The Surgeon's Studio

Chapter 152: Custom Configuration Part II

Zheng Ren rubbed his face and tried to make his smile look more friendly.

After all, he had come asking for help. Although Su Yun was the one who had asked for a favor and would be the one humiliated if something went south... It was better not to put on a stern expression at all times.

“Sister Zhao.” Zheng Ren pretended as if he had heard nothing and entered the CT operator’s console room with a smile on his face, which was a rare sight. His sudden appearance made Su Yun, Chang Yue and the rest jump in astonishment.

“Chief Zheng, I don’t mean to criticize you.” Zheng Ren’s humility softened Sister Zhao’s tone, but she still had issues with the absurdity of his request.

“Please, go ahead.” Zheng Ren signaled that he would not retaliate even if he was scolded or beaten.

“3D reconstruction of CT imaging is a very complicated procedure. No one completely understands it, even when the machines have been here since the establishment of the hospital.” As she operated the machine examining Zheng Yunxia, Sister Zhao said, “After that, the hospital sent three batches to undergo training in this domain, and it took me a whole year before I could understand just a teeny-weeny bit of it.”

“Yes, yes...” Zheng Ren smiled without the slightest hint of embarrassment.

“You said you want to do 3D reconstruction of a CT scan?” Sister Zhao was getting more unhappy and asked, “Have you learned it before?”

“I’ve seen your operation once, so I want to give it a try.”

“...” Su Yun was dumbfounded.

‘What the f*ck, that’s what I always said!’

“...” Sister Zhao was left speechless as well. She was quiet for a while and replied, “The machines are too expensive, so I can’t allow you to fool around with it. I’ll supervise you, and if something goes wrong, I’ll terminate your procedure at once.”

“Of course.” Zheng Ren kept a low profile as always.

Nowadays, it was getting increasingly difficult to ask others for help, but Zheng Ren perfectly understood Sister Zhao’s worries. If she had informed him that she was good at surgery and wanted to perform an appendectomy, he probably would kick her out of the operating theater.

Even if Su Yun had proven his capability in surgery, Zheng Ren was still reluctant to let him perform surgery alone. He was not actually trying to suppress the growth of the younger generation...

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Was he or Su Yun younger? Zheng Ren had no idea, but he simply preferred to perform every operation himself, especially in a special case due to his expertise in surgery.

“Half an hour,” said Sister Zhao in the end.

“Sis, half an hour isn’t enough,” Zheng Ren replied, “A conventional 3D reconstruction of CT scan requires about half an hour per patient, but I’m going to perform a reverse 3D reconstruction of CT scan, which is going to take me at least two hours.”

“!!!” Sister Zhao turned her head and glared at him.

What was this guy talking about? Reverse 3D reconstruction of a CT scan? What the hell was that?

“It uses the principle of conventional 3D reconstruction of CT scans to locate abnormally proliferating blood vessels, retrospectively trace weaker signals back to their origins and create a 3D image out of it,” Zheng Ren summarised quickly after noticing Sister Zhao’s dark expression, “Sis, you don’t know what happened in the surgery last time. One of the tumor-feeding arteries originated from the phrenic artery, which I successfully found after standing for four hours in a lead apron that weighs a few kilograms.”

Sister Zhao’s expression instantly changed.

Zheng Ren’s words sounded exaggerated, but it was the truth, and it forced Su Yun to swallow the criticism that had been about to slip past his throat.

“You really know how to do it?” Sister Zhao reconsidered Zheng Ren’s words. Although she had never seen such a procedure before, logically speaking, it was doable. However, the time required would be... astronomical.

It was not that the medical staff in the CT room did not want to do it, but the machine cost a fortune and its operating software had been developed by large transnational companies. No matter the size of its coffers, it was impossible for the hospital to directly purchase ten sets of software.

Even if the hospital did do so, retrospectively performing 3D reconstruction of a CT scan would take hours to complete. Manpower was simply inadequate in such a situation.

This was a special circumstance; one that Sister Zhao, an experienced deputy chief of the CT room, had never encountered in her lifetime.

“Give it a try, then.” Sister Zhao’s curiosity prevailed over her anger and she agreed to his request.

Half an hour later, the necessary tests on Zheng Yunxia were done and a conventional 3D reconstruction of CT scan had been completed as well. Sister Zhao then stood and let Zheng Ren take over the operator console.

“Little Su, does he really know how to do it?” Sister Zhao remained unconvinced. Even though Zheng Ren’s words sounded reasonable, it was just theory. Anyone who had read the book for days could come up with promising ideas, but not everyone could deliver on them.

“I have no idea.” Su Yun smiled bitterly. “I’ve never seen anyone personally performing 3D reconstruction of a CT scan in Union Medical College Hospital, let alone a reverse technique.”

“You’re really a smart brat. I’ve been wondering how you were transferred to the emergency department. It turns out you’ve found yourself a good boss,” Sister Zhao teased.

“Sis, there is no need for me to find one. I’m my own boss.” Su Yun brushed aside the black hair framing his forehead.

“If he really knows how to do it, it would be amazing. With his proficiency in surgery and CT imaging, not to mention an annual salary of one million yuan in a southern private hospital, someone would definitely hire him for an annual after-tax salary of five million yuan,” said Sister Zhao, slightly envious.

She had been thinking about resigning in spring, so she had taken paid leave to visit the south and sent her resume to a few hospitals, which was how she was aware of market rates.

However, she had to suspend her resignation to work in the south ever since her lover suffered intracranial hemorrhaging.

Even so, she was aware that salaries were meted out meritocratically in the south.

Zheng Ren’s hands flew all across the console skillfully.

An outsider would find it easy to believe that a chief of a CT room from a well-reputed hospital was showing off his skills.

Su Yun was caught in a trance as well. ‘Zheng Ren even knows how to perform 3D reconstruction of a CT scan? When did he learn it?’

The moment Zheng Ren began the operation and the initially-constructed image of the liver on the screen began to rotate, Sister Zhao fell silent and stared attentively at the screen.

She was mulling over the reasons behind each of his movements.

Her initial fear, that Zheng Ren would wreck the machine, was forgotten.

Breaking the CT machine? From his proficiency, this emergency surgeon could probably even repair the machine if it broke down.

Onscreen, Zheng Yunxia’s hepatic tumor tissue was fully under control after interventional radiological treatment. The periphery of the ten-centimeter tumor had become necrosed and organized, but due to its large size, the tumor-feeding artery had not been fully embolized yet.

This was on purpose to prevent liquefactive necrosis that could lead to septicemia and bacteremia. Sometimes, necrotic cells could destroy the neighboring cells, and once a capillary was affected, it could rupture and bleed, which was a fatal condition.

The diameter of the tumor had shrunk to around five centimeters, indicative of effective surgical control.

However, Zheng Ren remained unsatisfied and attentively searched for something frame by frame.

Ten minutes...

Twenty minutes...

One hour later...

Su Yun was getting sleepy. Even though he was extraordinarily talented, he could not understand what Zheng Ren was looking for as he had not learned about 3D reconstruction of CT scans before.

Even Sister Zhao failed to understand the procedure as well.

The images flashed past their eyes frame after frame, and he occasionally backtracked to quickly glance at the original data before continuing his search.

What the hell was he doing?!