Chapter 63: No Other Choice
Chen Chen stood within the bright, s.p.a.cious operating room with a tray of medical equipment.
As he observed the slender back of the girl on the operating table, Chen Chen’s eyes remained calm.
It was as if he was not looking at a member of the opposite s.e.x, but rather, an object, an animal or even a corpse...
He gently stroked her smooth back before finally glancing at the BIS monitor.
Upon the screen, the EEG’s bispectral index had been hovering between 50 and 55, indicating that the girl was under deep anesthesia.
After determining that there were no other issues, Chen Chen picked up a No. 10 scalpel.
Before this, he had used a CT scan to mark out the specific injury site of the spinal cord. It was the 19th vertebra of the spine. A section of the spinal nerve in the marrow cavity had suffered hemorrhagic necrosis due to external compression.
It was just this small part of necrosis that blocked the nerve signals of the brain from being transmitted to the legs. Thus, this girl had been in a wheelchair for ten years.
However, she was well nursed, fortunately. Over the years, with continuous directional epidural EES and other auxiliary treatments, the girl’s leg muscles and nerves still remained intact, without suffering from atrophy or necrosis.
At this time, the center of her 19th vertebra had been marked with a cross. The mark was around 1cm long and 0.5cm wide. This was where Chen Chen would operate.
Chen Chen lifted the scalpel in a pencil grip and slowly made an incision along the cross. The cut was not too deep nor too shallow, reaching the dermis.
Trickles of blood oozed out from the severed capillaries at once, swiftly running together. Against her ivory-white complexion, the red seemed strange and garish.
Outside the operating room, Samuel could not stop himself from clenching his fists.
He had asked to be involved in the surgical procedure. After all, he had performed various facial surgeries before and was more than qualified to act as an a.s.sistant.
Nonetheless, Chen Chen refused.
According to Chen Chen, Samuel, being a relative of the patient, would only hinder Chen Chen in the operating room and not be of any help.
Now, Chen Chen stopped his incision and instead took out a pair of dilating forceps to stop the bleeding and open the wound. Then, he picked up a No. 11 scalpel which was even sharper and started to cut the dermis.
In this manner, he cut through the layers. There was no hesitation in Chen Chen’s hands at all. Each incision was just right as if he had been immersed in this operation for decades.
From Samuel’s point of view, the entire operation was like a performance, one which used his own daughter as the stage...
Gradually, as if his emotions were soothed by Chen Chen’s skills, his fists loosened.
Finally, Chen Chen had managed to successfully avoid the blood vessels, nerves, and muscle fibers, reaching the endpoint of the operation.
At this moment, a piece of bone, encased in the periosteum, was exposed on the girl’s back. This was the spinous process and the transverse process of the 19th vertebra. Within this bone was the necrotic spinal nerve.
When he reached this point, Chen Chen picked up the X-ray and took another look, ascertaining that the position was correct. Following that, he took out a needle meant to puncture the bone marrow.
Chen Chen positioned the needle on the fixator. Then, holding the needle in his right hand, he inserted the needle vertically, twisting it into the bone layer bit by bit.
When he sensed that the needle had penetrated the bone layer, he stopped the motion, pulled out the needle, and made another puncture a few millimeters away.
Chen Chen only stopped what he was doing when there were sixteen tiny punctures in two parallel rows at the spine. Soon, he used a pair of tweezers to extract a fingernail-sized chip from the disinfectant.
He positioned it along the spine and the sixteen electrodes on the chip were inserted perfectly into the sixteen small holes on the spine.
Next, Chen Chen fixed the chip onto the spine with bio-adhesive glue and began to suture the wound, layer by layer, with suture thread.
From Samuel’s position, he could only see Chen Chen placing an item into his daughter’s body. As for what it was, he did not know.
Around half an hour later, Chen Chen finally straightened up and sighed softly.
Currently, there was a tiny cross-shaped wound on the girl’s back. The wound was minuscule. Although there was some redness and swelling, no one would have guessed that this wound extended to her spine.
When Chen Chen pushed the girl out of the operating room, Samuel rushed up eagerly. He first inspected the girl’s pupils and heaved a sigh of relief after seeing that everything appeared fine.
“The operation is completed. As for the result, I think that it’s a great success,” Chen Chen said.
“That black item at the end, was that the G.o.d chip?” Samuel suddenly asked, “Don’t try to deceive me.”
“That’s not G.o.d, just a simplified version of it.”
Chen Chen took off his gloves and said casually, “It won’t affect your daughter’s life in any way.”
“D*mn it!”
When Samuel heard this, he erupted in rage. He grabbed Chen Chen by the collar and hollered, “I’ve never said that she’d also join the organization. If she’s dragged into all this, I’d rather she could never walk!”
“Samuel, please calm down. I won’t do anything to her.” Chen Chen slowly stretched out a hand and gently squeezed Samuel’s wrist.
Samuel suddenly felt that the young man before him was producing a fearsome force as if a pair of iron tongs had gripped his wrist!
Extreme pain hit him. Samuel felt that his wrist would be crushed to bits in the next moment. He could not help but bend over, wailing, his face turning beet red from overexertion.
Having pried away Samuel’s hand bit by bit, Chen Chen remained placid throughout. “That chip isn’t permanent. In two years, at most, the organization’s stem cell project will be completed, and your daughter can get the chip removed.”
“Of course,” Chen Chen said after a thoughtful pause, “if you don’t mind delaying her recovery by two years, I can remove the chip right now.”
When Samuel heard this, he fell silent, still rubbing his wrist.
“I know that you’ll guess that the chip is G.o.d. After all, the agreement explains the G.o.d chip’s working principle. I wouldn’t hide it from you, either.”
Chen Chen continued explaining gently and patiently, “Even so, there was no way around it. Although the organization has made major breakthroughs in the field of stem cells, we’re still at the clinical trial stage, after all. I’m a.s.suming you wouldn’t want to use your daughter as a guinea pig, right?
“Therefore, the best solution was to first use a simplified version of the G.o.d chip. Allow her to walk first. Then, in two or three years, when the stem cell technology of the organization has been fully developed, naturally, you may remove the chip then, and she’ll become a perfectly healthy person.
“After all...”
Chen Chen paused, then went in for the kill. “How much more of your daughter’s youth do you want to waste?”
“...”
Samuel lowered his eyes sullenly as he was cast into an agonizing internal struggle.
After a long silence, Samuel appeared to have made a decision. He looked at Chen Chen steadily and asked again, “Can I trust you?”
Chen Chen nodded and simply replied,
“You have no other choice.”