21st Century Necromancer

In the operating room, Higashiyama Keika's deformed spine had been removed and replaced with a 3D-printed prosthetic support, while Chen Yu and Daimon Michiko were drilling holes in her still-intact spine to install the fixation screws for the support frame.

"Drilling complete, hand me the titanium screw," Chen Yu said as he passed the drill bit he had used to bore holes into the spine back to the surgical nurse, took the titanium screw she handed him, and twisted it into the hole he had drilled. There were already over a dozen such titanium screws implanted into Higashiyama Keika's vertebrae.

Thanks to Daimon Michiko's collaboration, Chen Yu and she were able to work concurrently. Although this kind of work on the spine is best done with two people for safety, both Chen Yu and Daimon Michiko obviously possessed the skill to complete such a task on their own.

With the consideration of reducing surgery time in mind, the two took a somewhat risky approach by drilling simultaneously into Higashiyama Keika's spine.

Fortunately, Daimon Michiko was indeed as infallible as she claimed, and Chen Yu's skills were no less competent. The two successfully completed the installation of the support frame and were ready to begin the next step, the nerve reconstruction surgery.

During the gap as the junior nurses adjusted the surgical microscope, Chen Yu turned to Ayajichi Shoubu, who was coordinating with him, and asked, "Are you familiar with the surgical technique? I won't wait for you later. If you can't keep up with the pace, there could be trouble."

"Don't worry, Professor, I've practiced the surgical technique many times now, and I'm familiar with the procedure. There won't be any problems," Ayajichi Shoubu assured Chen Yu.

Since the last surgery with Ichinose Miyako, she had been silently rehearsing the seven new nerve suturing techniques proposed by Chen Yu, becoming thoroughly versed in them and, after practicing on animals, Ayajichi Shoubu was filled with confidence in her own abilities.

Although she felt her skills might not compare to Chen Yu's and Daimon Michiko's, as a doctor, she had the pride and did not believe she would fail to keep pace with Chen Yu.

Looking at the confident Ayajichi Shoubu, Chen Yu shook his head slightly. Confidence was good, but skill and confidence were two different things. However, since it was impossible to replace someone during surgery, he could only trust that she would indeed be able to keep up with his pace as she said, without any problems.

If it were an ordinary surgery, Chen Yu wouldn't mind slowing down to accommodate Ayajichi Shoubu, but today's surgery was already under tight time constraints; they needed to shorten the surgery time as much as possible, so Chen Yu had to operate at the fastest speed without accommodating those working with him. Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

Although the operating room had been sterilized and met the standard of being aseptic, as the surgery progressed, beyond a duration of five hours, the bacterial count on the doctors' hands could recover or even surpass the levels before washing and disinfection.

Hence, the longer the surgery, the higher the risk, which is why Chen Yu and Daimon Michiko wanted to shorten the surgery time as much as possible.

In fact, once the surgery time exceeded three hours, due to reasons such as prolonged exposure of the incision site, swelling, and hypothermia, the chances of incision contamination and subsequent infection also increased. Usually, if the surgery goes beyond three hours, it is not considered absolutely sterile.

Moreover, prolonged surgery duration also increases the risks of hypothermia, peripheral nerve damage, ventilator-associated lung injury, disruption of internal environment, accumulation of anesthetic drugs, and delayed recovery among a host of issues, posing a significant challenge for both doctors and patients.

Furthermore, during long surgeries, doctors and nurses must maintain high concentration levels. As time extends, fatigue accumulates more, and the focus and energy of the human body decline significantly. After all, people are not machines; they cannot maintain an optimal state for a prolonged duration.

Therefore, if possible, surgeons will always try to shorten the duration of each surgery to reduce the burden on the patient.

"We need to speed up now; the surgery has already taken five and a half hours. If you don't pick up the pace, it's going to exceed the estimated time," Hiromi said, glancing at the hanging clock used for timing and urging Chen Yu and Michiko Daimon.

To reduce the risk of surgical complications, anesthesiologist Hiromi Jounouchi must continually monitor the patient's various vital signs during the surgery, and reminding the doctors about the time naturally fell within her responsibilities.

Having scrubbed his hands anew, Chen Yu looked at the already positioned surgical microscope, and after hearing Hiromi Jounouchi say this, he smiled at her before saying, "The anesthesiologist is already hurrying us; everyone, let's move a bit faster."

After finishing his statement, he nodded to Ayajichi Shoubu standing opposite him and leaned into the microscope eyepieces. He took the scalpel from the assisting nurse and began the repair on Higashiyama Keika's ponytail nerve.

————————————————————————

Doctor Higashiyama, who had been waiting outside the operating room, hadn't left and endured the nearly ten-hour-long wait.

More than once he thought about standing up and going to the observation room to see the surgery for himself, but the thought that it was his own younger sister on the table, being cut open, having bones sawed, Doctor Higashiyama couldn't bear to imagine such a scene. He didn't dare to step into the operating room and could only wait outside, praying for his sister.

Although this is a world where deities exist, Doctor Higashiyama didn't consider himself a person of great fortune, nor a "Child of the World," and certainly not a devout believer. Although he prayed earnestly, no god seemed to hear his prayers or give a response.

But whether the gods responded or not didn't make much difference; Higashiyama's prayers couldn't help with the surgery. What truly determined the outcome was the doctors performing the operation, not the deities.

Under Doctor Higashiyama's watchful gaze, filled with a mix of worry, anxiety, restlessness, fear, and hope, the lights in the operating room finally went off.

Chen Yu and Michiko Daimon walked out together.

"Professor! How's my sister?" Doctor Higashiyama asked, seeing Chen Yu and Michiko Daimon walking out of the operating room looking relaxed, and hope ignited in his eyes.

"Don't worry, the surgery was very successful, your sister is fine," Chen Yu smiled at Doctor Higashiyama. Although the lengthy surgery of almost ten hours had tired him, the sense of accomplishment from completing such an operation and healing another patient was still immensely satisfying, "She should recover quickly and be able to attend your wedding."

"Thank you, Professor! Thank you!" Doctor Higashiyama bowed deeply to Chen Yu, too overwhelmed to express his gratitude with words.

Chen Yu shook his head, not minding, and left the operating room with Michiko Daimon, "Daimon-san, Hiromi reserved seats at Sukiyabashi Jiro for tonight, will you join us?"