Chapter 2881: 2786.2678 Family Members and the Primary Responsible Person

2786.2678 Family Members and the Primary Responsible Person

Xiang Heping carefully pulled out the catheter, only to stare in disbelief——the catheter had broken.

Holy shit! MLGBD!!

Director Xiang's heart was a lush green meadow, with countless alpaca Mercedes-Benzes galloping by, trampling the grass.

I've performed over a thousand epidural anesthesias in my lifetime—how did an accident happen right here with my own old man?!

Impossible!

Director Xiang held the catheter, carefully examining the broken end, trying to deny his earlier thought.

But the facts proved it wasn't a visual error, nor a misjudgment—it was broken, plain and simple. Xiang Heping, a veteran anesthesiologist of twenty or thirty years, wouldn't mistake something like this.

The assistant was also dazed, wondering what was going on—could it be a new technique Director Xiang learned in Di Du? But the director's condition didn't look like it.

He had almost instinctively wanted to flatter, but he sensibly swallowed the words.

Because he saw Director Xiang's hand trembling, shaking uncontrollably.

"Find Director Zhang!" Director Xiang said immediately.

"Oh, okay." The assistant immediately picked up the phone and called the Orthopedics Department's Director Zhang.

The hospital isn't large, but the Orthopedics Department is one of its biggest sections. Since trauma and car accidents often require simple fracture-fixation surgeries, Orthopedics is one of the surgical departments with the most operations.

There are several Director Zhangs, but at this moment the one we need to find is specifically the Orthopedics Department's Director Zhang.

Because it was after work hours, Director Zhang drove home and then turned back, taking nearly half an hour.

Assessing Ming's condition, he and the General Surgery Department's Director Li Zhu ren changed the patient's position together, administered local anesthesia, and made an incision to see what had happened.

Following Xiang Heping's puncture point, they cut open 3 cm of skin, and the tissue forceps performed blunt dissection of the subcutaneous tissue in sequence, searching for the residual end of the epidural catheter.

But the result was disappointing: although they had been careful not to touch the residual end, there was no trace of the epidural catheter's remnant in the skin or subcutaneous tissue.

Originally, Xiang Heping still harbored a sliver of hope—if the broken end of the epidural catheter had left a tiny bit exposed, perhaps it could be grasped with forceps and pulled out.

But the facts told him it was just a dream—the entire catheter had fallen into the epidural space.

Xiang Heping's face turned pale, and he sat dazed in the chair behind him—not because he didn't want to stand, but because his legs felt a little weak.

"Director Xiang." The Orthopedics Department's Director Zhang stood up and gave a slight shake of his head.

No one else in the operating room dared to speak at that moment; everyone silently maintained their silence.

"Heping." A voice thick with a rural accent, familiar to the bone, called out.

"Ah, Dad, what's wrong?"

"Why hasn't the surgery started yet? I'm tired from lying here." the old man asked.

"Just a small matter; lie down for a bit."

Hearing the old man say that, the Head Nurse immediately stepped forward, speaking soothingly. She had the foresight to fetch a sterile sheet and cover the old man with it to prevent his temperature from dropping too quickly.

At this point, not knowing what else to do, the Head Nurse added another sterile sheet for the old man.

"Director Xiang." The Orthopedics Department's Director Zhang gave him a look, indicating they should step outside to talk.

Although the patient was Xiang Heping's father, some things aren't appropriate to say in the operating room. If the patient becomes nervous, at his age, triggering a heart attack would be adding insult to injury.

Xiang Heping nodded, striving to control his emotions, and walked out of the operating room with his sore, weak legs. At that moment he felt as if a foreign object were compressing his epidural spinal canal, making even walking a problem.

Upon reaching the hallway, the Orthopedics Department's Director Zhang asked, "Old Xiang, are you sure the catheter fell in?"

"Mm." Director Xiang nodded.

"How much came off?"

"More than six centimeters, roughly like that…" Director Xiang almost burst into tears.

"Just leave it as is." Director Zhang said, "You know better than I do—the epidural space doesn't connect to the brain, and our sterile procedures are always sound. A foreign object isn't something to fear; the chance of it compressing nerves or causing a secondary infection is low. Normally, no surgery is needed; we can just observe conservatively."

"Conservative…" Xiang Heping felt a bit dazed—just leave a catheter over six centimeters long inside the epidural space and do nothing about it?

Although he would make that choice if he were clear-headed, right now he couldn't stay calm. Just thinking about the foreign object made his whole body feel uncomfortable.

"Old Xiang." The General Surgery Department's Director Ou said, "I asked around—some of my classmates have encountered this situation."

"What happened then?!" Xiang Heping hurriedly asked.

"Because the patient had no symptoms, they just planned to brush it off. But then… luck turned bad, and when they explained the situation to the family, the relatives refused to let it go. They opted for surgical removal, and the surgery itself ran into some problems…"

That's a classic case of adding insult to injury. On the other hand, who would want to leave a medical foreign body in the spinal canal?

Mentioning it only increases psychological panic; the General Surgery Department's Director Ou found it especially pointless and fell silent.

Actually, he secretly felt a bit of inappropriate relief—this was Xiang Heping's own father; if it had been an unknown patient, what would he have done? Although the surgery hadn't been performed yet and it wasn't directly his concern, there was still an indirect connection.

Being covered in shit was inevitable.

"Sigh." Director Ou sighed and said nothing more. As a member of General Surgery, he had never seen an epidural catheter left inside the body before, and he didn't know what complications might arise.

Better not to speak— the more one says, the more wrong it gets, and anyway he didn't know how to handle it.

"Old Zhang, do you think my father will end up paralyzed?" Xiang Heping asked, his face stricken with grief.

"In theory, it shouldn't happen." Director Zhang of Orthopedics began his analysis, "Looking at the location, there might be reduced superficial sensation below the bilateral anterior superior iliac spines. It's just a sensation decrease, so it should be fine."

"…" Xiang Heping's brain had already started to shut down.

"This is the most optimistic analysis; if we speak seriously, there could be movement-induced damage to spinal nerves, or the catheter fibers could become wrapped in connective tissue and compress the corresponding segmental nerves, aggravating any pre-existing conditions, leading to…" Director Zhang said.

He rattled on and on, while Xiang Heping's mind was practically a blank slate. No amount of clinical experience helps—whether there's a problem or not is just a matter of probability.

True TMD, how did this end up on his own head! Director Xiang kept muttering that to himself.

Director Zhang noticed Xiang Heping wasn't listening to him, so he politely said a couple of sentences and then fell silent. This sort of thing ultimately depends on the patient's family's choice. And the person before him is both a family member and the primary responsible party—how should he decide?

"Director Zhang, Director Ou, could you give me some advice?" After a long silence, Director Xiang pleaded.

"Advice…" The two exchanged a bitter smile.

What advice could there be!