Surgery Godfather

Yang Ping put away the microscope and was done with the surgery for amniotic band syndrome.

“Let me check you out, little fella. Don’t be afraid, the surgery is over.”

Director Mei reaches out to feel the fetal heartbeat, but after a few minutes, expresses disappointment: “Still too slow.”

“The blood flow in the neck should have been freed up, it should be getting better.” Director Mei frowns.”

Such a surgery should show immediate improvement, especially since the decrease in fetal heart rate and movement had not been happening for long and the surgery was timely.

Could there still be an issue, or was the surgery unsuccessful?

...

“Let’s wait and watch a bit. Anesthesiologist, monitor the vital signs; patrolling nurse, track the blood loss and urine output. ” Director Ke advises patience.

It’s like reattaching a severed finger. After the surgery, the finger is still white and hasn’t regained color. We need to determine the reason and can’t leave the operating table hastily.

“Let me examine again.” Director Mei carefully examines with one hand supporting the fetus and the other hand.@@novelbin@@

She thoroughly examines the head, neck, chest, abdomen, back, lumbosacral spine, and limbs. Director Mei plans to also check the umbilical cord, sometimes it’s restricted by the amniotic band, further causing blood and oxygen supply problems.

The little guy is naive. He folds his umbilical cord in his hand. Perhaps he’s afraid of someone taking it. There’s no problem with the umbilical cord after examining it.”

“There’s no problem?” Director Mei trusts her careful examination.

Still worried, Director Ke examines again, but finds no problem: “Is it neck vessel spasm? Wait some more!”

After waiting another ten minutes without improvement, they knew they couldn’t continue like this. Although they stopped the bleeding with bipolar electrocoagulation, some bleeding was still seeping through the wound. It’s not good to leave the fetus this exposed for a long time.

Director Ke decides to communicate with the pregnant woman’s husband about closing the uterus, it carries certain risks, but now there’s no apparent reason for the complications.

In the family waiting area, Zhong Mingfang, the husband of the pregnant woman, waits anxiously. Even though it’s just a little over an hour, it feels like a year.

Director Ke removes her surgical gown, steps out of the operating room, opens the door, and shouts to the family waiting area: “Mr. He Liru!”

Zhong Mingfang jumped up like a spring, rushing over, “Doctor, what’s happened, save the mother, forget about the child!”

Director Ke has a bittersweet reaction to his radical response: “The surgery is over, the condition of the patient is stable.”

“Thank you!” Sweat pours off Zhong Mingfang’s forehead.

“Here’s the situation: we’ve finished your child’s surgery and it went well, but after the operation the fetal heart rate remains slow. We’ve checked everything and found no other problems. We’re prepared to close the abdominal cavity. If there is no improvement after a long time following the operation, I’m afraid we won’t be able to save the fetus.”

“No worries, doctor, please proceed with the closure, prioritize the mother!” Zhong Mingfang finally feels relieved.

“Okay, let’s proceed.”

Director Ke returns to the operating room, re-scrubs and heads back to the surgical table: “Close up!”

Director Mei adjusts the position of the fetus to make it comfortable in the womb. After adjusting, she takes the needle and thread from the nurse and begins to close the uterus. The fetus suddenly moves the moment the needle pierces the uterine wall. Director Mei immediately stops suturing.

“Anesthesiologist, what’s going on? The fetus is moving!”

The anesthesiologist is also confused: “The anesthesia dosage is normal. We can’t give more. The pregnant woman’s anesthesia depth is just right, and her vital signs are normal.”

Director Mei stops, and the fetus doesn’t move. After observing a bit, Director Mei thinks it’s fine and begins to suture the uterus again.

Well, holy moly, the fetus starts moving again, showing no respect at all.

Director Mei is confounded, it’s as if the baby doesn’t want her to sew the uterus closed; it’s not supposed to be that magical, right?

She stops the suturing, and the fetus stops moving again. Directors Mei and Ke exchange confused glances: “What’s going on? Does this baby not want to stay inside any longer?”

“That’s not ideal, it’s too early. Be patient, hold on a bit longer. When it’s the right time, I’ll personally help deliver you, okay? Can you cooperate a bit?” Director Mei speaks to the fetus as if it can understand her.

“Close it up, Director Mei!” Director Ke urges.

But as soon as the needle pierces the uterine wall, the fetus starts moving again. When Director Mei stops, he stops.

Could the needle piercing the uterus cause him pain or trigger some sort of nerve reflex? But he didn’t react when the uterus was first incised.

This is so weird, it’s like something supernatural.

“What’s going on?” Old Han, noticing the peculiarity on this side, comes over to ask.

Director Mei smiles bitterly: “This little fella isn’t letting me close the uterus. As soon as I begin with the needle and thread, he starts moving. Is this some sort of protest?”

Everyone here is a disciple of science who interprets phenomena through scientific knowledge. For unexplainable phenomena, though, they will simply conclude: mechanism unknown.

Forced to wait for a while, Director Mei lowered his head: “I don’t believe it!”

He began to suture again. Every time he did, the fetus would become restless, sometimes even kicking. Once the suturing stopped, the fetus would settle down. This pattern repeated each time Director Mei attempted to suture.

“Strange!”

Having practiced medicine for over twenty years, he’d never seen such a phenomenon. He asked Director Ke, “How do you explain that?”

“You’re asking me? Don’t you work with these little ones every day?” Even Director Ke was clueless.

Although there was no apparent logical connection, a clear chronological order was evident. Suturing and fetal movement were somehow linked, even if it wasn’t a cause-and-effect relationship.

“Suture it!”

Director Mei decided to forcefully continue suturing. He refused to be thwarted by such peculiarity. Handling a needle holder and toothed forceps, he began to suture. The fetus immediately became restless. Ignoring this, he continued, managing to apply three sutures. The restlessness of the child increased, as if it was about to lose control.

Possibly due to increased oxygen consumption and insufficient blood oxygen supply, the color of the fetus’s face also changed. Director Mei didn’t dare to continue suturing anymore and immediately stopped.

He placed the needle holder back on the kidney dish. “Let’s wait a bit, no more suturing for now.”

However, merely observing wasn’t a solution either. The cause needed to be found. Director Mei said, “Get Director Deng.”

While Director Deng was not the Department Director, she was the oldest in the department having retired and then returned to outpatient care. This made her very experienced. Maybe she could find out the reason.

The patrolling nurse helped to call the outpatient department and locate Director Deng. Director Deng, a skinny old lady in her sixties, arrived shortly.

After washing her hands and donning her surgical gown, she removed the sutures that Director Mei had inserted and examined the fetus in the womb. Finding no abnormalities, she shook her head, clueless.

What now? There was no solution?

While waiting in the operating room for a solution, Old Han, who had been standing aside all this while, suggested, “Let’s call Professor Zhang Zongshun.”

Professor Zhang specialized in Orthopedics. Consulting him for issues related to obstetrics, gynaecology and pediatric surgery seemed odd. However, since it was a suggestion from Director Han, it couldn’t be dismissed.

“Okay, then I’ll bother Director Han to please ask Professor Zhang to come.”

It wasn’t that Professor Zhang was adept at obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatric surgery. Rather, he had a reputation for delving deeply into problems with a broad knowledge base. He often elevated his research to philosophical dimensions.

Like in Orthopedics, for correcting deformities, he had written a book starting from human evolution and had clearly elaborated the theoretical foundation. He had a solid grasp of some basic sciences – not just anatomy, but even inflammation – he could explain it even better than pathology textbooks.

As everyone awaited in the operating room, Professor Zhang was still attending to his patients in the outpatient department. He had to settle his patient affairs first. Meanwhile, the blood pressure of the pregnant woman was okay. Director Han briefly explained the situation to Professor Zhang, who arrived in the operating room within ten-fifteen minutes.

“Professor Zhang—”

Wherever he went, anyone present would respectfully greet him as Professor Zhang. Responding with a simple gesture, he entered the operating room and asked, ‘What surgery is this?’

“Amniotic band syndrome. The neck and all four limbs have constriction bands. The surgery was over but can’t close the uterus. As soon as it was sutured, the fetus became restless. Previously, the movement of the fetus had actually decreased and showed signs of hypoxia,” Director Mei briefed him about the condition.

“As soon as we suture, it moves. If we do not suture, it stops. We had just sutured three times, and it became extremely restless, as if it was about to kick and punch. Its face even turned bluish.” Director Ke added.

“Can you suture a stitch for me to see?” Professor Zhang asked, stepping onto a stepping stool brought over by the patrolling nurse.

Because he couldn’t get too close to the operating table, he stood on the stepping stool for better visibility.

Director Mei demonstrated. Indeed, as soon as he began suturing, the fetus would move. If he stopped, so would the fetus. However, the movements now were not as intense as before. It was probably tired.

“Have the blood vessels in the neck been thoroughly examined – no obstruction?” Professor Zhang asked.

The surgery was performed by Yang Ping, who replied, “Once the constriction rings were released, the blood flow was restored. I performed a detailed examination; there were no issues.”

“Before the surgery, was there a slowing of the fetal heart rate?”

“Yes, it had slowed down!”

“Did the fetal heart rate improve after surgery?”

“No!”

Without answering, he walked around the operating table, checking the mother’s monitoring data, asked the anesthesiologist a few questions. Director Han brought over a stool for him to sit.

He declined, “I want to take a look up close.”

Professor Zhang scrubbed his hands and ascended to the operating table. He asked everyone to stay steady while Director Mei and Director Ke helped expose the hooks.

After a thorough examination, Professor Zhang’s initially stern expression seemed to relax. Had he discovered the problem?