CHAPTER 65: CHAPTER 65: A MATTER OF ATTITUDE

"What’s wrong?"

Bai Ming asked with some confusion.

"Look, the patient’s right leg has a slight tremor, and the heart rate has increased compared to just now."

Zhao Heng said.

"That’s not a big deal..."

Resident doctor Li Ziming said with a frown. Zhao Heng was younger than him, yet while he was still following around attending doctors like a little assistant, Zhao Heng was already on equal footing with attending doctor Bai Ming. Naturally, this made Li Ziming feel quite discontent.

Right now, in Li Ziming’s eyes, Zhao Heng seemed to be picking trouble for no reason.

It’s important to know that aside from the removal of the internal fixation completed by attending doctor Bai Ming, the remaining operations were all done by him.

By saying this, Zhao Heng was essentially implying that there was a problem with his technique, wasn’t he?

Crucially, all he had done was the simplest suture and postoperative finishing touches.

Upon hearing Li Ziming’s words, Zhao Heng shook his head slightly, and casually picked up a pair of hemostats from the work table, gently tapping it on the surface marker of the quadriceps tendon below the patient’s knee patella with the instrument handle.

A strange thing happened!

The lower leg, which should have lifted slightly naturally, showed no response at all at this moment.

This indicated that the patient’s knee reflex was weakened or even absent.

"This doesn’t mean anything, right? The patient is still under anesthesia, a weakened knee reflex is a normal condition."

Resident doctor Li Ziming said indifferently upon seeing Zhao Heng’s actions.

However, upon seeing this scene, especially when the knee reflex did not appear, Bai Ming furrowed his brows, and his expression changed.

A weakened or absent knee reflex is a sign of femoral nerve damage.

But how could such a simple, routine surgery for removing a femoral internal fixation plate possibly damage the femoral nerve?

Bai Ming couldn’t help but ponder.

"Xiao Zhao, what do you think the problem might be?"

Bai Ming thought about it and decided to listen to Zhao Heng’s opinion, after all, he was the one who discovered these symptoms in the patient.

"I suggest we open it up again and take a look."

Zhao Heng slowly said.

"What?!"

Upon hearing Zhao Heng’s words, resident doctor Li Ziming said with an ugly expression.

These words from Zhao Heng were practically saying that his operation had serious issues!

Such an accusation is very serious for a resident doctor who has not yet become an attending doctor.

"If we open up and find nothing, can you take responsibility for it?"

Li Ziming said with an unsightly expression to Zhao Heng.

He had persisted for so many years and was at a crucial stage for promotion to attending. Making such a basic mistake in a place as fiercely competitive as Eastern Hospital could very well cause him to lose this opportunity for promotion.

Zhao Heng slightly shook his head, said nothing, and looked at Bai Ming.

The pressure now fell on Bai Ming, after all, he was the chief surgeon.

"Open it up again."

Bai Ming said with a gloomy, furrowed face.

"Teacher Bai..."

Upon hearing Bai Ming say this, Li Ziming’s face turned extremely unsightly, stunned in place.

Bai Ming was a senior attending doctor, and from his experience, in the clinical medical process, any doubt found on the patient’s body must be ruled out.

Caution leads to lasting safety. As a surgeon, this is the most basic clinical thinking.

Without this kind of thinking, one might make an irreparable mistake due to a tiny error at any time.

Bai Ming had witnessed such things happen more than once in his ten-plus-year career.

Soon, Bai Ming personally reopened the already sutured surgical incision.

As the surgical incision was opened, resident doctor Li Ziming, who was standing beside, suddenly became pale.

Because he discovered that while suturing the fascia, he had accidentally sutured the femoral nerve to the fascia.

If it hadn’t been reopened, in at most two hours, the femoral nerve would suffer irreversible damage due to the ligature of the suture.

Nerve cells are among the few cells that cannot regenerate in the human body, meaning that once nerve damage occurs, it is usually permanent.

Damage to the femoral nerve can result in sensory disturbances on the front thigh and inner lower leg, weakened or lost reflexes, and even the inability to straighten the knee, with quadriceps atrophy.

Once these conditions appear, they will be permanent.

In other words, this was completely a medical error.

Luckily, it had only been a little over ten minutes since the femoral nerve was ligatured, so the nerve damage hadn’t reached an irreversible state. The issue was minor as long as postoperative nerve-nourishing medications were used to restore the damaged nerves.

Bai Ming directly ignored Li Ziming while he sullenly cut the suture off the femoral nerve and then resutured the fascia and skin.

Not a word was spoken by Bai Ming until the end of the surgery.

"Send the patient back to the ward."

Bai Ming took off his rubber gloves and said to another resident doctor, Xiao Song.

"Okay, Teacher Bai."

Feeling the somber atmosphere on site, resident doctor Xiao Song promptly nodded and, together with the nurse, hurriedly pushed the patient out of the operating room, almost in escape.

"Xiao Zhao, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I might have caused a medical error today."

Bai Ming first expressed his gratitude to Zhao Heng.

At this moment, he had an extra layer of acknowledgment for Zhao Heng’s professional competence.

Most anesthesiologists simply won’t bother about such things.

Typically, they’re responsible for anesthesia, ensuring no issues there, and as for the surgery itself, that’s the surgeon’s matter.

To put it nicely, it’s sticking to one’s duty; to put it bluntly, it’s turning a blind eye.

Fundamentally, surgeons and anesthesiologists should cooperate seamlessly, without dividing lines.

However, nowadays, the easy working relationship between many surgical and anesthetic teams had diminished.

"It’s my duty, Dr. Bai. I’ll go back to work."

Zhao Heng nodded modestly and said.

As for what would happen to Li Ziming, who looked pale and awkward, it was beyond his consideration.

If the patient’s femoral nerve complications occurred post-operation, re-opening the wound might mean the patient would permanently become lame, and the consequences would fall entirely on the chief surgeon Bai Ming.

"Alright, Xiao Zhao, please inform Teacher Gao about next week’s surgery."

Bai Ming said.

After doing what needed to be done, Zhao Heng followed them out of the operating room.

After Zhao Heng left the operating room, only Bai Ming and Li Ziming remained inside.

"Teacher Bai... I’m sorry, I was wrong."

Li Ziming said uneasily with an ugly face.

"What were you wrong about?"

Bai Ming said with a sullen face.

"I carelessly ligatured the patient’s femoral nerve; it was too careless of me."

Li Ziming defended himself, saying.

"That’s one thing, anything else?"

Bai Ming asked with discontent lingering on his face.

"Anything else?"

Li Ziming said feeling a bit lost.

"Think again."

Bai Ming suppressed his anger at Li Ziming’s stubbornness and asked again.

"I...I shouldn’t easily overlook a point that could lead to a medical error..."

Li Ziming stammered for a long time before finally speaking.

"Anything else?"

Bai Ming was still unsatisfied with Li Ziming’s answer.

"Anything else?"

Li Ziming’s mind was about to explode, but he couldn’t think of anything.

"An anesthesiologist is here to help us perform the surgery, not to cause us trouble or embarrass us. They, like us, want the patient to get better. I hope you always remember this point."

Bai Ming looked at Li Ziming with disappointment and said, shaking his head.

Doctors are not gods; oversights and mistakes can’t be completely avoided even by the most skilled doctors.

Someone had already pointed out the doubt, but because of arrogance, you turned a blind eye and ignored the potential risk of a medical error. That entirely boils down to an attitude problem.

"Tomorrow, I’ll ask the director to reassign you to another supervising doctor."

Bai Ming said with a sigh.

Skills can be practiced, experience can be accumulated, but deeply ingrained attitudes are hard to change.

Upon hearing this from Bai Ming, Li Ziming’s face instantly turned pale.

"Alright, I won’t speak of today’s matter to anyone, but beware of yourself."

Bai Ming said again, shaking his head at Li Ziming.

After speaking, he exited the operating room on his own.