Israeli doctor aids Sichuan patients

Photo Provided to China Daily

Removing the tumor was urgent but tissues around the tumor were adhering with the tumor itself so it would be hard to avoid major bleeding, and nerve damage could cause death or paralyze her.

An operation wound so large would take a long time to heal with traditional wound-closure methods, such as skin flaps, but Gong needed quick healing so she could have radiotherapy as soon as possible and prevent a relapse.

"It was very risky to treat her, but we had to," says the hospital's president, Fan Tianyong.

"It is a hospital's duty to save lives even if the hope is very dim."

Luckily, the hospital had established a relationship with Topaz, who has superb experience and skills to treat such complicated conditions, Fan adds.

"The minute I saw pictures of the patient, I felt I must go to the hospital for her," Topaz says.

On Dec 13, 2013, Topaz operated on Gong with physicians from the hospital.

In a four-hour operation, they removed the tumor tissues carefully, and used the TopClosure system to connect the two edges of existing skin with a special plastic thread, eliminating the need for skin-implant reconstruction.