted her gaze into the room.

“Chief Zheng, let the general surgery department counsel the patient and family members themselves,” Su Yun’s words always sounded cynical when he spoke to Zheng Ren.

Zheng Ren was also aware of the trouble, which he failed to consider in the beginning, lurking in the shadows and understood Su Yun’s motives instantly.

Instead of being meddlesome, he actually found it necessary to take precautions in this case. Thus, he informed Chief Surgeon Sun about this issue.

Chief Surgeon Sun smiled bitterly and thought, ‘Why are these emergency doctors a pain in the *ss?’

“Chief Zheng, I didn’t hide anything from you when I brought you to the operating theater in the past,” he whispered.

Zheng Ren stared at him with a bewildered expression.

Why did Chief Surgeon Sun even bring up the past? It was true that he had assisted Chief Surgeon Sun in past surgeries despite not being in the same department, but those were rare occasions and definitely involved less than five cases in total.

“If I can’t complete the surgery, you must help me.” Chief Surgeon Sun had a bad feeling about this case for some inexplicable reason, and his gaze radiated helplessness as if he was trying to say, “Please give a brother a hand.”

From Chief Surgeon Sun’s skills alone, there was no way he would have said this to Zheng Ren.

However, the fact that Zheng Ren had performed many difficult surgeries, including the parasitic biliary obstruction case, constantly refreshed Chief Surgeon Sun’s evaluation of him.

The rise of the younger generation was unstoppable.

Chief Surgeon Sun was mild-tempered and gentle compared to Chief Surgeon Liu of the first general surgery department, which was why he could throw aside his dignity and ask a youngster for help at a critical juncture.

“Oh, that’s too polite of you,” Zheng Ren quickly wore a polite smile and bowed slightly, a typical gesture noted in a junior, and said, “If you can’t do it, neither can I. However, if the need arises, please do let me know.”

Chief Surgeon Sun finally smiled in relief.

It was much easier to deal with Zheng Ren than Old Chief Physician Pan, likely due to the fact that Zheng Ren had only been promoted recently and still had the mentality of a junior doctor.

They could not continue the conversation any further as the patient’s family and the directors of the hospital were still on the scene.

Soon, Chief Surgeon Sun’s subordinate acquired signatures on the preoperative informed consent documents. After that, the group went to the operating theater.

Zheng Ren had no intention of observing the surgery and chose to read his book in the office. Su Yun decided to stay as well, seemingly uninterested in anything, young and beautiful nurses included, apart from his phone.

…

…

After the anesthesia was administered, Chief Surgeon Sun stood before the operating table and began creating a pneumoperitoneum.

The Veress needle pierced into the peritoneal cavity and 15mmHg of carbon dioxide was insufflated afterward.

Instead of performing a conventional three-incision laparoscopic surgery, Chief Surgeon Sun chose to insert two trocars lateral to the left and right rectus abdominis muscles.

There was a high probability that laparoscopy would fail, which was why he chose these unusual entry points.

Using a dissector, he separated a small part of the tissue and was welcomed by severe intraperitoneal adhesions without any gaps at all, especially in the upper peritoneal cavity.

Profound clinical experience saved him from making a grave mistake.

Chief Surgeon Sun immediately gave up on laparoscopic surgery and decided to perform a laparotomy instead.

He waited for his emotions to stabilize before snapping a picture of the laparoscopic image and left the operating theater to explain the situation to Lin Yuanshan.

Holding the cell phone in his hand, he showed the picture to Lin Yuanshan and pointed out the reason why he could not proceed with laparoscopic surgery.

After being explained to professionally and regrettably as if possessed by a drama queen, Lin Yuanshan finally gave his consent, which made Chief Surgeon Sun sigh in relief. Then, he returned to the operating theater, scrubbed up, changed into a new surgical gown, prepared the necessary instruments and reinitiated the surgery.

Chief Surgeon Sun was average at laparoscopy, at best.

After all, he only started learning laparoscopic surgery at forty-five years old when he was already highly competent at open surgery.

Since he had good knowledge of anatomy, It was actually easier to treat uncomplicated cases with laparoscopy.

However, if an extremely difficult surgical case was encountered, he preferred to proceed with laparotomy due to his proficiency in this domain.

A twenty-centimeter incision was made below the right costal margin and each layer was carefully incised to explore the peritoneal cavity.

Chief Surgeon Sun was dumbfounded the moment the peritoneum was opened.

The situation was worse than expected!

It was a big mess! He could vaguely outline the greater omentum and transverse colon, but as for the gallbladder… it was nowhere to be seen.

He had no choice but to attempt blunt dissection.

However, staring at the clumped up abdominal viscera, he had no idea where to begin the procedure.

It looked like an intertwined flaxen thread ball with its head hidden somewhere inside. If he was merely dealing with inorganic matter, he would cut it straight away without hesitation, but unfortunately, these were abdominal organs in a human body. Once the severely edematous intestines ruptured, it would be immensely troublesome to suture it back.

Blunt separation had to be done slowly and cautiously. Chief Surgeon Liu’s attentiveness was not entirely due to the patient’s identity; even if this patient was an ordinary elderly man, his attitude toward this surgery would still be the same.

Five minutes had passed and yet he remained clueless.

He still did not have the foggiest notion of how to continue even at the tenth minute. The circulating nurse had wiped the sweat off his forehead twice and the disposable surgical cap had completely drenched in a cold sweat.

At the twentieth minute, a dark green patch appeared on the back of Chief Surgeon Sun’s surgical gown, the result of perspiration soaking his green gown.

An unexpected event occurred as he accidentally ruptured an arteriole while lysing the adhesions, which caused fresh blood to spurt from the wound. The ruptured arteriole ligation process was risky and took him five minutes to complete the procedure.

The surgical lighthead was blinding and Chief Surgeon Sun’s vision was getting blurry.

Sighing heavily, he spoke to a circulating nurse who had just arrived at the operating theater for assistance, “Call Chief Zheng and ask him to take over the surgery.”

Even though Chief Surgeon Sun had spoken to Zheng Ren preoperatively, he would have never let Zheng Ren take over the operation unless absolutely necessary.

Doing so meant that he admitted defeat and that his surgery standard was inferior to Zheng Ren’s.

However, he did not have the faintest idea even after bluntly dissecting the adhesions for twenty minutes, so he had no choice but to give up.

Medical safety and dignity, which one was more important? The answer was obvious.

Most importantly, if he tried to preserve his image now, he might lose his life in the end.

About Zheng Ren… Since the man was skillful at blunt dissection during appendectomies, he could be able to solve this problem, but of course, the flawless completion of the previous pancreaticoduodenectomy was still the main reason to request his assistance.

…

…

In the emergency ward office, Zheng Ren was concentrating on the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery book.

An expressionless Su Yun played with his phone, his fingers flying all across the screen; it was impossible to tell if he was chatting up women or playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

The department’s phone rang, and several nurses swarmed into the room soon after.

“Chief Zheng, the operating theater is requesting your presence.”

They fixed their gleaming eyes on Su Yun even though the statement was meant for Zheng Ren.