Chapter 244: Preoperative Reassurance Chapter 244: Preoperative Reassurance “`
The operating room was familiar territory after two visits. Xie Wanying started by changing into surgical scrubs and operating room slippers, and when she went in, she intended to look for her senior sister, but soon realized she didn’t need to—one was already coming over to help.
“Today I’ll be administering anesthesia with Senior Lu,” Lau Jingyun said as she and her junior sister transferred the patient to the operating table.
Could it be that her senior sister finally got the chance to work with a senior from her own eight-year program? Xie Wanying was thrilled for her.
Lau Jingyun just smiled, acknowledging how hard it had been.
Catching up with clinical seniors was very challenging, mainly because those who remained in clinical practice from the eight-year program were truly the elite of the elite.
Once the surgical nurse had the patient positioned properly, a male anesthetist walked in. Lau Jingyun introduced him to her junior sister: “Senior Lu Tianchi.”
Senior Lu was already forty, a seasoned associate chief physician.
Today’s surgery was clearly high-risk, hence they called an associate chief to handle the anesthesia for this operation.
The patient required general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia, and given the length of the surgery, endotracheal intubation for airway management was definitely needed.
Now, the patient was hooked up to the monitors, and the IV line was patent.
Lu Tianchi began with the epidural anesthesia, then turned to his junior sister and said, “You’ll be intubating in a bit.”
Lau Jingyun moved to the front to prepare the materials needed for the intubation.
After preparing the medication, Lu Tianchi was ready to administer the general anesthesia through the IV. Simultaneously, he took a mask and approached the head of the patient’s operating table.
“Come on, take a deep breath,” he instructed.
The mask covered the face, and the patient’s expression tensed up—so nervous, unsure if they were going to die.
Suddenly, the door to the operating room burst open and someone walked straight to the head of the bed.
Standing at the head of the bed, Xie Wanying turned and saw her teacher dressed in surgical attire.
Wearing a mask around his neck and changing from a white coat to green scrubs, Tan Kelin’s expression remained unchanged: cool and detached. But with a reassuring hand on the patient’s shoulder, he said in a steady voice, “Don’t worry, we should be able to finish your surgery this morning.”
“I understand, Dr. Tan,” said the patient, visibly relaxing upon seeing him. As the inhalation anesthetic took effect, the patient closed their eyes.
A doctor must learn to calm patients, and Xie Wanying watched and learned on the spot.
Anesthesia induction was successful. Lu Tianchi urged the junior sister to intubate quickly while he adjusted the IV medication and prepared the anesthesia machine.
“Thank you, Dr. Lu,” Tan Kelin said to the anesthesiologist.
“It’s no trouble,” replied Lu Tianchi.
Tan Kelin turned and directed Dr. Xiao Sun who had followed into the room: “You, go and scrub in.”
“Yes,” Dr. Xiao Sun turned to go scrub up preoperatively.
Seeing this, Xie Wanying followed suit and went to wash up as well.
Dr. Xiao Sun asked her, “Did you get enough to eat this morning?”
Today’s surgery would last at least several hours, for a medical student to persist in retracting for several hours was no simple task.
“I did,” Xie Wanying answered.
Sun Yubo wondered whether he should make a call to have one of the three below come up in case Xie Wanying couldn’t hold out and someone needed to take over. The problem was, Tan Kelin hadn’t instructed him to do so. Probably, Tan Kelin was still annoyed with those three and didn’t want to see them.
“If you get tired, just say so,” Sun Yubo told her.
A female medical student, new to the operating table, was 100% certain not to last several hours. Sun Yubo thought he needed to take some preventive action, no matter how annoyed Tan Kelin was.
“I’m not tired,” Xie Wanying said.
Skeptical of her response, Sun Yubo raised an eyebrow and observed her scrubbing technique: was it really so standard?