真正的大师，绝不轻易出山

原来真正的大师是真的不轻易出山的。Mayer教授每年只参加一场会议:就是德国脊柱学会年会，因为他是德国脊柱学会创始主席，过去这么多年他只来中国参加过一次COA，以后也不会再来中国参加COA ，因为时间宝贵，他的时间要花在他感兴趣的事情上，现在任何一个大会绝对请不到他，虽然他很少参加会议。他还是这个世界上公认的最伟大的微创脊柱大师。大师就是大师，从不轻易出山，他认为绝大多数的开会没有意义。2017年有位超大型三甲医院的院长找我，他们想请Mayer教授在中国给一位有特殊背景的病人主刀一台脊柱手术。我立马替他拒绝了。这是绝对不可能的事情。他们在德国的医院集团共有八个脊柱中心，一年有24000台脊柱手术。一般超大型中国三甲医院每年脊柱手术也就2000多台，在他的医院能让他亲自动手的不多。2017年5月清晨5:00我收到他的来信。他告诉我今天他要亲自主刀一台特别大的手术。Mayer教授曾经告诉过我：“没有任何一种情况他会在中国来主刀手术，中国的医生应该自己会动手，而不是一遍遍请外面的人来主刀，这是这家医院无能的表现。病人无论是穷人还是富人，他都会帮助，手术只与医学有关，手术从来不与病人的背景身份有关。2018年华中科技大学同济医学院附属协和医院肖宝钧教授准备请Mayer教授于6月12日去主刀一台微创脊柱手术。Mayer教授也正式通过我拒绝了医院的请求，这么多年来，他只会在他工作的柏林自由大学附属医院和慕尼黑哈拉兴骨科医院，他才会亲自主刀手术。Mayer教授曾为多名国内外高级名流、经济领袖、皇室成员及政治家主刀过脊柱手术，其中包括苏联最后一任总统戈尔巴乔夫、埃及第四任总统穆巴拉克。他们都是飞来德国柏林或慕尼黑他工作的医院手术的。仅有一次，就是2012年Mayer教授只身飞到沙特首都利雅德，他亲自为沙特国王阿卜杜拉主刀了腰椎手术。真正的大师，绝不轻易出山，这是行规。

A true master does not readily accept invitations to operate or appear in public. Prof. Mayer attends only one conference each year-- the Annual Meeting of the German Spine Society (DWG), as he is the founding president of the society. Over the years, he has attended the COA Annual Congress in China only once and will not attend it again in the future. He believes his time is valuable and should be devoted to the work that truly interests him. As a result, virtually no conference is able to invite him, although he rarely participates in academic meetings. Prof. Mayer is still widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest masters in minimally invasive spine surgery. A true master does not readily make public appearances because he believes that most conferences are of limited value. In 2017, the president of a major Class III Grade A hospital in China approached me, hoping to invite Prof. Mayer to China to perform spine surgery for a patient with a special background. I immediately declined the request on his behalf, as this was absolutely out of the question. Schön Klinik Group has a total of eight spine centers and performs approximately 24,000 spine surgeries each year. By comparison, even a leading Class III Grade A hospital in China typically performs only around 2000 spine surgeries annually. Even within his own hospitals, only a limited number of cases are performed personally by Prof. Mayer. At 5:00 a.m. one morning in May 2017, I received an email from him informing that he would personally perform a particularly complex surgery later that day. Prof. Mayer once told me, “There is no circumstance under which I would travel to China to perform surgery. Chinese surgeons should be able to perform their own surgeries rather than constantly inviting surgeons from abroad. Otherwise, it suggests that the hospital lacks the capability to perform such procedures independently.” Whether a patient is rich or poor, he will do his best to help. Surgery is about medicine alone; it has nothing to do with a patient’s social status or background. In 2018, Prof. XIAO Baojun of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology planned to invite Prof. Mayer to China on June 12 to perform a minimally invasive spine surgery. Through me, Prof. Mayer formally declined the invitation. Over the years, he has personally performed surgery only at the hospitals where he has worked, namely the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Schön Klinik München Harlaching. Prof. Michael Mayer did many operations for high-ranked national and international celebrities, economic leaders, royal dynasties, and politicians, among them Michail Gorbachev and the 4th president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak. They all traveled to the hospitals where Prof. Mayer practiced in Berlin or Munich for their surgeries. There was only one exception. In 2012, Prof. Mayer traveled alone to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he personally performed lumber spine surgery for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. A true master does not readily leave his operating theater-- this has always been his professional principle.