Surgery Godfather

Chapter 118: Chapter 0115 Wild Growth

“The ambulance has already been dispatched from the airport!” Officer Wang wore a smile on his face.

Director Han gently nudged Yang Ping: “You can rest assured now!”

What’s left is up to the chest pain center nearest to him, at least the patient now has hope.

We have done all that we could to our utmost capability.

Once everyone had dispersed, Director Han expressed his gratitude to Officer Wang and they returned to the general orthopedics department.

Yang Ping and Song Zimo no longer needed to attend the outpatient clinic. Initially, both of them were not supposed to run the clinic. It was just that on the first day the department was established, everyone was quite enthusiastic and thus multiple clinics opened at once, creating an even more impressive scene.

For their first patient, Yang Ping led everyone on ward rounds.

The patient was a 62-year-old female suffering from right knee joint instability for three years. She had undergone arthroscopy twice; once to treat a free body, and once for a highly active lateral meniscus. However, her symptoms displayed no relief after both surgeries.

Instability, or a sensation of giving way, occurs when the leg suddenly loses supporting power during walking, causing the person to kneel or fall.

The most common cause is impingement within the knee joint. When the knee joint suddenly experiences impingement, the joint movement function is instantly lost, naturally disabling the walking function. This is directly manifested as the need to kneel or fall down.

The patient has lost hope in treatment, but in the past three months, the instability in her leg has been happening more and more frequently, almost daily, leading her to fear leaving her home. This has resulted in her being confined within her home.

This has caused many troubles as she used to be the pivotal part of her family. As her daughter and son-in-law were busy with work, cooking three meals a day, housekeeping, and picking up and dropping off their child would usually be handled by her.

But now, the infuriating knee instability has made it difficult for her to move. Even simple activities, such as going to the toilet, have to be done with utmost caution as she fears falling. If she fractures anything as a result, that would require her daughter and son-in-law to take care of her, which would be the worst potential scenario.

A small issue like this is affecting the normal function of the entire family.

“Doctor, I saw the introduction in the outpatient hall that the general orthopedics department treats difficult and complicated diseases. Does my condition count as a difficult and complicated disease? I’ve had two surgeries, and the elderly lady in the same ward as me had a very good outcome from her surgery, but mine is just like before, with no improvement at all.”

The old lady seemed rather dejected.

Yang Ping carefully examined her knee joint, then proceeded to conduct focused checks on key organs like the heart and lungs.

The physical examination concluded: Does the source of impingement originate from the lateral aspect of her right knee joint? What exactly is causing the impingement?

The new office is spacious and bright. X-ray images and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the knee joint are up on the viewing lightbox. MRIs of the patient’s head and the entire length of her spine were also conducted by another hospital, as they suspected she might have pseudarthalgia.

Pseudarthalgia is due to other causes, such as imbalance of the cerebellum, incoordination of motor function of the cerebrum, spinal cord pathology, and muscle weakness of the affected limb, etc. All these potential causes were ruled out.

All evidence pointed back to a problem localized in her right knee joint, but the MRI showed no free body or torn meniscus. She’d undergone arthroscopy twice; any inflammatory synovium should have been cleared.

“Is it difficult to diagnose our first patient?”

Song Zimo frowned.

“Otherwise, there would be no need for the general orthopedics department!”

Director Han walked in; Director Tian was still running his clinic downstairs.

He seemed uninterested in the patient’s condition: “Xiao Yang, you are the team leader now. Unless it’s a special case, solve it independently. VIP patients are Director Tian’s responsibility, and you are fully responsible for the patients in the regular ward.”

He quickly said a few words and left, no longer concerned with the diagnosis of this patient. He’s only responsible for admitting the patients, any further treatment would be handled by the team led by Yang Ping.

Free rein! That would be the working method from now on. Under Director Han’s trust and limited supervision – free rein.

“Senior Brother, does this mean we run our own clinic?” Song Zimo was thrilled.

“Wild growth!” Yang Ping continued to examine the images.

He visualized the anatomy of the knee joint in his mind, then started to simulate motion, looking for any possible reasons that may lead to these symptoms.

Only wild growth—controlled wild growth—is the fastest, most solid, and most successful way. It is an epiphany well-understood by Director Han that talents shouldn’t be constrained by the common route.

Sitting in his new office, he sipped his tea. He was quite satisfied with his new office; as the window faced the south, there was an abundant amount of sunlight. He squinted his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and quietly hummed along to the Beijing Opera playing softly.

He savored every detail of what had happened today. He was deeply moved by Yang Ping’s confidence and diligence. Coupled with Director Tian’s report on Yang Ping’s performance at Nanqiao Hospital, he had more faith in his judgment and decision: let them grow wildly; they are capable!

Just as he was reminiscing, his cellphone rang. It was a call from Director Xiong from the emergency department. The patient with acute myocardial infarction from earlier was currently being transferred to Sanbo Hospital and would be there soon.

The chest pain center closest to the airport was at a district people’s hospital, but they only had one dedicated operating room for interventional procedures and there would be a two-hour wait.

So, instead, the ambulance made the decision to send the patient directly to Sanbo Hospital, where the chest pain center was large enough to handle several operations simultaneously.

Let’s go check it out!

Director Han called for Yang Ping, who was still in the office reading images.

It had been quite some time since he’d visited the emergency department, ever since he left the trauma orthopedics department.

The ambulance pulled up to the entrance of the emergency department, with the words ‘Airport Emergency Center’ prominently displayed.

The stretcher was swiftly removed from the vehicle and rapidly pushed inside. Someone was performing chest compressions on the patient during transit.

The emergency department doctors sprinted over. One doctor even knelt on the stretcher and took over the chest compressions.

“Defibrillation!”

The gurney was pushed into the emergency department’s resuscitation room.

The two electrodes of the defibrillator were attached. One under the right collarbone, and the other on the apex of the heart.

“Stand back!”

With a bang, electrical defibrillation was initiated once, twice, and then a third time. The flat ECG line started to show waves.

As the patient’s condition had already been communicated over the phone on the way to the hospital, now only a simple handover was needed.

“Please connect to the Chest Pain Center!” a nurse has already dialed the dedicated line for the Chest Pain Center.

A few minutes later, an attending physician arrived at the emergency room, running.

Director Guan was still in the operating room, the attending physician in charge of the emergency consultation had arrived.

The ECG paper was spat out, the doctor took a look and said: “Acute myocardial infarction, primarily in the anterior wall, quickly, get him to the Cath Lab!”

The doctors in the emergency department always walked swiftly, doctors and nurses pushed the gurney along the trauma center’s dedicated transport route.

The heavy lead door opened, the gurney was pushed in, and the patient was moved onto the intervention table.

The heart stopped again! Compressions, defibrillation! The EKG returned to normal.

The doctor had already washed his hands and gotten dressed, draped in a heavy lead apron, he performed the puncture, inserted the catheter and guide wire, withdrew the guide wire, and injected the contrast agent.

“The left anterior descending artery is completely blocked!”

The contrast agent visible on the screen was stuck at one spot and couldn’t go any further.

Director Han and Yang Ping rushed to the emergency department, where the nurse told them that the patient had already been sent to the Cath Lab at the Chest Pain Center.

Both of them hurried to the Cath Lab, a few minutes later, a distraught young woman, accompanied by family, followed in.

The heavy lead door closed, separating the family from the patient.

A doctor came out through a side door designated exclusively for medical staff.

“Xie Dongsheng, Xie Dongsheng’s family!”

The young woman could barely control her tears, and the family member accompanying her responded.

“Come over here!”

The doctor led them to a side meeting room, holding an informed consent form in his hand.

“Doctor! How is my husband?”

“What is your relationship with him?”

“She’s Xie Dongsheng’s wife, and I’m his uncle!”

The doctor hesitated, then said: “Xie Dongsheng has suffered an acute myocardial infarction, and he arrived too late. He is currently undergoing an intervention. His heart stopped on the operating table and we’re trying to revive him. This is the third time his heart has stopped since he was brought into the emergency department, you need to prepare yourselves.”

Xie Dongsheng’s wife’s vision went black, and she fainted.

“We need help in the meeting room, a family member has fainted.”

A nurse from across the hallway heard the call and immediately came over. The doctor checked her carotid pulse and breathing, there were no issues.

“Take her to the observation room to rest for a bit.”

The nurse helped Xie Dongsheng’s wife to the observation room.

The doctor had seen it all before, he was used to it.

“Doctor, please, you have to try something. He’s the breadwinner of our household. Our child is only four years old, and he himself is just over thirty.” The uncle’s eyes were red.

“We are doing our best, but it was too late, too much time was wasted. Here’s the surgical consent form, sign it, and once his wife regains consciousness, she can sign it too.”

After collecting the signed form, the doctor put his mask back on and went back in.

Yang Ping and Director Han sat on plastic chairs waiting, they had been involved in the entire process and wanted to know the final outcome.

Yang Ping remained remarkably calm, Director Han put his hand on his shoulder: “You’ll get used to it, we can’t save everyone.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, I have done my part, as for the outcome, only heaven knows!”

The family members walked up to the lead door, feeling that being closer to the door would bring them closer to hope.

This door!

It separated the family members from the patient,

and sometimes, they would be separated–forever!