Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1057 - 867: Penguin Disease

Chapter 1057: Chapter 867: Penguin Disease

Through Song Yun’s regular phone updates, Yang Ping learned that his patients at Xiehe Hospital were all very stable.

The patient who fell from a height and was impaled by a steel rebar did not develop the feared infection, seemingly because the extensive saline irrigation had worked, significantly reducing the rate of infection.

Due to the severity of his condition, he had not yet been transferred out of the ICU, although there was a trend of improvement in his condition. However, he faced a new problem: his wife had visited the hospital once to understand his condition, and had not come again. The ICU had called his wife several times, but she had refused to take the calls and explicitly stated that she refused to pay for his medical expenses.

This posed a significant dilemma for both the emergency and ICU doctors: both the rescue surgery and the post-operative ICU treatment had accumulated considerable medical bills, which would be a case without resolution.

Although he had medical insurance, the coverage for such cases was very limited, which is why even people with medical insurance still cannot afford their medical bills.

The baby who had undergone coronary artery bypass was recovering the fastest; he had already started giggling, and his daily milk intake had significantly increased. Postoperative angiography showed that the arteries used for the bypass were very clear, leading Director Wen to decide to start large-scale surgeries for treating coronary artery narrowings due to Kawasaki disease.

The patient with pancreatic cancer in the Pancreatic Surgery ward had been transferred out of the ICU and was now able to eat smoothly at least, retaining his life for now.

Nie Shun’e was recovering remarkably well, which might be related to her carefree and cheerful mood. She had come to terms with her situation, living as long as she could—hoping to at least see her child through high school being better than now. If she could make it until her son graduated from college, she would have no regrets, and if lucky, to see him through graduation would fulfill her entirely.

During her hospital stay, Nie Shun’e often visited Shuilian’s Bakery to chat with Shuilian. Perhaps because they were both women who had undergone great upheaval in their lives, they had much in common and quickly became good friends.

Nie Shun’e and her husband walked around Sanbo Hospital quite a bit and noticed it had hefty foot traffic, making it a promising business spot, especially suitable for a mobile night snack stall. However, being outsiders, they couldn’t simply conduct business around there. Nie Shun’e thought about asking Professor Yang for help but quickly dismissed the idea; Professor Yang had performed her main surgery, and she didn’t want to inconvenience him further, especially since it would be difficult for a doctor to manage such matters.

After much thought, Nie Shun’e planned to approach an old man selling sweet potatoes on the sky bridge to learn how he could legally sell there. Being shrewd, she didn’t ask directly but chose to gradually get to know him by buying two sweet potatoes daily and discovering the old man enjoyed a drink occasionally.

Thus, Nie Shun’e bought a bottle of liquor to find the old man, who, pleased, shared his secret with her: "Always carry your ID and discharge records with you, pick a good spot, and boldly start your business. But make sure not to obstruct traffic and be reasonable. Whether it’s hospital security or city management, just show your ID and discharge records, explain that you were a patient at the Surgical Research Institute, your family is in dire financial straits, and you need a place to make a living. They will stop bothering you and will ignore you the next time they see you."

"Of course, you mustn’t fabricate things, as they sometimes investigate," he added.

"So that was it," Nie Shun’e said, "Old man, what was your situation when you were hospitalized here?"

The old man waved his hand dismissively, "Let’s not talk about it; it just brings up sad memories. It was a terrible affair; it made the news. My grandson, not even a year old, was filled with dozens of needles by my son and his stepmother. It was Professor Yang who helped remove them. That useless son and his wicked wife have been jailed. My wife has to take care of our grandchild, and I have to earn some money to help out. We were laid-off workers from a company and never had stable jobs or a pension after that."

This old man certainly had a story. But at their age, who knew how long they had left, and what would become of his little granddaughter.

"Relatives aren’t willing to take her in, so we might have to look for an orphanage in the future," the old man said as he roasted sweet potatoes.

After learning how to conduct business around the area, Nie Shun’e’s husband, Yuan Yulin, suddenly remembered that the charity organization’s representative had left a message: informing them always to update them on the treatment progress.

Although they had not accepted the donation, choosing Sanbo Hospital was the good samaritan’s suggestion. Responding to the good samaritan was both reasonable and polite.

Becoming busy, they had actually forgotten to do so, which would disappoint the good samaritan. Without their passionate guidance, how could they have known about Sanbo Hospital’s capability for such surgery, and how could they have met Professor Yang? Without Professor Yang’s main surgery, the current positive outcome wouldn’t have been possible.

At the time, the good samaritan had left a phone number when visiting them, so he called it and communicated the positive outcome of the treatment.

At this moment, Wang Ge was sitting in his office, somewhat incredulous at what he was hearing, bewildered by Yuan Yulin’s call. Nie Shun’e had not only had the surgery but also was recovering well and was about to be discharged.

Could it be true? How could that be possible; was there some misunderstanding?

The top experts from Juntendo Hospital in Japan had assessed and stated that such patients couldn’t undergo surgery, as the only method was ex-vivo resection, but the risks were too high and the failure rate too substantial, with almost no doctor capable of handling it. Could the Japanese experts have misjudged?

To verify this, Wang Ge, wanting to confirm, sent Wang Jian with a fruit basket and consolation money to visit Nie Shun’e again, who, with her husband, accepted only the fruit basket and refused the consolation money.

Though somewhat poor, they decided to rely solely on themselves, unwilling to accept donations and indebted to no one.

Upon confirmation, Wang Ge was even more bewildered; he knew Yang Ping’s skills were top-notch and his status at Sanbo Hospital was elevated, but he hadn’t realized it was to this extent.

So that meant the plan to use Nie Shun’e’s case to undermine Yang Ping had failed.

What to do?

And what about the case of Teng Xinmei? Teng Xinmei’s relatives had already agreed to cooperate, Wang Ge could tell immediately that Teng Xinmei’s mother was greedy, and such people were the easiest to manipulate.

Nie Shun’e wasn’t greedy and had her principles, making her hard for others to control.

At that moment, Nie Shun’e’s husband called again, stating that out of gratitude to the kind soul, they were planning to present a pennant to Wang Ge’s workplace.

This took Wang Ge by surprise. He dared not let them come to his office, as he was usually hiding and engaged in activities that were not to see the light of day.

Wang Ge found himself in a quandary, having suddenly become a good person by a bizarre twist of fate.

---

Outpatient department on the first floor.

Professor Deng Jianliang, an expert in neurosurgery, was busy because he was contemplating whether to admit a patient. Professor Deng was one of the senior professors recruited by Sanbo Hospital and a member of the expert group, serving as a consultant for the neurosurgery department at Sanbo Hospital.

Before, these senior experts were scattered across various departments offering outpatient services. Once the Surgical Research Institute was established, Dean Xia transferred all these senior experts to the outpatient clinic of the Surgical Research Institute.

Professor Deng pondered and still felt that it was necessary to call Yang Ping to discuss it.

When Yang Ping arrived, the patient and her family were in Professor Deng’s office. The patient was a young woman in her late twenties, sitting in a wheelchair, with presumably her husband or boyfriend by her side.

"Penguin disease!" Professor Deng said, pointing to the magnetic resonance imaging films on the light box.

This disease is a genetic disorder, and until now, there is no effective treatment method. Even the United States, which boasts advanced medical research, is still in the basic research stage with this disease.

"This young lady came here because of our institute’s reputation. She came to seek any possible solutions we might have, even experimental ones," Professor Deng explained.

The casual young man immediately greeted Yang Ping upon seeing him: "Professor Yang, I am Old Xiao’s colleague from the city fire brigade."

Old Xiao, mentioned by the young firefighter, was a patient whom Yang Ping had treated earlier for a re-implantation surgery in five stages. Old Xiao later fell in love with an elementary school teacher and got married. Yang Ping and his department colleagues had even attended the wedding.

"Really? Hello, hello! How has Old Xiao been doing recently?" Yang Ping shook hands with the firefighter.

"He’s doing well. He has been reassigned to logistics. He has always wanted to return to the front line, but the organization disagrees. My name is Fang Liu, and this is my fiancée, Lan Xueping," the firefighter briefly updated Yang Ping about Old Xiao’s recent situation and also introduced his fiancée and himself.

The young firefighter was strikingly tall and handsome, with very good physical features.

The girl in the wheelchair seemed very ordinary, with a girl-next-door charm.

Several members of Lan Xueping’s family had suffered from penguin disease, and her father had died because of it.

Penguin disease, scientifically known as hereditary cerebellar ataxia, has an unclear pathogenesis. It primarily affects the cerebellum, but sometimes the spinal cord and cranial nerves are also involved. Patients usually first exhibit unsteady gait, walking with a shaking motion like penguins. As the disease progresses, they experience difficulty in writing, fine motor skills, speech, and swallowing, as well as nystagmus and double vision.

Typically, 10-15 years after the onset, the patients lose their ability to walk, causing long-term physical and mental torment to themselves and indescribable suffering to their families.

This disease is also considered fatal, and current medical treatments and rehabilitation have limited effects; they only slow the progression of the disease. Lan Xueping had already visited many hospitals across the country.

The lightbox displayed the patient’s magnetic resonance images. Yang Ping carefully reviewed the images; the cerebellum and brain stem had significantly atrophied, and the subarachnoid spaces had expanded like a giant arachnoid cyst.

Fang Liu had obtained a Japanese medication called Taterelin through various means, which could alleviate the symptoms. However, its effects over time were not as good as expected.

"Since it presents as atrophy of the cerebellum, brain stem, and spinal cord, we could attempt to relieve the compression in these structures."

"This would involve moving a muscle flap with its vascular pedicle to enhance blood supply to these structures."

Yang Ping felt that this was entirely feasible theoretically. In the absence of better options, following this approach could yield some results.

At least in the past, when Yang Ping had studied challenging cases in the System Space, he had used this method and it had worked well.

"Let’s admit her and see what we can do."

Yang Ping said.