Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4322 - 3418: Divine Doctor with Wonderful Hands (25)

What is the most important quality for a doctor?

Some might say it's a solid medical foundation, others might believe it's good medical ethics, but in fact, the most important quality for a doctor is the psychological quality.

This is especially true for surgeons. Every top surgeon has an incredibly strong psychological quality, remaining unflustered even when Mount Tai collapses before them. Even if they are apprehensive, they won't show the slightest bit of it on their face.

When Strange saw Stark's face, the frequency of his blinking increased by 0.2 times per second, but that was the only change. He looked emotionlessly at Greed on the other side.

Shiller's psychological quality was clearly not bad either. He also immediately looked at Strange, and after seeing that the latter wasn't panicked, he gave him an approving glance and then glanced towards the other side of the operating room.

Strange understood his hint.

The operating room was no longer the same operating room. After an upgrade, it had completely changed; not only the era had changed, the previous shadows were no longer visible at all.

Their outfits had also changed. They were still wearing black robes but without masks. Both wore glasses, and Crosses hung from their necks.

Even the number of people was different. It used to be just the two of them, and now with Wanda arriving, they had become three.

Stark's impression of those two unscrupulous and incompetent doctors should be that of Plague Doctors scheming for wealth and causing harm in a dilapidated Middle Ages basement. But Shiller and Strange had long freed themselves from such an environment, they were now professional doctors of the Great Navigational Era, with not a trace of the Middle Ages about them.

Actually, unless they said something, Stark would never be able to recognize that they were the two incompetent doctors from before.

However, there was still the issue that their voices might sound alike. But obviously, Stark was not someone who had undergone professional training and could perfectly identify someone based on their voice.

Therefore, as long as the two of them don't give themselves away, they can certainly fool Stark.

Both of them understood this and thus only expressed reasonable surprise. After all, it was quite unexpected to see an old friend in the game. It would be too fake if they showed no reaction at all.

Shiller was the first to widen his eyes and say, "Tony? I mean... Iron Man? Are you Iron Man?"

Stark, who had just snapped back to reality, looked at Shiller, so shocked that he almost sat up, and said, "Shiller, what are you doing here? Am I dead already?"

"It really is you." Shiller lightly tapped on the railing next to the operating table, then said, "I'm also curious, why are you here? What happened to you?"

While Shiller distracted Stark's attention, Strange went to check the condition of Stark's body.

Stark was wearing a prison suit and appeared to be fine on the surface, but Strange could smell a faint scent of blood on him, his body temperature was also quite high, and there was a sweet and fishy odor that appears when there is inflammation inside the body.

Strange reached to unbutton Stark's upper clothing. Stark grabbed his hand in a panic. Strange hurriedly withdrew his hand and said irritably, "I've warned you many times, stay away from my hands..."

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Stark, however, began to laugh and said, "Is it because you think that your counterpart from the other cosmos is too miserable?"

Shiller lifted Stark's eyelid and examined it, then tested his forehead temperature with his hand and turned to Wanda, "Miss, prepare two ounces of ice-cold magic potion and bring over a damp towel."

Wanda turned to prepare. The towel was also one of the upgraded equipment in the operating room, and except for being slightly thin, it was virtually no different from modern towels and had much better water absorption than the previous hemp cloth.

Wanda soaked the towel in water, wrung it out to the point of not dripping, and sent it to Shiller with magic. She took a plate and selected herbs from a cabinet to make the ice-cold potion. This potion was easy to make, did not require boiling, and was quickly ready.

Shiller poured the semi-transparent blue liquid on the towel, then placed the towel on Stark's head.

Meanwhile, Strange was constantly struggling with Stark, knowing that there must be a wound on Stark's abdomen, but Stark just wouldn't let him unbutton his clothes at all.

"He's completely delirious from the fever," Strange commented. He sighed and through clenched teeth said, "Just hope I don't see him in a real-world operating room..."

Shiller pursed his lips on one side, tilted his head slightly, then raised his hand with an expression that revealed he couldn't help the situation.

"He shows signs of excessive blood loss; he can't be given anesthesia," Shiller said after looking at Stark's pale face.

Strange had no choice. He put on gloves and patted Stark's face, saying, "Wake up, Tony, wake up..."

Stark took a while to regain his senses, responded with an acknowledgment but seemed somewhat dazed. Shiller could only use a glance to signal Strange not to act rashly. He bent down, waved his hand in front of Stark's eyes, and said, "It's me, Tony, we need to check your wounds now. Let go of your grip..."

Then, Stark seemed to finally understand the situation at hand and released his clenched hand from the clothes, his arm dropping limply.

Strange unbuttoned the shirt, and as expected, found a gunshot wound in the abdomen. Fortunately, the bullet did not threaten any vital organs, but it had pierced the intestines.

Shiller noticed that there was blood seeping from Stark's leg as well, but trying to remove his pants became another world war.

"Let go! Tony! Let go!!" Strange shouted at him, "We are doctors, we are going to heal you!! Don't move around, if you cut an artery..."

Shiller gestured with his hand to stop and bent down again to pat Stark's face, then said, "Judging by where you're bleeding, the shrapnel in your thigh is very close to your testicle. If you want to lose one of your nuts forever, keep kicking your leg!"

Stark immediately stopped moving, more docile than an ice sculpture.

Shiller and Wanda cooperated and successfully removed Stark's pants. Shiller had thought about asking Wanda to step out, but considering she wanted to be a nurse and would encounter such situations frequently in the future, he didn't mention it.

Wanda wasn't put off at all. She simply took the removed clothes for fumigation and sterilization while saying, "If you've ever seen a ram's... thing, you wouldn't be surprised by any human's reproductive system."

Upon seeing the wound on Stark's thigh, both Shiller and Strange felt it was quite tricky. In layman's terms, there was a slit at the root of his thigh, where a bullet had entered. However, the bullet was in deep and at a tricky angle, making the precise location unclear from the outside.

The risks of surgery were significant, and making an incision along the existing wound was the safest course of action. But the nerves in the human lower limb are densely packed, and damaging any of them could lead to mobility issues in the limb. Blindly expanding the existing wound could lead to very serious consequences.

This type of injury required an X-ray. They had to ascertain the position of the bullet before they could determine how to remove it. However, their operating room had only been upgraded once, and although there had been some progress, it obviously did not extend to technologies like X-rays to see the bullet's position.

So they could only resort to the most primitive method.

Strange first tapped on Stark's knee, but there was no knee-jerk reflex. Then he leaned in and shouted in Stark's ear, "Can this leg bend? Try bending it!"

The ice-cold towel on his forehead and the removed clothes had somewhat reduced Stark's body temperature. His brain, filled with wisdom, finally started working again. He tried hard to lift his leg, but after struggling for a while, he couldn't raise it.

Strange frowned.

Seeing his expression, Stark panicked and said, "I'm not going to be paralyzed, am I?! No!! Aren't you called the Hand of God? Come up with something!"

Without speaking, Strange just pulled Shiller aside. Shiller was still smiling when he said to him, "Are you trying to scare him again? If you ask me, do it just once or twice, but don't go too..."

Strange remained silent, just quietly looking at him.

The smile on Shiller's face gradually faded. He turned back to look at Stark and asked, "Is the situation very bad?"

"The bullet might be wedged between the femoral artery and the femoral nerve, right above is the sciatic nerve," Strange said, "In surgical terms, this place is known as the 'Cross of Death.' One step forward and it's arterial bleeding, one step back and it's lower limb paralysis."

Shiller took a deep breath and then asked, "Is the surgery very difficult?"

Strange obviously considered it carefully and then said, "There are two scenarios now. If the bullet is horizontal..." he gestured to indicate the orientation of the bullet and continued, "then the risk to the sciatic nerve is relatively small, and it can be taken out from the inside of the femoral nerve."

"But if it's vertical..." Strange shook his head and said, "I would suggest not operating and then pray to God that the bullet stays there forever. That way, he'd only lose a leg, not end up completely paralyzed."

"Is there no other way?"

"First we have to determine the angle of the bullet," Strange spoke very slowly, clearly weighing his words. He said, "As long as it's not the worst-case scenario, we can try. But there's always a chance of failure."

"The biggest problem right now is, we can't see the direction of the bullet with modern medical devices. So the only way to judge the direction of the bullet is to figure out how he was injured. From the angle of the shot, we can approximate the current state of the bullet."

"But getting Tony Stark to describe how he got himself into such a mess is much more difficult than performing the entire surgery. And that's your job scope, not mine. The success of the surgery mainly depends on you."

Now it was Shiller's turn to frown.