Surgery Godfather

Chapter 62: Chapter 0060: Can Anesthesia Reduce IQ?

After three days in the hospital, Li Jingshu’s swelling had significantly subsided, and she was ready for manual reduction.

According to the original plan, if manual reduction was unsuccessful, they would proceed to surgery.

Professor Zhang insisted on walking on his own, leaning on his crutch, with everyone guarding his sides.

To be honest, not to mention a complex dual bone fracture reduction in the forearm, everyone had little experience with even the simple ones.

Manual reduction was like an endangered animal teetering on the brink of extinction.

Li Jingshu was wheeled in by her mother. It was only a case of an upper limb fracture, and she could walk, but Mrs. Li still used a wheelchair to push her along.

She rubbed her eyes, she looked a little haggard. This sudden trauma was a double attack emotionally and physically.

Her orderly life had been disrupted. The uncertainty of recovery kept haunting her, making her worried and scared.

“Mom, I don’t want surgery?” Li Jingshu turned her head, looking pitiful.

Mrs. Li’s heart ached as she stroked her daughter’s hair, “Silly girl, not everything can go according to your wishes. I would rather it was me who had the fracture, not my precious baby.”

Her phone vibrated, Mrs. Li answered, “We’re about to head to the operating room, don’t worry, everything will be fine. Professor Zhang will personally attempt the reduction. If it doesn’t work, then we have to do surgery. Everything has been arranged, don’t worry.”

“It’s your father.” Mrs. Li handed the phone to Li Jingshu.

“Uh-huh, dad, I’m afraid of scarring. Uh-huh, I understand, don’t worry.” Just like a wronged child, tears flowed from Li Jingshu’s eyes.

After ending the call, Mrs. Li said, “Just relax, when the time comes the doctor will do cosmetic stitches for you. You know Sanbo Hospital, they’ve successfully done a five-section replantation that sensationalized the whole country, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Mrs. Li reassured her, clutching her daughter’s hand which was stretched over her shoulder. She knew well that the chances of successful manual reduction were slim. It was just a case of not giving up hope until the very end.

“No matter how they stitch it, there will be scars. You are lying to me. I’m scared of surgery.” Li Jingshu sounded like a little girl.

“I will let you get a tattoo on your arm afterwards, okay?” Mrs. Li kept comforting her.

“I’m not getting a tattoo.” Li Jingshu said.

The surgery naturally took priority, and the operating room had long been prepared.

While lying on the operating table, staring at the ceiling and the surgical lights, Li Jingshu’s body started to shake slightly.

The anesthesiologist was positioning her arm under a surface ultrasound, preparing to administer an axillary block anesthesia.

This was the first time she felt so helpless. Her arm was in someone else’s hands, and whether it was a success or failure was no longer up to her.

“Don’t be afraid, it’s going to be alright. Even if we have to do surgery, we won’t let the scar be too obvious. If worse comes to worst, you can work in the Northeast where you’ll be bundled up in thick clothing all the time. Who will notice?” Yang Ping tried to comfort her. Seeing her pitiful look, Yang Ping’s heart softened, and she no longer found her annoying.

“You make it sound like eating candy.” Li Jingshu said, becoming more and more scared, terrified of failure and ultimately, of surgery.

Professor Zhang only assigned Yang Ping as a spectator, the assistant position was given to Song Zimo, and there was also that assistant graduate student, Xiao Mo. So she had nothing to do, she could chat with Li Jingshu a bit, it was purely voluntary encouragement.

This kind of reduction normally required three people to cooperate—two to do the traction and one to reposition the bone. It was just like a surgery, with clear roles for the main doctor and the assistant.

“Help me pull up my cap, it’s covering my eyes. I’m scared that if it doesn’t work, I’ll need surgery.” Li Jingshu turned her head.

Yang Ping noticed her disposable sterile cap had slipped down, covering her eyes. She reached out to pull it up.

“Will the anesthesia lower my IQ?” Li Jingshu asked.

I’m faint, are you a well-educated person, asking such a stupid question.

But on second thought, she isn’t a medical student, of course she wouldn’t understand. It’s all assumptions when people are uninformed.

In the past when he rotated in the emergency department, there were parents who firmly refused anesthesia for their children, especially general anesthesia. When asked why, they said their child was so smart they didn’t want to make them stupid.

Can anesthesia make people stupid?

Only after Yang Ping had looked through a great deal of anesthetics literature, did he dare to conclude that anesthesia would not make people stupid.

“Your IQ is so high, losing a little bit won’t matter. It’s like losing one note from a $10,000 bundle, it’s not a big deal.” Yang Ping casually replied.

“So it will lower my IQ after all?” She was almost in tears again.

Yang Ping had thought she was joking. But it turned out she was asking sincerely.

Patients’ IQs drop to zero in front of diseases. This is a statement Yang Ping believed in now.

This is also the theoretical basis for the rise of miraculous healers, like Tian.

“No, it won’t!” Yang Ping reassured her, “Anesthetics just temporarily block nerve conduction. The liver and kidneys of the human body will clear these substances. After a period, the body will have cleared the drugs, and they won’t have any effect anymore. How could that lower your IQ?”

Educated people like to hear the theory. After this explanation, she understood, and her crying turned into laughter.

The anesthesia puncture was successful, and the drugs were infused into the nerve sheath and the surrounding area.

The equipment on the other side was also almost ready. Bandages, splints, bone separators, pressure pads were laid out. The C-arm X-ray machine was also brought over.

The Patrolling Nurse used a lead apron to shield Li Jingshu’s lower abdomen, and a bib to cover her neck.

To protect against X-rays, the focus was on the glands, such as the thyroid and gonads, for females the gonads are the ovaries.

The splints were made of cedarwood bark, Sanbo Hospital didn’t have such equipment, they only had splints with aluminum cores, which were not very suitable.

These cedarwood splints were meticulously selected from the storeroom of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.

Professor Zhang didn’t yet know that this patient was the Mayor’s daughter, not because he was slow, but he simply didn’t care about these things.

“Young lady, don’t be nervous, we’ll help you with another reduction. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to resort to surgery. But there’s no need to fear surgery, we’ll try our best to sew it up in a way that the scars are not noticeable,” Professor Zhang reassured her kindly.

The Head Nurse had already brought a chair, Professor Zhang sat on it, after all he had just finished an operation, even though he could walk, he couldn’t be as relaxed as usual.

The height of the operating bed was adjusted to match the height of Professor Zhang’s chair.

Director Han was also present, as for the reduction, it was something he had done in his youth, it was merely a youthful memory to him.

Others who missed the surgery, those whose surgeries had not yet started, all gathered around to see. The Head Nurse drove many away because too many people would interfere with the operation.

The office director, dressed in visitor’s clothing, also came in, representing the hospital leadership, to show their concern.

The hospital leaders and their families staying in the hospital, those who Dean Xia personally visited, the time of the visit, the duration, and the quantity of flower and fruit baskets, none of these were done at random, there were rules.

“Miss Li, hello! Dean Xia is in a meeting and asked me to come on his behalf. Don’t be nervous, Professor Zhang is an expert in manual reduction, we will do all we can to assist.”

The purpose of a visit is to make your status known, otherwise, the visit would be deemed as wasted.

The Office Director’s words were quite bureaucratic, but he was addressing Li Jingshu who was trembling and looking as feeble as a little girl, hence it felt a bit misplaced.

Li Jingshu looked innocently at the Office Director, seeming to have not registered what he had said.

The details didn’t matter, what mattered was that the protocol had been completed. When he left, he wouldn’t simply leave but would report the progress in the operating room to Mrs. Li. The idea was to make it clear to Mrs. Li that a representative of the hospital’s leadership had visited, otherwise, it would have been a wasted visit.

Although Yang Ping disliked these formalities, he understood its necessity in these professional settings.

Xiao Mo was using the small splint to compare against Li Jingshu’s upper right limb, trying to measure the splint’s length and width.

Generally, the limbs on both sides are similar, by comparing with the healthy limb, it can alleviate the patient’s pain and fear.

Li Jingshu’s reaction was intense, she immediately tensed up and said, “You’ve got it wrong, it’s the left side.”

“He’s just comparing the size of the splint, to estimate the measurement.” Yang Ping explained.

Nowadays there is pre-surgery check, the patient’s surgery is checked once upon acceptance at the ward; checked again upon entering the operating room; and once more before surgery. There are very few cases of operated body parts being misidentified.

Previously, without these strict regulations, mistakes did happen. The most serious case was at a big hospital, two children, same sex, same age, same name, one was to undergo surgery for a congenital heart defect, and the other to have his tonsils removed.

The child with the tonsils problem was mistakenly sent to the thoracic surgery room, and the one with the congenital heart defect was sent to the ear, nose, and throat department operating room.

In any case, the surgery was prepared by assistants, sterilizing and arranging sheets, everything was done, then the professor came onto the stage, and all he saw was the prepared surgical area.

The professor was very efficient, his skills were top-notch.

Opening the chest!

Damn it, something was wrong, there was no heart malformation.

The professor’s hand was shaking so much that he could not hold the instrument steadily.

As a result, the patient with the heart malformation had his tonsils removed, and the one with the tonsils problem had his chest opened.

This incident was later reported nationally, hence hospitals had organized doctors for learning sessions.

But this was a low-probability event, similar to a plane falling from the sky.

The anesthesia took effect, the splint was cut to the correct size, Li Jingshu’s left limb was placed on the C arm machine’s detector.

Professor Zhang had also finished studying the CT 3D reconstruction.

Professor Zhang, Song Zimo, Xiao Mo put on their lead clothing, everything was ready, they began the reduction.

“Don’t leave!” Li Jingshu saw Yang Ping preparing to leave and seemed a bit frightened.

Possibly because he had just accompanied her in a chat, she got a brief sense of security.

Professor Zhang said, “Put on the lead coat, it’s good to watch.”

Yang Ping put on the lead coat that Little Five brought, and stood aside.

All other personnel were cleared from the room.