A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 394

Chapter 76: Sprint (4)

The twins shared many things.

Skulls, meninges [membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord], cerebral blood vessels, and so on.

The main goal of this surgery was to separate all the shared parts and ensure each functioned properly.

The process of cutting and separating the skull went relatively smoothly.

Although it was a simulation, the staff had diligently practiced dozens of times as if it were the real thing.

Even while managing their regular schedules.

Thanks to enduring that grueling time, the surgery had been smooth so far.

The problem was from now on.

Numerous microvessels were distributed on the surface of the meninges.

A clumsy separation could lead to uncontrollable bleeding.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve felt this kind of tension.’

Austin chuckled.

Even for Austin, there weren’t many cases where he performed surgeries that garnered attention from both academia and the media.

Especially this twin separation surgery.

This surgery would have a significant impact on Austin’s career.

If successful, he would become a hero.

If he failed, he would become a traitor.

Austin simply wanted to save both twins.

But the world would judge him based solely on the outcome.

“Semkin forceps.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Hector handed over two forceps.

The forceps had no blades at the end.

The forceps gleamed silver under the surgical lights.

“Are you alright?”

Hector asked Austin.

“What do you mean?”

“You seem a bit more nervous than usual. Your hand is trembling slightly.”

“Isn’t it your heart that’s trembling?”

“Maybe so. Seeing the meninges makes it feel real, not just a simulation.”

“You may feel that way, but I practiced as if it were the real thing.”

Austin quietly looked down at his hand.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t nervous at all, but his hand wasn’t trembling.

Austin took a deep breath.

He inhaled deeply and exhaled deeply.

Deep breathing wasn’t just an old wives’ tale.

It really had the effect of calming the mind.

It helped balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Austin brought his eyes close to the microscope.

The white dura mater [the outermost of the three layers of the meninges], like a milk film.

He began to peel off the conjoined twins’ dura mater with the forceps in both hands.

The rough hand movements from when he cut the skull were now gentle and delicate.

It felt as if time was flowing slowly only in Austin’s hands.

If the dura mater was 100,

Austin tried to divide the dura mater equally, giving 50 percent to Emma and Sophia respectively.

While separating the dura mater,

He also tried to avoid blood vessels as much as possible to prevent capillary bleeding.

The dura mater dissection was solely Austin’s responsibility.

The other staff members only watched Austin.

Such delicate work was more cumbersome to assist with.

It could obstruct the surgical view or cause unintended stimulation to the organ.

‘Damn it. Was there a limit to the simulation after all?’

Austin’s brow furrowed.

His eyes narrowed, and his lips pursed involuntarily.

A sense of bewilderment washed over his entire body like a wave.

During practice, he had cleanly dissected the dura mater in just 30 minutes.

But what? In the real surgery, the speed was far too slow.

He felt like a tortoise instead of a hare [a reference to Aesop’s fable, meaning he felt slow instead of fast].

Even though he spent the same 30 minutes, the progress was less than one-fifth of what it was during practice.

Of course, he didn’t expect practice and reality to be the same, but this was too much.

As things didn’t go as planned, the back of his neck felt cold.

His whole body slowly became soaked with cold sweat.

“Haa……”

Austin finally sighed and straightened his back.

“The dura mater adhesion seems more severe than expected. It didn’t seem this bad on the CT scan.”

Hector said as if he had been waiting.

“I guess so. As the twins’ heads grew, the meninges must have become more closely attached.”

“……”

“Honestly, it’s disgusting. It’s like trying to separate two pieces of paper glued together without tearing them.”

Austin groaned, unlike his usual self.

That’s how arduous and difficult the work was.

“Is this going to be alright?”

Hector’s eyes, looking at Austin, were filled with anxiety.

“At this rate, it might take at least two more hours to dissect the dura mater.”

“We can’t avoid doing what needs to be done just because it takes a long time.”

“You need to save your energy for the arterial anastomosis [surgical connection of blood vessels] later. I’ll take over the rest of the work.”

“I’m in better shape than you are. I even go to the gym after surgery.”

Changing the atmosphere with small talk,

Austin picked up the forceps again in both hands.

There was no such thing as giving up in his dictionary.

* * *

“Hey. Is this really right?”

Raymond whispered to Jun-hoo, barely audible.

“It’s been two hours and he’s only dissecting the dura mater. But he’s only done half of it.”

“……”

“If he separates the arachnoid [the middle layer of the meninges] and pia mater [the innermost layer of the meninges], it’ll be dawn.”

Raymond’s voice was filled with dissatisfaction.

Jun-hoo nodded instead of answering.

Even to Jun-hoo, Austin’s dura mater dissection seemed problematic.

Austin said he was fine, but the physical burden was clearly piling up.

The fact that the surgery time was being delayed was also a huge burden.

Naturally, the shorter the surgery time, the better the patient’s prognosis.

But Jun-hoo didn’t have any brilliant solutions either.

He had run countless virtual simulations in his head, but he had never imagined a situation like this.

It wasn’t like there was a way to enter the cerebral blood vessels directly without separating the meninges.

Think. Think.

If you think there’s no way, there’s no way, and if you think there’s a way, a way will appear.

Since he wasn’t particularly helping with anything,

Jun-hoo focused solely on finding a way to resolve the current situation.

First of all, he couldn’t use martial arts and internal energy because there were too many eyes watching.

He purely needed a surgical breakthrough.

However, there was no need to abandon the way of thinking he had gained in the Murim world [a fictional world of martial arts heroes], so Jun-hoo decided to interpret this surgery from the perspective of sparring and duels.

He changed the question ‘How can I quickly defeat my opponent?’ to ‘How can I shorten the surgery time?’

And he retraced his experiences in the Murim world one by one.

By changing his way of thinking, the answer came surprisingly quickly.

The answer was this.

Attack the bones through the flesh.

From the perspective of ‘attacking the bones through the flesh.’

There was a plausible answer to Austin’s current mistakes and misjudgments.

Austin was being too greedy.

He was obsessed with doing the surgery perfectly from start to finish.

In simple terms,

He was struggling to defeat his opponent without getting hit once.

“Raymond.”

This time, Jun-hoo whispered closely to Raymond.

“What?”

“I have an idea, what do you think?”

Raymond’s eyebrows rose and his pupils dilated, as if he were intrigued by Jun-hoo’s words.

Jun-hoo explained his plan as concisely as possible.

“That sounds plausible. It’s a hundred times better than dragging out the time like this.”

But Raymond, who had been siding with Jun-hoo, tilted his head.

“But will the professor accept it? I think he’ll tell you not to talk nonsense?”

“That doesn’t matter. Anyway, the idea is approved, right?”

“Of course. I’m all for it.”

Jun-hoo gained great strength from Raymond’s support.

Even though his method had medical basis, it was far from common sense.

The problem was how to seize the opportunity…….

Jun-hoo looked down at the twins’ dura mater, which had been dissected a little over halfway, and then looked up at Austin.

Austin was trying not to show it, but he looked very tired.

His mask fluttered frequently because he was sighing a lot.

His hand movements were also becoming increasingly dull.

The brilliance in his eyes was slowly fading.

So, even the best surgeon isn’t always perfect.

He has his own preconceptions and prejudices.

I must have similar weaknesses to Austin, right?

Jun-hoo suddenly had that thought.

“Professor. I would like to proceed with the rest of the procedure.”

When Austin took his eyes off the microscope and took a break, Jun-hoo jumped in like lightning.

“Hmm…… that would be good. I need to rest for a bit too.”

Austin, exhausted from the dura mater dissection, surprisingly gave Jun-hoo a chance easily.

He let go of the forceps.

Hector was wiping the sweat from Austin’s face with gauze.

“But what kind of scheme are you plotting?”

Austin squinted at Jun-hoo.

“What do you mean by scheme?”

Jun-hoo denied it with a nonchalant voice.

“I saw you whispering with Raymond earlier?”

“We were just sharing opinions.”

To notice his secret conversation with Raymond even while dissecting the dura mater…….

As expected, the famous doctor had a wide surgical view.

“What opinions?”

“I’m the first assistant, so I said I wanted to try dissecting the dura mater. Raymond tried to stop me. Isn’t that right, Raymond?”

Jun-hoo glanced at Raymond and winked slightly.

Raymond, who was quick-witted, nodded.

“I said that if someone else had to dissect the dura mater, it would be better for Hector to do it than Jun-hoo.”

Raymond’s answer was natural.

Although they had been like enemies, they worked well together like close friends today.

“Is that so? Let’s leave it to Jun-hoo for now, and if Jun-hoo isn’t doing well, let’s switch to Hector.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Jun-hoo answered coolly and stretched out his hands towards Raymond.

Raymond looked at Austin and Hector, then quickly handed Jun-hoo the Taylor forceps.

Austin had been using the Semkin forceps, which were necessary for delicate procedures.

The Taylor forceps were larger and more rugged than the Semkin forceps, and had sharp teeth at the end.

It was the perfect forceps for the procedure Jun-hoo was about to perform.

In an extremely fleeting moment.

The two exchanged glances of accomplices, no, glances of rebellion.

Jun-hoo brought his eyes close to the microscope and stared at the dura mater.

The dissected dura mater so far was as beautiful as art, thanks to Austin’s efforts.

The dura mater distributed to Emma and Sophia maintained a precise 50-50 ratio.

But surgery was not art.

Sometimes, like battles in the Murim world, you had to give up flesh to strike the bone.

And in this situation right now.

Jun-hoo was calmly and accurately grasping what he had to give up and what he had to gain.

The important thing was to shorten the surgery time.

The benefit of dissecting the dura mater beautifully.

The benefit of doing the surgery quickly.

When calculated, the latter benefit was several times greater.

“Jun-hoo, is that forceps you’re holding strange?”

Austin, who was taking a break, discovered the forceps in Jun-hoo’s hand and widened his eyes.

But it was already too late.

Jun-hoo was already holding the dura mater with the Taylor forceps.

Unlike Austin.

He was tearing the dura mater roughly and savagely to the side.