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One operation after another made him miserable
As a doctor engaged in cancer prevention and treatment, Hua Yiwei has operated on countless patients in his life, but when he became a stomach cancer patient himself, underwent total gastrectomy surgery, and underwent abdominal heat chemotherapy.
Before his death, he left an extremely painful word: "I have done so many surgeries before, but I do not have a deep understanding of the pain of postoperative patients. I didn't expect the situation to be so serious, I didn't expect the patient to be so miserable..."
In the last stage of his life, he realized: We who are doctors cannot simply treat diseases, but treat sick patients!
In 2006, Dr. Hua Yiwei died, and the Health Times published such an article: "The Last Days of the Famous Doctor Hua Yiwei: I Didn't Expect the Surgery to Be So Painful", in addition to remembering this famous doctor, it is also intended to trigger people's thinking about the traditional cancer treatment model, so that more cancer patients can walk through the final process of life calmly and peacefully in the late stage of treatment.
Here, I will intercept some of the content of the article and share it with you.
In July 2005, Hua Yiwei's meal volume suddenly decreased, and his digestion was not very good, so he went to check it. After exploring the abdomen, it was found that it was advanced stomach cancer, and Hua Yiwei had to accept routine treatment and did a total gastric resection.
Total gastrectomy surgery, is to remove the stomach all, the small intestine directly connected to the esophagus, because there is no cardia, alkaline intestinal fluid and bile will go straight back, the patient will appear reflux, heartburn and other symptoms.
After the operation, Hua Yiwei's reflux was particularly serious, the esophagus was always burning and painful, the throat was often choked inflamed, and even the eustachyngeal canal was stimulated very painfully. One can only lie half-reclined, not lying flat at all.
The pain of total gastrectomy is not over, the next pain follows, in order to control the spread of cancer cells, Hua Yiwei received intraperitoneal heat chemotherapy.
For the pain of abdominal heat chemotherapy, Hua Yiwei said before he died, "I can't imagine how I supported it": 90 minutes of lying there unable to move, the abdominal cavity was heated to 41 degrees Celsius, people kept sweating, sweating, so that after the end of the heat therapy, he had to change two sets of clothes in a row.
After each treatment, he had cramping pain in his abdomen, which caused him to roll over and over on the hospital bed and needed medication to relieve the pain. Hua Yiwei chemotherapy twice a week, a total of 8 times in a month. During this period, people have no chance to breathe, just relax a little, and immediately proceed to the next time.
"He used to have a good foundation of his body, and his weight was still good after the first surgery. If you don't do chemotherapy, slowly resume your diet, and you may be able to recover better. It was chemotherapy that completely brought him down. Old partner Zhang Yanrong said.
▲ Old partner Zhang Yanrong took care of Hua Yiwei in the illness
During the chemotherapy, Hua Yiwei vomited badly, could not eat, and could only rely on nasal feeding nutrient solution. He and his family believe that this is a reaction to chemotherapy, and they can resume eating. No one expected that greater pain would quietly approach Hua Yiwei.
Usually, after the end of chemotherapy, the side effects will slowly lessen, and the patient can resume eating. However, two or three weeks after the end of chemotherapy, Hua Yiwei was still nauseous, vomiting, and unable to eat. Gastroenterography found that intestinal obstruction of the end of the ileum had occurred!
As the intestinal obstruction worsened, there was not even a little stool left. Bloating, vomiting is severe, not only failed to restore diet, even nasal feed nutrient solution can not enter. Under the torment of the disease, Hua Yiwei was even weaker, with cardiac insufficiency, and irregular systemic edema, liver and kidney function.
In this case, a second surgery with the aim of relieving the intestinal obstruction is carried out. However, after the operation, the intestinal anastomosis leaked, and intestinal fluid, feces, and blood flowed into the abdominal cavity, causing a serious infection, and the intestines could not recover. At this time, even without cancer, it is difficult for people to survive.
After the failure of the second operation, Hua Yiwei's body completely collapsed. The hospital arranged a special care team for him, and Hua Yiwei was transferred from the iCU ward back to the hepatobiliary surgery department.
"I haven't cared for a patient like that yet." Yan Han, a nurse in the special care group of the ICU ward, said.
At that time, Hua Yiwei was full of tubes: tubes with intravenous fluids - because he could not eat any food, so he was supported by various nutrient solutions; tracheostomy catheters to help breathe; from the nose into the gastrointestinal decompression tube, the tubes are very thin, to be watched at any time to prevent blockage; the abdominal cavity has two tubes for draining blood, feces and other intestinal secretions in the abdominal cavity, each tube is set together by two tubes to prevent infection when the fluid inside the tube is displaced; and the catheter... In addition, due to the discharge of the anus after surgery, the urine pad needs to be changed every two hours. The most critical part of nursing is to suck sputum at any time.
Because Hua Yiwei was unable to cough at this time, he needed external help to suck out the sputum in the trachea in time, and he had to suck it once in a few minutes, otherwise once he was suffocated by sputum, it would immediately be life-threatening. After the lendo is cut open in February this year, the work of suctioning is heavier, and sometimes the sputum will continue to gush out when sleeping, and it is necessary to constantly wipe it with a paper towel.
In the last few days of his life, Hua Yiwei said to the doctor who gave him infusions and plasma more than once: "Don't lose, don't waste any more." More than once, he said to his wife Zhang Yanrong: "I don't want to hold on any longer, I can't stand it!" ”
At 6 p.m. on August 12, Hua Yiwei passed away.
2
Push yourself and others, the patient suffers too much
Doctors cannot simply treat diseases, but treat patients who are sick
In the past, when treating other stomach cancer patients, Hua Yiwei also used total gastrectomy surgery, but since he himself underwent total gastrectomy surgery and suffered great pain, he began to reflect deeply on the method of gastric cancer treatment.
At that time, there was a stomach disease patient living in the ward, Hua Yiwei was very concerned about his condition, and one day he deliberately found Yu Conghui and said: "Wisdom, the treatment of this patient should be carefully considered, the total gastrectomy brings not only the problem of eating, but also the problem of postoperative reflux... Do a total gastrectomy, the patient suffers too much pain, and when gastric resection is done later, do not do it without total resection. ”
Yu Conghui clearly remembered that Hua Yiwei deliberately used his hands to compare and said: "Even if you leave a little stomach, it is stronger than full cutting, and the patient is not so painful." ”
Usually, the doctor's first consideration is to remove the tumor clean. For example, the tumor has 3 centimeters, and the operation often removes all the tissues other than the tumor of 3-5 centimeters, so that it is not easy to recur. Doctors only care about whether the operation is successful, whether there are complications, and do not know how the patient feels. Patients usually do not understand medicine, and even think that the reaction is normal, which should be the case.
Hua Yiwei's transformation from a doctor to a patient gives him a new understanding of this medical problem from the patient's point of view: as a doctor, when choosing between quality of life and disease, it is mainly to see which party gives the patient more benefit. If the patient lives for a year and a half after total gastric resection, but the patient has to spend it in pain; the gastric incomplete resection can live for one year, but the patient can live happily and fully, then he prefers the latter.
Yu Conghui said: "At that time, Director Hua often said to me in a heavy tone: "When we are doctors, we cannot simply treat diseases, but treat patients who are sick!" ”
"Later, we accepted Director Hua's suggestion, and when treating future gastric cancer patients, we improved the method of surgery: if it can be incompletely incised, it is not fully excised; if it must be completely removed, we have also improved the surgical method, trying to drain the bile and intestinal fluid to reduce upward reflux, and find a way to shape the stomach of the offspring with the intestine, so that the food can still stay in the stomach like it is, so that the patient is much more comfortable."
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Be conscientious and respectful
Dr. Hua is one of the first 8-year medical graduates in New China.
People around him recalled him: before the patient was examined at dawn, he always rubbed his hands and heated the stethoscope to expose the patient's body as little as possible; before the operation, he always waited for the patient at the elevator entrance to let the patient see the doctor before anesthesia.
After retirement, the old doctor who still has to perform more than 100 surgeries every year, the last surgery is for the 63-year-old Yang Hua to do goiter removal surgery.
On the day of the operation, he had already made an appointment to do a gastroscopy, but in order not to affect the patient's mood, he calmly entered the operating room.
The day after the operation, Hua Yiwei was admitted to the ward. After 8 days, he had his total stomach removed.........
On the shores of Lake Saranak in northeastern New York, there is an obscure Dr. Trudeau, but his epitaph has long been said: to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.
The most common Chinese translation of this phrase is: sometimes, to heal; often, to help; always, to comfort. How do doctors face death? Doctors are also patients when they face death, but out of professional habits, they may still be thinking about the disease.
His dying feelings also make us more aware of the limited facts of medicine. If it can be cured, then try to cure my patients; if it can't be cured, then try to alleviate the disease and alleviate their pain; if nothing can be done, then let them feel that we have done our best to help them with respect for life! For example, Dr. Hua, he makes people awe-inspired. ■