After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

"Smack."

Ye Zhen closed the medical record and placed it on the long table.

Williams' heart tightened.

"Dr. Ye, does he... have no chance?"

Ye Zhen did not answer immediately.

She opened the lab report and pointed to a line of blood oxygen data.

Tom is seven years old.

"Complete closure of the right ventricular outflow tract; echocardiography reveals ventricular septal defect."

Brown gritted his teeth and took a step forward.

"We've conducted repeated assessments in London!"

"Surgical incision of the drainage tract and placement of a patch is currently the most standard procedure."

He spoke very quickly, his voice strained.

"But his pulmonary artery is poorly developed, and his myocardium is less than two millimeters thick. If we cut open his sternum and insert the patch, severe regurgitation will occur."

"What's worse is that he can't be put on extracorporeal circulation."

Brown's Adam's apple bobbed.

"His heart will stop on the operating table."

Ye Zhen looked at him coldly.

"At least you know a little common sense."

She pulled out two films, and with a "snap" sound, she tapped them onto the film viewing light on the wall.

A white, cool light shone.

The black and white heart image was clearly visible.

The old-fashioned ceiling fan in the conference room turned slowly, and the tea in the enamel mugs had long since gone cold; no one bothered to take a sip.

Ye Zhen picked up the red and blue pencils.

"His right ventricular outflow tract was not only blocked, but also severely calcified in a funnel shape."

The red pencil drew an X on the film.

"In the middle section, the muscle has become completely fibrotic."

"Don't even mention getting a patch."

"Your scalpel simply can't cut through it."

"Conventional open-chest surgery won't work."

Williams grabbed the corner of the table and slowly slumped back into his chair.

In that instant, he remembered the little boy in a wheelchair on the streets of London.

The lips are purplish-black.

But his eyes were bright.

The child looked up at him and asked—

"Grandpa Doctor, can I also open a window to China in my heart?"

No one spoke in the meeting room.

Zhou Hai took a deep breath and then sighed heavily.

The translator, Xiao Wang, stood in the corner, not daring to even breathe.

Ye Zhen put the red and blue pencils on the table.

A crisp sound broke the silence.

"When did I say he was definitely going to die?"

Williams suddenly looked up.

Brown froze.

Ye Zhen pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Not opening the chest doesn't mean there's no way out."

Brown's voice rose sharply, as if he had heard a fairy tale.

"No open-chest surgery?"

"This is organic atresia! A section of muscle is blocked!"

"How can you rebuild blood flow without sawing through the sternum and cutting open the heart?"

He pointed at the film on the viewing lamp, his fingers trembling.

"You want to use an interventional catheter to open up the blocked myocardium?"

"That's not treatment!"

"That's like sending a child to the catheterization lab to die!"

"If the rigid guidewire deviates by even half a millimeter, it will immediately penetrate the myocardium, causing cardiac tamponade within three minutes, and the person will die on the spot!"

Ye Zhen ignored his breakdown.

She pulled out a blank medical record sheet from the side.

"Of course, the rigid guidewire won't go through."

She picked up a black pen and quickly drew an anatomical diagram of the right ventricle and pulmonary artery on the paper.

The lines are sharp and clean.

Precise proportions.

With a single stroke, it's like a knife cutting through the fog.

"What if we apply electricity to the guide wire?"

Brown was stunned.

Williams was also stunned.

"What?"

Ye Zhen placed the tip of her pen on the closed area and drew a thick, dark vascular path.

"Transthigh puncture"

"Insert a specially made hollow insulating sheath, close to the blind end of the myocardial atresia."

She then drew an extremely thin red line in the center of the tube.

"Inside the sheath, a thin alloy guide wire with a tiny electrode at its tip is inserted."

She looked up.

His gaze swept over the two Englishmen.

"Connect the radio frequency current."

"Utilizing the localized, instantaneous thermal effect at the electrode tip, it vaporizes the locked muscles and calcified tissue."

"Burning through the barrier opens up the right ventricular outflow channel."

Brown's eyes widened.

My head suddenly exploded with a "buzz".

Is there an electric current inside the heart?

Burned through?

What is this?

This is hardly surgery.

This is like walking a tightrope with human lives on the line!

"absurd!"

Brown slammed his hand on the table.

"Utterly absurd!"

"The heart beats based on bioelectrical signals! What if you apply an electric current to the heart and it causes malignant arrhythmias? What if it causes ventricular fibrillation?"

"The child will die on stage in seconds!"

Williams couldn't sit still any longer and braced his hands on the table.

"Dr. Ye, what's the frequency? What's the power? Where's the temperature control?"

"The slightest deviation could cause the right ventricle to perforate."

Ye Zhen did not hesitate for a moment.

"Radio frequency of 300,000 to 500,000 hertz."

"The power consumption is initially controlled between five and ten watts."

"A single discharge lasts no more than two seconds."

"The current path is limited to between the electrode tip and the back patch. With the help of an insulating sheath, the risk of arrhythmia can theoretically be minimized."

She paused.

"But this isn't something you can just do casually."

"Defibrillation, temporary pacing, open-chest support, and extracorporeal circulation should all be prepared in advance."

"I won't gamble with my child's life."

"I need to calculate the odds of winning."

There was a moment of silence in the conference room.

Brown opened his mouth, but couldn't immediately refute.

He followed Ye Zhen's logic and thought about it, and the more he thought about it, the colder his back became.

This plan is insane.

But it's not nonsense.

It makes sense physically.

Physiologically, it's not like there's absolutely no way out.

That's precisely why it's even more frightening.

A layer of sweat appeared on Brown's forehead.

He seized the last opening and said urgently:

"Even if you burn a hole through it, how big could that hole be?"

"One millimeter? Two millimeters?"

"This hole is so small, it simply can't meet the blood flow from the right ventricle to the lungs!"

"How will you expand it?"

He spoke faster and faster.

"When a conventional balloon dilator is inserted, the calcified tissue is torn open, and the surrounding muscles immediately tear, bleed, and retract."

"This hole will close again in a few minutes!"

Ye Zhen did not refute.

She had someone bring her a transparent sterile bag.

The bag was placed in the center of the long table.

Inside was a short, silvery-gray metallic mesh tube.

Very fine.

Like a tiny spring.

It gleamed with a cold metallic light under the overhead light.

Brown stared at it.

"What is this?"

"Prototype section of nickel-titanium alloy self-expanding membrane stent".

Ye Zhen leaned back in her chair, her voice calm.

"It's not a mature product."

"It's just a material verification sample."

Williams's expression immediately changed.

He reached out to touch it, but then stopped abruptly.

Ye Zhen continued:

"This alloy has a temperature memory effect."

"In cold ice water, it can be compressed, becoming as soft as noodles, and can be stored in an extremely fine delivery sheath."

"After entering the human body's 37-degree environment, it will return to its preset form."

She tapped the small silver-gray tube with her fingertip.

"If a channel is created using radio frequency in the front, this kind of bracket is immediately inserted in the back."

"It can expand on its own within the cavity."

"Support the blood flow channels."

"The coating layer is responsible for sealing capillary bleeding and reducing the risk of tearing and bleeding."

She looked up at Brown.

"This is the key to reconstructing the locked section."

The entire room fell silent.

The clock on the wall ticked away.

Tick.

Tick.

Each sound felt like a blow to the heart.

Williams' fingers began to tremble uncontrollably.

He understands materials science.

They have a better understanding of cardiothoracic surgery.

Radio frequency (RF) drilling is used to establish the initial channel.

Nickel-titanium memory stent expands and stabilizes blood flow.

If successful, it will not require sawing open the tender sternum of a seven-year-old child.

Only one needle prick is made at the groin.

That might give the boy, who was destined to die, a chance to live.

Brown looked at Ye Zhen, his gaze shifting from doubt to unfathomable fear.

This is a new kind of industrial medicine that they have never seen before.

Williams asked, "Dr. Ye, has anyone performed this kind of surgery before?"

Ye Zhen looked at him.

"no."

As soon as those two words were spoken, the air in the conference room grew even heavier.

Brown's face turned pale.

"You dare to bring it up when no one has done it before?"

"Just because no one has done it before doesn't mean it can't be done."

She put the prototype support back into the sterile bag.

"This surgery requires not only doctors, but also engineers."

"Tip temperature control of the radio frequency guidewire, heat-resistant layer of the insulating sheath, radial support force of the stent, biocompatibility of the coating material, and smoothness of retraction of the delivery system."

"If anything goes wrong, Tom will be in serious trouble. So, now is not the time to talk about surgery. Let's talk about whether it can be built at all."

Williams immediately understood what she was going to do.

"You want to contact Siemens?"

"I will contact Hans. If they can provide reliable parameters for the RF guidewire and the nickel-titanium stent, Tom still has a chance."