Surgery Godfather-Chapter 563 - 511: Unique and Unpredictable

Humans are not machines, they’re bound to have feelings.

Once empathy is lost, it’s sometimes impossible to recover.

After leaving the ward, Yang Ping still did not fully recover his calmness.

He had always thought the world was beautiful, he never imagined seeing such a baby in real life.

It’s just a tiny skeletal frame, thinly covered in skin.

If not for those twinkling black eyes and heartbeat, no one would sense any sign of life from him.

It appears that the world isn’t beautiful after all, but he was just lucky to be born in a nice place.

Yang Ping washed his hands in the hallway sink, then dried them thoroughly, saying to the people following him,

"Let’s go to the office to discuss this."

Back in the office, everyone sat down.

This case was presented on the big screen in the doctor’s office, which is usually used for handovers, case discussions, or meetings.

Yang Ping took a few sips of water, and Professor Li Zehui asked softly, "Doctor Yang, can we start now?"

"Let’s get the anesthesiologist and perfusion team to join us."

Professor Li Zehui waited without getting a definite answer from Yang Ping, but judging from Yang Ping’s steadfast look, it was clear that he had decided to perform the surgery since the anesthesiologists and perfusionists are being included in the discussion.

Marshall reacted quickly. Without having to be called by Professor Li Zehui, he picked up the phone and invited the anesthesiologists and perfusionists from the operating rooms to a meeting at the Cardiac Surgery Centre.

Marshall stressed that it was an emergency meeting, and the notice was issued in the name of Professor Li Zehui.

Top cardiac surgeons in Cleveland have absolute authority here.

In less than ten minutes, over a dozen operating room members appeared in the doctor’s office, including anesthesiologists, perfusionists, and operating room nurses. They all brought their tablets and found a place to sit down.

Everyone soon realized that the Asian-looking young man sitting in the prime spot in front of the big screen, the center of attention, must be the Chinese doctor who has been causing a stir in the hospital recently.

Noticeably, not only was Yang Ping in the spotlight, but Professor Li Zehui was extremely respectful when speaking to him.

But could this surgery really be successful?

Most of the people understood in their hearts---it was definitely not possible.

Because a few months ago, a six-year-old child, unfortunately, died on the operating table during a surgery led by Doctor Dodge.

The postmortem research report indicated that this kind of surgery could not be successful under current medical conditions.

In the field of pediatric cardiac surgery, no one is more skilled than Dodge and Professor Li Zehui. The Cleveland Heart Center is the pinnacle of the world, and Dodge and Professor Li Zehui are among the topmost authorities in this domain.

This Chinese doctor - they had never heard him make any contributions to cardiac surgery before.

Melvin Mason, a perfusionist, who was a doctor from the North Shore Hospital in Australia, which has a significant footprint in Europe and America in cardiac surgery, even if it couldn’t compare with the Cleveland Heart Center.

Nandu Provincial People’s Hospital prides itself on its Cardiac Department, one of the best in the country. All the core faculties of the Cardiac Department received training from the North Shore Hospital in Australia. They owe their technical mastery to the assistance provided by the North Shore Hospital.

Melvin Mason then sat down beside Doctor Dodge.

"Hey, what’s the rush that called us all over?"

"I don’t know either. It was that Chinese doctor’s idea. He said he could perform surgery on the baby from Yemen. He even said my echocardiograms were not professional enough." Dodge’s tone was a bit mocking.

Melvin Mason, much like Doctor Dodge, always felt a notch above others in his profession. He felt a sense of superiority, especially towards doctors from third-world countries, viewed them with a serious bias.

"Let’s just wait and see, mate. He’ll fall flat on his face."

Melvin Mason comforted Doctor Dodge. As a perfusionist, he had been involved in various cardiac surgeries for many years. He knew very well that it was impossible to perform surgery on this patient.

As they were talking in low voices, Professor Li Zehui signaled for silence on the other side.

The meeting was about to begin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, due to the uniqueness of this case, it has been shared with the entire team to harness collective wisdom and come up with the best possible solution. Albeit familiarity with this case since we’ve already discussed it many times, I’d like Dr. Marshall to recap it for us."

Marshall is a resident doctor currently undergoing sub-specialty training in cardiac surgery, and in a year he will be eligible for the attending physician’s qualification.

He completed his undergraduate degree in engineering for four years, then got accepted into medical school for another four years of medical education. After graduation, he has gone through step-by-step training and now, he’s only one step away from his success.

Becoming an attending physician means he can practice medicine independently, and can earn a salary that most would envy, and afford luxury cars and mansions.

For such a case, Marshall is thrilled. It’s something that some doctors might never encounter in their lifetime, yet now it lays before him.

Marshall opened the case file:

"Hello everyone, I’m Marshall from Harvard Medical School---"

"Introduce the case, no need for self-introduction!"

Professor Li Zehui reminded.

Damn, Marshall might be a bit nervous, forgot, and blurted out this self-introduction, which he usually uses to kick-start his speeches.

"Yes, sir, let me introduce the case."

Marshall stared at the case file, paused for a moment, and began to report.

The English case text slowly moved across the screen; images were changing one by one at a slow pace.

Everyone can then view the baby’s case information from their tablets at any time.

This was the most difficult heart surgery in the world, not only because of the malformation, tumor, adhesion, but also due to its wholly new anatomy, mirrored anatomy, even seeming to be reversed, an almost extremely weakened physical constitution, various organ development disorders, causing the tissue structure to be flawed. These flaws might lead to fatal damage if overlooked during surgery.

When Marshall confidently finished the case reporting with his loud voice, Professor Li Zehui looked around. Before officially beginning the case discussion, he seemed to have something to say:

"Everyone, there’s no need for further elaboration. Even the youngest among us is an experienced resident, soon to be an attending doctor, with unquestionable professional knowledge. This is a very rare case of heart malformation combined with a tumor, the difficulty of the surgery is extremely high. We have once gathered the best abilities, trying to succeed in this type of case, but we failed. Failure is nothing to be ashamed of, especially in the medical field, because our current medical skills are far from where we hope them to be. The unresolved problems we face far outweigh the ones we can solve. Doctor Teodoro once said--- sometimes to cure, often to help, always to comfort, this truly resonates in medical statistics."

"Our failed case, with the family consent, and the approval of the ethical committee, we conducted anatomical research. The result is this thick report that you hold in your hands. The severity of this type of case far surpasses our imagination. We were very naive and reckless at that time. But this was not subjectively created by us, because all of our motivations are to help, even if we were reckless and stubborn, it was not for our personal agenda, but to help the patient."

"There is an idea quietly spreading among us---this six-month-old baby, he is so weak, so poor, so isolated, it is unprofitable to save him with enormous amounts of manpower and funding, there’s no need to give it our best, let it go! He is only six months old, doesn’t feel any pain, no one will blame us if we give up, let alone hold us accountable. He is just like a falling leaf that won’t affect our lives."

"But we forgot, the right to life is given to everyone by God, even if he is only six months old, he has the right to pursue his inherent rights. The essence of us doctors is to help people pursue these rights, no matter how weak they are, no matter how lowly they are, no matter how poor they are, these are not things we should consider. We only need to acknowledge that it is a life and should be treated equally. We should try our best to save every life, we can’t, absolutely can’t give up any life, that is our duty! Ladies and Gentlemen, I earnestly ask you, if this choice falls on you, should I give up on you or give up on him?"

The voice of Professor Li Zehui’s last sentence was very loud, once the words fell, the whole room fell silent.

It has been a long time since they had heard such soul-stirring words, and all the doctors present were moved.

Yang Ping turned his head and looked at the serious-faced Professor Li Zehui, full of respect for his colleague.

"This is Doctor Yang Ping, who I’ve invited from China, this baby’s surgery will be conducted by him as the Chief Surgeon. Now, he will share his perspective on this case and the surgical approach." Professor Li Zehui finished his opening remarks.

Yang Ping stood up, holding an electronic pointer in his hand.

"Everyone, the difficulty of this surgery is unprecedented in cardiac surgery history. The overall physiological condition of this patient is extremely poor, nearing the brink of collapse, with overlapping and misconstructed malformations. This is like stepping into an unknown minefield, where we could encounter dangerous explosions at any time. Therefore, conventional surgical methods seem weak and powerless, we need to use a completely new method to achieve our goal---"

Yang Ping paused, he wanted to give everyone time to digest his words, the information was too much to take in all at once.

What was this completely new method he mentioned?

Even Doctor Dodge was curious. Every top expert in their field, more or less, has some sense of curiosity, which is their driving force for progress.

"We plan to draw on the surgical model of left ventricle tumors, by separating the heart from the major blood vessels, remove it as a whole from the chest cavity, and then complete the removal of the tumor and the correction of the malformation on the open operating table!"

This time Yang Ping used English to express himself; he was worried that the translator might not accurately express his words, leading to misunderstandings.

As soon as the words were spoken, all the doctors in the hall froze as if collectively electrocuted.

What a crazy idea! An impossible proposition, it seemed like a wild goose chase.

With a left ventricular tumor, they only need to remove one tumor, which can be accomplished within the extreme time limit after the heart is removed from the body, even so, only a few top hospitals can achieve this.

But to complete the correction of severe Tetralogy of Fallot, it also needs to be done under extracorporeal conditions, no one has such speed.

Once a step is not completed, the heart will die from lack of oxygen, the myocardial cells will collapse, and the surgery can’t be concluded at all.

Finally, those people understood, this so-called cross-border big shot was nothing more than a quack.

A total quack!

He was just using this patient as an experiment, seeking to gain sensational effect.

Even Professor Li Zehui was shocked, so this was the unorthodox idea Yang Ping had mentioned.

In fact, in the case of the Japanese Shuntentani Hospital, Yang Ping had proposed this plan. For this child, Yang Ping had been researching for a long time, trying various methods, but all of them ended in failure. Only this kind of extracorporeal-transplantation line of thinking could bring about successful results.

Indeed, the plan was a bit crazy!

But there was no other choice!