Chapter 2406: First Encounter
In the middle of surgery, the last thing you want is anything unexpected, as it prolongs the surgery time, adds harm to the patient, and makes the doctors anxious and irritable.
Perhaps because the surgery was progressing too quickly, the Chief Surgeon seemed to take a breath under the surgical mask before picking up the saw.
The First Assistant and the Second Assistant realized they were being glanced at by the Chief Surgeon’s round eyes.
Sherlock Holmes Student Pan winked, probably the most understanding of the Chief Surgeon’s feelings. Back when he first teamed up with Student Xie, he too was pressed by Student Xie’s speed to the point of sweating profusely.
The main event of sawing open the sternum arrived. The doctor picked up the sternum saw, first confirming that the saw teeth were at a ninety-degree angle perpendicular to the plane of the sternum, similar to sawing a large tree with a power saw, to maximize the effectiveness of the blade.
The scene of sawing through the bone was understandably striking. This wasn’t a diseased bone, which might be like a deadwood with no nutritional value. On the contrary, a healthy bone would certainly have a marrow cavity rich in blood, and once cut into, there would be blood gushing.
Like other human tissues and organs, bleeding must be stopped. How do you stop bleeding in a marrow cavity? You can’t suture it. Medical methods of hemostasis other than sutures and electrocautery include packing. Bone wax is used to pack a bleeding marrow cavity. Packing must be precise; indiscriminate packing in non-bleeding areas is harmful. Based on this principle, sawing the bone must be done quickly, and once the bone is sawed, cracking it open must be equally swift so that bleeding points can be quickly identified and packed to stop the bleeding.
The task of cracking the bone open fell to the First Assistant. Almost simultaneously as the power saw stopped spinning and just left the sternum, the First Assistant’s hands flashed over like lightning, instantly prying apart the sternum as if it were timber split in two.
Student Xie’s "strength like a bull" once again drew exclamations of astonishment from all around.
People were not so much amazed at her strength itself but rather at how precisely she could apply it.
The Second Assistant’s suction device moved with equal electric speed, vacuuming with hurricane force while the bone was being pried open, as if anticipating the First Assistant’s timing without the slightest delay.
Once cleaned, the Chief Surgeon found it very easy to apply wax to the exposed opening.
The Chief Surgeon’s breath was slightly labored behind the surgical mask, this work was so busy that he couldn’t catch his breath.
Cao Zhao looked at the Chief Surgeon’s round face, thinking it was the first time seeing his child driven to this extent.
What does the genius of procedures imply? It implies being composed and confident, able to work slowly, thinking things through before acting. Therefore, Student Duan Sanbao could ponder like an ostrich beforehand, babble like Tang Seng, or chant scriptures slowly like Tang Seng. The essence of such slow movement is not abandoning but lacking enthusiasm.
Yet now, at this moment, Tang Seng Student Duan seemed driven with sparkling eyes, his passion accompanied by a flurry of hand movements.
The anesthesiologist and nurses looked up at the clock on the operating room wall, judging by the time whether the rapid scene they had just witnessed was an illusion. It was ultimately confirmed not to be; the surgery was indeed proceeding at double the speed of routine time for similar procedures.
After applying bone wax, the Chief Surgeon stretched his neck to take a break, to consider the next important steps.
The Second Assistant took the electrosurgical unit to help the Chief Surgeon clean up the aftermath, cauterizing any remaining bleeding spots on the periosteum.