Jia Xiaofei looked up at Zhu Shang. "Who's in charge of the sternum?"
Zhu Shang froze. In the steps they had taken so far, they had forgotten the crucial task of opening the sternum.
"I'll do it," Zhu Shang stepped forward. Looking at the patient's sternum and the beating heart within, Zhu Shang also felt a pang of fear.
However, remembering that the hospital's leadership was observing them from beyond the one-way glass, Zhu Shang gritted his teeth, forced himself to calm down, picked up the sternal saw, and prepared to cut open the patient's ribs.
Seeing this, Chen Fan's brow furrowed slightly. "For a pericardiostomy, it can be performed between the ribs. Why cut through the patient's ribs?"
Zhu Shang's expression faltered. He glanced at the gaps between the ribs and realized that the surgery could indeed be performed there, though it would require extreme caution.
This brought Zhu Shang a sense of relief. He looked at Yao Qingqing and said, "Be careful. You only need a two-centimeter incision for drainage."
Zhu Shang took out a soft tube, waiting for Yao Qingqing to open the patient's pericardium.
"I, I'm scared."
Yao Qingqing's face was pale, clearly terrified.
Zhu Shang frowned. "Yao Qingqing, we were specially recruited interns by the dean. Are you going to embarrass us? Remember, you are a doctor! How can a doctor say the word 'scared'!"
Hearing this, Yao Qingqing had no choice but to steel herself and pick up the scalpel.
Under the glare of the surgical lamp, the beating heart was exceptionally clear before her eyes.
She reached under the patient's ribs, located the inflamed pericardium, and aimed the scalpel at that spot, beginning to open the pericardium.
But at that moment, the patient's heart gave two violent beats. Yao Qingqing panicked, and the scalpel veered off course, piercing the patient's aorta.
With a "hiss," blood immediately gushed from the patient's chest cavity, spraying directly onto Yao Qingqing's face.
"Ah!"
Yao Qingqing, a mere intern, had never witnessed such a scene. Terrified, she screamed and stumbled back two steps.
"This is bad!"
Zhu Shang and the other two were greatly alarmed and rushed to examine the patient's chest cavity.
"Hemostat!" Zhu Shang's voice trembled.
Du Zihui nervously grabbed a hemostat from the surgical tray and handed it to Zhu Shang.
Jia Xiaofei exclaimed in panic, "Zhu Shang, the patient's blood pressure is dropping, and his heart rate is slowing!"
"I know! Quickly, tell the blood bank to prepare blood!" Zhu Shang commanded, his face pale as he clamped the bleeding aorta with the hemostat.
Zhu Shang then glared at Yao Qingqing, who was standing frozen, and berated her, "Yao Qingqing, what are you standing there for! Come here and suture the blood vessel!"
"Okay, okay," Yao Qingqing quickly nodded, fumbling with a needle and thread, about to suture the patient's blood vessel.
"That's for suturing skin! Use polytetrafluoroethylene sutures!" Zhu Shang reminded her.
"Okay, okay," Yao Qingqing nodded again and began to re-thread the needle.
The operating room was in chaos. The four interns, their faces etched with panic, had lost all their previous confidence and arrogance.
Yao Qingqing was even crying, her hands trembling so much that she couldn't suture the blood vessel!
"Zhu Shang! Hurry up! The patient's blood pressure is failing!" Jia Xiaofei urged.
Zhu Shang instructed, "Quick, administer one dose of adrenaline intravenously."
"Yao Qingqing, you hold the blood vessel, I'll suture it!" Zhu Shang did not want his career to end in a medical malpractice lawsuit before it even began. He handed the forceps to Yao Qingqing and began to suture the damaged aorta with a needle and thread.
However, the beating heart made suturing extremely difficult.
Zhu Shang was also anxious, on the verge of tears. Several times, he failed to thread the needle successfully.
"With the way you are now, you're not talented, you're a bunch of useless people!" Just then, Chen Fan's voice suddenly echoed in the operating room.
Zhu Shang and the other three had no energy to pay attention to Chen Fan's sarcastic remarks. All they wanted now was to save the patient.
"Get out of the way!" Chen Fan's figure had already appeared beside Zhu Shang.
"What are you doing?" Zhu Shang and the others looked at Chen Fan in surprise.
"Saving a life," Chen Fan said, too annoyed to waste words.
Zhu Shang quickly instructed, "Don't cause any trouble here. Go inform the chief physician and the dean to come over."
Chen Fan glanced at Zhu Shang, ignored him, pushed Zhu Shang aside, and took over as the lead surgeon.
"Kid, you're crazy! What are you doing?!" Zhu Shang roared.
The other three also looked at Chen Fan with stunned expressions.
None of them had expected Chen Fan to intervene. Wasn't he just asking for trouble?
Previously, if something had gone wrong with the patient, it wouldn't have been Chen Fan's fault as an intern. But now, with Chen Fan's actions, the primary responsibility might fall on him.
Chen Fan completely ignored the people in front of him and instructed Zhao Qianqian, "Get one dose of norepinephrine, intravenous injection."
"Yes!" Zhao Qianqian nodded and calmly administered a dose of norepinephrine to the patient.
At that moment, Zhu Shang and the other three were astonished to find that in just a few seconds, Chen Fan had completed re-threading the needle and had begun to suture the patient's blood vessel.
The closest person to Chen Fan was Yao Qingqing, who was holding the hemostat.
When she looked down and saw Chen Fan rapidly suturing the blood vessel, her eyes widened in shock, her face filled with disbelief.
"Release the hemostat," Chen Fan's voice rang out.
Yao Qingqing snapped back to attention and quickly released the hemostat.
"The bleeding has stopped!" Yao Qingqing exclaimed in surprise.
Chen Fan looked up at Yao Qingqing. "No loud shouting during surgery. Didn't your teacher teach you that?"
Yao Qingqing immediately lowered her head, not daring to make another sound.
Chen Fan picked up the soft tube, suctioned out the blood from the chest cavity, and then, with a series of fluid movements, opened the patient's pericardium and began the pericardial drainage.
In about a few minutes, Chen Fan had already sutured the pericardial incision.
Seeing Chen Fan's methodical and incredibly skilled actions, which were textbook-worthy, Zhu Shang and the other three watched in dumbfounded amazement.
After Chen Fan had sutured seven layers of skin, he looked at Zhao Qianqian and said, "Charge the extra surgical instruments and medications to my account."
Zhao Qianqian nodded. "Understood, Director Chen!"
"Chen, Director?!"
Upon hearing Zhao Qianqian's address, Zhu Shang and the other three stared at Chen Fan, their faces filled with horror.
They had heard the dean mention this "Director Chen" before, saying that Director Chen's medical skills were superb and that they would learn a lot by following him. But they couldn't believe that this so-called Director Chen was so young!
Chen Fan had already walked out of the operating room.
"Nurse Zhao, what did you just call that person?" Zhu Shang couldn't help but look at Zhao Qianqian again and ask.
The anesthesiologist beside them frowned slightly. "You four interns, you don't even know who he is, do you?!"