Surgery Godfather
Chapter 694 - 619: Liver and Kidney Exchange

Chapter 694: Chapter 619: Liver and Kidney Exchange

"Wen Ruzheng is also stubborn, he really ran around the hospital in his underwear and was violently kicked and scolded by Director Zhao in his office."

"This guy was able to diagnose based on pathological tissue sections without clinical history. He’s really impressive. Such cases are really rare. In the decade since Sanbo Hospital was founded, we probably have encountered only this one. It shows that he is quite the researcher."

"He always says, ’without Wen Ruzheng, the pathology department of Sanbo Hospital would be three years behind.’"

"Didn’t Director Guan beat him up for that?"

"Director Guan said, ’The kid’s telling the truth. Since he joined the Pathology Department of Sanbo Hospital, the department’s skill level has advanced more than three years.’"

"Old Guan plans to let him take over."

Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang were just finished with a surgery and were heading to the Intensive Care Unit to visit Li Jun and Qin Xiaowei, their cousins. They chatted along the way.

When they reached the ICU, the family waiting area was packed with people. It was very noisy. Yang Ping paid it no mind, as it was a common occurrence at the ICU entrance. Last time, an organ donation coordinator was pushed around by a patient’s family.

The ICU -- the Intensive Care Unit -- is a field between life and death.

This place treats all sorts of critically ill patients and houses the strongest monitor and rescue facilities in the entire hospital. In essence, this is the last line of defense for life.

Most of the patients here are suffering from failure of a major organ or multiple organs and need various medications and machinery to sustain their lives. The ICU doctors strive to reverse the disease and save or extend the patients’ lives as much as possible.

A heavy door separates life from death.

The patients inside are connected to various devices and tubes, their frail vital signs flashing on the monitors.

The families outside agonize over whether to sign the consent form for the next stage of lifesaving intervention.

In "Life Matters" there is a passage: To choose or to give up is a choice every loved one faced, and making this choice is often very difficult.

Because many people think: Once you’re in ICU, there’s a high probability that you can’t get out, and in the end, it’s a waste of money and effort.

In reality, there’s a high probability that one could come out alive.

According to the statistics from Sanbo Hospital last year: Only 3.72% of patients were declared dead by the doctors in ICU due to severe deterioration; whereas the vast majority of patients successfully recovered and transferred out of the ICU, which is 86.68%.

So what about the remaining 9.60% of patients?

Due to various reasons, relatives chose to give up further treatment in the ICU, such as lack of funds to continue treatment, transferring back to local hospitals for various reasons, or because the patient is too old and they choose to return home in fear of dying in a strange place, and so on.

From an intuition point of view, the ICU is the place with the highest mortality rate in the world. That is because the death rate of 3-4% is distributed over such a small area.

Li Jun, who has just come off the machines, looks much better than before. Yang Ping greeted him. From his voice, Li Jun recognized Yang Ping, who was wearing a mask. Perhaps those engaged in music have keen hearing.

"Why do I feel restless?"

Li Jun asked Dr. An. Dr. An exchanged looks with Yang Ping. Li Jun didn’t know about the accident involving his cousin.

Dr. An was considering whether to tell him. He hadn’t figured out how to break the news and decided to keep it hidden for now.

"You just came off the machine. Your heart is under a lot of strain. You will experience feelings of restlessness." Dr. An explained.

"What about my cousin? Hasn’t he been here recently?" Li Jun has asked this question many times.

Dr. An comforted him, "He’s been a bit busy recently. The few times he came, he left in a hurry."

Li Jun was silent at this point, his eyes looked unfocused, then his eyes seemed to wetten slowly.

Everyone arrived at the doctor’s office in the ICU, had a drink of water, and sat for a while. Dr. An said, "Qin Xiaowei’s liver is now completely hopeless. He can only rely on an artificial liver for now and hope for a liver transplant in the future."

"Qin Xiaowei’s kidneys have already been successfully matched with Li Jun, so Li Jun’s liver should also be able to successfully match with Qin Xiaowei’s liver. They can exchange liver and kidneys." Song Zimo thought this was just right.

Humans have two kidneys. As long as both are healthy, removing one isn’t detrimental to one’s health.

And liver transplants are often not a complete liver transplant, but can be a partial liver transplant.

Dr. An said, "Director Liu, who is responsible for kidney transplants, and Director Li, who is responsible for liver transplants, have been here. They also raised this idea. We’re thinking about how to communicate with Li Jun."

Both are wolves of the same pack. These two cousins really have shared fates!

The ICU is a place where human nature is exposed. Until the worst of times, one can never know the beauty and ugliness of human nature.

"A few days ago, a patient’s wife turned off her phone and never came back. A few days later, the patient’s old father came and said his wife had quietly left."

"You should have seen a big family at the door when you came in. They are the children of the patient in bed six. The old man has six children, four sons and two daughters. It’s rare for them to get together, and instead of figuring out how to save the old man, who was still alive, the children were arguing about the inheritance right at the door." Dr. An couldn’t help but laugh, he was just bringing them a bill to pay.

The eldest one said that since the old man usually treated the youngest son well, the youngest son should pay.

The youngest son said that since the eldest brother is the firstborn, he should pay!

The second son and the third son said they couldn’t afford it.

The two daughters said they are daughters and this matter should be handled by the sons.

In the end, no one signed the consent form nor paid the bill. Four sons and two daughters contributed less than other families with just one child.

The Director of the ICU was more blunt, saying that it would be better to raise a dog, because a dog would at least bark when the owner is in danger.

"Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun -- don’t they have relatives?"

Xu Zhiliang asked.

Dr. An shook his head, "At least they never talked about it, but there is this company that keeps coming to understand their condition, helps pay for the medical expenses, and even told us to pass a message to Qin Xiaowei that the money has been transferred to his card."

"Money at the cost of life!"

Song Zimo felt a bit saddened.

Qin Xiaowei currently relies on an artificial liver to sustain his life, but this also is not an ultimate solution. The problem has to be resolved by a liver transplant.

The artificial liver and the treatment concept of hemodialysis are the same. They are replacement therapies and modes of blood purification treatment. The difference is that while hemodialysis substitutes for the kidney’s function, the artificial liver substitutes for the liver’s function.

The artificial liver employs artificial high-tech materials to mimic human liver structure and build a type of blood filter. This filter replaces the poisonous plasma of the patient with healthy plasma, removing harmful toxins from the body, and thereby reducing the damage from toxins to other organs such as the heart, brain, and kidneys, and keeping essential life organs functioning normally.

Just like in hemodialysis, it takes the patient’s blood out of the body, and discarded patient’s plasma is separated from the blood through a membrane plasma separation method. Then an equal amount of frozen fresh plasma or human serum albumin is added as a replacement fluid. This way, all kinds of metabolic toxins and pathogenic factors in a patient’s body can be eliminated, thus achieving the therapeutic purpose.

"Alright, we must leave. Let us know if there are any updates, and do find an opportunity to have a good chat with Li Jun."

Yang Ping stood up to leave.

"I’m considering how to talk to him. Director Liu said that due to Li Jun’s health condition, to perform a simultaneous liver resection and kidney transplant would pose a significant risk. We don’t know what Li Jun’s thoughts are." Dr. An saw Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang out.