âDonât move around. Iâm not skilled. Iâm telling you this in advance so if you get hemiplegia from moving around so much, donât blame me,â Ma Yanlin mumbled at the operating bed.
Ling Ran was more interested in the operation itself than anesthesia. As the only licensed doctor in Guozheng Charity Hospital, Ma Yanlin had to take over the work and became the chief surgeonâs anesthetist in the hospital.
Selena was also forced to be a temporary nurse for several days. At that moment, while she helped out, she asked, âShould I translate what you said to the patient?â
âOf course, why not?â Ma Yanlin was fitting in a needle while his body was turned to the side. He turned around like an evil doctor and said, âExplain the risks to him. We can have a talk if he really doesnât want to do the surgery.â
âIf it were for me and I know you didnât know how to give anesthesia, I would not want to receive surgery.â Selena pouted.
âItâs up to him. If he doesnât want to do it, all three of his toes will have to go,â Ma Yanlin shrugged as he said, âLet him sign the pre-operation consent form. The English version is over there.â
Selena shrugged, turned around, and translated the conversation just now to Naldo.
Naldo looked down at his feet, and he was dumbfounded. âArenât there any anesthetists? Why donât you have an anesthetist? Iâm going to sue your hospital. â
âThe anesthetist left,â Selena said helplessly, âYou can either sue the anesthetist, or you can wait for the passageway to be open to do the surgery.â
âAfter the passageway is opened, I donât need the surgery anymore, right?â Naldo laughed self-deprecatingly, and his expression changed. âHow can you treat more than a hundred patients with such standards? And you claim that there werenât any deaths?â
Selena translated the question.
Ma Yanlin thought for a moment and said, âItâs either a doctorâs skill or luck.â
Ma Yanlin did not flatter Ling Ran so much since Ling Ran was not around.
For Naldo, of course, he thought it was just luck. His expression changed again.
But he could not bring himself to tell that he did not want to do the surgery.
There were three toes, and one of them was even the hallux. If he lost them, forget about carrying around weight when he walked around in the future, he might even have trouble walking.
âIâm about to receive the anesthesia now. Tell me the truth, how many people have died in the hospital recently? Let me make a judgment myself.â Naldoâs gaze was full of sincerity. He really wanted to know, and it was not only for the sake of his surgery, but also for information for his news.
âSo far, not yet,â Ma Yanlin replied indifferently and said to Selena, who was translating to Naldo, âAsk him if he wants to sign the form. If he doesnât want to sign it, I will go see other patients.â
Naldo hesitated for a moment, he had to sign the form. In his current situation, he really could not act tough.
Ma Yanlin immediately began to inject the anesthetics.
Compared to his initial skills, he had become much better in this. After all, now that he had a satellite phone, he could also make a phone call to consult a real anesthetist, which was not similar to how he learned it through reading books with Ling Ran.
After a few minutes, Naldo became unconscious.
A regional anesthesia was enough for a normal toe replantation. However, on the one hand, Ling Ran preferred general anesthesia. On the other hand, Ma Yanlin already had a hard time learning how to do a venous anesthesia. It was even harder to learn regional anesthesia on the spot.
âA patient with three severed toes⦠tsk⦠itâs basically like a celebratory giftâ¦â Ma Yanlin said, and he inevitably paused for a moment, he whispered to Selena doubtfully, âThis man is not a gift from Miss Tian Qi to Doctor Ling, right?â
âHow can Miss Tian Qi give a person as a gift?â Selena smiled, and in a flash, she thought of something and asked, âBy the way, I remember that in traditional Chinese culture, there is a dowry system for girls?â
âI have never heard of there being a system for dowry.â Ma Yanlin shook his head. âYou can call Doctor Ling to perform the surgery.â
The moment Selena heard the words âDoctor Lingâ, she could not be bothered to talk to Ma Yanlin anymore. She immediately went to get her walkie-talkie.
After fifteen minutes, Ling Ran was dressed neatly and walked into the operating theater.
After the construction of the passageway between Cuba Town and Guozheng Charity Hospital, the first thing they had to bear was the increase of a large number of patients.
The general practitioner in Cuba Town was inferior compared to other general practitioners. His ability to deal with diseases was not even comparable to Australian doctors. After all, Australian doctors could use Google proficiently, but the mother tongue of the general practitioner of Cuba Town was Portuguese.
The patients who had been ill or injured over the past few days received either anti-inflammatory pills, painkillers, antipyretics, or the most basic debridement. Of course, on the bright side, this general practitioner was a doctor, no matter what. Although his treatment level was poor, there was no big mistake done. For example, if Naldoâs toes were not resolutely amputated, then it would be more difficult to replant it now.
Moreover, the preservation of the severed toes by the general practitioner was quite remarkable.
He wrapped the severed toes with clean gauze, then packed it in a plastic bag and sealed it tightly, then placed it in the only small refrigerator in the clinic. He kept the refrigerator at a constant low temperature. In the process of transportation, the severed toes were placed in an incubator to ensure the condition of the toes was good.
It could be said that severed toes like these still had a great probability of being replanted even after another twenty-four hours.
In fact, if Naldo were lucky, the severed toes could be stored for a week and still could be replanted successfully. In terms of prognosis, naturally, it could not be compared with severed toes that had only been stored for a day. It was very difficult to get a good result. However, it was not an easy feat to make sure the severed toes survived.
The best toe replantation needed to be done within twenty-four hours. Naldoâs time had exceeded the ideal time, but with excellent preservation conditions, he could still get rather good results.
The key word being âratherâ.
âHe needs to have bone atrophy.â Under the 10X microscope, Ling Ran observed Naldoâs severed toe for a moment, looked at the severed end of the foot, shook his head slightly, and said, âThe tissue of the severed end should be completely removed from the lifeless and contaminated tissues. After that, hand me some of Andoverâs gauze and 10-0 nylon thread, then mark the blood vessels and nervesâ¦â
Ling Ran had more issues to consider over here compared to when he was at Yun Hua Hospitalâs operating theater.
This meant that the difficulty of the surgery had increased dramatically.
Ma Yanlin, as an assistant, was also busy in the corner. In fact, the nursesâ skills in the operating theater were not up to standard.
However, the imperfect surgery still needed to be carried out in the end.
At the end of the day, most surgeries were imperfect anyway, and that was just the world Ling Ran was familiar with.
âClean this severed end.â Ma Yanlin was so busy that he broke out in sweat. When his sweat was wiped off roughly by a middle-aged part timer next to him, he felt as if his skin would fall off.
âLoosen the tourniquet,â Ling Ran commanded. When he noticed the active bleeding, he let out a sigh of relief. âFasten the tourniquet. Wipe my sweat.â
Selena only translated the parts concerning the tourniquet. She then picked up the gauze herself, then dabbed it gently and carefully against Ling Ranâs forehead.