After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

At 3 p.m., Ye Zhen asked Liu Xiaolan to call Xiaoman's parents to her office.

Xiaoman's father walked in wearing his faded old cotton-padded jacket, but his cloth shoes had been replaced with a clean pair, which the nurses at the nurses' station had chipped in to buy for him.

Xiaoman's mother followed behind, still clutching the red card in her hand, the edges of which were already curled up.

"Sit down," Ye Zhen said, pointing to the chair opposite her.

The couple sat down side by side, their backs ramrod straight, as if they were undergoing some important trial.

Ye Zhen spread the ultrasound image on the table and pointed to the black and white picture.

"This is a picture of Xiaoman's heart. Look here, this black hole is the defect in his heart."

Xiaoman's father leaned over to take a look. Although he didn't quite understand it, the dark, gaping hole still made him turn pale.

"Dr. Ye, is this hole... big?"

"It's big." Ye Zhen didn't shy away from the question. "It's almost twice as big as I estimated it in the mountains, and the edges of the cave are very thin, as thin as a sheet of paper."

Xiaoman's mother clenched the red card tightly in her hand.

"Can it be fixed?"

"It can be repaired." Ye Zhen put away the ultrasound image and looked into the eyes of the two people. "But ordinary materials can't be used to repair it. They're too thin, and they'll tear when sewn on. I need to use a special metal sheet to repair it. This metal sheet is elastic and can move with the heartbeat, so it won't tear the thin tissue around it."

Xiaoman's father listened attentively, his rough hands rubbing the fabric on his knees.

"Dr. Ye, has this metal plate been used on any other children?"

Ye Zhen was silent for two seconds.

"no."

The office fell silent for a moment.

"This is the first time in the world that it has been used on a human heart; there is no precedent." Ye Zhen's voice was calm, neither deliberately downplaying nor exaggerating. "I must tell you this."

Xiaoman's mother's eyes reddened, her lips trembled, and she swallowed back what she wanted to say.

Xiaoman's father lowered his head, his hands twisted together, his knuckles white from the force.

"What if we don't use this metal plate?" he asked softly.

"If I don't use it, I have no other way to patch that hole," Ye Zhen replied. "The membrane over the child's heart will continue to thin and will rupture within a few months. Once it ruptures, there will be no saving him."

Xiaoman's father looked up, his eyes bloodshot.

"Dr. Ye, are you confident?"

Ye Zhen looked at him.

"No one can say with 100% certainty, but if we don't do it, the child will have no future."

Xiaoman's mother finally couldn't hold back anymore, and tears fell onto the red card, wetting a small part of the paper.

Xiaoman's father took out a ballpoint pen from his pocket. It was given to him by the nurse, and he had kept it with him, reluctant to use it.

"Where do I sign it?"

Ye Zhen pushed the informed consent form over to him, flipping through it page by page, pointing to each risk and reading it aloud.

After hearing this, Xiaoman's father picked up a pen, and as the pen tip touched the signature column, his hand trembled so badly that the words he wrote were crooked and messy.

When writing the second character, the pen tip slipped, leaving a streak of ink on the paper.

Ye Zhen reached out and grasped his wrist.

That hand was as rough as old tree bark, with large knuckles and muddy stains that couldn't be washed off under the fingernails.

Ye Zhen's hand was steady and strong, supporting his wrist and stopping the pen from trembling.

After Xiaoman's father finished writing the name, he put down his pen and wiped his face hard with his sleeve.

"Dr. Ye, I believe you."

The day of surgery, 8:00 AM.

When Xiaoman was wheeled into the operating room, her eyes were wide open, staring at the corridor lights that swept past overhead one after another.

Ye Zhen walked beside the gurney, one hand resting on the bed rail.

"Xiaoman, do you remember what Aunt Ye told you?"

"I remember," Xiaoman said softly. "A good night's sleep will make me feel better."

"Yes, take a nap."

The head of anesthesiology was already waiting in the operating room. When he saw the gurney being wheeled in, he went over and checked the intravenous access.

"Dr. Ye, everything is ready."

Ye Zhen nodded and glanced down at Xiao Man.

"Close your eyes."

Xiaoman obediently closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembled, and she quickly became still.

The head of the anesthesiology department reports the numbers.

"Induction complete, endotracheal tube secured, vital signs stable."

Ye Zhen turned and walked towards the handwashing basin. Disinfectant dripped from her fingertips as she scrubbed each finger until it turned red.

In the observation room, Gao Haiping and Liu Jianmin were already sitting in the front row, while Hans was seated closest to the screen, holding a notebook with the date written in German on the cover.

Gu Zheng did not enter the observation room. He stood in the corridor outside the operating room, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Xiaoman's father and mother squatted by the bench at the end of the corridor. Neither of them sat down; they just squatted there, like they were waiting for dawn in the mountains.

Inside the operating room, all the operating lights were turned on.

Ye Zhen stood at the surgeon's position, took the scalpel handed to her by the scrub nurse, and made an incision along the midline of her sternum.

The thoracotomy was performed with the same skill as Tian Xiaobao's surgery; the bone saw was pushed past the sternum, exposing the pericardium.

"The pericardium has been preserved intact and will be used later."

Ye Zhen cut open Xiaoman's circumcision bag, exposing her heart to the operating lights.

This heart is smaller than Tian Xiaobao's, beats faster, has a noticeably thickened right ventricle, and its surface blood vessels are bulging and dark in color.

"Administer the full dose of heparin."

"ACT achieved".

"Intubation, a turning point."

The process of establishing extracorporeal circulation went smoothly, and Lao Shen stared at the parameters on the machine; everything was normal.

"Cooling measures initiated; nasopharyngeal temperature 32 degrees Celsius."

"Block the aorta and infuse cardioplegic solution."

Xiaoman's heart gradually stopped beating under the influence of the high-potassium solution, and she lay quietly in her chest cavity.

Ye Zhen picked up a thin blade and made an incision in the right atrial wall, entering along the direction of the interatrial septum.

The moment the surgical field was fully exposed, Ye Zhen stopped.

Everyone could see it clearly on the large screen in the observation room.

The defect on the ventricular septum was even more alarming than the ultrasound showed. The tumor-like bulge at the edge collapsed after losing blood flow, and the tissue was so thin that it appeared translucent under the operating light.

But that wasn't what really made Ye Zhen stop.

At the lower edge of the defect, near the root of the septal valve of the tricuspid valve, there is a small area that is whitish and hard, with a texture completely different from the surrounding myocardium.

Calcification.

In the observation room, Gao Haiping and Liu Jianmin stood up from their chairs almost simultaneously.

"It's calcified." Gao Haiping's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth. "It's calcification caused by long-term oxygen deficiency and malnutrition. We can't insert needles in this location."

Liu Jianmin placed his hands on the table and leaned forward.

"Standard suturing is impossible; the needle will crumble as soon as it goes through the calcified tissue. It's no different from sewing up tofu dregs."

Hans didn't understand the technical terms in Chinese very well, but he could see the images on the screen. The white calcified area made his expression change instantly.

"Mein Gott, this hasn't been simulated in in vitro testing." He turned to Gao Haiping and asked urgently in English, "What should we do? The suture point is on the calcified area, the patch will fall off."

Gao Haiping did not answer him, his eyes fixed on the screen.

In the operating room, sweat beaded on the assistant's forehead.

"Dr. Ye..."

"Quiet."

Ye Zhen inserted her left index finger into the surgical field, gently pressing the edge of the calcified area with her fingertip to feel the hardness and extent of the tissue.

Hard, brittle, like an eggshell.

Her fingers slowly moved along the boundary of the calcified area, touching the entire area.

It is about three millimeters wide and four millimeters long, and it fits perfectly at the lower edge of the defect where it needs to be sutured and fixed.

Ye Zhen withdrew her finger and looked up at the interruption time.

"Blocked for fourteen minutes."

There's still enough time.

"Give me the nickel-titanium alloy patch."

The scrub nurse took the silver-gray patch out of the constant temperature box and handed it over with sterile forceps.

Ye Zhen took the patch and placed it in the palm of her left hand.

At this moment, the patch was warmer than body temperature and soft enough to bend. She used the tweezers in her right hand to gently adjust the position of the patch so that it covered the defect.

Then she did something that made everyone in the observation room hold their breath.