Chapter 403: The Vine Retreats from the Heart—Ah, It Didn't Retreat!
"What? Something inserted into the heart?"
The Necromancer leaned in hastily, trying to see with widened eyes, but to no avail. The Silver Dragon lady whispered a "Shh":
"Arcane Eye! See for yourself!"
Leon let out a low gasp of astonishment. In the meditative vision, amidst the thick and thin shadows, a long line twisted like a snake, ascending from the rabbit's right leg and torso junction all the way to the heart.
Garrett squinted, looking at the vine inserted into the rabbit's heart in the meditative vision, filled with emotions.
Having left Hartland City for two years, he hadn't forgotten the cabin for a single day, Uncle Karen who raised him, Aunt Eileen who stayed up late to alter his clothes, and certainly not his younger sister Avril, who suffered from patent ductus arteriosus, congenital weakness, and cyanotic nails.
Boarding Archmage Carlisle's airship flying to the council's headquarters, he had silently told himself—
Give me eight years. Avril has at most ten years, so within five years, I need to find a safe way to perform interventional surgery!
To achieve this goal, staying in Hartland City, burying himself in a small clinic won't do. Staying in Nevis City, buried in experiments in the Mage Tower won't do either. He needs to raise his mage level, study both magic and divine arts, develop medical magic and pharmaceuticals simultaneously, and have enough patients...
Two years of effort, two years of research. From a Level 1 junior mage to a Level 4 mage, Garrett has already completed half of the journey in interventional treatment:
Ultrasound magic, completed!
Penicillin development, completed!
Development of various antibiotics like Chloramphenicol, Streptomycin, Tetracycline, underway!
Vine Growth Spell, completed, used to gain proficiency on dwarves!
Syringe manufacture, completed!
Using silver thread for precise directional control of healing power, completed!
Local anesthesia magic, completed!
Next, as long as he could successfully insert the vine into the heart and guide the treatment under X-ray and ultrasound, embolization surgery could be performed... Of course, a lot, a lot, a lot of experiments are still needed...
Garrett instinctively squinted. Though the vine was guided by mental force and its position (and the silver thread used for marking) was revealed by Arcane Eye in the meditative vision, both processes did not require the use of eyes. But it seemed only through this action, he could see more clearly:
The sinoatrial node above the right atrium ignited the fire of life. The atrium contracted, the mitral and tricuspid valves opened, and blood was squeezed into the ventricle;
On the ventricular wall, the heart's most powerful muscle was stimulated by the electrical signal from the sinoatrial node to contract, producing a powerful contraction. Simultaneously, the aortic valve opened, and arterial blood rich in oxygen was pumped into the aorta under strong pressure. The vine, which had been exploring the aortic arch, raised its head and directly inserted into the left ventricle;
The ventricular wall relaxed, the aortic valve closed, and the vine and silver thread were trapped in the middle of the aortic valve, unable to advance or retreat;
After another cycle of relaxation—diastole—atrial contraction—ventricular contraction, the vine contracted, hastily retreated!
Ah, it didn't retreat!
The normal heart rate of a rabbit is 180 to 250 beats per minute. During this period, the ventricular contraction phase—when the heart pumps blood into the aorta, following the operation of a human heart, is about 3/8 of the cardiac cycle. That means, he had to complete the retraction of the vine within 0.125 seconds...
Don't panic. Even if it momentarily gets stuck in the middle of the aortic valve, without being pulled out in time, the rabbit won't just die. The great pioneer of cardiac catheterization technology, Dr. Forssmann, even took an X-ray after inserting a catheter into the right atrium. There's plenty of time.
No wonder the great chose the median vein of the left elbow, inserting into the right atrium... The catheter from the superior vena cava into the right atrium, without any valve to obstruct, flows smoothly!
Garrett exhaled deeply. It must be said, manipulating the vine was simpler than controlling a guidewire, requiring only mental effort. While a guidewire, with a diameter of 1mm, navigating through the blood vessels, going in 30cm, 40cm, 1 meter, turning, passing bifurcations, all depended on the
Imagine, from a distance of one meter, in the rapid blood flow, flicking a 1mm thick guidewire. Making it turn 30 degrees, 60 degrees, moving the tip left/right/up/down by 1.5mm, entering a certain bifurcation, advancing into a lower level blood vessel...
In any case, Garrett had always had immense respect for those greats in the vascular department in his previous life.
His right hand's thumb, index, and middle fingers held the vine seed, manipulating the vine to retreat, pulling the silver thread backward. The trouble with a silver thread is that it needs to be pulled out bit by bit; with just the vine, simply cancel the spell, and the vine would disappear...
Tsk, how to develop a vine that could be visualized inside the body? He'd have to ask his mentor, or perhaps Elder Wood?
Garrett pondered, considering, yet his hands didn't slow down. The vine, entwined with the silver thread, reached near the entrance of the femoral artery but didn't immediately retreat. Instead, it turned around, descending to the popliteal artery. Suddenly, the vine raised its head and "bit" on the wall of the popliteal artery.
Garrett's fingers were already covered with glycerin. Under the ultrasound magic, the image near the blood vessel wall became entirely blurred, like a mosaic. Hmm, the blood vessel wall ruptured, blood flowed out, the desired effect was achieved, treatment could begin!
He immediately activated a healing spell, moving up along the silver thread, gathering a small orb of light at the wound. Stopping the bleeding, healing the blood vessel wall...
Visually, seeing that the wound no longer bulged, and the blurred area under the ultrasound magic no longer expanded. Good, successful internal treatment from within the blood vessel, next to see if there would be any complications!
Garrett held his breath, cautiously continuing to manipulate the vine to retreat. Until the tip of the silver thread left the rabbit's femoral artery, Garrett casually cast a healing spell, eager to take out the microscope and directly place the silver thread on the stage.
How many blood clots would form after the silver thread had been inside the body for so long? In his previous life, during interventional surgery, whether it was diagnostic or therapeutic, anticoagulation with heparin was necessary!
Not to mention, initiating a treatment spell inside the blood vessel, how many blood clots would stick to it? Would they form thrombi, affecting the patient's life safety?
Alas, interventional surgery without sodium heparin always feels so anxious...
Fortunately, it's just one silver thread. Unlike the guidewires of his previous life, which appeared to have a diameter of 1mm but were double-layered, with a steel core inside and tightly wound with a spring coil outside. The surface area of the silver thread being so much smaller, the induced coagulation should also be much less... right?
"Garrett, why are you inserting a vine into its heart?"