Surgery Godfather
Chapter 851 - 757: The Magical Pencil

Chapter 851: Chapter 757: The Magical Pencil

International surgery had become routine for Yang Ping since his first trip to Malaysia to operate on Guo Jingyao, and later visits to the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Though not exactly globetrotting, he was an experienced veteran of cross-border surgery.

Without delay, Yang Ping made arrangements for his work back home.

John Ansen was also proactive in perfecting the pre-surgery preparations. The surgery required moving the eyeball, which risked losing an eye, and it was necessary to communicate with the patient to reach a consensus.

This type of surgery was not listed in the American neurosurgery guidelines. There was a risk of losing function in a healthy organ under extreme circumstances. It required not only technical review but also theoretical verification, all of which John Ansen had prepared thoroughly.

This was the second time he was visiting the United States. Accompanied by Robert, the plan was to first fly from Nandu to New York, and then from New York to Rochester, Minnesota.

New York was Robert’s stronghold, and everything was well arranged, with Barrett naturally responsible for picking them up at the airport.

Just stepping off the plane in New York and walking through the gate, Yang Ping saw a red banner in Chinese: Welcome Professor Yang to the United States for guidance!

In addition to the banner, there were more than a dozen young girls from Asia and Europe and America wearing qipaos performing a quick flash mob dance at the airport as a welcome ceremony.

Yang Ping was both amused and dismayed. It was the same setup during his last visit to the United States when he toured Robert’s clinic, which was decorated to resemble Chinese New Year, complete with "Fu" characters and Chinese knots.

Robert had a flair for ostentatious things, and Yang Ping didn’t feel it was his place to comment much.

"Welcome to the United States!" Barrett’s Chinese had improved a lot.

Robert was very confident, surely the professor must feel at home at this moment.

After resting in New York, they flew to Rochester, Minnesota, the next day—the headquarters of the Mayo Clinic.

John Ansen, wanting to show proper respect, brought his assistant and secretary along to pick them up at the airport. Immediately after landing, Yang Ping grabbed a simple meal and then got straight to work.

Yang Ping’s arrival caused quite a stir at the Mayo Clinic, for neurosurgery, it was akin to an earthquake.

In Mayo’s history, no Chinese had ever led a main surgery. All the Chinese they had seen were either doctors coming for advanced studies or patients coming for treatment.

Now this Chinese was invited by Doctor John Ansen to lead the surgery. To put it accurately, Mayo lacked confidence in this surgery and couldn’t handle it, so they invited this Chinese doctor to help and guide the operation.

Accompanied by John Ansen, Yang Ping met with the patient Denton and was quickly surrounded by the neurosurgeons.

Americans, like the Chinese, really enjoyed a spectacle, so specialists, resident doctors, and even intern doctors who hadn’t completed their residency training all crowded around Yang Ping, three layers deep.

Any concern for protecting the patient’s privacy was tossed aside by these doctors.

The software engineer appeared normal, and after a brief conversation with him, Yang Ping confirmed that the patient had no issues with cognition or language. Denton had played on the university baseball team, and after graduation became a software engineer at a game company, where he was a lead programmer for a major game. His wife worked at the post office, and they had two children after marriage.

After conversing with him, Yang Ping decided to perform a physical examination, which naturally included inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation, and various specialized tests. After examination, Denton’s skin sensations and muscle strength were found to be normal, and there were no issues with his movement coordination.

Although modern advanced instrument equipment can aid in diagnosis, some examinations seemed less necessary now.

For example, heart examinations now have surface ultrasound, making percussion for the size and borders of the heart seem redundant and a waste of time.

But as a doctor, especially a primary care physician, the stronger the hands-on diagnostic ability, the more likely early signs of disease can be detected.

For instance, with the patient’s percussion, a light tap on his already shaved head immediately told Yang Ping that one side of the skull was solid, while the other side was hollow, using principles similar to those for selecting watermelons, relying solely on the sound for judgment.

If any primary care doctor had noticed this anomaly from the beginning, they would have performed a surface ultrasound sooner and not waited until now, when neurological symptoms appeared, to do their first head CT.

Although skilled hands-on diagnosis is very limited, it can be extremely useful at special times.

After seeing the patient, Yang Ping returned to the doctor’s office and again began to review the patient’s case files, especially the imaging data, because previously John Ansen had sent pictures over WeChat, which were informal.

Wherever Yang Ping went, the group of doctors that surrounded him followed; these people are at the pinnacle of neurosurgery in the United States. They formed several circles just to see what John Ansen’s mentor was like.

Everyone had reserved opinions about this Chinese doctor. Now that they saw Yang Ping, so young and yet able to be John Ansen’s mentor, their curiosity about him surely doubled.

"The most difficult aspects of this case are two-fold. First, because the brain is a malformed hemisphere, the distribution and function of all nerve nuclei are different from a normal brain. For a normal brain, a tumour in this location wouldn’t require such an elaborate approach. Second, the tumour is surrounded by nerve nuclei and is densely interwoven with blood vessels. Entering from an area outside of this gap is likely to damage the nerve nuclei or blood vessels."

"The projection of the gap is exactly where the eye is located, so entering through here is best, but the eye is blocking access. To achieve our objective, we must move it aside."

Any surgical approach must meet two conditions: exposure and safety. That means it must be possible to reveal the site of the lesion, otherwise the approach is pointless.

Furthermore, during the process of exposing the lesion, the safer, the better, so as not to harm blood vessels, nerves, or other organs.

For example, if after surgery, the tumour has been resected but the patient dies or suffers severe cognitive impairment, then the surgery is a failure.

John Ansen was eager to learn, his notebook already open, beginning to record the key points of Yang Ping’s explanation.

"Pencil?" Yang Ping extended his hand.

Robert, acting as an attendant, of course knew the professor’s habits. Pencils and A4 paper were already prepared and passed over.

"If the eye cannot be replanted, the surgery is still worth it, but we will do our utmost to ensure that the eye can be replanted. After freeing the optic nerve, it’s better if the length of the nerve is sufficient for us to move the eye aside."

As he spoke, a clear anatomical illustration of the skull quickly took shape on the A4 paper, under the swift sketching of the pencil.

The doctors crowded around Yang Ping nearly didn’t react in time, jostling each other to get a close look at the drawing. Everyone was stunned, never having seen such a beautiful and clear three-dimensional anatomical illustration of the skull before.

The pencil twirled in Yang Ping’s hand like an acrobat.

"If the length of the freed optic nerve isn’t sufficient, do we need to cut and then replant the optic nerve? If we do, whether the nerve can successfully recover is an unknown," the doctor with white hair asked.

Yang Ping stopped the twirling of the pencil in his hand, "Actually, we have a second option. Even if we can’t move the eye aside, we don’t have to sever the optic nerve. We just need to slice the eyeball, remove partial or all of the aqueous humor to cause the eye to collapse, thus creating the operating space."

Is that even a viable approach? Have you consulted with an ophthalmologist?

The white-haired doctor was momentarily speechless; he hadn’t expected Yang Ping to suggest such an alternative method, almost godlike.

"Both methods can’t take too long. For an eyeball from which the blood supply has been cut, even with ice protection, the time shouldn’t be too long. Also, the loss of aqueous humor over a lengthy period can lead to irreversible damage to vision."

One stack of A4 paper, one sheet after another being pulled out, with the pencil sketching away, a few drawings were already completed.

"Look, this is the operational illustration for moving the eyeball, this is the illustration for the incision at the base of the eye socket, this is the tumor excision illustration---"

Is that pencil magic? How can you draw so quickly and yet so finely and beautifully?

The circle of doctors around tightened, with Robert using his sturdy body to protect Yang Ping from these inexperienced people bumping into him.