godfather of surgery

Chapter 1199 Pigeon Heart Transplant

Zhang Lin didn't know where his so-called inside information came from, but his inside information was always quite accurate. He did have a talent for intelligence gathering, and becoming a doctor was a misguided path.

Everyone knows what's going on in the emergency department. Any of the guys here who are attending physicians or senior residents have definitely rotated through the emergency department. It's a department that rotations are mandatory. You can't say you've completed your rotations without experiencing the baptism of the emergency department. So everyone is used to it and won't let it affect their mood.

Being a doctor requires both psychological and physical training to develop.

Yang Ping took out his phone and saw a missed call from Director Tian Yuan of the Overseas Chinese Building. Yang Ping called back, and Director Tian said she wanted to invite Yang Ping to come for a consultation because they had encountered a problem.

Director Tian is now the head of the Overseas Chinese Building, which is mainly responsible for providing high-end medical services to overseas Chinese both domestically and internationally. In addition to the Overseas Chinese Building, Sanbo Hospital has also established an International Building, which is an International Medical Center, specifically responsible for providing high-end medical services to overseas patients, especially those from Europe and America.

Currently, due to limited space, the two VIP treatment areas are located in one building. Once the new building is completed, they will be separated, each with its own inpatient ward.

Over the phone, Yang Ping briefly inquired about the patient's basic situation. The patient was a 26-year-old male who had previously suffered from rheumatic heart disease and now had severe heart failure. The only treatment option was heart replacement, but the patient also had right pulmonary hypertension, which prevented blood from flowing smoothly from the heart to the lungs. Therefore, even a heart transplant would face enormous difficulties, as the transplanted heart could not withstand the high-pressure pulmonary circulation. The cardiac surgeons were in a dilemma and wanted to hear Professor Yang's opinion.

Currently, the two VIP areas at Sanbo Hospital are experiencing long queues, as Sanbo Hospital has a strong international reputation and attracts many wealthy individuals.

If a hospital wants to make money, it needs to look outwards and use its technological advantages to earn money from foreigners. Many large hospitals in the United States do this; making money from all over the world is the real way to make money.

Yang Ping glanced at the doctor's office and saw Xia Shu tutoring a student in revising a medical record. He then called out to Xia Shu, "Come with me to the Overseas Chinese Building for a consultation. It's for a patient who may need a heart transplant."

When Xia Shu heard about heart transplantation, his eyes lit up. He loved cardiac surgery the most, so he immediately put down his work and eagerly followed Yang Ping to the consultation. Several graduate students also came along. Everyone loved going on consultations with Professor Yang because they could learn a lot from it.

Yang Ping brought Xia Shu to the Overseas Chinese Building, where Director Tian had been waiting for a long time.

Back when Yang Ping first joined the team, he was a resident doctor in Director Tian's group. Now he's a world-renowned scholar. Things change so fast!

Director Tian used to be just a group leader in the orthopedics department, but now he is the head of the Overseas Chinese Building.

The head of the Overseas Chinese Building is not someone anyone can take on. In addition to having excellent technical skills, one must also have strong interpersonal skills and be able to navigate social situations skillfully, because the patients here are all wealthy and powerful, and ordinary people cannot command respect.

Since arriving here, Director Tian has adapted very well to the environment and quickly distinguished himself, being promoted to head of the Overseas Chinese Building. Previously, the Overseas Chinese Building didn't have a head; it was simply divided into internal medicine and surgery departments, which were parallel and independent of each other. Director Kong of the internal medicine department and Director Zhuang of the surgery department were both seasoned veterans who had been in the business for many years.

Later, the Overseas Chinese Building added an orthopedics department, and Director Tian was assigned to serve as the director of the orthopedics department. With the help of Yang Ping, the orthopedics department quickly rose to prominence, and Director Tian was naturally given important responsibilities by the hospital.

In order to expand the scope of the Overseas Chinese Building and establish a standard high-end medical service area, Dean Xia united the three departments to form a VIP medical center, with Director Tian serving as the chief director.

At the time, Director Kong and Director Zhuang were somewhat unconvinced. However, Director Kong and Director Zhuang were shrewd people at Sanbo Hospital, so they naturally wouldn't show it on their faces. Despite their dissatisfaction, they quickly accepted reality and strongly supported Director Tian's work. Now, the VIP treatment center is developing very well.

Director Tian personally served Yang Ping a cup of tea that had been brewed, and the attending physician brought over the medical record.

Yang Ping flipped through the pages one by one. The patient was not too old, only twenty-six years old, which is why the family had a strong desire for a heart transplant. However, there was a big problem troubling him: pulmonary hypertension. The right ventricle of the transplanted heart might not be able to withstand the high pressure of the pulmonary circulation, which would eventually lead to transplant failure. Doctors from the cardiac surgery department had also seen the patient. The family specifically requested a consultation from Professor Yang of the research institute, so Director Tian had no choice but to ask Yang Ping to come.

Director He Xiangjun and Deputy Director Xiang Changjun of the Department of Thoracic Surgery appeared at the door of the doctor's office. They were panting and sweating, clearly having rushed over. They had heard that Yang Ping had arrived at the Overseas Chinese Building, so they came immediately to hear Yang Ping's opinion on the medical record.

Thoracic surgery will be divided into sub-specialties in the future, and cardiac surgery will definitely be separated. At that time, Xia Shu will be the director of cardiac surgery. This is a no-brainer. The talents who come from the research institute are the world's top. No one will dare to compete with him for the directorship.

Director He was self-aware, and he took the initiative to ask Yang Ping for personnel several times, hoping to invite Xia Shu to serve as the director of cardiac surgery. However, Yang Ping felt that the time was not right and that Xia Shu's skills still needed to be honed.

Song Ziming and Xu Zhiliang, on the other hand, could set up their own studios. Dean Xia had discussed this matter several times, but the two made it clear that they did not want to leave and wanted to stay at the research institute. Since they were unwilling to set up their own studios, Dean Xia could not do anything about it.

Finally, Dr. Jin and Wen Zhong were assigned to the Department of Spinal Surgery. Dr. Jin became the director and Wen Zhong became the deputy director. As soon as these two went to the Department of Spinal Surgery, the department immediately took off and improved day by day.

"The family's desire is still very strong, and there is a brain-dead patient in the ICU of the First Affiliated Hospital whose family has agreed to donate their heart, and there is absolutely no problem with matching," Tian Yuan said. This means that if the patient can have a heart transplant, everything is ready except for the final step. There is no shortage of donors now, and as long as it is technically feasible, the heart transplant can be performed immediately without waiting for a donor.

After reading the medical record, Yang Ping did not speak immediately. He handed it to Xia Shu, who then flipped through it and passed it to Director He and Director Xiang.

"What are your opinions?" Yang Ping asked.

“The patient has significant pulmonary hypertension, and the transplanted heart may not be able to withstand this pressure. This is a contraindication, and if we force the transplant, it will definitely fail.”

Director He Xiangjun said.

"It is estimated that a combined heart-lung transplant will be needed to solve both heart failure and pulmonary hypertension at once. In that case, the surgery may be quite extensive. Moreover, the donor at the First Affiliated Hospital has lung problems and is not suitable as a donor for a combined heart-lung transplant."

"Tell the director."

Yang Ping nodded. That's true. A single heart transplant would definitely fail on this type of patient. Just as Director He said, this is a contraindication for heart transplantation. Every surgery has its indications and contraindications. Indications are the scope within which the surgery can be performed, and contraindications are the scope within which the surgery cannot be performed.

"And what's your opinion?" Yang Ping asked Xia Shu, his eyes slightly narrowed.

Xia Shu took the medical record again, flipped through it, thought for a moment, and said, "Actually, there is another method we can use."

"What method?" Several directors immediately cast expectant glances their way.

Xia Shu looked at Yang Ping and said, "Pigback heart transplant!"

"Pigback-style heart transplant?" Director He and Director Xiang looked at them with surprise.

This is actually a heterotopic heart transplant, a method that is rarely used and there are very few cases worldwide. This type of heart transplant is difficult and risky, and is only used in very special circumstances.

“Yes, piggyback heart transplantation. The patient’s original heart is not removed, and another heart is transplanted near the original heart, for example, it can be placed in the right chest cavity, so that the patient has two hearts. This way, the high pressure of the pulmonary artery can be distributed to the two hearts, reducing the pressure on the transplanted heart. I think this type of heart transplantation was more suitable for this type of patient at the time,” Xia Shu explained.

Yang Ping nodded slightly. He was right. The most suitable procedure for this patient was piggyback heart transplantation, which could be said to be the only option besides heart-lung transplantation.

Of course, it would be better if the conditions were right for a combined heart and lung transplant, but such conditions are not available now. Heart and lung donors are not readily available. Finding a matching heart is already difficult enough, and finding a suitable lung donor is even more challenging. Given the patient's current condition, it is possible that the patient will not be able to survive until a suitable heart and lung are found.

Director He and Director Xiang were convinced. Compared to Xia Shu, their level was still inferior. After all, Xia Shu was a doctor trained by the research institute and followed Professor Yang every day. Not to mention a top student like Xia Shu, even mediocre talents like Zhang Lin and Xiao Wu are now very successful and have become experts.

"May I call the patient's family members? They've been very anxious and would like to hear your opinion," Director Tian asked Yang Ping for permission.

Yang Ping said, "Okay, call them over."

The family members are the patient's parents, and the patient's family situation is actually quite special. This young man was stolen by human traffickers and sold to a remote mountainous area when he was only a few years old. His buyers, who are his adoptive parents, are very poor. He dropped out of high school and ran away to work. He may not have received proper treatment for his rheumatic heart disease at that time, which eventually led to heart failure.

Now, his biological parents have finally found him after more than 20 years of hard work. His biological parents are successful businesspeople with a net worth of over 100 million yuan. When they learned about their son's illness, they certainly wouldn't give up. When he was a child, as parents, they hadn't taken good care of him and he was stolen. Now that they had finally found him and reunited with their son, they were determined to save him no matter what. Even if they had no money, they would sell everything they owned to save him.

The patient's parents were called over, and they looked worried. Director Tian introduced several of the attending directors, and when the patient's parents heard that it was Professor Yang, the wrinkles on their faces immediately smoothed out.

They came because of his reputation, so they were quite familiar with Yang Ping's deeds.

"Professor Yang and these department heads just reviewed An Chenfeng's medical records. We invited you over so you could hear Professor Yang's opinion," Director Tian said, inviting the two family members to sit down.

Yang Ping paused for a moment and said, "I have just carefully reviewed your son's medical records and made a preliminary judgment that a heart transplant is possible in this case, but the surgical procedure is not a regular heart transplant."

At this moment, Yang Ping stopped, and Xia Shu had already brought the models of the heart and chest cavity from the office and placed them on the desk.

Yang Ping used this model to explain to the patients' families, which made it much more intuitive.

"Look, this is a model of the heart and chest cavity. Your son has two main problems. One is heart failure. What is heart failure? It means that the heart, which is the engine of the human body, is now completely fatigued and lacks power to push the body's blood circulation. This terrible condition cannot be reversed by drugs or other means. In other words, this engine cannot be repaired. What can be done? It can only be replaced, which is what we call a heart transplant. His heart is removed and replaced with someone else's heart."

"But he has a second problem, pulmonary hypertension. What does this mean? You see, the heart has two circulations, one of which is the pulmonary circulation. The pulmonary circulation is now having problems. Its channels are not smooth, which causes the heart to have to work at a higher pressure than normal to pump blood. This presents a big problem. The heart we replaced cannot provide such a large amount of power. Even if it can provide it temporarily, it will soon be overworked due to excessive pressure."

"So what if the heart transplant fails? There is a rarely used heart transplant method at present."

"We don't need to move his original heart, we don't need to remove it, we'll leave it inside. We'll also transplant another heart for him, so he has two hearts now."

"Why is this possible? Because although the original heart has failed, it still has some function and can provide some power. We can make full use of this power. Then there will be two hearts, and the two hearts will share the high pressure of the pulmonary artery, which will reduce the burden on the new heart. In this way, the new heart can work for a long time."

"I don't know if you understand. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me. I don't know if I didn't explain it clearly."

The patient's father immediately nodded: "I think I understand, Professor Yang. You mean my son can be saved? He can have surgery, is that what you mean?"

Although he didn't understand some of the details, he understood one thing clearly: his son could be saved.

"That's the idea, but the surgery is quite complicated and carries a high risk. I wonder if you're willing to take the risk?" Yang Ping asked.

There's no such thing as a heart transplant without taking risks; nobody would get a heart transplant unless they had no other choice.

Without surgery, the child wouldn't live long. With surgery, the child can live much longer, and there's even the possibility of a second or third replacement. The patient's father understands this very well.

“We agree, we agree!” the patient’s father said immediately.