godfather of surgery

Chapter 1163 Is the craft still there?

It's impossible to win against Professor Yang. Wen Ruzheng has already given up on that idea. He doesn't want to end up like Zhou Yu, coughing up blood.

He now has a new challenge: the artificial intelligence model from Nandu Medical University. He will compare the accuracy of his pathology slides with it.

Artificial intelligence will ultimately need to be fed data by doctors, so its advantage lies in the machine's supercomputing power and ability to distinguish subtle differences, such as the difference in red blood cells between two people. This is precisely where humans are weak; human experience and eyesight cannot match that of artificial intelligence.

However, artificial intelligence has a weakness: it cannot create innovative ideas on its own, but Wen Ruzheng can. He can innovatively establish new methods and new standards, while artificial intelligence can only evolve from existing data and develop existing data to its extreme.

Therefore, Wen Ruzheng was confident that he could defeat Professor He's artificial intelligence model, and he decided to compete against it.

People like Wen Ruzheng need to find an opponent to make life more interesting.

Thanks to the help of artificial intelligence models, Yang Ping quickly cracked the gene blocking mechanism of the Y chromosome. Moreover, by using a virtual environment built with a large model for trial and error, he found a way to transfer this special mechanism to the K biological agent. Soon, the new K biological agent was manufactured.

Under Yang Ping's leadership, the astonishing speed of iteration surprised the entire team. When it was first launched, K biological agent was a very rough semi-finished product, very immature, and neither its efficacy nor safety could be guaranteed.

The first step in launching the new generation of K biologics is to test their stability and see how many generations they need before significant mutations appear.

During this period, Yang Ping did not set up any laboratories in the system space, but he was often seen reading books in the system. When he got tired of reading, he would perform surgery. Now his main focus is on scientific research, and he regards performing surgery as a hobby, like a game in his spare time.

In reality, Yang Ping rarely performs surgery anymore, except for surgeries that Song Ziming and Xu Zhiliang can't handle, but such cases are rare. Even so, their surgical volume is nowhere near that of Yang Ping. Yang Ping treats the system space like a game, performing dozens of surgeries at a time, so his surgical skills have not declined in the slightest.

The transition from clinical practice to scientific research was a major decision for Yang Ping. Scientific research contributes far more to medicine than surgery, so he had to choose between the two rather than trying to do both.

The clinical side has been handed over to Deputy Director Song Ziming for management. Since Yang Ping won the Nobel Prize, Sanbo Hospital's reputation has grown both domestically and internationally, and many visiting doctors have come to Sanbo Hospital one after another.

Director Zhou brought a new group of trainees to the clinical ward of the institute. There were more than a dozen trainees in this group, half from abroad and half from China. All of them came from top hospitals in Europe and America because the institute’s clinical ward has very strict requirements for trainees, and it is difficult for ordinary people to pass.

Unless one has a direct pathway to further education like Dr. Li Min and enters through the normal procedures, the requirements for doctors' educational background, qualifications, and practical skills are extremely strict.

Director Zhou handed the visiting doctors over to Zhang Lin and left. Zhang Lin arranged for them to attend the morning handover first, and then make unified arrangements afterward.

A month before this group of doctors arrived, several other doctors had already heard various rumors about Yang Ping. However, after arriving at the department, they had not seen Yang Ping perform any surgeries. All the surgeries were performed by Song Ziming and Xu Zhiliang. They assumed that Yang Ping was likely a clinical doctor who only did research and did not have surgical skills. They thought that the world-famous surgical cases were likely attributed to Yang Ping, but were actually performed by Song Ziming or Xu Zhiliang.

This is not uncommon in major hospitals in China. Some department heads are good at scientific research but not at treating patients or performing surgery. They delegate these tasks to highly skilled clinicians under their command, focusing instead on research and publishing papers. Everyone inside the department knows this, but visiting patients are unaware of this and may even assume that the department head is highly skilled in surgery.

These visiting doctors guessed that Professor Yang was probably in this situation. Someone of Professor Yang's caliber, who had already won the Nobel Prize, probably didn't need to have surgery anymore, since surgery is very difficult.

The clinical wards of the research institute have seen an increase in the number of doctors this summer, resulting in a growing number of people participating in the morning shift handover. Fortunately, the institute's offices are spacious and well-equipped, which is sufficient for the time being to accommodate so many people.

A special pair of patients arrived at the ward. After the on-duty doctor finished the handover, Song Ziming personally introduced the special patients: a pair of nine-year-old conjoined twins from the United States. They needed to undergo separation surgery, but after many meticulous studies and discussions, the American doctors decided that such conjoined twins could not be separated surgically.

They have developed two completely different sets of organs and systems, each capable of surviving normally on its own. This is the basic condition for separation surgery. This pair of conjoined twins meets these survival conditions, so theoretically, separation surgery is possible.

However, theory is one thing, practice is another. The conjoined twins are connected in high areas, such as the head, upper cervical vertebrae, and chest cavity. Their medulla oblongata, upper cervical spinal cord, skull, vertebrae, etc. are connected together. Their chest cavities are connected, and their heart and lungs are also connected.

The separation surgery was almost hellish, so no doctor in the United States dared to perform the surgery on them. Johannesson recommended the patients to Sanbo Hospital. The sisters' parents were doctors, so they brought their children to China without hesitation, hoping to try their luck. Of course, they didn't have high hopes.

Because the nurses were quite busy, in order not to delay their work, Song Ziming gave a detailed presentation on the case separately after handing over the shift, which lasted for more than ten minutes.

Their full-body CT scans were also displayed on an electronic screen on the department wall. A group of graduate students and visiting doctors held their breath. They had never seen such a case before. Such cases were rare to begin with, and even fewer surgeries were performed on them. Surgery on a head-neck connection like this was extremely risky and difficult.

After introducing the case, Song Ziming said, "Professor! This is a patient referred by John Nathan. His family members are also doctors in the United States. His father is a neurosurgeon and his mother is a dermatologist. They have been waiting for news and want to know if the surgery can be performed. I didn't dare to bother you before their test results came back, so I didn't give you a detailed handover."

Yang Ping is now focused on scientific research, spending more time in the laboratories than in the clinical wards. Especially during this critical period of K biological agent research, Yang Ping spends even less time in the wards. Besides, Song Ziming and Xu Zhiliang have fully matured, so there is no need for him to stay in the wards every day and waste time.

So sometimes Yang Ping isn't even in the ward for shift handovers and ward rounds. Today, this batch of new trainees were lucky; they saw the legendary Professor Yang on their first day at the institute.

Yang Ping stood up and looked at the full-body CT scan image on the electronic screen. The surgery was very difficult, but it wasn't impossible.

Song Ziming was worried that Yang Ping hadn't performed many surgeries in a long time, and whether he could still handle such a high-risk operation. After all, surgery is a skill that requires manual dexterity, and if one's skills become rusty, it is very likely that one will not be able to perform it well.

Yang Ping rarely performs surgeries anymore, devoting most of his time to scientific research, which is obvious to everyone, so Song Ziming is quite worried. If it were before Yang Ping won the Nobel Prize and spent every day in the operating room performing surgeries, Song Ziming wouldn't have worried about whether Yang Ping could handle this kind of procedure. Now things are different; the professor seems to have been detached from clinical practice for some time, and his skills have probably become rusty.

Yang Ping stood in front of the electronic screen, pacing back and forth a few steps, seemingly without much thought: "When should the surgery be scheduled?"

"Is surgery possible?" Song Ziming wanted to confirm.

Yang Ping felt that Song Ziming's words were superfluous: "Why did you admit him if you weren't going to perform the surgery? This surgery is quite difficult. There's not much work in the lab next week, so you should schedule it for these few days. Surgery on the head and cervical spine is a bit more complicated, while surgery on the heart and lungs is slightly easier. Also, you need to prepare a plan for the reconstruction after separation. You will definitely need some artificial materials to fill the gaps. Contact Ruixing in advance for a personalized design."

In fact, no matter how much work there is in the lab, it's not Yang Ping's place to be busy. There are several capable people in the lab, and so many top PhDs. It's not Yang Ping's place to work hard. Yang Ping is a hands-off boss in the lab.

In essence, whether in the laboratory or the clinical ward, Yang Ping was a hands-off boss. He didn't have to work very hard; his job was mainly to use his brain and come up with ideas.

The professor was so confident, without the slightest hesitation. It seemed that the professor was very confident in his surgical skills. However, surgery is ultimately a craft, and Song Ziming was still a little uneasy.

This is incredibly difficult; a slight tremor during the separation of the skull base and cervical spine could be fatal. Post-operative defects are not a major concern, as artificial implants and expanded skin and muscle can completely reconstruct and cover them; even some neck muscles can be reconstructed.

Everyone is very busy, so we can't waste too much time being so polite. Yang Ping said, "We'll make sure all the preparations for this surgery are done. Let's schedule it for a day next week. I'll personally take the stage. If there's nothing else, then we can adjourn and everyone can go back to their places."

The new trainees were quite surprised. Shouldn't these kinds of cases involve a lot of back-and-forth discussion? How come the short meeting after the morning shift handover was so casual and finalized so easily? It seemed too perfunctory.

In Yang Ping's view, the diagnosis of this case was clear, the surgical indications were clear, and the surgical plan was clear. All of this was generally accepted, and there was nothing that needed to be discussed for too long.

If there is any discussion, it should be with Song Ziming and the doctors in his department, because Song Ziming is now able to independently manage the clinical ward, and Yang Ping intends to give him the greatest freedom so that he can act independently like a real director.

After the meeting, Yang Ping returned to his office. He drank some tea, rested in his office chair for a while, and then prepared to go to the laboratory to check on the progress of the K biological agent research, to see which generation it had reached, and whether any mutations had occurred.

Song Ziming knocked and came in. Yang Ping noticed he hadn't gone to the operating room and asked, "What? Not many surgeries today?"

"No rush. I came to ask about the case of the conjoined twins from this morning," Song Ziming stated his purpose.

In fact, Song Ziming came to remind Yang Ping that this case was extremely difficult to operate on, even more difficult than the previous brainstem surgery, because it was not separating a tumor, but two brainstems that needed to be protected. Whether there was a boundary between the two brainstems, and where that boundary was, could not be known in advance, and it relied entirely on surgical experience.

Professor Yang is now highly successful, but so far, as a surgeon, he has never made a mistake. Does Professor Yang need to take risks?
Although if the surgery fails, the blame can be placed on Song Ziming, who is willing to take responsibility, Song Ziming is, after all, Professor Yang's student. If a student has a problem, the responsibility will definitely lie with the teacher. This might affect Professor Yang's reputation, which is something Song Ziming has to consider for Professor Yang's sake.

If it were him, he wouldn't think so much; it's Professor Yang who makes him think so much.

Professor Yang has been in clinical practice for a long time, so his skills must have deteriorated. This surgery is extremely demanding on his skills, especially when separating the brainstem and medulla oblongata, which are high-level conjoined structures.

Now Song Ziming is worried about whether Professor Yang's skills are still there. In fact, according to the laws of nature, no matter how good Professor Yang is, he must have become rusty by now. Professor Yang is a human, not a god.

"Any questions about this case? The diagnosis is clear, the surgical indications are clear, and I've also seen the test results you printed out this morning. There are no obvious contraindications for surgery, so you can arrange the surgery. I know this surgery is quite risky, but don't worry, I'll be on stage and I'll help you with the key steps." Yang Ping dispelled Song Ziming's concerns. He had no idea that Song Ziming was worried about his lack of skill.

"What I mean is, this surgery is extremely risky. What if it fails?" Song Ziming didn't know how to bring it up.

Yang Ping found Song Ziming's fussiness and hesitation today quite strange.

“The surgery is definitely risky. If it weren’t, they wouldn’t need to come to us. There are so many doctors in the US; they would have performed the surgery there already. As for failure, there’s no such thing as a 100% successful surgery. Even appendectomy has a chance of failure,” Yang Ping told him.

"Don't worry so much. The chances of success are quite high. You know, if the chances of success for this surgery weren't high, there would be no point in having it done at all, because in the current situation, survival isn't threatened, but a poorly executed surgery could be life-threatening," Yang Ping comforted him.

Song Ziming thought for a moment and decided to be direct: "Professor, I'm worried about you. You haven't had surgery in so long. Are you still capable of handling such advanced surgery?"

Oh, so that's what it means. Yang Ping finally understood.

No wonder, he hasn't had surgery in a long time, and when he does, it's just a few steps in a few surgeries.

But Yang Ping knew in his heart that he had performed an extraordinary number of surgeries in the system space.

"Don't worry, Professor, I know what I'm doing. Go arrange the surgery." Yang Ping smiled calmly.

Song Ziming nodded: "Okay!"