Surgery Godfather

Chapter 2230: Chapter 1454: That Shouldn’t Happen_2

"The position is very good." Xu Zhiliang’s voice is low, like he’s talking to himself.

Yang Ping understood what he meant; the lesion’s position was shallower than expected, only two millimeters away from the base wall of the fourth ventricle, nearly visible upon opening. This means no additional incision of brain tissue is necessary, minimizing damage to normal structures.

"Start cutting." Xu Zhiliang said.

A micro scissor extended into the surgical field, separating along the edge of the lesion bit by bit. The cavernous angioma doesn’t have a true capsule, but its boundary is relatively clear, surrounded by a band of gliosis. Experienced doctors can peel the lesion completely along this gliosis band.

Xu Zhiliang’s assistant carefully handled the small supplying arteries with bipolar electrocoagulation. Each blood vessel has to be clearly seen before coagulation; reckless burning may damage perforating blood vessels, causing ischemia in normal brain tissue.

Yang Ping, in the assistant’s position, was mainly responsible for exposing the surgical field and suctioning. He gently tugged at the brain tissue with a suction device to create a better operational space for Xu Zhiliang. Though the work sounds simple, it’s extremely demanding. The suction’s force must be just right—too light and exposure is insufficient, too heavy and it may damage brain tissue.

The surgery proceeded smoothly, with the lesion being separated bit by bit from the medulla’s surface.

"Wake him up." Xu Zhiliang said to the anesthesiologist.

The anesthesiologist Old Zhou adjusted the anesthesia depth. Minutes later, the patient began to breathe spontaneously, and the laryngeal mask ventilation mode switched from controlled to assisted ventilation. Teacher Gong’s eyelids moved slightly, then slowly opened his eyes.

"Teacher Gong, can you hear me talking?" Old Zhou bent down and asked by his ear.

Teacher Gong blinked his eyes and replied, "Yes."

"Now we want you to cooperate with some movements. Start by moving your left hand."

Teacher Gong’s left hand moved slightly.

"Good, very good, now move your right hand."

The right hand moved as well.

"Now move the toe of your left foot."

No response.

The air in the operating room froze for a moment.

"Teacher Gong, move the toe of your left foot." Old Zhou repeated, raising his voice half a tone.

Still no response.

Xu Zhiliang’s hand stopped mid-air.

"Don’t panic." Yang Ping’s voice was calm, like a basin of cold water pouring over everyone, "It might be due to positional compression. Uncover the left foot’s blanket, and check if it’s being pressed."

The nurse unveiled the blanket, exposing Teacher Gong’s left foot from under the sterile drapes. The blanket below the ankle was indeed pressed down at one corner, limiting toe movement.

"Teacher Gong, try again, move the big toe on your left foot." Old Zhou said.

This time, Teacher Gong felt his left foot’s toe distinctly move.

Everyone simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. Yang Ping’s forehead was covered in a fine sheen of sweat, but he didn’t raise his hand to wipe it.

"Continue." He said.

The surgery proceeded, with two-thirds of the lesion having been separated, only the deepest part remained attached to the dorsal side of the medulla. This is the most dangerous part of the entire surgery and the most technically challenging. It’s close to the hypoglossal nerve nuclei and vagus nerve nuclei, where even slight mishaps could lead to disastrous consequences.

Xu Zhiliang switched to a finer micro scissor and began separating the last layer of adhesion.

"Teacher Gong, open your mouth now." Old Zhou said.

Teacher Gong opened his mouth.

"Stick out your tongue."

The tongue extended, centered, without deviation. Hypoglossal nerve function intact.

"Now swallow your saliva."

Teacher Gong made a swallowing motion, the Adam’s apple moved up and down. Vagus nerve function normal.

"Cough lightly."

A light cough, clean and strong.

Yang Ping silently admired; Xu Zhiliang’s skills had reached a masterful level, operating in the most dangerous region without affecting nerve function in the slightest.

"The whole lesion is removed." Xu Zhiliang’s voice finally held a trace of relaxation.

He used a micro tweezer to retrieve the dark red vascular anomaly from the surgical field, placing it in a nearby surgical basin. The nurse handed over a piece of gelatin sponge, gently pressing it on the wound to stop bleeding.

"Check the wound again." Yang Ping said.

Xu Zhiliang nodded, carefully handling the bleeding spots with bipolar electrocoagulation, leaving nothing behind.

"Teacher Gong, cooperate once more." Old Zhou said, "Move the toe of your left foot."

The toe moved.

"Move the right hand."

The right hand moved.

"Give a smile."

Teacher Gong’s mouth corner twitched, squeezing out a smile. Of course, no one could see this smile.

"Bleeding control satisfactory, we can close the skull." Yang Ping said.

Xu Zhiliang began closing the skull, tightly suturing the dura mater, repositioning and securing the bone flap, layer by layer suturing the muscle, fascia, subcutaneous, and skin.

Throughout the entire process, Teacher Gong remained alert, occasionally performing some actions as per Old Zhou’s instructions. Until the last stitch was completed, Old Zhou deepened the anesthesia again, sending him into a deep sleep.

"Surgery is over." Once Xu Zhiliang said these two words, he slumped against the back of his chair like deflated.

Yang Ping looked at the wall clock, three hours and forty minutes. It went smoother than he expected, faster too.

An hour later, Teacher Gong was wheeled out of the operating room, sent to ICU.

Ms. Wang stood at the operating room door, her eyes fixed on that door. When it opened, she saw her husband lying on the cart, pale but breathing steadily, chest rising and falling rhythmically, tears suddenly gushed out.

"The surgery went smoothly." Xu Zhiliang walked up to her, speaking slower than usual, "The lesion was completely resected without damaging nerve functions; he will stay in ICU for observation for a few days before transferring to the regular ward once stable."

"Thank you Director Xu, thank you Professor Yang..." Ms. Wang grasped Xu Zhiliang’s hand, her tears unstoppable.

Exiting the surgical area, changing out of surgical scrubs in the changing room, Yang Ping took a look at his phone. Three missed calls, all from Tang Shun. Several WhatsApp messages, one from Manstein: "Professor, there’s a major discovery in the unknown factor’s function verification experiment, hurry and see!"

He returned a call to Tang Shun, "What’s the matter?"

"Professor, Weber’s experiment ran into some issues." Tang Shun’s voice sounded a bit anxious, "The conditions culture medium group’s results can’t be replicated at all. Weber did it three times, none hit the mark. Now he’s frantic, saying last week’s beautiful data might be a false positive."

Yang Ping frowned.

"I’m heading over, ask Weber not to worry, prepare the original data(s), I’ll check what’s going on."

After the call ended, Yang Ping swiftly headed out of the surgical center toward the institute.

In the institute, Weber was seated in front of the laboratory computer, his brow furrowed, arms crossed in front of his chest like a statue. Tang Shun stood nearby, holding an experiment logbook, flipping through it.

"The professor is here." Tang Shun said.

Weber turned around, looking at Yang Ping with a trace of frustration in his eyes.

"Data?" Yang Ping asked directly as he walked over.

Weber pulled up the data on the computer. Yang Ping bent down, reading line by line. These were results from three independent repeated experiments: the first experiment, the conditional culture medium group showed excellent effects, consistent with last week’s data. The second experiment, the effects halved. In the third experiment, the effects were almost invisible.

"Were the three batches of conditional culture medium prepared from the same batch?" Yang Ping asked.

"Yes." Weber said.

"What about the cell state? Were the cells used for each experiment passaged from the same time?"

"Yes." Weber nodded.

Yang Ping stood up straight, walked to the cell culture room, opened the incubator, and took out the batch of stem cells used in Weber’s experiment, placing them under a microscope for observation.

The cells showed nothing special, no problem. Strange?

Was there a glitch in some experiment phase, or was it naturally like this?

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