Rewriting a Diagnosis: The Power of Second Opinions

How international coordination with a leading German neurosurgeon changed the course of a patient’s treatment and life.

In 2025, we performed an international coordination in less than 48 hours between Singapore and German leading German neurosurgeon.

A middle-aged patient approached us locally, he had been incorrectly diagnosed with “brain lymphoma” the first time. The tumour was not completely removed during surgery, and the biopsy was incomplete. Pathology revealed a low-grade glioma, pending immunohistochemistry for diagnosis.

But to us, this meant an incomplete diagnosis and a completely wrong treatment direction. Months later, a repeat MRI showed the tumour had recurred and expanded. When we contacted Professor Bertalanffy in Germany, his assistant simply said, “If this had been done right the first time, the story could have been very different.”

He is a world-leading expert in brainstem and functional tumour surgery, having performed over a thousand brainstem tumour surgeries.

In international medicine, we often say: “Where you go first matters.”

This means the first diagnosis, the first imaging, the first pathology, and the first surgery—each step could mean the difference between life and death.

In a world of information asymmetry, the meaning of our existence is to assist patients to find their true starting point. It’s not about adding another treatment plan, but about saving a life in time.