Li Xiangzhi had already lost consciousness from suffocation, so there was no need for anesthesia.
The situation was critical, and there was no time for Hu Xiaotian to perform a tracheotomy at a measured pace. He immediately decided to perform a cricothyrotomy first to relieve her breathing difficulties, then proceed with a conventional tracheotomy.
The cricothyroid membrane was a section of the tracheal wall below the thyroid cartilage and above the cricoid cartilage. Positioned between two pieces of cartilage, it offered a relatively wide gap, with few blood vessels or nerves passing through it. An incision here would not cause major bleeding or additional injury.
Hu Xiaotian quickly put on his homemade mask, took out his scalpel, and located the incision site precisely before cutting into the skin of Li Xiangzhi's neck. Cries of alarm rose all around him. The more timid women had already turned their heads away in fright. In his urgency to save her, Hu Xiaotian had forgotten to clear the room. He might have been saving a life, but his actions looked exactly like slitting someone's throat. To most of those present, he was committing murder! Some had even fainted on the spot.
Wan Boping had, after all, already endured the shock of watching Hu Xiaotian open his son's skull. That gave him some measure of resilience when Hu Xiaotian cut open his daughter-in-law's neck before his eyes. At least he knew Hu Xiaotian was saving her, not murdering her.
Once he had exposed the patient's cricothyroid membrane, Hu Xiaotian made a transverse incision through it. He took a pair of curved Hemostatic Forceps from his surgical kit, widened the incision with them, and temporarily inserted a length of reed stalk he had prepared and sterilized beforehand. His movements were swift, clean, and decisive. As soon