Chapter 108: with translation of chapter title

Pengcheng, the window of national reform and opening-up.

Those who come are Pengcheng people; this saying has taken root. With the completion of the Gangzhu Aomao Daqiao, Pengcheng launched another surge of rapid development.

All kinds of people from across the country flocked to Pengcheng, and various hospitals sprang up as supporting facilities. Pengcheng offered medical staff staggeringly high salaries, causing countless medical elites to rush in.

……

Pengcheng Kaifaqu Renmin Yiyuan is a newly built Grade III, Class A large comprehensive hospital. Bright, spacious corridors and clean, tidy wards are pleasing to the eye.

But the biggest draw was still the People's Hospital's high salaries poaching several top medical figures from the mainland.

Among them was the rehired former senior director of the Intervention Department at a large hospital, Wu Haishi, Wu Lao.

The old man is sixty-four years old; he is among the first in the country to learn interventional surgery, a leading figure in the Interventional Medicine Discipline.

The newly established People's Hospital still had few patients, and many medical services were still being standardized and adjusted, so it was not very busy.

Wu Lao upheld the old-school work ethic, being down-to-earth and hardworking. Even after coming to Pengcheng, he organized department staff daily to study theory and knowledge, day after day.

After making early rounds, Wu Lao sat in his office, wearing his reading glasses, began organizing materials for the next study session, and added his stored surgical digital X-rays so that the young doctors could better understand the surgical content and difficulties.

"Dang dang dang~~" the knocking sound rang out.

"Please come in."

"Master." A man in his thirties walked in, stood properly, and his voice reached Wu Lao's ears just right.

He was Wu Lao's closed-door disciple, named Mu Tao, thirty-eight years old. He completed consecutive bachelor's and master's studies in university, then went on to earn his doctorate under Wu Lao. After graduating, he stayed at the hospital, always under Wu Lao's tutelage. When Wu Lao retired and was rehired by Pengcheng Kaifaqu Renmin Yiyuan, he came along to this ever-changing city.

Although he is old, Wu Lao's ears are not deaf; looking at the materials, he nodded and said, "What's the matter?"

"Recently, an account on Xinglin Yuan has been live-streaming surgery videos; I just finished a renal segment resection followed by bleeding renal artery embolization today, and I think it's quite impressive……"

"Oh? Bring it over to watch; videos of this kind of surgery are not many." Wu Lao immediately became interested, lifted his head, and pushed up his reading glasses.

Mu Tao quickly took out his phone, switched to Bluetooth mode, and the video image appeared on a LCD screen in Wu Lao's office.

In the video, the operator was performing a femoral artery puncture.

The movements were skillful, drawing blood on the first try; although not deliberately seeking speed, each step was precise, and in the blink of an eye the arterial sheath had already entered the femoral artery.

Wu Lao did not praise the operator's femoral artery puncture skill, because in his view it was simply expected.

The microguidewire was in place, the imaging system was turned on, and the field of view moved upward.

Just then, Wu Lao let out an affirmative hum.

Mu Tao quickly pressed the pause button and listened attentively.

Having followed Wu Lao for over ten years, he naturally knew that Wu Lao had discovered something.

As for what it was, it was surely the accuracy of blind manipulation of the microguidewire. Because on the screen the microguidewire happened to land at the distal end of the renal artery, the subsequent super-selective procedure could save a lot of time.

"Cross-hand operation?" Wu Lao pointed at the operator's hands on the screen and said.

Mu Tao was taken aback; in his view the operator's operation had many highlights, but it did not include the pair of hands at the bottom of the screen that were about to disappear quickly.

What the heck is cross-hand operation?

Wu Lao smiled, stood up, walked to the big screen, pointed at the crossed hands wearing sterile gloves, and said: "This is an operating habit; only the earliest generation of people who learned interventional surgery have it."

"Here, left hand on right, fixing the guidewire; right hand on left, advancing the microcatheter."

"On this side, there is also the assistant's hand, but the operator still habitually uses cross-hand operation; do you know why?"

Upon hearing Wu Lao's question, Mu Tao broke out in a sweat.

In his view, this maneuver is flawed, at the very least superfluous. Because the operator's mode of operation greatly diminishes the assistant's role.

"I don't know." Mu Tao spoke frankly.

"Because when interventional surgery was first being learned, there were very few people, and you couldn't even find someone to assist. Basically it was a solo operation—you fixed the guidewire yourself and advanced the catheter yourself. So you used the more dexterous right hand to manipulate the microcatheter while the left hand held the microguidewire steady; that's how cross-hand operation came about."

But you don't need it nowadays.

Wu Lao felt somewhat sentimental and nostalgic, reminiscing about the time when, under tremendous radiation, he patiently and meticulously performed surgeries.

Angiography, super-selective technique, gel sponge—step by step everything became clear; there was no deliberate pursuit of speed, yet no step wasted time, and the whole procedure succeeded in one go.

As the embolization was completed, they waited, performed another angiography, confirmed that the renal artery was no longer bleeding heavily, and the surgical video ended.

"Not bad." Wu Lao said lightly.

"Soon."

"He must be very precise; every super-selective attempt was successful. Let me guess who he is." Wu Lao sat back in his chair, closed his eyes, and began to ponder.

Mu Tao did not disturb him, merely waiting quietly.

After a few minutes, Wu Lao shook his head and said, "People who are used to cross-hand operation have basically left the front lines of clinical practice; even if they occasionally step up, it's only to guide surgery. This person's hands are very steady, his mind meticulous, his eyesight good—I'd estimate he's not old."

Surgeons and boxers alike belong to professions where experience and physical strength cannot both be had.

For surgeons, the golden age is between forty and fifty. By then they have accumulated some experience points, and their physical condition is still good—eyes not dim, hands not shaking.

Peak condition will appear in this age range.

But this does not include certain monstrously talented individuals.

For example, a certain cardiothoracic surgery bigwig in the early 1990s had already reached his peak in his thirties. Unfortunately, he was solitary; he was squeezed out at Di Du Fuwai Yiyuan, returned to his hometown in Dong Bei, and founded his own specialty hospital for cardiovascular disease.

In a few years, this hospital became a top-tier hospital nationwide.

There are many more miraculous things about such a person; a few years later he went to a medical division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to serve as a secretary.

After retirement, due to rapid arrhythmia, he needed surgery.

But he was the nation's top bigwig, trusting no one, because in his view everyone else's operations and experience fell short of his own……

So, he lay on the operating table, with the imaging system suspended above his head.

His gaze steady, he guided his own doctoral student to perform the surgery on him.

During the procedure ventricular fibrillation occurred; after successful resuscitation, he continued guiding his doctoral student to carry on the surgery.

Finally, the surgery succeeded!

Of course, the foregoing is just anecdote; he is precisely that kind of monstrous talent who reached his peak around age thirty-five.

Mu Tao feels ashamed of not being as good as such people, but Master's meaning is… perhaps this practitioner from Xinglin Yuan is also such a person?

"Perhaps it's a little guy cultivated by some old friend, who knows?" Wu Lao gave a faint smile, "Pay attention to this livestream, um, record this video clip to a USB drive, and notify everyone of the Afternoon training."