3,000 kilometers to find
the right surgeon

Mr. Zhu's connection to Dr. Ser goes back forty years. Dr. Ser's older brother was Mr. Zhu's classmate. Years ago, that brother had suggested he consult Dr. Ser about weight loss surgery, but Mr. Zhu didn't pursue it.

Then in November 2019, he came to Taiwan on a business trip and stopped by to see Dr. Ser. In that meeting, he laid out everything that had been weighing on him:

Dr. Ser's recommendation: hernia repair and gastric bypass, done together in the same operation.

Mr. Zhu didn't decide immediately. Back in Malaysia, he consulted two local surgeons.

Both agreed surgery was necessary, but recommended a different procedure: sleeve gastrectomy, not gastric bypass.

Mr. Zhu asked: why not bypass combined with hernia repair?

The answer he received:

For most patients, a longer operation simply means more time on the table. For Mr. Zhu, those numbers carried a different weight entirely:

He had a cardiac stent. Several of his medications couldn't be stopped. The length of time under anesthesia wasn't a minor consideration, it was a risk he could not ignore.

Six years after that first visit, Mr. Zhu called Dr. Ser.

He asked one thing: "If you were the surgeon (bypass and hernia repair together) how long would it take?"

The same two procedures. Half the time.

For Mr. Zhu, that wasn't just a different number, it was the answer that gave him the confidence to go through with surgery.

He booked a flight to Taiwan.

Six months after surgery, Mr. Zhu's weight had dropped from 112 kg to 84.7 kg, a loss of 27.3 kg.

But weight is never the whole story. What actually gave him peace of mind was watching his lab results across every follow-up:

HbA1c went from 7.8% to 4.6%, back within the normal range. Insulin resistance dropped from 20.91 to 0.52: not just an improvement, but a complete reversal. The metabolic syndrome that maximum medication had barely kept in check began to resolve within six months, blood sugar normalized, liver enzymes near normal, and even the kidney stress marker UACR returned to a healthy value.

And the hernia that had sat fist-sized beside his navel
the same operation, resolved at the same time.

A shorter operation isn't about being fast. It's about precision.

Twenty years and 4,000 cases mean every step has a clear protocol. A surgical team that has worked together for years means everyone in that room knows exactly what to do, no extra communication, no waiting. The procedure runs cleanly because it has been done cleanly, thousands of times.

For a patient like Mr. Zhu (with a cardiac stent, medications that couldn't be stopped, anesthetic risk higher than most) a shorter operation wasn't a nice-to-have. It was the single most important form of protection the surgical team could offer him.