Translated…
Doctors are man, not god, so naturally, they too, can get sick. But because I fell extremely ill as a young man that’d changed my life forever, that’s, sent me on this path to help treat others medically too.
Because of His Family Situations, He’d Decided to Become a Physician
I grew up in Da-Shu Kaohsiung, in the elementary years, I’d wanted to become a school teacher, until I’d graduated from the All-Male High School in Kaohsiung and got a free pass into Donghai University’s chemistry department, I’d studied for a year, my father mentioned how our family’s economics couldn’t put me through graduate school abroad or to open a factory myself, asked me to retake the exams, to see if I could get into the medical department. And, because of the blessings from up above, I became the very FIRST student who got into National Taiwan University’s medical school.
After I graduated, I’d carried my wills, wanted to help out the masse, worked as a resident for N.T.U. Hospital’s pediatric department, I was like a sponge, took the initiatives in learning the assortments of the various departments’ skills, and my goals back then, were to open up my own treatment clinic, so I can help with my household’s income. But, on the verge of my third year’s of residency, I’d contracted a bacterium that turned into tonsillitis, ran a very high fever for a couple of days, I thought that all I’d needed was keep on taking those antibiotics and I’d be fine; but, by the third day, I’d had the complications for inflamed kidneys, and blood started showing in my urine, and I’d started having chills too, I was, forced to get hospitalized for treatment, back then, my daughter was just three months old, and because my wife needed to take care of me, she’d given our daughter to her own family to look after.
Gotten Ill All of a Sudden, Became the One Who Lay in the Hospital Beds
After a week-long hospital stay, although there’s no visible blood in my urine, but my urine still tested positive for red blood cells, back then, my mind ran wild, “Would there be complications?” “What if, I develop uremia later on?”, and because of my status as a resident, there were two doctors of nephrology treating me, one of the professors told me what was in the text, “Eighty-percent of people make full-recoveries, and twenty-percent will develop a long-term condition because of it.”, and he’d suggested that I get biopsy of my kidneys. But, one of the lecturers from N.T.U. Dr. Cheng consoled me, “Textbooks may not always be correct”, he believed that having a biopsy wouldn’t help me that much.
And now, I’d become, a senior expert in nephrology myself, and, there were only a few of my patients who’d gotten the biopsies, and, there were, less than one-percent who’d needed further examinations, because it’d only allowed the physicians know the pathologies of the kidneys, but not able to help the patients prevent further damages, looking back at those two doctors’ suggestions, it’d made me discovered, that they’d treated their patients, based off what was in the textbooks, but didn’t help the patients one bit, that the first doctor I went to had the purpose of collecting research data for why he’d tested his patients, and the latter actually really, cared about his patients.
But, the bacteria inside of my body was still activated back then, during those six-months’ time, I’d gone in and out of the hospital a lot still, back then, someone suggested, that I should get a tonsillectomy, to get rid of the problems for once and for all. So, I’d asked for help from the N.T.U.’s ENT professor, back then, he’d just, introduced the freezing surgeries, claimed, that you don’t need to go under the knife, and you won’t bleed; but, a week after the procedures, I was in immense pain, turns out, that after my tonsil was frozen off, there were still, remaining tissues, causing me to hurt and run that continuous fever again.
Kept the Morality of His Treating the Patients, and Not Considered if His Patients Can Pay for His Services
What was worse was, this partially intact tonsil slowly, hardened, a lot of the doctors I’d gone to couldn’t do anything for me, and nobody dared perform surgical procedures on me. Later on, I’d begged the ENT authorities of NTU Hospital, Dr. Shi-Mien Du to operate on me, and as I was staying in the hospitals, I’d taken the advice of the clean up lady, “Do remember, to give a red envelope to the doctor,”, my wife managed to get the money, put it into a red envelope, before the surgery, and handed it to Dr. Du; but on the day I was released, Dr. Du gave the red envelope, back to me again.
This torturing tonsillectomy had, deeply, inspired me, first, even if it’s a newly developed medical technology, without the experiments or the accumulations of time, it may not be the best viable option for a patient; secondly, no matter if the patients were from rich, well-to-do backgrounds or less-fortunate family, I’d insisted on never taking ANY paybacks of thank-you gifts, if the patients and families insisted, then, I’d asked them, to donate to the hospital instead, so the hospital can put the money to use, to help treat those who can’t pay for their medical care.
I’d felt touched by the poorer patients because I was just married back then, and I’d gone in and out of the hospitals a lot, and the wages of the residence were very measly, sometimes, I can’t even pay for my own hospital stays, and so, I’d asked a classmate to accompany my wife, to see a higher supervising official of the hospital, hoped that the charges can be reduced, because I’m an employee of the hospital, but, the man told, that as his own mother was admitted, they’d paid for the entire charge in full, “There is NO discount!”, his words touched me very much, and it’d made me vowed, that if I’m able to, I’m willing to, treat those patients who can’t make the payments for their treatments.
Careful Diagnoses of His Patients, Encouraging His Patients to Get Better Sooner Another motto that I lived by is, empathize with my patients’ pains. Because I’d kept worrying about how there are still traces of blood in my urology tests, one the one hand, I’d worried that it may develop into uremia, so I’d studied all the books and literatures in the libraries on the subject of acute kidney inflammation, on the other, I’d sought out advice from the famous physicians of urology, hoped to get rid of this doubt inside my own mind. Later on, I’d taken my own medical records to the Taipei Medical School’s (now, Taipei Medical University) department head, Jing-Jiang Huang, he’d told me, “even if there are traces of blood in your urine, there’s no need to feel concerned, it will heal completely”.
With that, it’d made me see the sunshine, and I’d immediately come to understand, “The words of the doctors, can give the patients a greatest kind of hope and rebirth”, and it’d, managed, to help chase away the clouds that’s hung over my head since I got ill. Plus, during my hospital stay, I’d felt the warmth of people too, Pastor Wu had prayed for me from time to time, it’d made me accept the love of god. And so, these couple of years, I’d always borrowed from my past experiences of falling ill, to show my student as I took them on the rounds to the bedsides, “Doctors sometimes played the role of God, and every single word, every single diagnosis you’d given, must be thought out well and carefully.”
So, this, is what the doctor understood, not just from his studies of the medical field, but through his being treated as a patient, and because he’d fallen ill, it gave him the ability, to empathize more with the patients, and when they’d come to him with their inquiries, he would more than likely, to help them ease their minds, because he was once, on the other end of the tables, and knew how he’d felt, and he would, try to ease his own patients’ minds, like the doctors who’d treated him had, helped him ease his mind too.