Gu Jun temporarily ignored the empty humerus. He could not do anything about it. If he wanted to do anything about it now, he could only amputate it upward and perform a scapular girdle amputation.
Normally, the bone could have cavity-like lesions, and fracture reduction could easily result in a cavity due to compression of cancellous bone caused by impact. This was not fatal, and the most important thing at the moment was to save the patient's life. The two key points were to prevent bleeding and infection.
To prevent blood and fluid accumulation in the incision and reduce the chance of tissue reaction and infection, a drainage device had to be placed before the incision was closed, and it usually had to be kept for three to five days. However, there was no drainage device around, so Gu Jun could only choose to perform an open amputation.
After he finished trimming the end of the bone, he washed the wound with saline to remove the bone chips, blood clots, and fragmented tissue. After he was done with hemostasis, he used a sterile gauze pad to cover the wound at the stump and then sutured the skin flap with a few stitches to prevent the skin from retracting.
Finally, the amputation was completed after the wound was bandaged with elastic bandages.
Gu Jun did not relax. He used a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer to measure Cao Yicong's vital signs. His heart rate and blood pressure were fine. His face was a little pale, but there was no major bleeding. Such a tall and strong person would not have lost too much blood so quickly, so he could still hold on.
"Deputy Captain Cao, how many fingers are here?" he asked, raising three fingers on his right hand.
"Three …"
Cao Yicong's mental state was fine, and he could answer the series of questions he asked. However, the stump of his right arm was a little numb, and it was accompanied by phantom limb pain, which was why he could feel his lost right hand. "Doctor Gu, I feel that my right hand is still there … but there are waves of pain, like being pricked by needles."
Li Liangbin and Wang Yong did not quite understand what this meant, but Gu Jun's head sank, and he only felt that his surroundings became colder and darker.
Phantom limb pain was one of the common complications of amputation. The pathogenesis was still unclear, and there was a lack of effective treatment.
However, the symptoms of patients with Alien Hand Syndrome before amputation were similar to those of BIID patients. BIID patients longed to have their limbs amputated. After the amputation, there would be no phantom limb pain, only pleasure and satisfaction. But now, once the patients with Alien Hand Syndrome got rid of the alien hand, it seemed that they would have the amputation reaction of an ordinary person.
"Deputy Captain Cao, it's normal. It'll be fine after a while," said Gu Jun.
Phantom limb pain usually disappeared gradually. Only a few people suffered from severe and long-term pain. He hoped that the patients with Alien Hand Syndrome were not like that.
For now, Cao Yicong could only endure it. Gu Jun's other worry was whether the patient would experience severe physical pain after the local anesthesia in the operating area passed, as well as the more serious phantom limb pain. There wasn't much morphine and procaine left in the medical kit, so he had to use them sparingly.
After that, he cleaned, disinfected, and sutured the injuries on the faces and hands of the three people, completing the field first aid.
At this time, Gu Jun finally let out a sigh of relief. He simply cleaned the dissection instruments and took off the gloves that were seriously contaminated.
Currently, the remaining supplies were extremely insufficient. Water was not even enough for the four of them to drink for a day.
There was no sign of clean water in the surrounding swamp, only stinking rotten water with millions of filth buried in it. The amputated alien hand could still move on the muddy ground. Li Liangbin and Wang Yong were exhausted, and Gu Jun was busy with the surgery. In a flash, it jumped into the mud and sank.
Perhaps at this moment, the alien hand was right under their feet, but it was hidden very, very deeply.
This place was full of danger.
"Everyone, let's go. Let's see if we can get out of this swamp."
Gu Jun's gaze fixed in a direction. It was difficult to determine north, south, east, and west here, but if he used the basketball hoop as a base, Lin Jing's house was over there, which was also the direction of the entrance to the alley.
The three people's legs and feet were not injured, but Cao Yicong was a little weak. Li Liangbin and Wang Yong supported him.
Gu Jun returned the pistols of Li Liangbin and Wang Yong to them. He held Cao Yicong's gun and carefully walked in front. Some parts of the swamp would sink with a single step, so he had to be very careful. Before each step, he had to test it carefully.
The gray sky appeared to be the same color forever. Occasionally, the caws of crows came from the branches of some dead tree.
They walked for about two hundred meters. This distance should have been enough to walk out of the alley.
They were still surrounded by rotten mud, but they still found something. There were pieces of hard concrete above the swamp. They were the roofs of the villagers' houses. They should have been ten meters above the ground, but now they were all submerged in the swamp.
"Doctor Gu, that looks like Lin Jing's house."
At that moment, Li Liangbin pointed at one of the roofs.
Lin Jing's house was an old two-story house. It was built in the 1980s and had not been renovated. Therefore, the roof was still the old-fashioned design with half of the roof tiles. The television antenna that used to be there was not removed, and it became the symbol of the house.
On the roof that was submerged in the swamp, there was a television antenna that was teetering on the verge of collapse.
Gu Jun looked at it and nodded silently. Yes, that was it.
The houses in the alley had all sunk into the swamp. This prevented them from finding any supplies. Furthermore … they had no idea how the villagers and Phecda members inside and outside the house were doing. Did they survive or did they sink with the house?
They did not find any clues that could provide the answer to this question. Wang Ke's group and Lin Jing's parents had all disappeared.
The Lin family's house was located in the middle of the alley. The four of them continued to walk carefully towards the entrance of the alley. The depth of the surrounding houses gradually deepened. Even the roofs of the houses could not be seen. The withered trees in the distance also became more sparse and withered.
If this was a mutated area like the one at Mo Bei, there would be a boundary. They could use the boundary to return to Earth.
But this hope was soon extinguished by the strange phenomenon before them.
Gu Jun and the three Phecda members had not seen anything like this before. At the entrance of the alley, from the swamp to the clouds, there was a wall-like membrane that covered the whole area. The membrane was between transparent and murky, making it hard for them to see what was on the other side.
They should have seen such a tall membrane wall from afar but in reality, they only saw it when they got closer.
When Cao Yicong saw the membrane wall, the pain in his phantom limbs intensified. His left hand pressed against his non-existent right arm.
"What is that …" Wang Yong mumbled.
Gu Jun's mind stirred as he saw the light. "Amniotic membrane, it's amniotic membrane. We're probably … inside the black goat's womb."
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