The words "major surgery" excited both Yan Feifan and Yu Suye, but they also knew it meant another night's rest was going down the drain.
Yan Feifan quickly ate the chocolate and snacks Yu Suye handed him as he hurried back.
To Yan Feifan's surprise, it was as if Yu Suye were Doraemon. From every pocket and her shoulder bag, she could magically pull out one or two delicious snacks, a seemingly endless supply…
The two returned to the trauma surgery department and found that Dr. Chen Yu hadn't been kidding. It really was a major surgery.
It was a relatively rare type of procedure.
A total hand bone replacement surgery.
The patient was a thirty-one-year-old man.
He had been riding his electric scooter to a friend's party at night when he accidentally fell on the road.
A cement mixer truck, unable to swerve in time, had run over his left hand.
A CT scan revealed that all the bones in his left hand had suffered comminuted fractures, with no possibility of healing.
Dr. Chen Yu decided to perform a total hand bone replacement on him.
A total hand bone replacement involves using a 3D printer to create a set of artificial hand bones from biomaterials, which would then replace the patient's shattered ones…
Dr. Chen Yu explained that she had already mobilized the entire hospital.
All seven of the hospital's specialized medical 3D printers were running at full capacity, urgently printing the patient's hand bones.
In an estimated four to five hours, the surgical team would have a complete set of left hand bones.
Because of Yan Feifan's exceptionally fine dissection technique, Dr. Chen Yu assigned him the task of debridement and bone removal before the replacement surgery.
After scrubbing in and putting on their surgical gowns again, Yan Feifan and Yu Suye entered the operating room and saw the patient's left hand.
Not only was it a bloody mess, but it was also flat and limp like noodles, with no rigidity whatsoever.
Yan Feifan followed the muscle grain, using his scalpel to incise the skin and muscle on the back of the patient's left thumb, all the way down to the phalanx.
He discovered that the bone was completely shattered; the largest fragments were only the size of a bean.
Yan Feifan had to clean out these bone fragments one by one.
Leaving behind even a pinprick-sized fragment could cause the patient continuous, unbearable pain in the future.
This was a task that required both patience and meticulous care.
Having been lost in the world of consciousness for an unknowable number of years, Yan Feifan had patience in spades.
Under the view of the surgical microscope, with Yu Suye's assistance, he simultaneously cleared away the bone fragments while also repairing and suturing damaged blood vessels, nerves, tendons, skin, and muscles.
The work was tedious and monotonous, but Yan Feifan reveled in it.
For him, as long as he was standing at an operating table with a scalpel in hand, no matter the task, it was a form of enjoyment…
Nearly three hours later, Chen Yu, having finished her surgical preparations, arrived in the operating room with several assistants and students.
Chen Yu walked to the operating table, but her gaze was involuntarily drawn to a stainless steel tray beside Yan Feifan.
On the tray, tiny bone fragments had been assembled into a clearly recognizable skeletal hand.
Currently, only the phalanges of the little finger were missing.
Chen Yu noticed that Yan Feifan seemed to be casually placing the fragments he removed with his forceps onto the tray, without wasting a single second.
But with each casual placement, the small bone fragment landed in its exact, correct position.
'Orderly, precise, perfect. It seems to have become a pursuit ingrained in his very marrow, his standard for doing things.'
Chen Yu took two steps back and beckoned. The few assistants and students in the observation area moved closer to her.
She pointed to the tray of shattered hand bones and said softly, "I know you've all been grumbling about me favoring Yan Feifan recently."
"Look at that hand skeleton on the tray. Ask yourselves, could you do that so effortlessly?"
"The details reveal the bigger picture. Yan Feifan's high standards for himself have permeated every aspect of his work, to the point where it's become second nature."
Chen Yu raised her voice, speaking with a tone of frustration at their complacency, "Don't be jealous of others' achievements and the preferential treatment they receive. Look at the gap between you, and reflect on your own shortcomings."
"I can give you opportunities, too."
"The question is, are you confident you can handle them?"
The assistants and students were silent, not daring to speak, but one or two of them had looks of defiance and resentment on their faces…
Chen Yu waited another ten-plus minutes before Yan Feifan finally completed all the debridement and bone removal work.
Yan Feifan gave the lead surgeon's position to Chen Yu.
His next task was to further polish the eleven phalanges that had already been printed.
Although the precision of modern machines is very high, errors in measurement, modeling, and other data meant the printed phalanges still required final polishing and adjustment.
With his microscopic understanding of human anatomy, Yan Feifan was undoubtedly the best person for this job.
Chen Yu's job, with Yu Suye's help, was to implant the phalanges polished by Yan Feifan into their corresponding positions in the patient's left hand.
There were two particularly difficult parts to this task.
First was fixing the flexor and extensor tendons to the artificial phalanges.