Ah Ming from Wuhan, male, 15 years old, very thin, had a severe funnel chest, combined congenital heart disease, aortic valve diastasis, and moderate aortic valve closure insufficiency. Amin was found to have a significant funnel chest from a young age. It was not serious at the beginning, so no surgery was performed. Recently, the deformity has been worsening, so he went to a tertiary care hospital in Wuhan. The doctor saw Ah Ming, considered the condition serious, and decided to have funnel chest surgery immediately. However, a significant heart murmur was found during the preoperative preparation, and later, a congenital heart disease was detected by heart ultrasound. This caused unexpected trouble for the surgery. Since he was staying in the thoracic surgery department, which is a separate and independent department from the cardiac surgery department, the thoracic surgery department would not do heart surgery. So the doctor had to ask the cardiac surgeon for a consultation. The cardiac surgeon’s opinion was that he could not operate. As a result, there was a huge difference of opinion between the two departments, and finally Ah Ming had to give up the surgery and was discharged home. Amin was suffering from two separate diseases. There are many types of congenital heart disease, most of which can be accomplished surgically, but some have many special limitations. Amin has a disease of the aortic valve, such that it is not possible to do a valvuloplasty like other valves; what must be done is a valve replacement. Due to Amin’s young age and small aortic valve caliber, placement of a larger valve is unlikely. If a small valve of the right caliber is placed, as the body develops, once the whole heart grows up, the valve placed today will become narrower and will then have to be replaced by a larger valve again. Therefore, valve replacement surgery should be avoided at this age. Patients with valve replacements have the added problem of having to take medication every day for the rest of their lives, which cannot be left without serious consequences. The effect of the medication must also be periodically reviewed by blood sampling during the course of the medication. Once the drug dosage is not properly controlled, then fatal complications may occur. This is a very unwilling reality for any person to accept. For this reason, valve surgery is generally recommended at the oldest possible age, and 15-year-old Ming would have to take medication every day from then on until the end of his life if he had valve surgery. This would be a nightmare for a child. Therefore, combining the two factors mentioned above, 15-year-old Ah Ming definitely cannot have valve surgery. However, the problem now is a different kind of disease, that is, the problem of funnel chest. Because of the obvious compression of the heart and lungs by the funnel chest and the increasing symptoms, this requires that early surgery must be performed. The older the age of the valve disease the better the surgery, and the earlier the funnel chest surgery the better. The presence of both in Ah Ming’s case made Ah Ming’s family feel helpless, and as a doctor who specializes in treating both diseases, I also felt helpless. In such a case, perhaps a compromise can only be made, that is, to let Ah Ming’s body develop as close to an adult as his funnel chest condition allows. At that time, if surgery is performed, at least the heart valve can be guaranteed to meet the body’s needs without the need for a second valve replacement. There is another issue involved in Amin’s surgery, and that is the question of whether to complete the heart disease and funnel chest surgery in one go or in two. There is no need to discuss this issue, it must be done in one go. If the surgery is divided into two sessions, plus the plate removal surgery, then a total of three surgeries will be required. This is definitely an additional ordeal for Amin. The good thing is that such a situation would not happen in our unit. In all of our similar surgeries, we perform both procedures at once. It is not possible for us to make patients suffer endlessly, as many other hospitals do.