Chapter 1154: 1124 City Folks Really Know How to Have Fun

Zheng Lao Ban, are these surgical instruments? Wang Zong asked, astonished.

He thought Zheng Ren was just acting cool, but he didn't expect Zheng Ren to be genuinely cool.

These instruments are so beautiful and precise. Any doctor with some surgical experience can tell they are definitely custom-made surgical tools, and they would surely be very handy to use.

Director Sun was dumbfounded; at a glance he could tell these instruments were of the extremely expensive kind he wouldn't even dare to imagine.

Given Zheng Ren's income, he definitely couldn't afford such equipment; it must have been a gift from someone else.

"Chief Zheng, which manufacturer is so generous?" Director Sun swallowed and asked.

He thought it was a gift from the manufacturer, and if he ever got a chance to meet that manufacturer's salesperson, he would insist on getting a set of these surgical instruments no matter what.

Leaving aside whether they're easy to use, just being able to bring surgical instruments on stage like Chief Zheng does is a symbol of status.

But speaking of city folks, they really know how to have fun!

Tsk tsk, Chief Zheng went to the capital and learned bad habits.

Chief Zheng used to be so honest and simple, but now he's learned to show off. Although that's what people say, just looking at him makes me envious.

"It wasn't a gift from the manufacturer." Zheng Ren watched Xie Yiren finish scrubbing, put on his clothes, stepped onto the stage, reached out, and the hemostatic forceps and blunt scissors landed in his hand as he replied: "A few days ago, when I went to the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Charles gave them to me."

"The Mayo Clinic?"

"Dr. Charles?"

Director Sun and Wang Zong were focused on different points.

Director Sun paused, then realized what the matter was about. Chief Zheng's mention of Dr. Charles... sounded unfamiliar—who is that?

He glanced at Wang Zong with a questioning look.

"Charles Moore, formerly renowned as the world's strongest surgeon, later turned to basic research and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his nucleic acid project," Wang Zong said.

Director Sun was speechless.

A Nobel laureate feels so distant from me, as far apart as heaven and earth.

"Zheng Lao Ban, you're awesome," Wang Zong whispered.

"Surgery's starting, pay attention to the operating field," Zheng Ren said, tapping Wang Zong's retractor and speaking softly.

Wang Zong snapped to attention, holding the lightweight retractor, and exposed the operating field for Zheng Ren.

The blunt scissors and hemostatic forceps performed blunt dissection in a simple, straightforward manner— the technique wasn't complex, even a bit simple.

Although the abdomen looked so adhesioned that normal anatomy was impossible to discern, under these somewhat simple hemostatic forceps and blunt scissors it gradually became clear.

The blood vessels that needed ligation were ligated, those that needed suturing were sutured—clean and neat.

Wang Zong had no mind for anything else; giving his all as Zheng Lao Ban's assistant still felt insufficient. His only thought was that perhaps only this set of surgical instruments was worthy of Zheng Lao Ban.

Just like with some small blood vessels, a regular hemostatic forcep can't clamp them tightly; you need to dissect a bit of connective tissue first to expose them before you can achieve the goal. But Zheng Ren's hemostatic forcep reaches right in, a light squeeze, and even the finest blood vessels are locked shut.

But… Wang Zong wondered why Zheng Ren wasn't dissecting the stomach wall but instead went upward. When he saw that ten minutes later the adhesions in the abdominal cavity had been broken down and a shattered gallbladder appeared before everyone's eyes, Wang Zong finally understood.

"Zheng Lao Ban, is it a perforated gallbladder with the gallstones that fell out?" Wang Zong asked.

"Probably." Zheng Ren didn't continue dissecting the gallbladder area but turned downward, began dissecting the adhesions near the stomach wall, and removed the mass.

Director Sun completely didn't understand; he'd never seen such a situation and was utterly bewildered.

As a doctor who's done clinical work for twenty or thirty years, not even being able to look at it and understand is excessive. Director Sun felt his face flush, and the lightweight retractor felt as heavy as a thousand jin.

But in front of Chief Zheng, there's no need to be overly polite. Back when Chief Zheng was still in the Emergency Department, I had already admitted defeat. Director Sun sighed and then felt very fortunate.

Fortunately I admitted defeat early; Liu Tianxing wasn't so lucky.

I heard Liu Tianxing underwent interventional surgery for liver cancer, but the tumor wasn't controlled and is rapidly progressing. That's liver cancer—the king of cancers—and I doubt Old Liu can hold out much longer.

Director Sun had countless thoughts racing through his mind like a revolving lantern.

Chief Zheng really gave me too many surprises; it seems after not seeing him for a while, he's turned into...

Just as he was thinking, a clear ding-dong sound interrupted his train of thought.

"Director Sun, could you pull this side?" Zheng Ren's voice floated over lightly.

Uh… I'm in the middle of surgery, how did I zone out? Director Sun quickly checked the operating field. The area that had been a mess of adhesions was now clean and neat, and the outline of the "tumor" on the stomach wall had begun to appear.

Zheng Ren's hemostatic forcep made a gesture, indicating that Director Sun should pull here.

Director Sun felt ashamed; if he couldn't even handle a retractor properly, he might as well retire.

He focused wholeheartedly on pulling the retractor and watching the surgery, and the procedure sped up a bit.

After a few minutes, the "tumor" had basically been completely detached and lay exposed in the operating field.

Next we should remove it, right? Should we do a total gastrectomy or something else? Director Sun tried to put himself in the surgeon's shoes.

But Zheng Ren's steady surgical motions suddenly came to a halt.

He stared at the "tumor" on the stomach wall, seeming to hesitate.

"Zheng Lao Ban?" Wang Zong asked.

"I suspect it's a perforated gallbladder, with gallstones that fell onto the stomach wall forming a wrapper," Zheng Ren said.

That judgment is somewhat bold, but not impossible. Wang Zong hesitated a moment, not interfering with Zheng Ren's thought process, just silently watching.

Wang Zong knew what Zheng Ren was thinking.

The condition was basically clear; all that remained was to make a judgment.

The surgical approach that would cause the least harm to the patient is to open the tissue wrapping outside the stomach wall, remove the stones, and send them for pathology.

But if the judgment is wrong, or if the local tissue repeatedly gets irritated and turns cancerous, this procedure could lead to seeding metastasis, causing the patient's tumor to become uncontrollable.

But if we follow the gastrectomy procedure and remove most of the stomach, it would be safe and easy to explain to the patient's family, yet the patient's postoperative quality of life would suffer greatly.

Making this fine distinction is very difficult.

Wang Zong still leaned toward the latter option, because doing so would entail the smallest risk.

Not only is the medical risk lower, but the risk borne by the patient is also much smaller.

Every advantage has its downside; this surgical choice might be the one Wang Zong can think of that has the smallest drawbacks and greatest benefits.

Operating Room fell silent; every Minute, every second was agonizing.

After nearly three Minutes, Zheng Ren finally made up his mind, saying: "Wang Zong, I want to try a detached excision; please, Retractor, be careful not to contaminate the operative field."

Wang Zong let out a sigh of relief; no matter what decision, as long as someone does it, that's fine.