The first foreigner to recieve the top Chinese medical award

CGTN Europe

Madrid surgeon Dr. Diego Rivas holds the world record for operating in the most countries. He’s also received the top Chinese medical award - the first foreigner to do so.   CGTN’s Ken Browne went to meet him.  #throughmyeyes #cgtn #china

Transcript

00:00Dr. Diego Rivas faces life and death situations every day, but it was his own near-death experience

00:08that inspired him to help save others.

00:12The bomb attack in Bali by Al-Qaeda in 2012, no, 2002, 2002, we were there, I was surfing

00:22with friends.

00:23We were walking to the disco, we were like 80 meters far, far away, and then the bomb

00:28exploded.

00:29So we were injured a little bit by the blast, but then we were lucky that we didn't die.

00:37But that day was a beginning for my life, for many things.

00:42So is it fair to say you are Spain's Robin Hood surgeon?

00:46I don't think it's a good definition, but could be close.

00:50It's true that I operate on rich patients sometimes, I get money from them, but I also

00:55do 60% of my activities for free around the world.

01:00When I go to poor countries, you cannot charge money to the patients, of course, because

01:04it's the only chance they have to live.

01:07If you had to pick one surgery, which one would that be?

01:11I can say one that I think was especially difficult, 12-year-old lady in Congo, that

01:17she had a key inside the lungs, a key, a big key.

01:22I don't know how she did, she cannot breathe.

01:25She was dying slowly, and we removed it and we saved her, she's very happy.

01:29Tell us about your relationship with China.

01:31I love China, I love the quality of the surgery there, it's the best in the world.

01:36The best are in China, because of volume, and because of their hard work.

01:41Best nature, best culture, best history, amazing people.

01:46So this is why I love to be in China, and this is why I spend five months a year in

01:50China even more.

01:51The technology, the robotics, it's all very exciting.

01:55China now is leading this in the world with new platforms.

01:59We have the robotic system from the United States, classically established in the world,

02:05the Da Vinci in China, but the Chinese are very smart and they develop even better robots.

02:13Two years ago a company contacted me to help them in the development of this amazing new

02:19platform with a new technology called Surui.

02:22It's a robot developed in Shanghai by Chinese engineers.

02:27It's like a single port robot, with my technique, it's based on my technique, a new portal.

02:32So it's a robot with one arm, one single arm, that displays four instruments and one camera.

02:39It's amazing.

02:40Especially now with the help of the artificial intelligence, there will be a lot of improvements

02:46in the healthcare, also the diagnosis of the patient, because you know, with artificial

02:51intelligence you can detect, okay, you see a CT scan, you see a lesion, and you can

02:56say with 99% of precision that, okay, this is malignant or benign.

03:01So definitely artificial intelligence will help the surgical treatment and the healthcare

03:06around the world.

03:07It's a reality now.

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