Surgery Godfather-Chapter 633 - 575: Fetal Heartbeat?

After finishing his lecture, Yang Ping returned to his office and answered the forum members’ queries online.

An hour spent answering questions was very relaxing.

The Chinese language level of these people was improving every day.

However, the difficulty of learning Chinese was not the problem, but rather the strength of motivation to learn.

When the motivation is strong enough, the difficulty is no longer an issue.

At this time, it was a bit unfair for August. To be fair, Yang Ping planned to move the class time to around six in the afternoon.

For him, eating early in the afternoon and then gathering together for two hours of learning was a good thing.

In this way, everyone could balance their time, and August wouldn’t have to stay up all night.

Just listening to the class, there was no need to take the risk of sudden death.

Zhang Lin had already received three applications for further study. August and Robert were studying for three months, while Takahashi was studying for two weeks.

August and Robert would be arriving in China a week later.

By contrast, Takahashi will be here in China in two days.

Takahashi’s application came a full month earlier than Robert’s.

Interestingly, Takahashi hadn’t said a word about his further study in the forum chat room.

Because he had another important mission in mind, he was trying to secure Tokyo University Hospital as the trial site for the phase 3 clinical trial of a spinal external fixator.

He understood that this opportunity was only laying the groundwork for subsequent collaborations, so he needed to secure it.

After asking around and making inquiries, Takahashi realized that if he could secure the experimental cooperation on the spinal external fixator, more cooperation on cutting-edge techniques would follow.

Hence, by arriving earlier than the Americans and the Germans, his chances for success would increase.

---

The results of Li Jun’s preoperative examination showed that due to renal failure, his biochemical results were out of order, especially the extremely high value of creatinine.

Li Guodong arranged for him to undergo dialysis in the dialysis room, with a regular schedule of two sessions per week.

The nephrologist recommended that two sessions a week might not be enough and suggested increasing it to three sessions per week.

Due to renal anemia, Li Jun’s complexion didn’t look good.

His originally fair face had lost some of its vitality.

However, regardless, this disease is treatable and if a successful kidney transplant can be performed, Li Jun can live normally.

Li Jun was rather fortunate because if he were like others aimlessly waiting for a kidney source, there’s no telling how long he would have to wait. Thankfully, his boyfriend Qin Xiaowei’s kidney was a suitable match for him.

But regardless of whether it’s a relative or non-relative, donation of a kidney must pass a moral review.

The main concern is to prevent organ trading from taking place.

The supply of organ transplants has always been tight, especially in China where organ donations are rare, so for a long time people who wanted a quick kidney transplant had to resort to taking the back door.

The sunny boy, Qin Xiaowei, was still wearing his T-shirt. The peculiar tattoo on his arm was quite eye-catching and his attire made him look like the hip-hop dancers.

He had a fanny pack around his waist and he secretly visited Yang Ping’s office, slipping a moderately sized red envelope to Yang Ping.

Yang Ping refused his offer.

The young man sincerely stated that he wanted Yang Ping to perform the surgery. He knew that the surgery was very risky and he didn’t want Ajun to have any postoperative complications. Ajun had suffered enough already.

Yang Ping assured him that he would devote all his effort into the surgery.

Uremia is not a contraindication for surgery. After completing dialysis, surgery can be performed the next day. It does not pose a great risk to anesthesia and surgery safety.

When calculating anesthesia medication, one needs to be extra careful.

---

The first day after dialysis is when the physiological condition of patients with uremia is at its best. Li Jun’s surgery began.

In the supine position, they did a routine disinfection and sheet layout.

Yang Ping’s surgical knife made a vertical incision in the lower abdomen.

The tumor in the pelvic area involved the sacrum, especially the presence of tumors inside the sacral canal. This was a matter for specialists in bone tumors. Furthermore, the numerous nerves and blood vessels around the sacrum made the surgery tremendously difficult.

In most cases, this kind of surgery requires coordination among orthopedic oncologists, general surgeons, and urologists.

This is the result of the specialization of modern medicine. General surgeons are familiar with the liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, and intestines. They are at a loss when it comes to the kidneys, bladder, and ureter; while it’s just the opposite for urologists. Once general surgeons or urologists dive into the area around the sacrum, they dare not proceed, let alone open the sacral canal.

Every field has its specialization, and naturally, if a surgery goes beyond their scope, they won’t do it and they won’t have the corresponding anatomical knowledge.

Of course, some orthopedic oncologists who are well-versed in certain anatomical aspects can complete such surgeries independently, without needing the cooperation of general surgery and urology.

For Yang Ping, with his high level of anatomical knowledge, there was no need for the cooperation of other departments.

Sanbo Hospital had long loosened the restrictions on his surgical authority.

With his sharp surgical knife, he incised through the skin, subcutaneous tissue, fascia, and muscles, and opened the peritoneum.

Yang Ping pushed aside the intestines and various organs, revealing part of the tumor. A flesh ball with a capsule appeared into everyone’s sight.

The surface of the capsule was covered with blue and red blood vessels, some of which were bulging.

"I heard that Nezha’s mother was pregnant for three years and six months before she gave birth to a ball of flesh. Do you think it was a teratoma at that time?"

Zhang Lin asked while retracting the suture.

"If it is a teratoma, how come the patient’s father cut out a lively little person with one stroke? Is this a medical accident? Misdiagnosis!"

Little Five continued.

These two brothers, whenever they performed surgery, in addition to suturing, had another important mission, which was to keep the atmosphere lively.

Song Zimo wasn’t much of a talker, and Xu Zhiliang’s speech could be frustrating. But this didn’t apply when it was time for resuscitation.

Yang Ping used blunt forceps to separate the surrounding tissues bit by bit. The tumor had quite a number of blood vessels, intricately connected to the pre-sacral vessel plexus.

Large pieces of gauze were placed all around, separating the tumor from the surrounding tissues to prevent tumor cells from falling off and implanting.

Before the nature of it was certain, nobody dared to judge whether the tumor was benign or malignant.

Therefore, during any tumor surgery, the aim was to achieve ’no residual tumor’ technique - this was the basic technique for tumor surgery.

It was both an operating technique and an operating principle.

The goal was to prevent tumor cells from coming into contact with other normal tissues during the whole operation, preventing cell detachment and seeding.

"It’s moving?"

While chatting, Zhang Lin saw the fleshy ball twitching.

"Professor, it’s throbbing, is this a fetal heartbeat?"

Yang Ping kept silent. After completing the work of isolating the tumor with the gauze, he said, "You guys feel it and judge what exactly it is."

Zhang Lin’s palm rested on the surface of the tumor. It felt like a beating fetus’ heart, a sensation he was very familiar with since he had just become a dad.

The throbbing was very rhythmic, just like the beating of a heart.

How could a tumor have the beating of a heart?

Zhang Lin looked surprised and spoke a bit louder, "Fetal heartbeat?"

He was convinced that Yang Ping had made him feel it to test him. If there wasn’t a new discovery, why would he test him?

The surgical nurses, the anesthesiologist, and all others present in the room suddenly froze, making the operating room go silent.

The open surgical area, the rhythm of the tumor’s throbbing was very strong.

Just like Zhang Lin said, only the heartbeat of a fetus could be so rhythmic.

Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang remained silent because there was no opportunity for them to touch the tumor while the two brothers were.

Yes, it was a fetal heartbeat. There could be no mistake.

Zhang Lin had felt this throbbing through his wife’s belly.

"Professor, it’s a fetal heartbeat!"

Zhang Lin was absolutely sure.

This time he could certainly establish his glorious image in front of the students. It was not surprising that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang hadn’t discovered it, they were not fathers yet.

Is it really possible for a man to get pregnant?

Considering that spine, this was a fetus.

That’s just too magical.

An umbilical cord? There’s an umbilical cord, professor!

Zhang Lin’s hand felt something like an umbilical cord, and Little Five confirmed at this moment.

It really was an umbilical cord.

Surgeons had obstetrics and gynecology rotation experience; they knew what an umbilical cord looked like.

This touch, this thickness, this texture, it was an umbilical cord!

With the fetal heartbeat, if one listens carefully, they could hear the tadadum sound of the little heart beating.

Fetal heartbeat + umbilical cord, if not a fetus, what else could it be?

The two brothers exchanged burning glances and nodded: it’s a fetus!

Was this a hermaphrodite who was really pregnant?

People around cast puzzled looks at Yang Ping, hoping the professor could provide an explanation.

The young professor stayed calm, leisurely changed his gloves, and kindly said, "This is the tumor’s feeding blood vessel. Which thick artery on the living body doesn’t throb? You feel his aorta again, or the internal and external iliac arteries?"

Zhang Lin and Little Five looked at each other, stretched their hands in, indeed, the aorta was throbbing, and so were the internal and external iliac arteries.

How could they forget about those!

The glorious image they had just built collapsed instantly, and it was then that Song Zimo spoke, "The professor asked you to touch it to let you experience the texture of the teratoma, not to let you judge whether it is a fetus."

"Oh—"

Zhang Lin and Little Five stopped talking and focused on retracting the suture.

After all, retracting sutures was their real job.

They should just be honest retracting sutures heroes, instead of constantly trying to establish a grand and glorious image in front of students.