Early Wednesday morning, when Yan Feifan arrived at the Neurosurgery Departnt, he found Dr. Qiu Ge and her entire surgical team already in position.
He knew that Dr. Qiu was prepared to perform surgery imdiately if any complications arose during the brain tumor biopsy.
In Qiu Ge’s office, the two discussed the specific route for the biopsy puncture.
To their surprise, they had independently arrived at the exact sa conclusion.
"Mr. Yan, you’ve really surprised ."
"I thought long and hard before finally settling on this puncture route."
Qiu Ge couldn’t help but ask in astonishnt, "Even a dical genius can’t be born with such knowledge, can they?"
"How on earth did you do it?"
Yan Feifan answered vaguely, "I’ve been reading so books about the brain, and I used your account, Dr. Qiu, to watch a few surgical videos on craniopharyngiomas."
"I just pieced it together with my limited understanding. It’s a total coincidence."
One of the perks of being on good terms with Dr. Qiu Ge was being able to use her credentials to access a wealth of frontline clinical data on the brain.
Last night, Yan Feifan had rapidly reviewed ten craniopharyngioma resection surgeries perford by renowned neurosurgeons from both China and abroad.
Then, he used the simulation ability of his consciousness world to review those procedures before simulating and analyzing Ren Xiaobao’s surgery.
This puncture path was the result of Yan Feifan spending most of the night in a cycle of simulation, trial and error, analysis, and refinent.
For the five million, and for the young patient’s life, Yan Feifan had truly pushed himself to the limit.
As a result of the ntal overexertion, he felt dizzy, his vision was blurry, and he was even a bit nauseous when he woke up this morning.
It took Yan Feifan quite a while to feel normal again.
Qiu Ge looked at the sowhat listless Yan Feifan, then pointed to her own bloodshot eyes and said, "You may be making light of it, but I can tell you were working just as hard as I was to prepare last night."
She smiled again. "Regardless of how you did it, the fact that we’re on the sa page has boosted my confidence considerably."
After a pause, Qiu Ge continued slowly, "Mr. Yan, you’ve probably noticed that I’m unusually invested in this young patient."
"To be honest, that five million is very important to ."
"My husband’s business has run into so difficulties."
Yan Feifan murmured in understanding. "Dr. Qiu, I’ve been tutoring to earn money since I was a kid, but I’ve never been well-off. There were tis I was completely broke."
He t Dr. Qiu Ge’s gaze and chuckled. "Let’s hope we get lucky and can secure the incentive they’re offering."
Qiu Ge broke into a smile as well. "Fortune favors the capable and hardworking."
"Let’s go. They should be ready for us..."
The two of them left the office and headed to the surgical area, where they found thirty to forty of the Ren Family’s friends and relatives in the waiting area.
Yan Feifan was also surprised to see a couple he knew.
Tang Zheng and his fiancée, Shao Dalei Lin.
Qiu Ge led Yan Feifan past the patient’s family without much interaction, offering only a simple, "We will do our absolute best."
They passed through the isolation doors and changed in the locker room. Next, they went to the sterilization room to scrub in. After that, they entered the operating room where nurses helped them into their surgical gowns and rubber gloves.
The entire process strictly followed the protocol for a major surgery, even though the biopsy itself would take no more than three minutes.
Walking into the operating room, Yan Feifan saw a small, overweight boy lying on the table, unconscious under anesthesia.
Several monitors displayed the boy’s vital signs in real ti.
Qiu Ge took her position as the lead surgeon, accepted the Puncture Needle from an assistant, and slowly guided it into the little boy’s left nostril.
The planned route was a transnasal approach through the sinuses to the base of the skull, piercing directly into the tumor to extract a thin strip of tissue.
This precise and subtle puncture route, which both Qiu Ge and Yan Feifan had independently devised, now had to be executed relying solely on Qiu Ge’s tactile feedback and vast experience.
Watching Dr. Qiu’s grave expression, Yan Feifan couldn’t help but wonder, ’What if we used a surgical robot to get the sample?’
’As long as the coordinates were precise, a surgical robot could probably execute a perfect pinpoint puncture.’
’But the subtle resistance as the needle advances—the so-called "feel"—is sothing a robot could never perceive as accurately as a doctor, preventing it from making real-ti adjustnts.’
’In his view, a surgical robot could perform many tasks by the book, delivering a performance that’s an 80 or even 90 out of 100.’
’But it could never truly achieve the near-perfect, 95-plus score of an expert surgeon.’
’Then again, a surgical robot is tireless and unemotional. As long as there are no technical glitches, it won’t make mistakes.’
’Doctors, on the other hand, were a different story.’
’Each has its pros and cons,’
Yan Feifan ca to an ambiguous conclusion.
Just then, he noticed Dr. Qiu’s gaze sharpen. With a steady application of force, the long, thin Puncture Needle advanced slowly but powerfully...
Yan Feifan watched Dr. Qiu’s hands and the fluctuating data on the monitors...
After a brief period of fluctuation, the data on the screens quickly stabilized.
As he watched Qiu Ge slowly withdraw the Puncture Needle, Yan Feifan couldn’t help but release the breath he had been holding.
The puncture was successful.
He took the Puncture Needle from Dr. Qiu and extracted a thin, pinkish strip of tissue, about 1.5 centiters long, from its hollow barrel.
This was the tumor tissue sample.
Yan Feifan placed the tissue sample into a transparent container, carried it over to a nearby microscope, and began a detailed observation.
Under sixty-tis magnification, Yan Feifan could see so slightly grayish-white points of calcification.
Fortunately, the calcified nodules weren’t too dense.
Yan Feifan placed a drop of absolute ethanol on the tissue sample...
"Mr. Yan, how is it?"
Yan Feifan pulled away from the microscope’s eyepiece and turned to look at Dr. Qiu, whose eyes were filled with concern and a touch of anxiety.
"It’s effective, but the shrinkage is only about sixty percent of what we’d normally see."
"This will require a longer waiting period and more injection sites..."
Yan Feifan considered for a mont, then said, "The waiting ti will need to be extended to one hour and fifty minutes."
"And the number of injection sites will need to increase from three to five."
"Even so..."
Yan Feifan reminded her, "the tumor shrinkage still won’t be what you were hoping for."
"The difficulty of the surgery will be much higher than we anticipated..."
Qiu Ge said in a deep voice, "As long as it has an effect, that’s all that matters."
She instructed an assistant to move Ren Xiaobao to the observation room for twenty-four hours of continuous monitoring. Then she pulled Yan Feifan into an office in the surgical wing to discuss the new surgical plan.
Yan Feifan drew a diagram of the tumor on the whiteboard, marking the five injection sites and illustrating the projected shrinkage.
After nearly an hour of pacing and thinking, Qiu Ge said gravely, "It will be difficult, but saving his vision is still possible."
"This ti, I’m going all in."
"Mr. Yan, we’ll schedule the surgery for seven o’clock tonight..."
User Comments
0 comments from readers