Chapter 138: Taking On A Mission In Crisis!
The operating rooms in the surgery building were brightly lit in the early morning, with circulating nurses still systematically pushing various equipment.
The expressions on their faces were not the anxious disarray seen in the emergency department, but rather more exhaustion.
It was understandable that with the intervention of Professor Chen Song and Professor Tong Yuan’an, the rescue had concluded, and what remained were “pseudo-elective surgeries,” allowing everyone to put away their panic.
Lu Cheng hesitated for a few seconds before deciding to go to Operating Room 5, where Tong Yuan’an was.
The operating rooms in the surgery building were more than twice as luxurious as those in the emergency department in terms of size, setup, and number of surgical suites.
“Swish swish swish~”
After Lu Cheng stepped on the automatic sensor foot pedal to open the airtight door, many gazes shifted to him. After a quick scan that identified Lu Cheng, no one spoke.
It was Tong Yuan’an who, after giving Lu Cheng a rather exasperated glance, continued to handle the relatively critical vascular suturing and asked, “Xiao Lu, how is the flexor tendon in District Two?”
Lu Cheng slightly narrowed his eyes and precisely recalled: “The distal flexor tendon of the index finger had longitudinal tears at the 1:30 and 4:30 positions, and longitudinal tears at the 10:00 and 8:00 positions.”
“Just causing trouble!” Tong Yuan’an didn’t curse, but he gritted his teeth and gasped.
Lu Cheng moved closer to the operating table, carefully observed the surgical progress, and then said, “Teacher Tong, since you’ve handled the tendons here, I’ll go to the adjacent operating room to see if any help is needed.”
Lu Cheng’s explanation was subtle, not boasting about his excellent tendon suturing technique.
From the order in which Tong Yuan’an was currently handling the severed finger, Lu Cheng understood why Professor Zhong had specifically emphasized the order of handling severed fingers during replantation when he was at Xiehe Hospital.
Hand surgery is a specialized field, and having seriously studied and pondered the surgeries, he was as familiar with the surgical procedures and order as if by instinct. He was not yet at the learning stage and was still standing outside.
“When you’re done, come to suite 3. There’s a partial limb replantation there. I’ll assess the situation and handle the blood vessels first!” Tong Yuan’an instructed.
Tong Yuan’an was upset because there were already enough emergency cases, and after finishing this surgery, he still had a partial limb replantation waiting for him.
Now, with an additional tendon revision surgery, he not only had to perform more surgeries but also race against time.
No chief surgeon wants to rush into surgery!
Lu Cheng, who had already turned to leave and was at the entrance to the operating room’s airtight door, hesitated and turned back upon hearing Tong Yuan’an speak:
“Teacher Tong, why don’t you go directly to the emergency operating room after you finish here? I can handle that partial limb replantation?”
Tong Yuan’an instinctively stopped his suturing operation, looked up in surprise, and asked with a conflicted tone, “Are you trying to stir up trouble again?”
Mid-sentence, Tong Yuan’an’s mind rapidly analyzed every detail.
Lu Cheng had demonstrated the suturing of a severed artery on Teachers’ Day. The artery diameter for a partial limb replantation is much larger than that for a finger replantation.
If Lu Cheng truly learned something from the advanced study class on nerve suturing at Xiehe Hospital, then even if there was nerve damage in this partial limb replantation, Lu Cheng could still handle it.
Lu Cheng would not report to him immediately after learning something just to show off. Tong Yuan’an was not someone who would make himself miserable without understanding the psychological impact his own reclusiveness might have on Lu Cheng.
“Can you handle it?” Tong Yuan’an’s tone shifted.
Lu Cheng replied in a perfectly modulated voice, “Certainly not as experienced as you, Teacher Tong, but if the requirements aren’t too high and to save time, I can manage.”
“It should survive, and we can salvage some function.”
The person assisting Tong Yuan’an was Deputy Director Tian Shan from the Orthopedics Department, primarily responsible for sports medicine surgeries. He was currently wide-eyed.
Of course, a disposable surgical mask only revealed his widened eyes.
No one paid attention.
Tong Yuan’an nodded slightly, “That’s fine then… You go and check if the tendon suturing in the other operating rooms is urgent.”
“If it’s not very urgent, then go to suite 3.”
“There are a total of five patients here. Patients in suites 1 and 4 are unrelated to tendons. Suite 2 involves multiple tendon injuries in the upper and lower limbs.”
“Go take a look,” Tong Yuan’an emphasized the word “look.”
Suite 2 was Peng Haibo’s operating room. Due to Peng Kun’s previous incident, he now even suspected if Peng Haibo was also trying to ‘gain operating opportunities’ amidst the chaos!
“Okay!” Lu Cheng didn’t look back and directly stepped on the airtight door of the operating room.
The surgical suites in the surgery building were arranged sequentially on one side: 1, 3, 5 on one side and 2, 4, 6 on the other.
Suite 5 was not far from operating room 2. Lu Cheng walked less than twenty meters before reaching the entrance.
Upon entering, he saw familiar faces: Director Peng Haibo and Director Liu Xia from District Two were personally performing the surgery, with two assistants from District Two helping.
Upon seeing Lu Cheng enter, Director Liu Xia from District Two busily called out, “Xiao Lu, you’ve arrived at the perfect time. This patient has multiple injuries to the muscles and tendons in their upper and lower limbs. You can take a look…”
Peng Haibo had already returned to the operating table and stood rigidly by, not speaking further.
The Orthopedics Department Two was an offshoot of Department One and its primary scope of work was not significantly different from that of Department One.
The only difference was that Department Two did not handle emergencies; it primarily relied on scheduled surgeries admitted through outpatient clinics to maintain its stability. The patient volume was less than in Department One.
However, Peng Haibo would transfer some simpler disease types such as bone and joint tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, and infections to Department Two.
In a situation of urgency, Lu Cheng was only an attending physician and, by rights, should not be the technical supervisor guiding two deputy chief physicians.
However, his designation as technical supervisor was a temporary appointment by the Vice President. At this point, the two directors could disregard Lu Cheng’s guidance, and Lu Cheng could also claim he hadn’t been in that operating room.
Lu Cheng approached the operating table and took a look. He then said, “Director Liu, Director Peng, the surgery here still has some time before tendon suturing.”
“You can leave the tendon suturing for me to handle later.”
“When I was in suite 5, Professor Tong asked me to go to suite 3 to handle that partial limb replantation.”
“The situation there will be more urgent. I’ll come back after I’ve handled it. Professor Tong will go directly to the emergency operating room after he finishes here.”
Lu Cheng stood firm, looked up at Liu Xia and Peng Haibo, and asked for their opinions.
The information contained in Lu Cheng’s words was so dense that both Peng Haibo and Liu Xia were momentarily stunned. Partial limb replantation was a specialized surgical procedure in hand surgery that was not performed in Long County.
Peng Haibo’s attention was more focused on Professor Tong’s whereabouts. Upon hearing that Tong Yuan’an would go to the emergency surgical area immediately after finishing, he immediately nodded:
“It’s fine, Xiao Lu, you go. We’ll leave this operation for you.”
Liu Xia coughed, and his voice sounded distorted as he asked, “Xiao Lu, what did you just say? Professor Tong asked you to do a partial limb replantation?”
Lu Cheng ignored Liu Xia and walked around the operating table again, confirming that the vascular injury here had been handled, there was no active bleeding, just multiple wounds that looked quite severe.
“Director Liu, Teacher Tong just asked me to go take a look first. Whether I can actually perform it will depend on the specific situation,” Lu Cheng turned and stepped on the door again.
