Surgery Godfather-Chapter 474 - 431: Boiling a Frog in Warm Water

This case, with its high difficulty of spinal correction, was not an issue for Yang Ping, seeing as he had successfully corrected the spinal deformity of Lu Gang. However, Professor Qin was somewhat doubtful of Yang Ping’s ability to execute the thoracic and abdominal visceral surgeries due to the significant disciplinary crossover involved.

The handling of thoracic and abdominal viscera, whether it’s the heart, lungs, and large blood vessels, or liver, gall, and pancreas, require highly specialized skills. Even the experts of cardiac surgery and hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery at the 301 Hospital thought the surgical risks were too high after studying the case and had to give up.

Many of these vital organs are adhered in many places. Once the spine is corrected, the entire layout and suspension of the organs will be affected. If not handled properly, this could lead to sudden cardiac arrest and organ failure — this is no laughing matter.

Moreover, the patient is already 18 years old and has lived with this malformation for nearly ten years, during which the organs have adapted to their deformed state. Although there is partial functional obstruction, it still meets the needs of life. Surgery at this point will interfere with the organ system’s ability to readjust to a new environment and could easily lead to various complications, such as torsion at the organ’s base, herniation, and fatal necrosis or functional failure due to the organs being stretched or squeezed.

To avoid these situations, it is necessary to perform surgery on the thoracic and abdominal organs in advance to adapt to the new thoracic and abdominal capacity and new spinal sequence. How to operate and how to adapt to these changes poses many challenges.

For this case, Professor Qin had previously consulted with Professor August, a renowned spine surgery expert in Germany. They had encountered similar patients with severe spinal scoliosis combined with thoracic and abdominal organ deformities and displacement. The patient at that time suffered heart failure and had to undergo surgery.

Despite being assisted by an artificial heart-lung machine, the surgery, unfortunately, carried out in coordination with cardiac surgeons and hepatobiliary pancreatic surgeons, lasted for 14 hours.

The patient was unable to get discharged from the artificial heart-lung machine post-surgery. On the 12th day after the surgery, the patient was declared dead in the ICU.

Such cases, given the current state of research on the heart, lungs, and hepatobiliary pancreas, carry an extremely high mortality rate.

Listening to Yang Ping’s explanation, it seems like everything is under control with a high surgical success rate, having considered all potential complications with detailed contingency plans.

The theory is one thing, but even without considering the postoperative treatment, just the reshaping and rehanging of the organs alone seems to be an insurmountable medical challenge.

As Yang Ping intends to perform this surgery without showing any signs of fear, with the whole hospital supporting him, Professor Qin has nothing more to say. He wanted to stay and see how exactly the operation is performed.

"Dr. Yang, the heart, lung, and hepatobiliary pancreatic surgeries you just described might be too difficult. Do you need someone to come over and provide support?" Professor Qin bluntly asked. He is willing to help, and it would be easy for him to invite cardiac or hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery experts from any hospital.

Moreover, Qin heard that a Chinese cardiac surgery expert from the American Cleveland Medical Center will come to guide surgeries in 301 shortly and could help Yang Ping. Professor Qin is doing this purely out of his duty as a doctor.

The cardiac surgery department of Cleveland Medical Center ranks first in the entire United States. This Chinese cardiac surgery expert is a top specialist at the center, honored with the heart surgeon’s chief’s recognition, and he is just entering his forties.

After discussing the situation with Professor Qin, Yang Ping thinks it is a good idea to have such an expert to discuss and share knowledge regarding academic matters.

"When will this professor arrive? We could discuss further and perfect the surgical plan." Yang Ping very much agreed with Professor Qin’s suggestion.

Professor Qin didn’t know the exact time, apparently in the next few days. He commented, "I will confirm, but I’m not sure about his itinery."

He wasn’t sure because he heard that this professor would go to the North Shore Hospital in Australia after instructing surgeries in China.

Since it wasn’t certain, the matter was put aside for the time being. There was no rush for surgery for this patient.

Should the professor from Cleveland be able to come, Yang Ping would be very eager to exchange thoughts and learn from him. There is no end to learning.

The young doctors of 301, with many unresolved queries, put forward many questions to Yang Ping, who patiently explained them. His deep academic competence astonished both Professor Qin and Professor An.

They felt as if Yang Ping had read all specialized textbooks and papers, even those from years ago or the most recent ones. He seems to know every knowledge point, and the amount of specialized knowledge he grasps is astonishing.

Dean Sun saw an opportunity and brought Bao Yulou’s family in to meet Yang Ping.

Bao Yulou knew that today was just a brief meet-and-greet and that an official apologizing ceremony was to be held the next day.

Hence, afraid of wasting Yang Ping’s time, he only made a few polite remarks. Yang Ping was busy and only responded with a courteous nod. Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao were also by the side, smiling and bowing, which made them look a bit awkward and at a loss.

Thus, after having greeted each other, Bao Yulou did not want to bother Yang Ping any further. He decided to come back another day to apologize in person and sign the donation agreement.

After discussing the case, Professor Qin still did not bring up the matter of bringing Yang Ping into the fold. But he had learned that Yang Ping had a research topic that greatly interested him, the use of external braces to treat scoliosis in children, especially when he saw the design of the external braces, he realized that the research was already in its final stages.

If this technology were to prove successful, it would have a tremendous impact.

Therefore, using this as a breakthrough point, Professor Qin suggested a collaboration with 301 since its orthopedic department is one of the few major centers in the country.

If the data from animal experiments are promising and the procedure is minimally invasive, the clinical trials of these external braces would easily pass ethical review.

Large-scale clinical trials usually require multi-center cooperation. This not only allows for the collection of a large sample but also gains widespread acceptance. Trials conducted singlehandedly do not have as much credibility as those done by multiple centers.

Institutions like 301 and Xiehe Hospital have very high credibility and would greatly benefit Yang Ping’s research plan.

Professor Qin stated that 301 could participate in the clinical trials, and Yang Ping gladly agreed.

After the case discussion, everyone wanted to continue mingling. Before they knew it, Dean Xia, Director Han, and Yang Ping, were separated from each other.

Dean Xia was taken to the administrative building by Director Zhang Zhenglong and Director Wu Zhanli. Director Han was asked by Director An Shirong to visit their orthopedics laboratory. Professor Qin wanted to discuss the topic of collaboration with Yang Ping, as well as the arrangements for the heart specialist from Cleveland. Song Zimo and others were taken to see the orthopedics training room by several young doctors from 301.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Professor Qin formally expressed to Yang Ping that he admired him greatly after having seen his Golden Knife Award-winning surgery and published papers. He stated that if Yang Ping was willing to join 301, they could grant him military rank as a senior colonel as special recruitment. They could give him a ward in the orthopedics department and provide fifty million in research funds and the same amount for housing. His fiancée could also be specially recruited, and his entire team could consider joining 301. Professor Qin added that Yang need not rush his decision, as the doors of 301 were always open to him.

Professor Qin was not in a hurry. He abided by the sixteen-word principle of his superiors, which meant that he could not explicitly state that it was an order from above, yet he had to make sure everything was in order. He needed to bring in Yang Ping willingly, without issuing any direct orders.

Professor Qin also knew that Yang Ping had a stem cell subject that had already been approved. The country had allocated two million, and the hospital planned to allocate twenty million. However, this was far from enough.

With the strength of 301, they could help Yang Ping raise seventy or eighty million for research, and it could even become a national key project, attracting over a hundred million in funding.

In the operating room, Nurse Qin Peiling and Xiao Su were already hand in hand, about to address each other as sisters.

Nurse Xiao Qin also loved playing tennis and enjoyed the game when not at work. As the two women shared this interest and were both operating room nurses, they had a lot to talk about and quickly became good friends.

Nurse Xiao Qin loved the military and invited Xiao Su to visit 301. If she had a chance to enlist and put on the uniform, that would be ideal. After all, some girls also dream of being soldiers.

The points Director Zhang Zhenglong raised in his conversation with Dean Xia left Dean Xia unable to rebut. Talent belongs to the nation, and provincial protectionism should be avoided. Director Zhang did not explicitly mention these points, but his central idea was loud and clear. In short, through his clever negotiation, Director Zhang made it clear that sending Yang Ping to 301 was greatly beneficial to both the nation and its citizens. Any opposition to this could be seen as a lack of understanding.

Director Zhang gradually built his case, occupying the moral high ground in the negotiation. In the end, he earnestly said to Dean Xia, "Let’s complete this good deed together. Let’s do our best for our country and the medical field."

If he refused, it would mean he was not doing his best. After circling around, he had trapped Dean Xia in.

Left with no choice, Dean Xia decided to go along with the change. He expressed his agreement with Director Zhang’s opinion, saying that he had always been trying to persuade Yang Ping. But he admitted that he wasn’t sure of Yang Ping’s real thoughts on the matter. He suggested that Director Zhang talk to him personally.

On Director Han’s side, Director An Shirong greatly admired the teacher-student relationship between Director Han and Yang Ping. He shared a story about how, right after he graduated with his master’s degree at a military region hospital, his former director had been very good to him. He encouraged him to pursue higher education and actively helped him get in touch with a mentor at 301. He did not disappoint his former director and successfully obtained his doctorate at 301, leading to where he was today. He still felt grateful for his old director’s help and encouragement.

Song Zimo and his team, in the comprehensive orthopedics training room, were surrounded by a few young doctors from 301. In an intentional or unintentional manner, the discussion veered towards painful issues such as medical disturbances and patient evasion of fees. They expressed their anger and indignation, saying they had never encountered such a situation before.

After stating the conditions for Yang Ping’s introduction, Professor Qin refrained from discussing this matter further. He just discussed the specifics of cooperation with Yang Ping. He had never thought of achieving his goal in one try. He planned to apply the strategy of boiling the frog slowly. As long as Yang Ping agreed to cooperate, he knew he could make him like 301.

This kind of thing was like dating; it couldn’t be straightforward, it had to be taken slow.

There were many things Yang Ping needed to face if he wanted to go to 301 -the compassion of his old employer, the favor he owed Director Han, whether he could adjust to the environment at 301, and so on.

Young people, after all, are afraid of restrictions and have many concerns. He should be left to slowly think it over.