Surgery Godfather-Chapter 613 - 557 Duty

After the surgery, Cui Shukai, outfitted with an external fixator on his lower back, was sent back to his ward like a machine warrior.

This external fixator would stay with him for about three months. During this time, he could walk normally, but he couldn’t lie flat when sleeping; he could only sleep on his side.

But that wasn’t much of a problem for Cui Shukai. Before the surgery, his malformed spine had prevented him from sleeping flat anyway.

Cui Xubing and Guo Liu stayed by his bedside, staring at the strange device on their son’s back. The nurse gave them a detailed explanation of what to note during the period of treatment with the external fixator. freeweɓnovel.cøm

If there were to come a day when their son’s spine was successfully straightened by this apparatus, how happy they would be.

Having their son go through this had caused the couple to hang their heads low in front of friends and relatives. They had been talked about quite a bit behind their backs.

When the surgery was finished, Head Nurse Cai returned the red envelope to Cui Xubing. The twenty thousand yuan was transferred into Cui Shukai’s hospital account. The original large envelope now contained the receipt for payment.

Upon receiving the returned red envelope, Cui Xubing’s face changed colors, and his heart began to pound. Was it possible that his son’s operation had failed?

This father, with a potent imagination, swiftly conjured up a mental map in his head, with the returned red envelope as the central node, his thoughts branching out in all directions.

He then thought back to the terms and conditions they had agreed to before the surgery - the possibilities of infection through the needle hole, damage to the spinal cord and nerves etc.

An infection through the needle hole would mean pus seeping out from the needle hole.

Damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots could lead to paralysis.

After a bout of wild thoughts, Cui Xubing shivered. Every exposed fixing nail covered with gauze looked normal, yet he couldn’t help but try to check for pus himself.

Just as he reached out, Guo Liu smacked his hand away, "His operation just finished! How can you mess around with it? You want to run the risk of causing an infection? Didn’t the doctor just caution us not to touch the external fixator for now?"

Old Cui didn’t dare voice his worries, so he advised his son to move his feet a bit.

But their son was groggy, wanting to sleep, and did not cooperate. Old Cui moved his chair even closer, his eyes locked onto his son’s feet, waiting to see if they would move.

"What are you up to now?" Guo Liu sensed that her husband was behaving unusually, but his habit of suspecting everything was nothing new, and she had grown used to it.

After observing for around ten minutes, their son’s feet began to move.

Where was the problem? Old Cui couldn’t figure it out.

"You think they returned the red envelope because there is a problem with the surgery?" Guo Liu sneered softly, asking her husband.

Old Cui looked contemptuous as he lowered his voice to reply, "What would you, a woman, know about it? Who in this society would refuse money? There is definitely a problem."

"You think everyone’s like you, always after money?" Guo Liu thought her husband was misjudging others through his own narrow perspective.

Old Cui glared at her, "Enough talking. I’m earning money for our family."

If they were at home, Old Cui would surely have given his wife a good scolding. He considered himself superior, whether in terms of intellect or life experiences. He often fancied himself a wise man, a "real man", deciding all the affairs in their household.

Guo Liu couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and remained silent.

Cui Xubing spent the next few days in hospital in a state of anxiety. Sometimes he would visit Professor Yang’s office to inquire about his son’s condition. Professor Yang reassured him that everything was going smoothly and that all that was needed was patience. This corrective procedure was different from traditional ones. It was a gradual process, like the growth of a sapling, occurring daily but impossible to notice on a day-to-day basis.

Despite Professor Yang’s clear explanation, Cui Xubing could not put his mind at ease. He often found himself pacing the hallway outside Professor Yang’s office, returning to the ward with a heavy sigh and a furrowed brow.

On the 7th day, the knobs on the external brace on Cui Shukai’s lower back started to be turned for bone shifting. Each day, 1mm would be moved in four increments of 0.25mm each.

The task was straightforward - turn each knob four times a day, strictly adhering to the schedule and the magnitude.

While simple, the task required meticulous attention and persistence.

If the knobs were turned incorrectly, or if they were often forgotten and left unturned, the surgical outcome would be directly affected.

At the hospital, this task was performed by specially assigned nurses, and everything was recorded in real-time.

After being discharged from the hospital, this task would be handed over to the relatives.

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In Oman, Yasmeen was already able to walk back and forth in the corridor. She and Dr. Fida had picked up the contents of the rehabilitation training. In a few days, they planned to be discharged from the hospital and return home.

Minmin’s stitches were successfully removed, and she was discharged from the hospital. Her grandparents sent a banner to the hospital staff expressing their gratitude for the excellent care.

Cui Shukai’s spine model, with the external fixator installed, stood on a desk.

The model was specially designed by Ruixing and was put in Professor Yang’s office as a souvenir.

Professor Yang sat in his office, contemplating his next steps. Once Cui Shukai’s operation was successful, he would receive a huge sum of system points.

With this, he could begin conducting an experiment in cultivating stem cells into muscle. A large-scale project, it would consume tens of millions of system points, exceeding the point cost of any previous project.

Professor Yang inventoried the equipment in the system space laboratory. There was still a shortage of one electron microscope, a must-have piece of equipment.

Stem cell cultivation for muscle growth via 3D printing might require much time to catch up with others.

3D printing is rather a rudimentary approach. It uses stem cells cultured into the cells of the target organ, then prints the organ’s 3D shape using these cells as raw materials.

The organs obtained in this way can only perform functions that are similar to the target organ, but they will never be able to perform their complete functions.

That’s because the assembly of these cells with each other is passive, very coarse, and can’t simulate the complex relationship between the cells of a real organ.

The most successful way to cultivate real muscle is by mimicking the method of how our body develops muscles from fertilized egg cells into mature cells.

Why can some stem cells differentiate into the heart, while others differentiate into lungs, bones, or muscles? What exactly is guiding these cells to precisely differentiate?

If we could uncover this secret and use stem cells to directly cultivate muscle, it would be generations ahead of biological 3D printing technology.

Someone knocked at the door, and Yang Ping immediately stopped what he was doing: "Come in!"

It was Cui Xubing again.

Yang Ping was a bit disgusted with this indecisive guy. If it weren’t for the patient-doctor relationship, Yang Ping wouldn’t deal with him at all.

For the same questions, which he had explained over and over again, this man still asked them repeatedly, thinking he was always in the right.

"Professor Yang!"

Cui Xubing had a forced smile on his face, feeling sheepish about disturbing Yang Ping so often.

"What is it?" Yang Ping asked him.

Cui Xubing stuttered a bit: "Professor Yang, is there any problem with my son’s surgery? Why has there been no progress these days?"

This question was explained no less than five times already, and now it was the sixth time.

"I just explained this to you yesterday, don’t you remember?"

Yang Ping was not polite about it; he didn’t have the time to indulge him in repeat explanations. Each time Cui Xubing was hung up on one question, it took at least half an hour, and sometimes more than an hour. In an hour, Yang Ping could accomplish a lot.

At this time, when Song Zimo saw that Cui Xubing was in Yang Ping’s office again, he immediately came over.

"Old Cui, Professor Yang is busy. Let me explain it to you."

Cui Xubing was reluctant, saying, "I will only take a few minutes of Professor Yang’s time."

Every time he said a few minutes it always ended up being at least half an hour.

Cui Xubing closed the door to Yang Ping’s office himself and nothing could be done about this by Song Zimo, who, as Xu Zhiliang said, "Only Zhang Lin can deal with him. If Zhang Lin were here, he would not even dare to hover around the entrance."

Zhang Lin is currently on maternity leave, and no one can scold Cui Xubing the way Zhang Lin did, making him question his life.

Cui Xubing left Yang Ping’s office with a fast pace, the expression on his face was like someone who got what he wanted.

Yang Ping picked up the phone and called Head Nurse Cai over.

"Why does he insist on giving me this red envelope? He sent it once yesterday, I declined, but he came again with it today."

Yang Ping pointed to the envelope on his desk, anticipating another 20,000; this man did have some money.

"Who ever heard of such persistent red envelope-giving?"

Yang Ping instructed Head Nurse Cai to register the red envelope for return again.

Head Nurse Cai smiled: "Professor Yang, didn’t you see how upset this family member was after the red envelope was returned? He would grab any nurse he saw and ask, ’There should be no problem with this surgery, right?’ It seems that if this red envelope is not accepted, his worries won’t be relieved. If the treatment process still needs three months, he might get depressed during this period."

"Surely we can’t return it to him after three months?" Yang Ping really doesn’t want to be bothered by this nuisance.

He was actually suspected of not doing his job because he didn’t accept the red envelope? How pathological is this man’s thinking?

Head Nurse Cai shook her head saying: "Certainly not after three months. In case something really goes wrong midway through, you won’t be able to clear your name no matter what you do. Nowadays, the patient’s family members take loads of photos and videos. There have been cases in the past where patients from small towns came to Beijing to arrange a surgery with a top doctor, they agreed on a labor fee but secretly recorded the cash transaction and later on made claims about the doctors accepting red envelopes and asked for refund. The professors in Beijing had to give up arguing, and the refund was made. Since then, not a single specialist dared to go to that county for consultations or surgeries. No one wants to jump into a pit for just a small labor fee."

Head Nurse Cai continued: "You don’t have to cater to his feelings. Whether he is worried or anxious, it’s his problem. You can’t risk being bitten back just to accommodate him."

"Alright then, take care of this matter for me. I don’t want him to be always nagging, repeating the same issue endlessly."

Yang Ping didn’t want to waste his time on such trivial matters. His principle in handling affairs is to stick to his duties.

What are his duties? To perform surgeries meticulously, to save lives to the best of his ability; these are his duties.

He doesn’t want to concern himself with things beyond his duties, nor does he want to cater to them.