Craig was indeed in the most serious condition among these wounded soldiers. He was bleeding heavily from the wound and his mental state was not very good.
Mendelstein has seen too many wounded soldiers like this. Once they don't get help from doctors, they will die after a short time. So in his eyes, the operation was just to save the person. He had no hope of keeping the leg.
Even if they did take Craig back to the temporary rescue center of the military headquarters, their military doctors would amputate the limbs when they saw this kind of wound. Whether he could survive after the amputation would all depend on his luck.
But when Craig was carried out of the confessional, Mendelstein could clearly see that his right leg had not disappeared, but was paired with his left leg under the blanket.
This sudden surprise left the battle-hardened captain speechless for a moment. Instead, Kawei, who came out with him, stepped forward and spoke first: "Captain, the operation is over. Your soldiers are quite lucky. At least the leg was saved.”
Mendelstein's mind didn't turn around: "Where are the people? How are they?"
Kawei was a little confused: "Human? He is very good. His blood pressure and heart rate are normal. Speaking of which, your blood saved him in time, otherwise we don't know what would have happened during the operation."
Mendelstein stepped forward and lifted the blanket, looking at the cleaned thigh covered with a piece of gauze and tape, and fell into deep thought.
He has never seen this kind of surgery. Can such an exaggerated gunshot wound save the thigh?
"Really saved?"
"You also know that his thigh is bleeding badly and all the blood vessels are broken. It is not easy to anastomose these blood vessels. It depends on his subsequent recovery." Kawei explained, "The time will be longer than Lieutenant Opal. If If nothing happens in the next four or five days, it will be fine."
"Five days..." Mendelstein asked, "What if something special happens during these days?"
"If we are really unlucky and something goes wrong, I can't guarantee it 100%. I can only try to find a way through it."
"Can you survive?"
Kavi looked at him and realized that the captain in front of him was not Yingenatz or his assistant. Not only did he know nothing about surgery, but he was also very unfamiliar with surgery that did not involve amputation. Kawei patted him lightly on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Everyone is fine. The probability of an accident is very low."
"Very good!!!"
From the beginning of the previous blocking battle, Mendelstein was full of guilt for his command errors.
An encounter that should have ended easily ended with the loss of more than 20 men. After the battle, revenge occupied his heart, and it wasn't until he saw the wheat fields in front of the town of Otaka that he began to doubt his decision.
He was afraid of leading the remaining soldiers into a dead end, and even more afraid of encountering various uncontrollable situations.
When he entered the town, he prepared for the worst. If he really encountered a large number of enemies, he would cut off the rear and let the soldiers take Opal to evacuate first.
Of course, the current results have far exceeded Mendelstein's expectations. All the wounded soldiers brought have been treated. As long as the first group army continues to advance the front, they can join their own troops.
Everything is going in the right direction.
"Place the wounded soldiers, and then go to the residences to collect some food. We still need to rest here for a while." Mendelstein gave the order, and then asked, "By the way, how long have the messengers been gone? ?”
"It's been a while, but it takes most of a day to get there and back."
"Now that all the wounded soldiers are safe and sound, we don't have to worry. Just wait for the messenger to pass the news to the military headquarters and inform us of our location. What you have to do now is to stay close to the wounded soldiers and observe their condition. If anything unusual is found, Notify the doctor immediately."
The soldier stood up straight and shouted "Yes", then asked another question: "But Captain, no food was found in the residence."
"No?"
"We started searching as soon as we entered the town. There was indeed none. They must have been taken away, or they ate them all themselves."
Mendelstein pondered for a moment and said: "Then why are you still standing there? If you don't have food, then go look for food in the surrounding woods."
"But we all carry three days' worth of dry food, which is enough."
"We've had enough, but what about them?" Mendelstein pointed at the doctors who had just come out of the operating room and said, "They left all the food in the carriage... Oh, by the way, you bring four The five men went back to where they came from and brought back the food in their wagons.”
"yes!"
"If there's not enough food, just look for hares along the way. If that doesn't work, share our dry food with them."
"knew!"
...
Mendelstein seemed to no longer doubt Kawei's identity and was willing to share dry food, but in Kawei's eyes, they did not turn the corner. The escort only escaped the first wave, and they are likely to encounter more and more difficult troubles soon after.
The escape plan I had originally considered was definitely not going to work.
The other party also came here on foot, without horses. It is even more impossible to deal with each other one by one. My side has been under surveillance, and the number of people is disproportionate. Now all they can do is stand still and say one word: wait.
But the waiting itself is the most troublesome, time is not good for the escort team.
The Prussian First Army, which was fighting fiercely with the Austrian army at the front, was superior in terms of strength, morale, and weapons and equipment. Lamin's Sixth Army was bound to be defeated. A person like Kawei who doesn't know anything about military affairs can see that the war situation has been decided. The only thing that can become a suspense is how long they can resist.
If they are unlucky enough, the Sixth Army may be defeated tonight, and their "neutral" medical team is likely to be invited to Prussia to help. If this was the case, Kawei would not be able to resist. The only advantage was that the escort disguised as civilians could leave safely.
Although Aleister has been monitoring himself, at the same time, he and the members of the escort are indeed fulfilling their protective duties.
The battlefield was ruthless, and even though Kawei had conflicts with him, deep down in his heart he was still mostly grateful, and this time he was able to return a favor to him.
As for whether Mendelstein really believed in him, Kawei couldn't tell. This was not a person who would put his thoughts on his face. Moreover, he couldn't remember whether there was anything with Austrian markings left on the carriage, so he could only take a look step by step.
Fortunately, Prussia in the 19th century was not Germany during World War II. If their identity was really exposed, they should be able to spare the medical team a way out for the sake of the Geneva Convention and the surgery just now.
No matter what the future holds, my life is finally saved.
Kawei followed the soldiers carrying the stretcher, briefly reviewed the current situation, and then focused on Craig again.
The operations on the operating table are only a small part of surgery, and postoperative recovery is the more important part. Although the technology of this blood vessel transplant surgery is innovative enough, it is still much rougher than the formal procedure. If it is not handled properly after the operation, it is likely that the success of the operation will be wasted.
The problems encountered after autologous vascular transplantation are nothing more than poor backflow, blood clots and infection.
They exist independently, or they can cause and effect each other, forming an endless loop after complementing each other. Breaking this cycle and making a full recovery for Craig requires proactively fighting complications.
The first is swelling of the lower limbs, which is the easiest to deal with.
Surgical trauma will inherently cause swelling of limbs, and swollen limbs will compress the lumen of blood vessels, increase resistance to blood flow, slow down blood flow, and increase the chance of blood clots.
At the same time, when the blood flow slows down, blood stasis will form, the tissue will become more swollen, and the compressed cells will gradually become necrotic. Necrotic cells will not be removed immediately. With necrosis + blood, the lower limbs will become a petri dish for bacteria to breed.
Compared with artificial blood vessels, the incidence of lower limb swelling with autologous blood vessel transplantation is not high. But considering that there is no magnesium sulfate in hand to reduce swelling, we still have to do the preventive work we should do, and we can't be lazy.
"This private residence... is not bad." Kawei glanced at the room and found the hook for hanging the candlestick on the wall. "Don't rush to put him on the bed. Move the bed to a different position first."
The two soldiers only listened to the orders of Mendelstein and Opper. Suddenly a young man came and told them what to do. They always felt uncomfortable: "What do you mean?"
"Move the table here and put the bed here." Kawei also saw their thoughts and said, "If you want him to recover, just listen to me. I am a doctor."
The soldiers looked at each other and had no choice but to do as they were told, but Kawi's request didn't stop there: "Take down the curtains on the windows as well."
"What's this for?"
"His leg was seriously injured, and I had to lift his leg up," Kawei explained. "Don't waste time, just do as I say."
The soldiers had never seen a doctor who asked for so much, but this guy was the first to save people, and Mendelstein's attitude towards him was second. They couldn't say much: "Okay, you saved Craig, we believe you." .”
The curtain was taken off, tied in a knot, and hung on the candlestick hook. Craig's head was facing outward, and his calf was suspended on the curtain. The gravity of the blood itself increased the amount of blood returned to the heart and prevented congestion and swelling of the lower limbs.
Once the swelling is resolved, the next step is the blood clots.
Swelling can form thrombus, and blood vessel suturing itself will make the intima of the blood vessel become uneven, which will increase the incidence of blood clots. In addition, after trauma and surgery, the blood is in a hypercoagulable state, coupled with the dual stimulation of infection and limb swelling, the incidence of thrombosis further increases.
Among the three major complications, thrombosis can account for more than 90%, so "preventing thrombosis" is the most important task throughout the entire perioperative period.
During the operation, Kawei tried to expand the diameter of the grafted blood vessel as much as possible, but due to clinical instability, any complications that could be called force majeure were inevitable. He currently lacks anticoagulants such as heparin in his body. When the two offset each other, the possibility of developing thrombosis is still high.
"Let him drink more water after he wakes up," Kawei said. "Our people will come over later to give him fluids, so that his blood can be diluted and the blood viscosity can be reduced."
"What should I do if I pee?"
Kawei also thought about inserting a urinary catheter, but just like the incontinence that may occur during anesthesia, the current urinary catheter lacks an inflatable balloon and the opening cannot be fixed in the bladder. At the same time, he also considered urinary tract infection, so he always ignored it: "I can only rely on you for defecation and defecation. We have other wounded soldiers and patients to deal with, and we really can't manage them."
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"Well, we are comrades after all. As long as he gets better, these are all small things."
The second is infection.
The incidence of infection in modern vascular surgery autologous transplantation is not low, even with routine use of antibiotics it can reach 10-20%. Now there is no carbolic acid, no alcohol, and no methylene blue. The surgery is performed in a church in a rural town in Central Europe. If no measures are taken, the chance of infection must exceed 50%.
Infection can completely destroy the autografted blood vessel, which is the most harmful.
Kawei's clever woman couldn't make a meal without rice, so she simply performed drainage to cover the wound. The next operation space is very small, and the only thing that can control it is to replace the gauze.
"Go to the kitchens of other houses to see if there is any oil."
"Oil? What oil?"
“It doesn’t matter if it’s any oil, whether it’s palm oil, kerosene, lard or fish oil, as long as it’s oil.”
With limited conditions now, it is impossible for Kawei to select cooking oil like he did at the Municipal General Hospital. He can only use local materials and use whatever is available. There is a drainage tube to drain the exudate, and the surface can be safely covered with grease, which can block infection as much as possible.
"Don't leave in a hurry." Kawei continued, "Let's see if there is any alkali soap. If there is, bring it all over. It will be useful."
Alkaline soap has a certain bactericidal effect. As for the "certain" effect, no one can say for sure. Everything can only depend on God's will.
...
At this time, the Sixth Army was still struggling to support itself in the face of Prussian fierce artillery fire.
Laming's offense was not good, but the defense seemed to have received the true message from the old Marshal Ludwig and handled it well. It's just that the huge gap in weapons caused him to lose a lot of soldiers, and the originally adequate medical system was instantly penetrated.
However, Kawei's medical team has already left. Even if he did not leave, his medical team of more than a dozen people would not be able to treat so many wounded soldiers.
What really bothered Lamin now was the awkward location of the barracks.
The fierce Prussian army was in front of them, and Kissin behind them was too far away. Several groups of messengers went out, but it would take at least three or four days for reinforcements to arrive. This was a miracle that was only possible because the messengers and the Fifth Army stationed in Kischin were rushing hard.
Lamin was stuck in this place, and he would definitely not be able to defeat him if he fought head-on. If he retreated, he would be protected by a company of guards, so he should be able to escape.
But these soldiers...
He looked at the map in the command post and analyzed it all afternoon but couldn't think of a way to break the situation. Just when he was worried, the guard at the door suddenly walked in with a panting soldier: "Deputy Marshal, the messenger is here!"
"The messenger? Didn't the messenger just leave this morning? How could he be back so soon?"
"No, he is not our messenger!"
