Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1219 - 945: Patching Up

Chapter 1219: Chapter 945: Patching Up

Facing a heart that had already stopped beating, Yang Ping carefully cut it open. The "engine" of the human body was opened, and its internal structure starkly revealed to the surgeon.

The structures surrounding the aortic and mitral valves were in complete disarray—indistinct and unrecognizable. The destroyed valves, growths, and abscesses were all mixed together. Without the aid of ECMO, this Swedish man’s life would have likely already ended.

Swedish doctor Davenport stood in front of the screen, where the details of the entire surgical field were clearly visible. What now lay before him was a ruined heart, his brow deeply furrowed. He couldn’t fathom how Yang Ping would complete such a surgery. The suturing technique alone was beyond most, himself included, as well as any other doctor he had known or heard of.

This was the second Commando surgery, and the foundation for reconstructing the door frame was already in terrible shape. On such a compromised foundation, it was impossible to achieve every suture with high quality since the existing thickness of the myocardial wall was fixed. Additionally, many parts were swollen from infection, making the swollen tissues fragile and suturing extremely difficult and risky, easily leading to myocardial tissue getting cut.

Thus, with thousands of stitches, not a single error was permissible. One mistake could not only cause the already fragile tissue to be cut, loosening that stitch, but also make it impossible to place subsequent stitches. Moreover, the distribution of the stitches required vast experience. The entry and exit points of the needle had to be incredibly precise, to ensure the entire suture could withstand certain stresses without weak spots.

All stitches needed to be fully considered, so that each stitch, especially those in fragile areas, could reasonably disperse stress, forming a zipper-like effect of evenly distributed stress. This was extremely difficult to achieve; theoretically possible, but impractical for anyone to accomplish.

A zipper is straight, but now the heart’s stitches were irregular in various shapes. On such a complicated, irregular suturing path, relying on human experience to distribute each stitch’s stress optimally, how could it possibly be done?

A single stitch with excessively concentrated stress could tear into a notch due to the heart’s beating and the immense internal blood pressure. Such a notch, once formed, would be catastrophic. The high-pressure blood would mercilessly expand the notch, causing blood within the heart to spurt out, and the entire body would die from massive bleeding. This kind of bleeding was even more dangerous and fierce than a tearing aortic dissection.

Xia Shu came from Fuwai Hospital and had seen countless complex and difficult cases. The number of cases he saw in a day at Fuwai could exceed what most hospitals see in decades. From an assistant’s perspective, seeing this type of Commando surgery that needed renovation was utterly perplexing, and a tremendous sense of pressure overwhelmed him.

The director of Sanbo Hospital Department of Thoracic Surgery, He Xiangjun, along with several other thoracic surgeons, stood around the screen, not even daring to breathe heavily. The outpatient Professor Cao Zhenshan, also a retired professor from Fuwai, had arranged his clinical work before rushing to the operating room in haste.

Seeing the situation on the screen, he couldn’t help but worry for Yang Ping. How could this surgery be done without a heart transplant as a backup? If they couldn’t proceed, how would they manage the situation? Would they use ECMO to sustain life while waiting for a heart transplant?

Yang Ping was calm and collected; he removed all the previously replaced valves, stitch by stitch, meticulously cleaning up the original valves, growths, and abscesses, as well as the surrounding tissues that had been eroded by bacteria. He then repeatedly washed the area with saline, leaving the left chamber of the heart immaculately clean.

The focal point of the Commando surgery involved the closely connected aortic and mitral valves, requiring reconstruction of the entire cardiac fibrous skeleton. That meant replacing the small doors in two different "chambers" of the heart that shared a load-bearing wall with a large door frame and installing two new large doors, a task with an unimaginable scope.

Moreover, the suturing during the surgery had to be extremely meticulous to prevent uncontrollable bleeding. Any poor-quality suture that failed could make postoperative bleeding extremely difficult to control, a catastrophic scenario for both patient and doctor. Therefore, Commando surgery demanded the highest suture technique, directly linked to life and death.

Suturing was one aspect; correctly sizing the valve was another crucial factor.

It required proficient cardiac anatomical skills and precise judgment of valvular dimensions. Any misjudgment in valve size, making it too small or too large, could lead to valvular dysfunction and subsequently cardiac dysfunction.

If it were the first surgery, sometimes it could be assisted by CT-scan imaging measurements. However, for the second surgery, it was impossible to know beforehand what the remaining structure was like after removing the original surgery, leaving no choice but to rely on experience during the procedure.

The second Commando surgery, compared to the first, had exponentially increased difficulty and factors to consider.

Upon removing the original surgery and clearing the infected lesion, everyone looked at the remnants of the heart with despair. Rebuilding and suturing on such a base, and judging valve dimensions accurately, were all extremely challenging tasks. No wonder Europeans dared not undertake such surgeries; they were simply impossible.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.