Chapter 425: 417 Unbelievable

Gao Shaojie's phone call was to a classmate in the United States.

Back then, a classmate stayed in the United States and, after several years, successfully obtained a medical license, causing many classmates to envy him.

Being a doctor in the United States is considered an excellent profession, a hundred times better than domestically; even though Gao Shaojie is a deputy chief leading a team at the Medical University Affiliated Hospital in Sheng Cheng, he still feels envious.

It was still early, but Gao Shaojie was so curious about this that he had to disturb his classmate's sweet dream.

Soon, after saying a few sentences and understanding the situation, Gao Shaojie hung up the phone.

TIPS surgery has seen no breakthrough progress. Even at the Mayo Clinic in the United States, they use the well-known surgical method.

At most, it's just placing a special-material tube in the hepatic vein as a marker.

Even so, it can only solve part of the puncture difficulty; the difficulty of TIPS surgery remains extremely high.

This can be said to be merely an improved technique, without fundamentally changing TIPS surgery.

His classmate said he had just visited the Mayo Clinic recently, where performing TIPS surgery requires at least three to five punctures, with no breakthrough progress, and he even joked a couple of times at Gao Shaojie's expense. Given China's medical standards, it's impossible to surpass the Mayo Clinic.

Just a daydream.

He hung up the phone; although he was a bit unhappy, he nevertheless, with great composure, did not refute the young doctor's remark.

People, if you can believe three-tenths of what they say, that's not bad.

However, people from Hai Cheng really speak unreliably; from now on, I'll try to avoid coming here as much as possible.

The Mayo Clinic needs three to five punctures for TIPS surgery, yet a small doctor in Hai Cheng actually succeeds with just one puncture?

How could that be! Isn't that the legendary divine doctor?

It's just rumor spreading, Gao Shaojie thought to himself.

The car soon arrived at the hotel; Gao Shaojie went to rest, while Wang Qiang went to Eryuan to see patients.

That night passed peacefully.

The next morning, Gao Shaojie woke up early and had breakfast.

He didn't eat much; the point was to eat a pan-fried egg cooked to medium doneness.

Before each TIPS surgery, Gao Shaojie must eat such an egg, whether at home or out practicing flying knives.

It seems as if, in the unseen, a surgical god—whether existing or not—would, because of this medium-done fried egg, make today's surgery go a bit more smoothly.

It's the same idea as the night-shift deity; the fried egg is merely a beautiful wish.

As for whether it will work, that's up for debate.

At 7:30, Wang Qiang drove over to pick up Gao Shaojie.

On the way, Wang Qiang gave Gao Shaojie the patient's last emergency lab report from yesterday. Although it's not necessarily related to the surgery, having more information is always good.

This is also Gao Shaojie's habit.

At 7:50, the two arrived at the City Second Hospital.

Gao Shaojie attended the early shift handover of the Intervention Department at Eryuan and glanced at today's surgical patient.

Afterwards, a junior doctor under Wang Qiang sent the patient to the operating room, while Gao Shaojie pulled Wang Qiang to sit in the office and chat for a few minutes.

According to Gao Shaojie's temperament, under normal circumstances he would go to the operating room together with the patient.

While preparing for the surgery, he casually checked the machine's model, whether it's compatible with the hand, and how to operate it.

Each manufacturer's consumables have some differences; for ordinary surgery the difference is not big, but for TIPS surgery, being a bit more familiar helps.

Because Wang Qiang was assigned relatively few beds, Gao Shaojie also only looked at the patients in two or three wards.

Among them were also another group of patients.

During rounds, Gao Shaojie saw several "abnormal" patients.

Their bedside signs all read "decompensated cirrhosis," basically all still had a diagnosis of ascites.

But looking at their faces and bellies, they didn't look like decompensated cirrhosis patients.

His heart stirred; could these patients be the post‑operative cases from the TIPS surgeries done a few days ago?

So he didn't rush to the operating room; instead, he went with Wang Qiang to the doctors' office to check the surgical records and other test results.

If they were TIPS postoperative patients, theoretically they couldn't recover this well.

Gao Shaojie was full of doubts; he had Wang Qiang fetch those patients' charts, and he began to examine them himself.

The surgical record does not note how many punctures were made; it can only confirm that the patient underwent TIPS surgery.

But the pre‑ and post‑operative lab reports are objective evidence that can show the patient's condition recovery.

The procedure was indeed TIPS surgery; the postoperative patients recovered extremely well, with ascites gradually disappearing while blood ammonia did not show a significant increase.

The vast majority of patients showed no obvious hepatic encephalopathy; only one patient had a brief episode of postoperative hepatic encephalopathy, which resolved within one or two days under medication.

This surgery turned out very well; Gao Shaojie praised it.

Even the postoperative TIPS patients he treated at the Medical University Affiliated Hospital did not recover this well, especially hepatic encephalopathy, which clings to patients like a demon and is hard to shake off.

A major headache is that patients who have undergone TIPS surgery are likely to develop hepatic encephalopathy afterward, since venous blood bypasses the liver, missing a filtration step, causing blood ammonia levels to become extremely high.

Many patients would rather give up the chance of TIPS surgery than suffer hepatic encephalopathy and lose the last dignity of life.

Gao Shaojie once performed TIPS surgery on a teacher in his seventies; postoperatively, due to severe hepatic encephalopathy, the teacher, who originally had the demeanor of an old scholar, became like a different person, urinating and defecating indiscriminately, which was very embarrassing.

Embarrassment aside, the patient's quality of life was greatly affected.

The benefits patients gain from TIPS surgery are outweighed by the side effects; Gao Shaojie has reflected on this many times and actively studies new developments in TIPS surgery.

But after all these years, he still has nothing to show for it.

The data lie before us: patients who underwent batch TIPS surgeries at the City Second Hospital a few days ago have recovered extremely well.

Could it be that what the young doctor under Wang Qiang said last night was true?

Gao Shaojie pondered.

He couldn't understand the reason, until Wang Qiang's phone rang and a junior doctor said the operating room was ready for preoperative preparations, just waiting for Gao Shaojie to go up.

"Teacher Gao, everything's ready up there." Wang Qiang whispered a reminder.

"Oh oh." Gao Shaojie said somewhat apologetically: "Sorry, I got lost in thought."

Wang Qiang couldn't possibly not know what Gao Shaojie was thinking, but he had never personally seen the legendary "ace" of City First Hospital perform a TIPS surgery; frankly, he didn't really believe it either.

Even patients who underwent TIPS surgery recovered very well afterward.

……

……

At 7:55, Professor Rudolf Wagner arrived at the Jizhen Da Lou of Haicheng Shi Yiyuan; without waiting to go inside, Zheng Ren summoned him into Feng Xu Hui's car, and they headed straight for Eryuan.

Zheng Ren felt some anticipation for today's surgery.

It wasn't the TIPS surgery itself, but the second-stage task given by the system.

Having 3,000 cases of radiofrequency ablation experience, Zheng Ren wasn't particularly eager either. Although having that experience would greatly increase Zheng Yunxia's success rate in radiofrequency ablation.

Zheng Ren's main concern was still the interventional surgery success rate +2.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Zheng Ren was just curious, and he didn't know whether this system, this Big Pig Trotter, would grant him a reward that would make him laugh in his dreams, as he wished.

At 8:30, Feng Xu Hui drove to Eryuan.

Last time, Dean Zhang led people to greet Zheng Ren at the Inpatient Department entrance. But this time……

From afar, Zheng Ren saw a crowd gathered at the Inpatient Department entrance, not knowing what trouble had broken out.

Feng Xu Hui carefully parked the car a bit farther away, then several people walked over.

"You bastards, I'm sitting right here today—you deal with it!"

From afar, an elderly yet vigorous voice rang out.

Was it a medical disturbance? It seemed not quite.

Aren't medical disturbances supposed to involve crying, making a scene, and even hanging oneself? Moreover, when trouble is stirred up, it's usually a large crowd gathering and blocking the hospital's entrance.

Zheng Ren had never seen a one-person medical disturbance before.

Could this be an internal staff member?

Has the Second Hospital failed to pay wages, leaving families waiting for their next meal, prompting them to seek money through various channels?

Hospitals are no longer iron rice bowls.

Above, the Medical Insurance Bureau exerts control; below, patient pressure mounts—so much so that not only doctors, but the hospital itself struggles to get by.

Moreover, in recent years, many conglomerates have begun eyeing the lucrative piece of public hospitals.

Unlike certain Tian-system entities that merely rent a clinic in a public hospital to earn petty cash—mere scraps—now large conglomerates are starting to devour large public tertiary hospitals.

This situation is mainly prevalent in the Northeast.

After the takeover, Zheng Ren didn't know the specific profit methods. Anyway, the once-renowned large public tertiary hospitals, before being acquired, would start to wither away, with doctors dying, fleeing, or being injured.

But I haven't heard that the Second Hospital has been sold.

Zheng Ren, full of doubts, walked toward the main gate of the Second Hospital's Inpatient Department.

Dean Zhang spotted Zheng Ren from afar, parted the crowd, and went to meet him.

"Chief Zheng, you've arrived." Dean Zhang remained as warm as ever.

"Hmm, what's going on?" Zheng Ren asked.

"Sigh." Dean Zhang, brow furrowed, let out a breath, glanced back, and said carefully, "This isn't from five or six years ago, when a dying tuberculosis-stricken vagrant collapsed in the Second Hospital's courtyard. Out of kindness, we admitted him. Dean Ren sent people to the Civil Affairs Bureau, and several parties chipped in some money to cure his tuberculosis."

"Isn't that pretty good?" Zheng Ren said, confused.

Saving lives and healing the wounded—this ought to be a good thing, right?

"Yeah, that's indeed a good thing. But after he was cured, he refused to leave, clinging to our Second Hospital no matter what." Dean Zhang gave a wry smile. "We tried many approaches, both soft and hard. Eventually, driven to desperation, he once climbed onto the roof, saying that if we didn't let him stay, he would jump off."

Dean Zhang wore a worried, grim expression, somewhat embarrassed.

After all, this is a family disgrace, a sign of the hospital leadership's mismanagement. Moreover, they hold Zheng Ren in high regard and don't want to lose face in front of him.

Yet, the more you fear something, the more it comes to pass.