Chapter 410: Chapter 291: A 20-Day-Old Newborn—An Exceptionally Difficult Case

"Qin Feng, welcome back to guide us!"

Zhou Xianren looked at Qin Feng, stepped forward, and gave him a heavy hug.

The smiles on everyone’s faces were incredibly genuine, especially those of the beautiful young nurses.

"Let’s go, we’ll head inside; the director is waiting for you in the meeting room."

Zhou Xianren tightly held his hand, extremely amiable.

In the meeting room,

Director Zhang Tong, the three deputy directors, and several influential figures including Director of Cardiology Zhang Fan.

"Qin Feng, you’ve arrived."

Seeing Qin Feng enter, everyone got up, smiling at him, and Zhang Tong spoke first.

"Director, how is your health?"

Qin Feng also stepped forward to shake hands, asking with concern.

That previous surgery removed all the cancer cells, but caution is still needed because there could be factors for recurrence.

"Don’t worry, I’m feeling quite well now, hahaha!"

Zhang Tong laughed, patting him on the shoulder, "We’re all happy you could come back, I came to see you with them."

"Thank you, directors, for your concern, I’m flattered."

Qin Feng smiled, shaking hands with Liu Yuan and others, speaking modestly.

"Alright then, we won’t disturb you, the patients come first."

After exchanging a few words, Zhang Tong spoke to everyone,

"Let’s go, we’ll leave it to Qin Feng."

...

In the meeting room,

"Qin Feng, here is the latest examination report of the patient, please take a look."

Zhang Fan opened the slides, showing images of a small heart and its vessels.

The child, on the third day after birth, suddenly developed progressively worsening respiratory distress.

Mitral valve regurgitation refers to the backflow of blood from the left ventricle into the left atrium during the systole period of the heart, which is a direct result of the mitral valve insufficiency.

We often liken the heart to a big house, more accurately, it’s a big house with four independent rooms, just vertically structured.

The two upper rooms (a bit smaller: left atrium, right atrium), the two lower rooms (a bit larger: left ventricle, right ventricle), each atrium and ventricle is separated by a door; the door from the left atrium to the ventricle is called the mitral valve.

Under normal circumstances, during cardiac diastole, blood flows from the atrium to the ventricle; during cardiac systole, the door between the atrium and ventricle closes.

At this time, the blood in the ventricle flows through the aorta to the body and will not backflow into the atrium.

This means that while others complete their blood exchange in one heartbeat, it takes the patient several, as some of the blood backflows.

The consequence is that other organs of the body experience a lack of blood supply;

The heart also exerts more power to supply blood as much as possible, leading to an increased burden, resulting in cardiac function impairment, shock, and even death.

The "mitral valve" is like a mouth with two leaflets, hence the name "mitral" valve.

Mitral valve regurgitation is classified into mild, moderate, and severe, and can be clearly observed through a cardiac ultrasound.

Clinically, mitral valve regurgitation is more commonly seen among young women and is prevalent among the elderly.

Newborns may also experience mitral valve regurgitation, but mild cases are generally treated conservatively, waiting for self-healing.

Whereas, severe cases can be life-threatening!

Generally, mitral valve regurgitation surgery is not particularly difficult and is well within the capabilities of the City Hospital and Director Zhang Fan.

However, in this case, the patient is a newborn with severe regurgitation, requiring a traditional open-heart surgery with full anesthesia, extracorporeal circulation, and cardiac arrest.

It is highly invasive, highly risky, and could lead to death due to physiological problems during surgery.

As such, the City Hospital does not dare to perform such a surgery.

"Qin Feng, how does it look? Do you have confidence?"

After understanding the situation, Zhang Fan looked at Qin Feng, frowning and asked.

"The situation is indeed very severe, and the child may not even survive until the appropriate time for surgery."

Qin Feng stared at the report in his hand, lost in thought.

This surgery can be considered an unprecedented, extremely difficult one, in terms of anesthesia, establishing bypass, and heart valve repair, all of which are incredibly challenging.

Any slight mistake could be irreversible!

"Let’s do this, we must continuously monitor the patient’s condition, and notify me immediately if there are any changes."

Qin Feng thought for a moment, set the report down, and spoke,

"My suggestion is to perform an open-heart surgery, given the current vascular structure, the Da Vinci robot cannot complete a minimally invasive surgery."

"I had the same thought, that’s why I invited you back to lead the surgery."

Zhang Fan promptly agreed with him.

If the patient were an adult or an elderly person, Qin Feng would have many surgical options to choose from.

Even the world’s most advanced minimally invasive interventional clip surgery could be done.

However, the newborn’s heart will continue to grow, so repair and replacement are the only options.

Moderate to severe mitral valve regurgitation is quite common in cardiothoracic surgery, with at least tens of millions of moderate to severe cases nationwide.

Among people over 60, the incidence rate is as high as over 10%.

After two hours of discussion, the surgical plan was finally determined.

...

Leaving the meeting room, Qin Feng followed Zhang Fan to the cardiology department to personally examine the child.

"Qin Feng, you wouldn’t believe it, the number of cardiovascular patients in our department is increasing, and sometimes my body can’t withstand long surgeries."

Both looked at the child in the sterile incubator and Zhang Fan sighed.

"Director Zhang, actually, I’ve prepared a gift for your cardiology department on this trip."

Qin Feng spoke softly, a smile at the corner of his lips upon hearing this.

"Oh? A gift for cardiology?"

Zhang Fan was taken aback, a bit surprised.

"You’ll find out in a couple of days, I promise you’ll like it."

Qin Feng kept it a mystery, showing a mysterious expression.

Before coming back, he had Chen Dong purchase expensive medical equipment through the foundation under the guise of a pharmaceutical group.

Coming back home, I couldn’t come empty-handed, could I?

"By the way, Qin Feng, since you’re here, why not teach our young doctors a class after the surgery?"

Zhang Fan didn’t press further, then smiled and asked.

"Sure, I’ll talk to them about mitral and tricuspid valve regurgitation and the cutting-edge international treatment techniques."

Qin Feng thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

This is indeed worth discussing!

"Thanks, I’ll buy you a drink later."

Zhang Fan chuckled, patting his shoulder, glanced at the child, and said,

"Go straight to my office later, I’ll communicate with the patient’s family about the surgery and confirm the surgical time."

"Alright."

Qin Feng nodded, and Zhang Fan left.

The 20-day-old infant, yet to meet their parents, is about to face their first life and death situation.

Let’s hope this little one can pull through~

Qin Feng turned to leave, heading straight for the office, his mind forming all the detailed surgical steps.

This time,

It’s a test!

...

Three hours later,

Qin Feng emerged from the lounge, well-rested; this surgery won’t be short, and he needs to maintain absolute focus.

"Qin Feng, are you ready?"

"Yes, is the operating room ready?"

"It’s ready."

"Then let’s begin."

...