Surgery Godfather-Chapter 567 - 515: Iron Triangle

Yang Ping slept in the hotel until he naturally woke up, which was already past nine in the morning.

Li Zehui did not disturb him. Yang Ping had a buffet breakfast at the hotel before calling Li Zehui.

Li Zehui took Yang Ping from the hotel to the hospital. The preoperative examination results of the baby were out, and all kinds of biochemical indicators were terrible.

"Can we operate?"

Li Zehui asked cautiously.

Yang Ping read the examination results three times before nodding: "We will operate normally tomorrow."

If looked at through conventional lens, the current physiological condition of the baby is not fit for surgery. However, if no surgery is performed, the state wouldn’t improve either. This is a vicious cycle.

The only way to break this cycle is to take a risk and perform surgery.

Yang Ping personally performed a cardiac ultrasound and cardiac catheter angiography on the baby once again.

He then conducted numerous examinations, each time carefully checking to dynamically monitor changes in the baby’s condition.

After each examination, Yang Ping would smile at the baby’s father in the corner as a greeting. The man from Yemen would also smile back at Yang Ping, his smiles somewhat shy and embarrassed.

In the doctor’s office, Yang Ping once again pulled up the image photos, carefully observed them, and tirelessly explained the details of the operation to Li Zehui, as he would be his assistant.

Li Zehui was one of the top cardiac surgeons in the world, but he was not Song Zimo, whom Yang Ping had trained personally and who could understand and connect with every detail he provided.

The approximate procedure of the operation would involve opening up the chest cavity, severing the connection between the heart and the body, and removing the heart completely.

The heart, now out of the body, would be placed on a sterile platform and had its tumors removed and deformities corrected. The heart would then be replanted into the chest cavity.

After being removed from the chest cavity, the heart can endure ischemia for 4 to 6 hours, meaning that the entire procedure has to be completed within this time frame.

If a problem arises during the surgery and it stalls, just like a car engine that is unable to be put back together after being taken out and disassembled, the consequences would be dreadful.

Li Zehui was unsure whether Yang Ping could complete it within this time, considering the high difficulty.

This string of operations cannot have any mistakes or delays. Even then, to complete this series of operations within such a short period was a tall order.

Li Zehui felt that he had done his best. Yang Ping was the strongest surgeon in his opinion, and if surgery failed, Li Zehui would have no regrets.

---

Odd Orelli, a cardiac surgeon at North Shore Hospital in Australia, was a renowned doctor in the industry.

He was a good friend of Dodge and, of course, also the contracted doctor of this Saudi Arabian hospital. He spent about ten days there per year, garnering hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions.

Melvin Mason was his perfusionist. After receiving Melvin Mason’s call, Odd Orelli boarded the earliest flight to Saudi Arabia, ready to fight alongside Dodge.

When he arrived at Dodge’s office, Dodge looked worried.

"What exactly happened?"

Odd Orelli asked anxiously. He had never seen the usually confident Dodge so dejected before.

Seeing his old friend, Dodge immediately gave Odd Orelli a hug: "You’ve come at just the right time. Things are about to change here. The Chinese want to dominate everything. If they succeed, the Saudis might break the contract with us and sign with the Chinese instead."

Dodge was indeed Dodge. Every time he rallied friends, he always provided two reasons - one seemingly just and honorable reason like maintaining professional honor or order, and an implicitly recognized reason - profit.

Moreover, Dodge was good at exaggerating the consequences, scaring people, and then linking these severe consequences to their interests.

Melvin Mason added fuel to the fire: "I made it clear in the phone call. See, not only did Li Zehui leave out Dodge in this operation, he also left me out. It’s okay to leave me out, I’m just a perfusionist. But leaving out Dodge is unacceptable. If even Dodge isn’t qualified for the operation on the child from Yemen, how is a young Chinese doctor qualified?"

"Where’s Brin? Why don’t I see him?" Odd Orelli felt that Brin should be present at this time.

"That guy Brin has already defected. He said he had a sore throat and wouldn’t help either side. He’s staying neutral. But in reality, as far as I know, he has been on Li Zehui’s yacht and dined with him." Melvin Mason was good at stoking the fire.

"Take a look at this?"

Dodge passed the tablet to Odd Orelli: "You are very familiar with this case of the baby from Yemen. Li Zehui invited a Chinese man to be the chief surgeon. What’s ridiculous is this doctor is actually an orthopedic doctor."

"This is the Chinese doctor’s information, Yang Ping. Even the name sounds so rustic. He is an orthopedic doctor, truly an orthopedic doctor. The papers that can be found about him are all related to orthopedics, and there is not a single one in the field of cardiac surgery. It’s inexplicable that such a person could be invited by Li Zehui to be the chief surgeon for this rare and highly difficult cardiac surgery. He has never shown in his educational history that he has received cardiac surgery-related training, not even for one year. If he is allowed to be the chief surgeon for this operation, where would you stand? Where would the professional order stand? This is the same as telling the Saudis that the Americans and Australians are powerless and that a Chinese orthopedic doctor has to step in."

Melvin Mason handed a thick file to Odd Orelli. This file contained all the information about Yang Ping that he had found after a long time of searching.

Odd Orelli quickly browsed through the file. Although this doctor, Yang Ping, had several papers published in top international journals with high scores, they were orthopedic papers.

If these papers had been about cardiac surgery, then everything would have been fine. But they were orthopedic papers, and the idea of an orthopedic doctor doing cardiac surgery was indeed the biggest joke of the year.

Different professions in the medical field, especially surgery, are as different as mountains. They’re not ordinary mountains but as vast as Mount Everest.

"Absurd! This is a blasphemy against specialisation, we must stop it!"

Odd Orelli cursed. Indeed, this was a terrible situation.

Even if the situation wasn’t so severe, he would have been this angry — he would wholeheartedly support Dodge to maintain their standing in the academic world.

The benefits of residing at this academic peak were profound — there was no way they would allow a Chinese person to share in them.

How could they let a Chinese person be the Chief Surgeon for such a rare, unprecedented case? Whether successful or not, they believed that the Chinese could only observe and learn — it wasn’t their turn to take the lead.

Dodge and Odd Orelli were proud and influential, enjoying their power and rewards. The issue now was not about the success or failure of the operation, but the fact that letting a young Chinese man be the Chief Surgeon was a challenge to these academics at the top of their field.

"There are no legal or ethical loopholes because Li Zehui is willing to endorse him, and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health issued a temporary surgery license. We seem to have no countermeasures," Melvin Mason said helplessly.

Li Zehui has absolute autonomy over his patients, and no one can interfere unless he violates the law or ethics.

"If there are no loopholes, we will create one. We can’t let them succeed," Dodge said domineeringly.

In any case, he can perform the surgery, but for others to attempt it would be overestimating their abilities.

If he failed, that would be expected - he had attempted to reach the peak of their profession, it was a brave attempt at a medical challenge. But if Yang Ping did it, it would be a lack of respect for life and the medical field.

"This is a blatant challenge and disregard. We must fight back!" Odd Orelli said with determination.

It was a sheer insult, a disregard for their existence.

With the arrival of Odd Orelli, one American and two Australians formed a strong front, attempting to prevent the Chinese from operating.

Dodge was adamant about stopping Yang Ping from performing the surgery; this raw thought surpassed academic confrontations — he saw Yang Ping’s arrival as a personal challenge.

In his logic, such a surgery should be performed by the world-class Dodge. An unknown Chinese person did not have the qualifications to perform this type of surgery. When it came to exploring unknown areas, it wasn’t Yang Ping’s turn.

Especially since Li Zehui would not let him touch this surgery, he held an even bigger grudge.

"I have written a letter to the Academic Committee of the Cleveland Medical Center. They will respond soon. This Chinese doctor is not qualified to perform such surgeries. If he persists, let him pay the price,"

Dodge said fiercely.

Odd Orelli agreed that this was the correct course of action.

As for whether they had the right to interfere with Yang Ping, they didn’t care.

"Gentlemen, I have a tentative idea." Anesthesiologist Melvin Mason gave a mysterious smile.

"Go ahead!" Odd Orelli encouraged him. This guy always had a lot of ideas.

"Why go through all this trouble before the surgery? Wouldn’t it be more effective after the surgery? Once the operation fails, an unqualified orthopedic surgeon performing a challenging heart surgery and then the patient dying on the operating table. Don’t you think this topic will be explosive? Will the Cleveland Academic Committee just sit by and do nothing? Li Zehui is one of you people right? The person he endorsed and recommended, shouldn’t they investigate his educational background?" The anesthesiologist proposed his plan.

Dodge and Odd Orelli were shocked. The most ruthless person turned out to be him.

"Do you think that orthopedic surgeon can pull off the surgery?" The anesthesiologist sneered contemptuously.

Dodge shook his head: "Impossible. I don’t believe there’s magic in this world. Facing such a case without the experience of ten thousand heart surgeries, his mind would go blank and his hands would tremble involuntarily. Ten thousand surgeries — that young man? He should go dream."

"Can’t even in his dreams, right? Ha-ha!" The anesthesiologist became excited.

"Are we sure we want to do this?"

Odd Orelli asked uncertainly; this seemed a bit ruthless and crossed a line.

If they stopped him before the surgery, it could be seen as respecting life and the profession.

But if they knew they would fail and didn’t warn them before the surgery and then accused them after the failure, it would be despicable.

Dodge firmly said, "Of course we will do it!"

At this point, he was angry and somewhat irrational as all the pent-up anger from these past days was unleashed.

It was like an NBA superstar in the middle of a game, playing well, and suddenly the coach tells you to step back and let a rookie who has never played before, take your place.

Dodge saw Li Zehui’s behavior as an insult.

Odd Orelli hesitated: "Alright, I will always stand by your side."

He felt the situation was a bit excessive, but what of it? He and Dodge were in the same boat.