The next day.

9:00 AM.

In the pathology testing lab, Zhao Heng was examining Sun Xinxin's bone marrow through a microscope.

Just moments ago, he had performed a puncture on Sun Xinxin and extracted a small amount of bone marrow. The next step was to add various inducing factors, followed by some genetic modification and refinement, to induce it to differentiate into neural stem cells.

This process would take about three days. Then, the induced neural stem cells would be injected directly into the brain tissue through a subarachnoid puncture to perform their function of repairing brain tissue cells.

Zhao Heng, dressed in a dust-free suit, was carefully examining the enlarged marrow images under the microscope.

Standing next to him was the chief pathologist, Dr. Qu Xiaofeng.

This pathologist could be considered the doctor of doctors. If a patient develops a lump, is it a tumor? Is it benign or malignant? What should be the subsequent treatment? These questions are all to be answered by the pathologist.

So, in a way, the pathologist holds the final decision-making power.

And when it comes to stem cell cultivation, it's within the domain of the pathologist. There's no one more qualified to speak on whether the extracted bone marrow can be used for stem cell cultivation than a pathologist who deals with microscopes, slides, and cells daily.

Watching Zhao Heng skillfully handle the microscope and slides, Qu Xiaofeng was somewhat surprised. Considering Zhao Heng's familiarity with the operations, achieving this without decades of experience is unimaginable.

But here's the problem: Zhao Heng is an anesthesiologist. How could he have had decades to immerse himself in pathology?

Thus, Qu Xiaofeng was filled with curiosity.

Could it really be that there's such a rare genius who can effortlessly achieve what others spend decades striving for?

Little did he know, when Zhao Heng first acquired his golden finger, he went around every department in the hospital. Whenever there was an opportunity to pick up experience and skills, he seized it.

The skills and experience in pathological diagnosis and cell identification, naturally, were learned along the way.

Of course, even though Zhao Heng acquired the skills, he couldn't use them to issue reports because a pathologist requires specialized qualifications.

It's essential to know that many tumors cut from patients need to be made into pathological sections to determine whether they are benign or malignant.

If there's an error in pathological diagnosis, the outcomes would be beyond imaginable.

At this moment, Zhao Heng, who was observing the slide under the microscope, suddenly furrowed his brows.

"Dr. Zhao, what's the matter?"

Seeing Zhao Heng suddenly frown, Qu Xiaofeng asked with some puzzlement.

He knew Zhao Heng was currently examining Sun Xinxin's bone marrow smear. By now, the entire hospital was aware of Sun Xinxin's case.

The entire staff of Eastern Hospital had been leaving no stone unturned for Sun Xinxin's treatment. Otherwise, Zhao Heng wouldn't have easily accessed the pathology lab, nor been accompanied by the experienced pathologist Dr. Qu Xiaofeng.

"Dr. Qu, take a look. I'm a bit uncertain."

Zhao Heng stood up and ceded his position to Dr. Qu, speaking slowly.

Most of Zhao Heng's skills in pathological diagnosis had been acquired and integrated from other doctors, which made his progress rapid.

However, this also resulted in a problem: the replicated skills were always inferior to the original. As Zhao Heng needed to individually digest the diverse experiences acquired from different doctors, his judgment was still not as sharp in some delicate areas compared to the original.

Take the current situation; Zhao Heng couldn't quite ascertain a particular issue in Sun Xinxin's bone marrow images.

After all, his golden finger had its limits and constraints. The level Zhao Heng could reach in a specific field entirely depended on the level of doctors he could come into contact with.

Although Eastern Hospital was already the top hospital nationwide, with equally top-level doctors, the world is vast, and unknown geniuses could always emerge.

Thinking about this, Zhao Heng wondered whether he should try gathering experience elsewhere after maximizing the benefits from Eastern Hospital. Otherwise, he might hit a technical ceiling and find it hard to further improve.

"Mm-hmm."

Despite being puzzled, Dr. Qu sat in front of the microscope and began examining attentively.

After taking a closer look, he, too, furrowed his eyebrows.

Dr. Qu scrutinized a bit more before finally standing up.

"Dr. Zhao, what you saw was a degenerative change in the bone marrow, correct?"

Dr. Qu inquired.

After witnessing it firsthand, he could now understand why Zhao Heng had asked him to re-examine Sun Xinxin's bone marrow images.

"Yes, while it's a bit unbelievable, I think it's a degenerative change in the bone marrow."

Zhao Heng nodded, confirming Dr. Qu's observation.

"Typically, such degenerative changes in the bone marrow occur in the elderly or patients with hematologic tumors. How is it appearing in such a young individual?"

Dr. Qu was very puzzled.

"The patient is a top athlete, with a very high level of exercise daily, greatly stimulating the bone marrow's hematopoietic function. Perhaps because of excessive stimulation, it accelerated cell division, resulting in degenerative changes in the bone marrow now,"

analyzed Zhao Heng.

Apart from cancer cells, human cell division isn't infinite. Once a specific number of divisions is reached, cells will experience degenerative changes, or rapid aging.

"With the current technology at our hospital, this bone marrow in such a state can't be induced to differentiate into neural stem cells."

Dr. Qu said with a serious expression.

He knew that there was significant attention on Sun Xinxin's treatment, and Zhao Heng's two-week deadline mentioned in the board meeting was now known hospital-wide.

So, many were waiting to see Zhao Heng fail!

Now, with the extremely rare degenerative change in Sun Xinxin's bone marrow, this neural stem cell transplantation could be doomed before it even begins.

Dr. Qu understood the stem cell cultivation level at their hospital.

After all, many disease treatments required stem cell cultivation.

Both Dr. Qu and Zhao Heng had heavy hearts at this point.

Stem cell cultivation wasn't something that could suddenly improve overnight.

Wait, no!

Most people might not achieve it, but I can!

Zhao Heng suddenly recalled his golden finger.

Remembering it, he asked Dr. Qu, "Dr. Qu, aside from our hospital, where else has strong stem cell cultivation capabilities?"

"Strictly speaking, our hospital's stem cell cultivation strength is already very strong. As far as I know, only Professor Li Hongwei, the director of Yanjing University's School of Life Sciences and Stem Cell Research Center, surpasses us."

Dr. Qu thoughtfully replied.

Dr. Qu had been keeping track of progress in stem cell cultivation.

While he might not mention the top five in the field offhand, if asked who's the best, Dr. Qu could readily provide an answer.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.