Chapter 213: The difficulties of having a hand cut off
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Zhang Fan drove as fast as the wind, which was helped by the fact that few cars were currently on the road. Zhang Fan hurriedly took Tong Lili to Ma Wentao’s hospital. On the way, Tong Lili had been rather curious which hospital Zhang Fan was going to perform surgery at. A young rotation doctor like her still didn’t know much about medical society.
When Zhang Fan arrived at Ma Wentao’s hospital, some of the new younger doctors working there were waiting for him at the entrance due to Chen Qifa’s command.
“Teacher Zhang, everything has been prepared. We’re just waiting for the patient to arrive now,” Chen Qifa, who hurriedly stood up, told Zhang Fan when the latter arrived at the operating room.
“Alright. This is Doctor Tong. She would also like to participate in this surgery,” Zhang Fan explained to Chen Qifa while pointing at Tong Lili. Zhang Fan then went over to Ma Wentao’s office.
Zhang Fan had just finished a 24-hour work shift. It would be obvious that he was tired. Zhang Fan thus went to go drink some coffee. The hand reattachment surgery he was about to perform would require extreme precision. It would fail with even the slightest lapse of attention. That was why Zhang Fan needed to use caffeine to stimulate his brain.
Ma Wentao wasn’t in his office, but Zhang Fan was quite familiar with it, knowing where to find the coffee machine. He took four packets of instant coffee, and made two mugs of coffee with two packets apiece as just one packet of coffee wouldn’t be strong enough.
“Here, have some coffee. Otherwise, it will be troublesome if you get sleepy during the surgery. You still have time to regret it and back out now if you want,” Zhang Fan said to Tong Lili. Actually, he wasn’t worried what Tong Lili would do at all at all, because he only needed one surgical assistant for this particular surgery. Zhang Fan simply wanted to make Tong Lili experience what microsurgery was truly like today.
“Rest assured, I definitely won’t back down!” Tong Lili was acting a little prideful!
Tong Lili already had a quick chat with Chen Qifa while Zhang Fan was preparing the coffee. Chen Qifa was really appreciative that a young female doctor like her was willing to even beg to come and join a surgery. He felt that her spirit was admirable. Ever since Chen Qifa obtained his medical license, he was becoming a nicer person. He was already becoming more like an elder.
The patient was an electric welder. Maybe it was because today was cold and his hand slipped, or maybe it was a problem with his machinery, but he accidentally cut off his own left hand completely with his machinery.
His family immediately took him to the local city hospital, which provided emergency treatment to stop the bleeding as well as preservation for the cut off hand. The patient was then immediately sent to Ma Wentao’s hospital. At such a time, the patient and his family would place all of their hopes on the doctors. They would go to any hospital that the doctors told them to!
Ma Wentao had successfully used money to dominate the market for limb replantation surgeries by offering other hospitals a cut of the surgery fee for sending him limb replantation patients. This managed to help his hospital’s orthopedic microsurgery gain some fame. All of the local city hospitals in the area now knew of this. They would always recommend Ma Wentao’s hospital for any limb replantation patient, which really helped to boost Ma Wentao’s business.
After several months of training and self-study, Chen Qifa was now capable of independently performing the easier finger reattachment surgeries. He was still unable to perform any limb replantation surgeries which were slightly more complex. Besides, reattachment surgery for an entire hand would be many times more difficult than reattaching a finger.
Limb replantation and finger reattachment surgery techniques were quite well developed already. The success rate was quite good already as well. But as for reattaching a hand? To put it bluntly, Zhang Fan was the only person in all of Chasu City who was capable of performing such a surgery! The hand was filled with an extremely abundant number of muscles, nerves, and blood vessels. Not to mention, the two most advanced and evolved portions of the human body were the brain and the hand. Hand reattachment surgery would be one of the higher-difficulty surgeries under the microsurgery category.
China was doing well economically. Most hospitals would have complete sets of medical equipment already. For village level hospitals, it was normal to have all necessary regular medical equipment. In slightly more well-to-do villages, it wouldn’t even be strange for a village hospital to have CT scanners. Although northwestern China was still slightly underdeveloped compared to the rest of China, every hospital would at least have ambulances.
The sound of the ambulance siren was getting ever closer. “Be prepared. The patient is almost here,” said Zhang Fan as he stood at the ambulance station. He had already finished changing into surgical attire.
When the ambulance door opened, a woman who appeared to be in her 50s carried a young man in his 20s off the ambulance. Much of the woman’s front body was covered in blood trails.
“Don’t be in such a hurry! No need to rush! Be careful not to trip! We have stretchers,” the ambulance’s nurse hurriedly cautioned the woman.
“It’s fine. I’m strong enough to carry him. A stretcher would be too slow.” The woman’s face was red from the exertion, but her steps were quite steady.
“Hurry and help her!” Zhang Fan immediately exclaimed—if the woman accidentally dropped the patient, the patient would be even more seriously injured!
The doctors and nurses hurriedly went up and helped the woman to carry the patient into the hospital. Zhang Fan saw that the patient’s condition was still alright. He wasn’t unconscious, and the local city hospital had already given him pain medication. However, time was of the essence for hand reattachment surgery.
Zhang Fan said to Chen Qifa, “Hurry and get the patient’s family to sign the surgery paperwork. Bring the patient to the operating room immediately.”
The older woman was the patient’s mother. The patient’s father had died a long time ago. The mother and son ran a small business together where they made iron windows and iron doors. The mother was under a significant amount of pressure since her only child had now received such a serious injury, and her husband had died young. But, what could she even do? No matter how difficult things were, all she could do was grit her teeth and persevere.
“Allow me to speak bluntly with a summary. You can read over the specifics for yourself. I just need to tell you two things. First, this surgery might fail. There is no guarantee. Not only that, there’s no guarantee that we will be able to restore functionality to his hand even if the reattachment is successful. Second, you need to immediately pay the surgery fee because we’re starting very soon,” Chen Qifa said very quickly, and immediately gave the surgery paperwork to the mother.
The mother didn’t really have any other choice, since her son was in such a condition already. She immediately signed the paperwork, and then asked, “Doctor, how much is required for the surgery fee?”
“Pay 30,000 yuan first. The rest will depend on his recovery after the surgery.”
“I only have 20,000 yuan. Please, start the surgery, and I’ll think of some method for the rest of the money!” The mother was quite anxious. She looked at Chen Qifa with a pleading expression.
“Alright. Try your best to get the money!” This was enough for the surgery fee, but postoperative care would also be really important.
Tears kept dripping from the mother’s eyes. She did her best to restrain them as she said, “Doctor, please do your best! My son is still young. Don’t let him become handicapped! Please! I’m begging you!”
“Rest assured, we’ll do our best to save your son. We’re parents as well. You should hurry and go now! I need to join the surgery.” Chen Qifa tried to console the mother a little. Everyone would have some empathy. However, due to the outrageous behavior of illegal Fujianese private hospitals, the reputation of all other Chinese private hospitals suffered immensely!
If it wasn’t for Ma Wentao’s hospital which specialized in microsurgeries for limb replantation surgery, then this patient would have only been able to go to a public hospital today. However, very few local hospitals would have a department capable of performing limb replantation surgery. He would thus have to go to the provincial capital for his surgery.
That was a distance of several hundred kilometers. In order to take a plane there, the airline would require all sorts of paperwork from the hospital, which would likely take more than a day to complete. As for going to the provincial capital by car? That would take about seven or eight hours. It would be far too late to perform the hand reattachment surgery then!
Human hands were different from plants. The hand wouldn’t regrow after being cut off. If it wasn’t for the Fujianese private hospitals’ behavior, perhaps China’s private hospital industry could have developed healthily and really helped China’s medical system!
There was a time limit for effectiveness with limb replantation surgeries. There would be no hope at all if the time limit was passed! The limb would lose all function even if it was reattached successfully.
The surgery began. Three sterile tables were placed in the operating room. One held the cut off hand, one held the medical equipment for cleaning the injury, and one held the medical equipment for the hand reattachment surgery. The two different types of medical equipment absolutely had to be separated. Otherwise, it might be that the surgery would succeed, but the hand would become infected and die!