November 2, 2000 was a memorable day for 70-year-old Yang Qixiu. Because on this day, he experienced the test of life and death. The old man was diagnosed with “thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm” by Professor Guan Heng, a famous vascular surgeon from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, three years ago, and the mortality rate of rupture of this disease is over 80%. However, the old man and his family refused, thus planting a time bomb in his body. At about 5:00 a.m. on November 1, 2000, the old man was suddenly awakened by severe abdominal pain, and he was first admitted to a nearby hospital, where ultrasound revealed a dark area of fluid in the retroperitoneum; at 9:00 a.m. he was admitted to a large and well-known hospital in the capital, where the CT results soon came out: “ruptured main thoracoabdominal sandwich aneurysm. By this time, the old man had begun to realize the imprudence of his decision 3 years ago. Was it possible to operate? The hospital’s answer was “surgery is extremely risky”. The old man, who was still conscious at the time, made the most important and correct choice of his life – to go to the vascular surgery department of the Union Hospital for treatment. At 20:30 p.m., the physician on duty in the vascular surgery department received telephone instructions from Professors Guan and Liu, and at about 21:00 p.m., the patient was wheeled into the emergency room of the Xiehe Hospital. At this time, the patient was in a state of severe hemorrhagic shock and in a critical condition with indifference, blood pressure of 80/40mmHg and heart rate of 140 beats/min. Professor Guan Heng and Associate Professor Liu Changwei arrived at the scene in time to direct the rescue, despite the day’s exertion. After rapid rehydration and blood transfusion, the state of shock was corrected to some extent. 22:00, the operation started. Although fully prepared, when the patient’s abdominal cavity was cut open, the doctors were still stunned by the sight before them: the patient’s left abdomen was occupied by a huge retroperitoneal hematoma, normal tissues were deformed by pressure, and the retroperitoneal bleeding amounted to about 5000ml, and the anatomical structure was extremely unclear, so the difficulty of the operation could be imagined. The doctors, including Guan Heng, Liu Changwei, Li Congjun, Kang Weiming and Zheng Yixhong, poured all their energy into this late autumn night. At about 4:00 a.m., the key operation was successfully completed. A series of resuscitation measures were carried out in an orderly manner under the guidance of Prof. Guan, and when the clock pointed to 4:40 a.m., with the rhythmic ticking sound on the cardiac monitor, the patient ushered in his brand new dawn. The resuscitation was successful! When the first light of dawn spread on the sweat-covered faces of doctors and nurses, they smiled comfortably; when the family members looked at the peaceful face of the old man, they cried with excitement.