Chapter 322: The Dead Performing Surgery on the Living?
In eight operating rooms, 24 healers, along with Garrett, making a total of 25 people, were busily changing clothes and washing their hands. Garrett, standing close to Andrew Lynn, was full of anxiety, continuously instructing the necromancers who were about to perform the surgery:
"Be careful during the surgery! Make sure the patient’s blood, bodily fluids, or anything doesn’t come into contact with your skin!"
"Change gloves after each surgery! Wash your hands! Thoroughly wash your hands!"
"Make sure not to cut your skin with the surgical scalpel! If you do, tell me immediately, we’ll administer penicillin... Ah, perhaps we should perform a skin test first as a precaution?"
This is anthrax, after all!
Although person-to-person transmission of anthrax is rare... Rare does not mean nonexistent!
Being in close contact with patients, taking care of patients, or handling their bodies... In short, there is still a risk of transmission when exposed to a large amount and high concentration of pathogens!
The barrier effectiveness of sheep intestinal gloves is uncertain, but definitely not as good as latex gloves. These necromancers came to help him, and if even one or two were to get infected, it would be his fault!
Andrew Lynn looked at Garrett with a warm gaze, slightly amused. If he weren’t busy washing his hands as required, he would have really liked to ruffle Garrett’s hair. Although there was nothing much to ruffle, with his black hair flattened under the surgical cap, not a single strand sticking up...
Garrett, the guy he had just met, was always particularly soft-hearted and worried. Being a necromancer, everyone has their own ways of self-protection. They deal with death, disease, epidemics, and various toxins more than anyone else, who would stumble on this?"Hmm, ahem!"
Archmage Edgar cleared his throat forcefully. It was an oversight, sending Andrew Lynn to Garrett’s mage tower was intended to forge closer ties, to try to pull the young man over to the Black Crow Swamp. Instead, it ended up with Andrew Lynn being pulled to their side... Although everyone understood what being a follower meant, a follower is still a follower!
Garrett shifted his gaze away, feeling a bit embarrassed. However, in that instant, he quickly turned back to look directly at Archmage Edgar. A series of sparks flew through his mind: the Archmage—the silver skeleton gifted by the Archmage—controlling the silver skeleton for dissection—surgical robots!
"Can you control skeletons to perform surgery?" he asked urgently. "I mean, can you control the skeletons to perform more delicate tasks, like paying attention to the depth when cutting, opening the skin without damaging the muscles?"
In the midst of the sound of running water, the laughter of the necromancers filled the air.
Could they?
Of course, they could.
The first pet of a necromancer is almost always a skeleton. They are their most reliable assistants, most trusted friends, listeners in solitude, and also scouts, rearguards, and sacrifices in battle—as long as the soul fire is not extinguished, they can always be summoned again...
And for such companions, whom necromancers spend all their time with, asking them to perform some precise tasks?
Very easy!
Garrett heaved a huge sigh of relief. With skeletons performing the surgery, doctors wouldn’t have to come into direct contact with patients. All the risks of intraoperative exposure, such as getting cut by a scalpel or getting bodily fluids on their skin, in their face, or in their eyes... all these risks dropped to zero.
God knows how much surgeons hate these risks. When encountering an unexpected situation on the operating table, then seeing the patient’s medical history... Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, syphilis, HIV, any one of these being positive is a huge blow to the doctor!
They would have to take highly side-effect-inducing prophylactic medications, live in anxiety for the next six months to a year, avoid contact with their partner, and some people, might even forever leave the operating table... In his past life, Garrett, whenever he heard about medical staff encountering such situations, always wanted to yell at those patients:
At least don’t conceal your infectious disease history!!!
Now, good, skeletons have taken over!
Garrett clapped his hands twice. After attracting everyone’s attention, he announced loudly:
"This time we’re performing surgeries on infectious disease patients, and the risk of infection for those in direct contact with the patients is very high. All War God’s priests and Spring Goddess’s clerics, stand back. Necromancers, release your skeletons to replace you in performing the surgeries!"
Using skeletons for surgery also had another benefit: easy cleaning. The seven-step handwashing method, washing hands after scrubbing, scrubbing after washing, didn’t exist. A big bucket of disinfectant, just
pour it directly on.
Of course, to further save time, Garrett adopted another method of cleaning.
He simply brought out a bucket of disinfectant. Led by Archmage Edgar, each necromancer summoned a skeleton, perched on the rim of the bucket, jumped in, and Garrett watched as four skeletons sat down around the rim of the bucket, forming a circle, seemingly enjoying a collective hot spring.
Garrett: "..."
It must be said, this scene was so bizarre he wanted to make a comment but didn’t know how to. Yet, the bizarre scene was not over. Archmage Edgar looked around and asked, "Do we have more disinfectant?"
...What? Garrett was still immersed in the odd imagination. Archmage Edgar already muttered to himself, "Seems we don’t have more. So..."
He snapped his fingers. It seemed like a splash, and the first skeleton fell apart, sinking to the bottom of the bucket. The Archmage’s action was like a command, followed by the second, third, fourth, skeletons, one after another, dismantling themselves. The space inside the bucket immediately freed up a large area.
Another four skeletons jumped into the bucket. Squatting down, they dismantled themselves, completely soaking in the disinfectant.
Garrett, stunned.jpg
Well, he was ignorant, this method of disinfection was indeed beyond his expectations...
The skeletons quickly disinfected themselves, reassembled, and jumped out of the barrel. With skeletons around, the cleaning requirements for others were much lower. After washing their hands with the seven-step method and donning surgical gowns, they lined up neatly.
Four rows, skeletons in front.
"Bring in the patients!"
At Garrett’s command. Before the apprentices could move, several bone links, head to tail, flew out of the necromancers’ spatial bags. Rattle, rattle, amidst the sound of bones rubbing against each other, a dozen or so skeleton soldiers assembled themselves, two by two, lifting the stretchers off the ground.
Skeleton soldiers are really convenient to use, Garrett thought, wishing he could hire dozens for the hospital... Before he could finish his thought, he heard screams of horror echoing through the corridors:
"Help!"
"Necromancers! It’s the necromancers!"
"I don’t want to be turned into a skeleton—"
"Mommy, mommy—"
Uh... using skeletons in patient relations, especially in soothing patients, seems to have a strong negative effect...
But with the infectious disease hospital this busy, there’s no room for being picky. Garrett saw clearly, two skeleton soldiers, lifting the patient along with the stretcher. It’s worth emphasizing this point because, when the skeleton soldiers grabbed the stretcher, they also grabbed the patients’ hands and feet...
Eight patients, one per bed, were sent into the operating rooms like flowing water. Garrett turned to the casters:
"Shall we start directly?"
"Start directly! What’s so hard about opening the abdomen..." Archmage Edgar answered swiftly. At the same time, the archbishop added:
"You do it first."
The two glared at each other. Seizing the opportunity, Garrett quickly entered Operating Room 1:
"Let me briefly talk about the precautions... Uh, are you all coming to watch?"
What answered him was a screen of arcane eyes.
In any case, with Garrett leading the surgery, the archbishop acting as the anesthetist, and a cleric from the Spring Goddess’s temple serving as a human attractor, this bizarre surgery team finally started the first surgery. Garrett explained as he operated:
"Disinfect before the surgery... For opening the abdomen, take the midline incision, pay attention to the depth of the cut... Open the skin, separate the fascia and muscles, the intestinal inflammation is so severe, it’s definitely a mess underneath, don’t pull hard. The intestines are probably swollen like tofu at this moment, it could tear with a tug, and it’s also easy to damage vessels, it’s better if I do it..."
As he spoke, the hand of the mage in front of him fluttered, cleaning the clumped peritoneum, bluntly separating the mesentery, lifting out the intestines from the tangled mess:
"As expected, it’s necrotic... To ensure safety, the necrotic parts plus ten centimeters above and below need to be cut off, then sutured... How about a healing spell?"
As he spoke, a gentle white light had already descended. Garrett inspected the intestines in his hand, giving a thumbs up to those behind:
Front wall, back wall, muscular layer, all well aligned, the intestinal wall is ruddy, blood circulation normal, no fistulae—In terms of rapid healing, healing spells have an unparalleled advantage over the medical techniques of his previous life!
"Alright! Rinse with saline solution—drain! Rinse again with holy water, drain again! Closing the abdomen should be done
layer by layer... Done! Send the patient off, next one!"
The skeleton porters, once again, diligently got to work...
Meanwhile, the casters who had watched this surgery, or rather, the casters who felt "I think I can do it now", filed into their respective operating rooms.
Arcane eyes provide vision, necromancers operate the screens, skeletons perform the surgery, War God’s priests anesthetize, Spring Goddess’s clerics drain. Garrett ran back and forth among the eight operating rooms, responsible for checking for necrosis in the intestines, sectioning the intestines, calling for healing spells to suture...
Assembly line surgery, begin!
The time consumed by one surgery, joyously, was more than halved.
Garrett: Phew, liberated!
Only needing to do the most important part, the positioning, disinfection, opening before, and the rinsing, checking for active bleeding points, closing layer by layer after, were all taken care of by others!
Finally, he had a bit of the feeling of a surgical lead...
Keep it up, Garrett! Strive to finish all the patients needing surgery before the end of the day!
Garrett was bustling about in the operating rooms. Outside the operating rooms, Old Sam silently watched the surgical scene for a while, then turned to his colleagues with an odd expression on his face:
"Is this... the dead treating the living?"
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