Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1275 - 970: I Can’t Do It

Chapter 1275: Chapter 970: I Can’t Do It

Director Liao’s lung nodule pathological examination results had come out—it was benign, an inflammatory nodule. The moment he received the exact pathological diagnosis, Director Liao felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders.

He was revitalized and radiant, a stark contrast to his prior despondency, sighs of despair from a few days earlier. Now, he looked every bit the leader. Director Liao, who had earlier kept his hospitalization a secret, now promptly reported his status to his leaders, not forgetting to criticize the hospital doctors for complicating a simple nodule that was essentially no issue at all.

When he was discharged, Director Liao was surrounded by his entourage, still grumbling to his subordinates about the hospital’s examination process, bemoaning that the hospital had made a big fuss over a mere nodule, which was quite normal for someone of his age. He felt that the hospital’s insistence on performing a biopsy was pointless and purely an example of overtreatment, having stressed over it only to find out it was just an inflammatory nodule.

A simple inflammatory nodule had caused such an unnecessary complexity, wasting several days of his time.

Finally, Director Liao invited a few colleagues who enjoyed playing badminton to play the following weekend, expressing how bored he had been staying inactive in the hospital and eager to sweat it out properly. All his colleagues agreed, remarking that Director Liao didn’t look sick at all and seemed healthier than many younger men.

One of them stated that he hated playing badminton with Director Liao, immediately drawing the attention of everyone else. The colleague continued calmly, "Director Liao! If you weren’t the boss, I wouldn’t want to play at all. After playing with you, you look fine and full of energy, but I can’t move my legs for three days. It’s more tiring than playing with the young professionals in the provincial team. I can’t keep up with your stamina."

Director Liao didn’t mind this batch of remarks at all and laughed it off, "You must come this weekend! If you try to skip out, just see how I’ll deal with you."

Niu Zhixuan’s CEA levels had not been resolved yet. After reviewing all his test results, Yang Ping believed it was just a rare case of intussusception and intestinal inflammation. However, Niu Zhixuan was scared, and he insisted on having a PET-CT; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to relax in the future.

"It’s completely unnecessary; this rise in CEA has nothing to do with cancer. It’s caused by the intestinal inflammation, and it will gradually return to normal once the inflammation is under control. Let’s monitor it for now."

Yang Ping advised his old classmate that there was no need for such a drastic measure as a PET-CT.

Niu Zhixuan didn’t see it that way. He felt that when he was moneyless, he feared changing jobs risking sudden death, but when he had money, he believed health was more important than wealth. As long as money could solve the problem, it was not a problem.

"Then let’s do the PET-CT, spend the money for peace of mind." Understanding Niu Zhixuan’s thoughts, Yang Ping agreed to proceed with further checks; sometimes, it really was about buying peace of mind.

While elevated tumor markers indicate cancer, they do not confirm its presence, just as seeing a tattooed muscly man can suggest that he might be a lawbreaker, many tattooed strong men are law-abiding, and many lawbreakers don’t have tattoos.

Therefore, tumor markers are just an indicator, unable to diagnose definitively; a further examination is needed indeed for diagnosis.

Director He was relentlessly determined; he and his colleagues managed to acquire several pigs, all used for practicing thoracoscopic lung transplants. This type of surgery was time-consuming, especially for a novice. To date, every doctor performing lung transplants through thoracoscopy was a novice.

Hence, each of Director He’s simulation surgeries took roughly ten hours, the quickest still requiring over eight hours. The difficulty of the surgery was immense, and earning the accolade of being the first in the world was not so easy.

Director He’s thoracoscopic fundamentals were quite good, so his progress in practice was relatively swift, complemented by his full dedication, which made his daily improvements visible. After several days of day and night training, Director He believed his surgical skills had become very proficient, capable of smoothly completing surgeries on pigs for 9-10 hours at least.

The Thoracic Surgery Department’s continuous procurement of pigs also sparked some anger. The victims were usually young doctors, who dared to be angry but did not dare to speak out. However, they would report to their Department Directors afterward, and many directors began to question He Xiangjun about what exactly was going on.

Since everyone was a Department Director and relations were generally good, it was unlikely anyone would truly fall out over a few pigs. He Xiangjun admitted his mistake and then claimed that his department’s situation was special, as lung transplants needed to be performed as soon as they were scheduled, which made his actions somewhat inappropriate. He hoped for everyone’s understanding and promised to treat everyone to drinks later.

With that, the other directors no longer pursued the matter and at most would explain and appease the doctors below them. He Xiangjun sent fruit to each department as a token of apology, providing a way for the victimized doctors to save face.

With two pigs each day and about seventeen or eighteen hours of intense training, the experiences accumulated over these days made Director He feel quite good about himself. He felt he could be the chief surgeon for this surgery.

News came from the ICU that the patient, who had been relying on ECMO to sustain life, had finally been declared brain dead. The function of the heart and lungs was completely passively maintained by the ECMO machine, and continuing this way was pointless.

The patient’s wife, holding back her sorrow, finally mustered the courage to make the agonizing decision: to remove the ECMO and let the patient leave this world naturally. In reality, the patient had already left this world, but the machine was still maintaining his heart and lung activity. However, when she made this painful decision, all the relatives surrounded the patient’s wife and berated her, calling her selfish, cold-hearted, and for abandoning her husband. But what could she do? The self-funded costs had already amounted to about 1.2 million yuan, a huge sum for her ordinary family. Even selling their only house would only maintain the status quo for a little while longer, and she and the child still needed to continue living. Thus, she had to face reality, this was a bottomless pit with no hope.

At a little past midnight, the doctors were prepared to remove the ECMO. According to the patient’s prior wishes, his corneas, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys were all to be donated to different individuals. The relatives disagreed with donating the organs and also berated the patient’s wife. However, she withstood the pressure as these were her husband’s last wishes, and she wanted to fulfill them.

At a little past midnight, the patient’s wife, alone, wearing an isolation suit, entered the ICU and tenderly kissed her husband to bid him farewell. Then, this woman left the ICU alone, sitting in the empty Family Waiting Area, facing the rest of her life by herself.

Ou Lianfeng’s lung transplant surgery also started as an emergency at this time. Organ transplant surgeries could commence at any time, as suitable donors could appear unpredictably, and the timing of the surgeries was greatly uncertain.

The operating room was brightly lit late into the night. Director He hastily dialed Song Zimo’s phone: "Dr. Song, the lung transplant for Ou Lianfeng can begin now, I’ve just received the notification to retrieve the lungs."

"I’ll notify the professor immediately, you need to prepare the Da Vinci Robot right away, this surgery will be performed using the Da Vinci Robot." Song Zimo quickly instructed.

Director He was a bit baffled: "The Da Vinci Robot for a lung transplant? I don’t know how to do that!"

"Neither do I!" Song Zimo said.

"Then what should we do?" Professor He didn’t understand.

Song Zimo said, "The Professor knows how!"