Overpowered Resident Doctor

Chapter 525: Chapter 524: No Feel

The call came at an opportune moment. Yan Feifan, not in the best of moods, had just been thinking of finding something medical-related to occupy himself.

Besides, the idea of remote surgical operations genuinely interested him.

Yan Feifan made it clear to the other party upfront that he would only agree to attempt the remote procedure with no guarantees of success.

Zhang Xirong, on the other end of the line, was surprisingly direct. He stated his full confidence in Mr. Yan’s abilities and told him to proceed without worry.

He added that more than one neurological expert had stated that his father wouldn’t last six hours in his current condition.

Their only hope for the old man to have a moment of terminal lucidity and regain consciousness was for Mr. Yan to make this bold attempt.

Yan Feifan was no stranger to this kind of radical, high-risk surgery where the ends justified the means.

He’d had a rather thrilling experience with one before.

After reviewing the cranial CT scans and other medical data sent over the internet, Yan Feifan found it to be quite an eye-opener.

The seventy-seven-year-old patient, Mr. Zhang, not only had diffuse cerebral hemorrhage and a cerebral infarction, but also a history of hypertension and diabetes. He’d even had a coronary stent put in and undergone a bypass surgery.

On top of that, cancerous growths had been discovered in his lungs.

To Yan Feifan, it was clear the old man’s body was already riddled with health problems.

’Logically, with his body in this state, his last will and funeral arrangements should have been settled long ago,’ Yan Feifan thought.

’There’s no need to go to all this trouble to forcibly wake him.’

’Did some unforeseen situation arise?’

’Still, with his time running out, the old man would probably appreciate the chance to say a few last words and settle things with his family.’

Yan Feifan shook his head, pushing these gossipy thoughts from his mind. He focused all his energy on devising a way to temporarily restore the old man’s consciousness...

When he became aware of his surroundings again, he was surprised to find a crowd of people gathered around him. In addition to his sister, Wang Chuan, Yu Suye, Tian Yu, his uncle, and Mrs. Xia were all there.

"What are you all doing here?"

"We’re just curious. We wanted to see how you operate the machine to treat a patient from a thousand miles away."

His uncle was the first to answer, adding, "Feifan, I won’t disturb you. You just focus on saving the patient. Pretend we’re not even here."

Yan Feifan scoffed lightly.

’How am I supposed to ignore so many people crowded around me?’

He didn’t let it bother him, though.

An excellent surgeon needed the ability to remain unperturbed even if a mountain were to collapse before him.

As long as no one was physically pulling at his hands or body, he could perform the surgery as needed, even if someone were setting off fireworks right next to him.

Just then, Yan Ziruo placed Tian Yu’s Apple laptop on the desk. "While you were thinking, I used Xiaoyu’s computer to download that remote operation program from Union Medical College Hospital."

"It’s already installed!"

Tian Yu then handed him a VR headset and a game controller. "The person on the phone said the VR headset would give you a better view."

"They also said that if you play video games regularly, using a controller for the remote operation might be more convenient than a keyboard."

Meeting Yan Feifan’s questioning gaze, Tian Yu added shyly, "Mr. Yan, this was a congratulatory gift from a relative a couple of days ago. I didn’t buy it myself."

Yan Feifan took the VR headset. "I won’t need the game controller. I’m more familiar with using a keyboard."

He positioned the Apple laptop, quickly reacquainted himself with the keyboard, and launched the remote operation system for Jingcheng Union Medical College Hospital.

After quickly reading through the system’s "Help" and "Instructions" sections, Yan Feifan realized it was a system for remotely operating two robotic arms.

The robotic arms simulated human arms and had three universal joints.

After running through a few quick mental simulations of operating the two robotic arms, Yan Feifan pressed the start button.

Then, Yan Feifan put on the VR headset.

His vision flickered a few times, and then Yan Feifan found himself inside a brightly lit operating room.

A few medical professionals in surgical gowns stood before him, staring at his virtual presence.

The male doctor at the front waved. "Hey, Mr. Yan, hello!"

"I’m the one who contacted you earlier, Dr. Hou Hancheng from the neurosurgery department at Union Medical College Hospital."

"Hello, Dr. Hou!"

Yan Feifan quickly replied.

The sensation was novel; it felt just like he was talking face-to-face with someone a thousand miles away.

"Mr. Yan, the patient is on the way to the OR. Please take this time to familiarize yourself with the robotic arm controls."

Yan Feifan acknowledged and his ten fingers began to dance across the keyboard like fluttering butterflies.

In his field of view, he could see two robotic arms, wrapped in waterproof plastic sheeting, executing complex movements—bending, lifting, advancing, and retracting—with each keystroke.

Yan Feifan could even hear the whirring of the motors as they moved the arms.

After ten or so minutes, Yan Feifan was quite familiar with the controls.

Since the puncture and injection procedure was relatively simple, and with Dr. Hou assisting, he only needed to practice a few key movements.

Once he grew familiar with the controls, however, Yan Feifan discovered a rather serious problem.

Because the robotic arms were motor-driven, their precision was limited. They couldn’t achieve continuous, stepless movement in three-dimensional space.

He first assumed it was due to his own lack of proficiency and continued to practice.

He practiced for another ten-plus minutes, right up until the patient was moved to the operating table and all preparations were complete, but Yan Feifan still couldn’t solve the issue.

He knew then that it was an inherent precision problem with the robotic arms themselves.

After further discussion with Dr. Hou, the two of them settled on a compromise.

Yan Feifan’s surgical plan required three punctures to drain the hematoma in the patient’s brain.

The drilling step was easy.

Yan Feifan used a robotic arm to indicate a position on the patient’s head, and Dr. Hou’s assistant came over to drill the burr hole.

Next came the puncture.

First, Yan Feifan used the robotic arm fitted with the Puncture Needle to align the trajectory and angle for the puncture as best as he could.

Then, at his instruction, Dr. Hou himself made minute adjustments to the patient’s head to achieve the optimal positioning.

This back-and-forth of minute adjustments—left, right, up, down, a little more to the left, a little more to the right—took another twenty-some minutes.

Fortunately, as a neurosurgeon, Dr. Hou had no shortage of patience and meticulousness.

Once Yan Feifan’s requirements were met, albeit barely, it was time for the most nerve-wracking part: the puncture itself.

For Yan Feifan, completing this task by remotely operating the robotic arm was relatively simple.

He just had to set the rate and puncture depth, then press a key to execute the command.

As for the margin of error in the robotic arm’s puncture depth, it was still within the maximum tolerance Yan Feifan would allow...

After going through this process two more times, Yan Feifan finally completed the first remote surgical operation of his life.

To be honest, the experience was terrible.

It wasn’t bad because he was unskilled with the controls. Yan Feifan felt the biggest problem was the lack of tactile feedback.

The subtle resistance and drag of the Puncture Needle moving through brain tissue was completely lost, replaced by the cold, sterile feel of the keyboard.

’It doesn’t feel like surgery at all.’

A surgeon of Yan Feifan’s caliber could detect a patient’s lesions or physical state through the subtle feedback from their body during an operation, allowing for on-the-fly adjustments.

That was impossible when operating via a machine.

Take suturing, for example, one of the most basic surgical skills. The handling of the suture, especially the subtle variations in tension, is tailored to each individual patient.

It was no exaggeration to say that after the same type of successful surgery, a patient sutured by Yan Feifan would recover three to five days faster than one treated by an average surgeon.

Based on this experience, Yan Feifan concluded that while surgical robotics was the way of the future, it wouldn’t be able to replace top-tier surgeons for at least a century.

After the hematoma was drained from the patient’s brain, the next step was to inject a stimulant to induce consciousness.

This was a dangerous process, carrying a significant risk of causing the patient’s condition to deteriorate rapidly, leading to premature death.

Having completed his part of the procedure, Yan Feifan didn’t stay to watch the next steps. He simply exited the remote operation program.

He took off the VR headset and saw that only Yu Suye and Wang Chuan were still beside him.

"Where’d everyone else go?"

Yu Suye chuckled. "When they saw blood spurting from the Puncture Needle on the computer screen, they all took off, one after another..."

PS.

Tomorrow is the May Day holiday.

Wishing all my readers a happy and fulfilling holiday!