Chapter 12

Intubation, something Great had performed not a thousand times, but at least eight hundred times in his past life. When it comes to intubation, there are only three departments in the hospital that do it frequently: Anesthesiology, Otolaryngology, and the versatile Emergency Department, which needs to be skilled in everything.

For elective surgeries, an anesthesiologist can perform the intubation, or an otolaryngologist can help. After all, otolaryngologists are familiar with the anatomy of the throat, and they are all skilled at intubation. Everyone schedules the surgery time, does the pre-assessment, and arrives on time.

However, in the emergency department, there's no choice. The patient is already suffocating, and the tube must be inserted. Can you really call for a consultation and wait for the anesthesiologist or otolaryngologist to come down? Whether by elevator or stairs, a few minutes could mean the patient's life!

Therefore, the poor emergency doctors, when faced with such a situation, have to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves...

The problem is, Great had performed all kinds of intubations in his past life: through the mouth, through the nose; through a tracheotomy, or without one; standard ones, ones with stainless steel reinforcement, and ones with an additional suction tube...

But he had never performed one with this.

A chicken bone.

Both ends cut off, slightly smoothed, with some spongy bone in the middle, and questionable sterilization...

Great really didn't want to use this thing as an intubation if he could avoid it. But what choice did he have... The chicken bone, as a substitute, was better than nothing.

While operating, he had to explain to the priest, who was in a difficult situation:

"After the cricothyrotomy... What is the cricothyroid membrane? It's the place I cut, not just anywhere on the neck, but here it's the safest...

After cutting, a tube must be quickly inserted into the trachea to prevent the cricoid cartilage from being damaged and causing laryngeal stenosis. What is the cricoid cartilage? Why would it be damaged, and why would it cause laryngeal stenosis? I don't have time to explain now...

The child's larynx is very narrow, so the tube can't be inserted too deep, or it might go into the esophagus, which would be a big problem..."

He kept muttering, muttering.

If this were his student, asking such basic questions would get them kicked out and beaten—how did they learn in class, not knowing this?

However, the priest from another world couldn't possibly know these things, and the situation was dire, so Great had to divide his attention and try to explain to the priest.

He explained with his mouth while operating with his hands. There were no shadowless lights, no incandescent lights, only dim candlelight and torches—and no one to hold a mirror to reflect the light. Even Edison knew to use a mirror when saving his mother!

Well, although it was later said that was a fabrication...

"Oh, then..."

"Shut up! It's starting!"

The priest was startled by his shout and tightly pursed his lips. Great lowered his head and, under the flickering light, aligned the chicken bone with the cricothyrotomy incision, steadied his hand, and pushed it in.

After a slight resistance, a familiar sensation of emptiness reached his fingertips, indicating that the intubation—chicken bone—had penetrated the incision and entered the larynx.

A faint, whistling sound of airflow immediately came through the chicken bone in the larynx, reaching Great's ears.

The operation was complete!

Next was... uh, securing...

Oh no!

No tape!

No tool to stick the chicken bone to the patient's neck and keep it from moving!

What could he use in an emergency...

On the first day of his new life in another world, during his second emergency surgery, Great was in tears again.

It was proven that a doctor's imagination and creativity in saving lives are boundless. Great hesitated for less than a second before making up his mind and grabbing the child's hand, handing it to the farmer:

"Uncle Edmund, hold him well!"

He instructed, grabbing the farmer's other hand and placing it on the child's shoulder:

"Don't let him move! Not at all! Especially his neck, the tube must not move!"

The bearded farmer nodded hard, calling other men to help hold the boy. The priest of the Spring Goddess, who had been holding his breath, finally dared to breathe and hurriedly asked:

"So, is it done?"

"Far from it!"

Great smiled bitterly, pointing to the child's throat and indicating the priest to look:

"See, the larynx is still swollen. The child can't breathe normally yet—when the swelling goes down, that's when he'll be out of danger."

"Is that so?"

The priest leaned down, trying to see, even coaxing the child to open his mouth. Unfortunately, the hall was too dim, and he couldn't see clearly. After much deliberation, he snapped his fingers:

"Snap" a white light floated up and drifted toward the child's mouth.

"Hey!"

Great, seeing this, immediately panicked:

"Don't treat him yet! He can't be treated casually!"

"But, this is just a lighting spell..."

The priest, startled by his shout, felt a bit wronged. Knight Roman, holding his sword, glared at Great. Great, not noticing the knight's glare, leaned close to the priest, pointing and explaining:

"Look at his throat... the inside, all swollen, right? There should be a black hole, but now you can't see anything. The deeper parts are also swollen, making it hard to breathe, almost suffocating. Ah, you're the priest of the Spring Goddess, can you control water and reduce the swelling?"

"What is reducing the swelling?"

"Make the swollen areas release water, so they don't block the throat."

"This..."

The priest was stumped. He frowned for a long time, then shook his head:

"There's a similar offensive divine spell, a high-level one that dries out the entire body, but my level is far from that. To draw out water from such a small area... I don't know, I'll pray and see if I can invoke divine grace..."

He immediately adjusted his posture, not caring about the dust on his silk robe, and knelt down, hands clasped in front of his chest. He chanted a long, long prayer, finally lifting his head and sighing in failure:

"No, the goddess didn't respond to me. ...What about you? Do you have a way?"

The hopeful gaze once again focused on Great.

Great was silent.

I wanted to skip the middle steps and use a divine spell to get the answer directly, but it still didn't work?

The limitations of divine spells are too strong. If there's a ready-made answer, you can copy it directly, but if there isn't, you don't even have a solution...

Well, then, it's still up to me, let modern medicine handle it!