Chapter 188 - Goodbye, Brother! (1/2)

The spleen was the most easily injured organ in the abdomen. It would also bleed massively if it was damaged. When saving patients with multiple serious injuries, the proper strategy would be to save the patient's life as the first priority, and to preserve the organs only after. When Zhang Fan reached the abdomen, he already knew that the patient's spleen and left kidney were unsalvageable.

This was really difficult and cruel! Would you want to be alive but missing a kidney and spleen? This border security military policeman patient was only about 20 years old or so, yet he would be handicapped for the rest of his life, with pain accompanying him forevermore. Right now, all Zhang Fan could do was to try to save the warrior's life as well as reduce the amount of pain he would feel afterwards.

First, Zhang Fan needed to perform ligation on the splenic artery in order to lessen the bleeding. This would allow the large amount of blood in the spleen to circulate back into the patient's body, becoming the best form of self-transfusion. In order to do this, Zhang Fan first cut open the gastrocolic ligament and gastrosplenic ligament, and then performed ligation on the blood vessels in the ligaments before entering the lesser omentum cavity and exposing the pancreas.

He came into contact with the palpitating splenic artery on the pancreas, and selected a portion of the splenic artery at the junction of the pancreatic head and tail where he cut into the retroperitoneum and used forceps to carefully separate the splenic artery and ligate it with thick threads. Two threads would be necessary to ligate the splenic artery, and it couldn't be ligated too tightly. Closing the blood vessel was all that was necessary, and tearing the blood vessel walls had to be avoided. Additionally, the doctor would need to carefully avoid damaging the splenic vein which ran parallel to the splenic artery.

Ye Bo was the only doctor who was even slightly of help to Zhang Fan in this surgery. Tu Xun and Ainur, the other two surgical assistants, were incapable of doing anything other than holding the surgical retractors.

Meanwhile, as Zhang Fan continued his emergency surgery, Zhao Quanping who was performing surgery in the same operating room suddenly shouted, ”Hurry! IV drip! Administer Cedilanid! Hurry!” It was obvious from the tone that Zhao Quanping was feeling quite anxious and helpless.

”Director Zhao, it's no good! The medicine isn't having any apparent effect!” said the anesthesiologist.

”Electro cardioversion!”

Loud sounds then came from the fibrillator. Zhao Quanping looked at the patient's screen expectantly as he really wanted this warrior's heart to start beating again, but in the end, his patient couldn't be saved! Zhao Quanping could only tightly clench his hands.

”Please send him off!” Zhao Quanping whispered in a soft voice. His patient's injuries had been far too severe. The border security military policeman's luck had been too poor. A bullet had damaged his abdomen severely. What was even more cruel was that the bullet hadn't been immediately fatal. Instead, this warrior had to suffer tremendous pain before finally passing away.

Zhao Quanping finished sewing up the patient's injuries as a nurse gently wiped away the traces of blood on the patient's face and helped to straighten the incredibly tattered border security uniform. The patient was then lifted up onto a gurney. A white cloth was then draped over him before he was slowly pushed out of the operating room.

However, this still wasn't the time to be mourning. There was still another surgery and patient waiting to be saved.

Zhao Quanping calmed himself down and set aside his feeling of defeat as he came over to ask Zhang Fan, ”Doctor Zhang, how are things going?”

Zhao Quanping's meaning was quite obvious. Did Zhang Fan need his help? Zhang Fan wasn't even a member of the general surgery department, yet his skills were equal to general surgery director Zhao Quanping's. Asking if Zhang Fan needed his help was a sign that Zhao Quanping respected Zhang Fan as a doctor equal in status to himself.

”There's far too much bleeding. I just finished ligating the splenic artery. I haven't dealt with the kidney yet. Please hurry and come help me.” Zhang Fan could get angry and shout at his assistants, but he wouldn't be able to tell someone who hadn't been in the surgery that his surgical assistants were incompetent, as that would be going far too overboard and would be considered humiliation!

Still, it was a fact that Zhang Fan's surgical assistants were unable to follow his movements or complement him very well. Zhao Quanping changed into new surgical attire and joined Zhang Fan's surgery. With him assisting, things became much different. Zhang Fan didn't need to tell him what to do everywhere like he had to with Kuake City Hospital's doctors. Zhao Quanping performed excellently with holding the surgical retractors, draining the blood, forceps, ligation, and so on. He and Zhang Fan worked together especially well with tacit cooperation. The speed of the surgery greatly increased as Zhang Fan cut out the spleen, cut out the left kidney, and cleaned the abdomen.

This was all due to the overwhelming might of modern-day weaponry. Just getting brushed by the bullet would cause all touched organs to completely die and rot. There was also severe damage to the patient's intestine. Zhang Fan was forced to cut off quite a long part thereof.

”Sigh! This patient won't even be able to enjoy eating a full meal in the future! It's such a pity!” Zhang Fan couldn't help but make such a sad comment after he removed the damaged intestine portion.

”At least he's still alive. The patient that I just operated on had his entire abdomen turned into meat mush. Although it didn't seem like he had a large injury or much bleeding, everything in his abdomen had completely turned into mush. Sigh! He was so young. I think even my son is only slightly older than he was, yet he was already fighting on the battlefield to protect our country, while my useless son is still playing computer games every day! My son doesn't even know how to support himself yet!” Zhao Quanping could only exclaim at how things were. He was getting older. As he thought about the warrior who sacrificed himself that he just operated on, he couldn't help but think of his own son.

In the end, only three of the six emergency military patients were successfully saved. The saved ones included Zhang Fan's patient, orthopedic director Gao Shijun's patient, whose leg was injured by a grenade and had to be amputated, and a patient who was shot in the upper part of his chest. The last patient had been quite lucky as the bullet had penetrated through the apex of the lung and into the shoulder blade, shattering the patient's shoulder severely. Although this patient's injuries were serious, they weren't actually fatal.

Zhang Fan felt especially frustrated as he looked at the patients' injuries which came from guns and grenades. For gun injuries, on the surface the patient would only appear to have a tiny injury the size of a small coin. Internally, however, the size of the damaged area would be bigger than a watermelon. These types of injuries were far too difficult to deal with as there would be severe bleeding, and the organs would start failing rapidly. There were some bullets that had even completely smashed the patients' organs. Saving three of the six patients had only been possible because all of the best surgical experts of Chasu City Hospital had all been sent here. Otherwise, the result would have been far worse!

Kuake City Hospital had set aside two empty patient rooms to place all of the emergency treatment medical supplies and equipment into. The three warriors who were luckily able to survive their serious injuries wouldn't be able to leave Kuake City Hospital just yet. They would have to stay here for postoperative care and observation.

Chasu City Hospital's doctors and nurses were taking charge of these patients. The patients would have someone accompanying them for 24 hours a day.

Chasu City CPC's leader especially told Superintendent Ouyang, ”It's really precious to have people willing to sacrifice themselves in an era of peace. They've already done everything that heroes should. We can't have our heroes cry after they bleed. I don't understand the medical profession, but let me stress that you must help them recover no matter the price. Feel free to directly contact me about any difficulties. Chasu City CPC will fully cooperate!”

This had been a sudden incident. The higher-ranking leaders of the military police had yet to arrive, so Chasu City CPC's leader was in charge here!

Three gurneys covered in white cloth were neatly displayed side-by-side in the large main hall of Kuake City Hospital. The young warriors on these gurneys had now gone to an eternal rest. The doctors had tried their very best, but were unable to take their lives back from the god of death.

The military police captain, who was a man that looked like he was made of iron, started crying as if he was a young child. They were all his soldiers. Just yesterday, they had all been eating a meal and training together in a lively manner, yet three of them were now cold and icy, gone forever.

”Get up! You three need to get up! If you're real men, then get up!” His voice was filled with bitter sobbing.

These warriors of steel would usually bleed without crying. However, that was only because they hadn't been hurt enough in their hearts. Past memories of fun times together or sweating together during training flashed through all of the warriors' minds as tears started streaming down all the border security military policemen's cheeks. These military personnel who typically had such solemn expressions were defending the chaotic border with their blood and sweat, all for the sake of letting people be able to freely and peacefully go out and about on the streets.

It was over, all over now for these three border security members! Uniformed military policemen and uniformed doctors stood by the sides of these three gurneys as they saw off these heroes.

”Brothers! Have a safe trip!” The military policeman captain took off his hat and bowed to the three gurneys. He had cried so much that he had basically lost all his energy. He also really regretted things as he had personally trained these warriors! Normal people wouldn't be able to understand the pain in his heart. However, there was no medicine in the world that could help one with regret! Sending someone to the battlefield and then having to bury him was something that only military personnel would understand!

The three who survived would receive compensation money for their permanent injuries. However, they would have to bear chronic pain for the rest of their lives, as well as tackle problems with re-entering society, which would be a non-physical pain that they would also need to bear.

Were illegal drugs scary? Indeed. Illegal drugs wouldn't only fuel the problem of addiction. Far too many evil consequences would accompany illegal drugs, such as AIDS, social instability, and so on.

The absolutely beautiful cities in the border province also had tremendous numbers of people with AIDS! Why was this? It was all brought by the neighboring chaotic countries, through their large amounts of smuggling and sex trafficking. It was also fairly common for those in the neighboring countries to learn how to speak Chinese for easier communication. Once AIDs started spreading, it would spread through all sorts of channels at an astonishing pace. Illegal drugs and AIDS thus became dark clouds looming over this beautiful paradise.

Superintendent Zou woke up and stopped pretending to be unconscious after this incident was all over. However, he was finished! Right after the surgeries for the emergency military patients finished, Kuake City CPC's leader gave the order that Superintendent Zou was fired from his position as leader of Kuake City Hospital. In his place, Shi Lei was promoted to being the new superintendent. Shi Lei, the former orthopedic surgeon, was now in a fully political and administrative position, completely saying goodbye to having to rely on his medical skills.

The directors of Chasu City Hospital's ICU, respiratory department, general surgery department, and orthopedic surgery department each left behind one doctor from their respective departments who would be in charge of continuing to look after the three lucky survivors. The other doctors all hurriedly returned to Chasu City because they would still need to go to work as usual the next morning. No matter who died, it wouldn't stop the sun from rising the next day or other patients from needing their help.

Zhang Fan and Zhao Quanping happened to ride in the same military policeman's car on the way back. Silence reigned for a long time in the car before Zhao Quanping gently broke the silence. ”What will their parents do?”

”Sigh!” Zhang Fan could only listlessly look outside the car window. Such violent injuries were truly too shocking to behold. Zhang Fan had grown up knowing only peace. He had been truly astonished by the extent of the border security military policemen's injuries.

He and Zhao Quanping could only chat about this a little in the car now, because before everyone got on the military police cars to go back to Chasu City, Superintendent Ouyang had given everyone the command that they weren't to tell anyone else about this incident. This was out of worry that ordinary citizens would panic if they learned that a major shoot-out had occurred so close to them.

Life returned to its ordinary calmness. Zhang Fan began to work hard at studying English. Although he had tested for Level 4 English during college before, he had yet to ever touch English again since his final examination. He really had forgotten most of his English, so he would need to start over from the beginning again.

On the weekend, general surgery director Professor Li of Dee University Affiliated Hospital brought his medical team and patient to Chasu City Hospital as promised. Chasu City Hospital's doors, buildings, and hallways were completely covered in advertising, making full use of Dee University Affiliated Hospital's reputation as a provincial hospital in order to improve Chasu City Hospital's standing.

Li Jingjin saw so many such advertisements on the way that his expression darkened. He felt that Superintendent Ouyang was taking way too much advantage of the situation without caring about giving face to Dee University Affiliated Hospital. However, there was nothing he could do about this, as he was the one who wanted to come and learn here.