CHAPTER 14: SWEET – TANIA'S BRILLIANT LIFE
[Editor's note: This chapter focuses on Dr. Li's daughter who settled in the United States. It is written with significant input from her and represents her perspective on bridging Chinese and American cultures while maintaining family connections.]
Crossing Oceans, Bridging Cultures
My daughter, known affectionately in our family as "Sweet" but professionally as Dr. Tania Li in the United States, represents our family's first generation to establish life beyond China's borders. Her journey across continents embodies broader patterns of Chinese diaspora experience during reform and opening period, while demonstrating how family values and connections persist despite geographic separation and cultural adaptation. This chapter relates her story from both her perspective and my parental viewpoint, illustrating how family bonds transcend physical distance.
Tania's childhood during the 1960s and early 1970s coincided with Cultural Revolution period, creating educational challenges that subsequent generations fortunately avoided. Despite school disruptions, political campaigns affecting curriculum, and periods when traditional academic subjects received minimal attention, we maintained home environment emphasizing learning beyond institutional requirements. Evening reading sessions, mathematical puzzles, and scientific discussions supplemented limited formal education during this tumultuous period.
Her academic aptitude became evident early, despite educational limitations characterizing that historical period. Even when schools emphasized political study and productive labor over traditional academic subjects, she demonstrated remarkable capacity for self-directed learning—obtaining and mastering whatever educational materials became available through informal networks. This educational self-reliance, developed through necessity during challenging period, later proved valuable asset when educational opportunities expanded significantly during reform era.
The restoration of university entrance examination in 1977 created transformative opportunity after long period of merit-based advancement limitation. Her intensive preparation for this examination—self-directed since formal preparation structures had not yet been reestablished—demonstrated determination characteristic of that cohort who recognized this restoration as precious opportunity after years of restricted educational advancement. The examination success leading to medical school admission represented not merely academic achievement but validation of persistent educational commitment through challenging historical period.
Medical education during early reform era provided solid professional foundation while maintaining certain limitations characteristic of transitional period. The curriculum emphasized practical clinical skills alongside theoretical foundations, creating strong preparation for direct patient care while providing less exposure to research methodologies that would later interest her. The medical training reflected broader national priorities emphasizing rapid development of clinical capabilities addressing population needs rather than academic medicine advancement that would receive greater emphasis in subsequent decades.
Her early medical career in provincial hospital coincided with significant healthcare system transformation during 1980s, as market-oriented reforms began influencing previously state-dominated healthcare delivery. This transitional experience provided valuable perspective on healthcare system evolution while revealing certain professional development limitations within provincial settings during that period. The growing awareness of international medical developments alongside limited access to these advances created professional tension characteristic of that reform era generation.
The opportunity for international training emerged through combination of professional achievement, improving diplomatic relations permitting educational exchanges, and personal initiative identifying and pursuing these possibilities despite bureaucratic complications. The 1990 departure for clinical fellowship in American teaching hospital represented not merely professional advancement opportunity but dramatic life transition from cultural environment where she had remained entirely embedded to completely unfamiliar social, linguistic, and professional context.
The initial American experience featured challenges common among international medical graduates: linguistic adjustments despite adequate academic English, cultural differences in clinical interaction styles, unfamiliar medical practice patterns, and complex integration into new professional hierarchies. Her persistence through these transitional challenges exemplified determination characteristic of her educational and professional development throughout earlier periods. The gradual adaptation process transformed initial survival-oriented adjustment into genuine cultural integration maintaining Chinese identity while developing effective American professional functioning.
Her decision to remain in the United States following training completion reflected complex considerations beyond simple preference for American conditions over Chinese opportunities. Professional development possibilities, particularly research interests inadequately supported in 1990s Chinese healthcare settings, provided primary motivation alongside considerations regarding children's educational opportunities. This decision represented not rejection of Chinese society or family connections but thoughtful assessment of optimal development environment for specific life stage and professional interests.
Throughout subsequent decades, she has maintained remarkable balance between American professional integration and Chinese family connection. Regular return visits, initially annual but gradually reducing to biennial as parents aged and travel became more challenging, maintained family relationships while developing cross-cultural adaptation capacities in her own children. These visits created opportunities for intergenerational relationship maintenance despite geographic separation, allowing grandparent bonds despite distance limitations.
The development of communication technologies dramatically transformed transnational family connections during recent decades. From initial reliance on expensive international telephone calls and occasional letters, communication evolved through early email and basic video connections to current sophisticated virtual presence technologies enabling regular visual interaction despite physical separation. These technological developments significantly mitigated separation effects, allowing relationship maintenance through regular casual interaction rather than depending exclusively on infrequent in-person contact.
Her medical career development within American healthcare system demonstrates successful cultural and professional adaptation while maintaining distinctive perspective informed by Chinese training and values. The integration of Chinese medical education's clinical emphasis with American academic medicine's research orientation created productive synthesis rather than conflicted perspective. This bicultural professional identity allows contribution drawing upon both traditions rather than requiring choice between competing approaches.
For her American-raised children, Chinese heritage represents significant identity component requiring deliberate cultivation rather than automatic transmission. Their periodic visits to China, language exposure despite primary English usage, and regular interaction with grandparents created meaningful connection with Chinese family tradition despite primary American enculturation. This second-generation immigrant experience—maintaining heritage connection while developing primary identity within adoptive culture—represents increasingly common pattern within globalizing world.
From parental perspective, her international transition generated both loss and pride—separation from beloved daughter alongside recognition of her exceptional achievements within challenging cross-cultural context. The physical distance remains permanent reality requiring acceptance rather than resolution, yet technology increasingly mitigates its impact through virtual connection possibilities unavailable to previous separated family generations. The relationship demonstrates how family bonds adapt to geographic separation rather than diminishing through distance when mutual commitment to connection remains priority.
Her life journey illustrates broader patterns within reform-era Chinese international diaspora—maintaining meaningful homeland and family connections while establishing effective functioning within adopted society. Rather than representing either assimilation abandoning heritage or enclave resistance to integration, her experience demonstrates productive synthesis combining elements from both cultures into coherent life pattern. This bicultural integration represents increasingly common globalized identity transcending traditional national and cultural boundaries.
Cross-Cultural Medical Perspectives
Tania'sGrandparenthood beginning in the 1990s introduced new relationship dimension now extending across three decades. This role has evolved from traditional Chinese grandparent model emphasizing authority and continuity toward more interactive relationship balancing traditional values with recognition of changing childhood experiences in contemporary China. Relationships with grandchildren provide both personal fulfillment and opportunity for transmitting family values while accommodating inevitable generational differences in perspective and experience.
Extended family connections have maintained surprising resilience despite historical disruptions that fragmented many Chinese families. Regular family gatherings persist despite geographic dispersal, with traditional festivals providing structured occasions for reunion and reinforcement of familial bonds. These gatherings create opportunities for intergenerational exchange where elder experience and younger perspective mutually enrich family understanding across changing historical circumstances.
Family relationships in later life stages have provided both practical support and meaningful purpose beyond professional identity. As physical capabilities gradually change with advancing age, family members offer assistance that maintains independence while addressing specific limitations. More importantly, continuing family engagement provides ongoing purpose and connection that transcends retirement transitions or professional role reductions.
The evolution of our family relationships across more than six decades reflects broader transition from traditional Chinese family structures toward contemporary patterns balancing tradition with modernity. While certain traditional values persist—respect for education, sense of intergenerational responsibility, importance of family solidarity—their expression adapts to changing social circumstances. This flexible continuity, maintaining core values while accommodating inevitable change, perhaps represents our family's most significant achievement across tumultuous historical period.
Most recently, technological developments have created new possibilities for family connection despite physical separation and pandemic restrictions. Video communication platforms enable regular visual connection despite geographic distance, while digital photo sharing maintains awareness of daily life across separations. These technologies, while sometimes challenging for older generations to master, offer meaningful connection opportunities that previous generations separated by distance could never experience.
Throughout all these transitions, our marriage has remained central partnership providing stability amid changing circumstances. After sixty-two years together, we have developed communication patterns, mutual understanding, and complementary approaches to life's challenges that create remarkable resilience despite inevitable disagreements and adjustments. This enduring partnership represents perhaps life's most significant personal achievement alongside professional contributions.
Professional Wisdom for Younger Generations
Throughout later career stages, younger colleagues increasingly sought guidance extending beyond specific technical questions to broader career and life management issues. These conversations revealed common concerns across generations despite dramatically different healthcare contexts. The guidance offered through these exchanges, refined through repeated discussions, distills certain perspectives that may hold value for subsequent generations of healthcare practitioners.
Perhaps most fundamental insight involves the relationship between technical excellence and humanistic care—complementary dimensions sometimes perceived as competing priorities. Throughout seven decades of practice, I've observed that practitioners emphasizing either dimension while neglecting the other ultimately achieve suboptimal results. Technical brilliance without compassionate understanding often fails to address patients' actual needs, while empathetic concern without technical competence offers comfort without effective intervention. The integration of these dimensions—technical excellence guided by humanistic understanding—represents medicine's distinctive contribution requiring continuous cultivation throughout professional life.
A second insight concerns career sustainability across multiple decades—increasingly relevant as healthcare careers potentially span fifty years or more. Early career often emphasizes technical skill acquisition with intensity that potentially risks burnout if maintained indefinitely. Sustainable career development requires evolving focus across different dimensions as capabilities develop: technical mastery in early years, systems improvement in mid-career, and wisdom transmission in later stages. This natural evolution maintains meaningful contribution while accommodating changing capabilities and interests throughout extended professional lifespan.
The balance between certainty and humility represents third critical insight emerging from long practice. Medicine requires decisive action despite inevitable uncertainty—tension creating temptation toward either excessive confidence or paralyzing hesitation. Mature practice involves holding simultaneous awareness of both current scientific understanding and its inherent limitations, maintaining readiness to act decisively while remaining open to revising understanding as new information emerges. This balanced perspective develops gradually through experience witnessing both successes and limitations of medical intervention.
The relationship between individual contribution and systemic context provides fourth principle relevant across generations. Early career physicians often overestimate individual impact while underestimating systemic influences on outcomes—perspective naturally evolving through experience toward recognition that optimal care requires both individual excellence and supportive systems. Effective practitioners gradually develop capacity to work simultaneously at both levels—providing excellent individual care while contributing to systemic improvements expanding impact beyond direct personal intervention.
A fifth insight involves navigating inevitable technological transitions throughout extended career. Seven decades of practice spanning pre-antibiotic era through contemporary genomic medicine demonstrated that neither wholesale rejection nor uncritical embrace of technological change serves patients optimally. Each innovation requires thoughtful evaluation regarding which established principles remain relevant despite technological change and which truly require fundamental reconsideration. This discernment develops through experience with multiple technological transitions rather than from either rigid traditionalism or uncritical enthusiasm for novelty.
Understanding medicine's inherent moral dimensions represents sixth principle applicable across generations and healthcare systems. Every significant medical decision involves not merely technical considerations but implicit value judgments regarding appropriate goals, acceptable risks, resource allocation, and quality-of-life assessments. Acknowledging these inherent moral dimensions—neither reducing medicine to value-neutral technique nor imposing personal values inappropriately—represents continuous challenge requiring self-awareness, ethical reflection, and ongoing dialogue with colleagues, patients, and broader society.
The final insight concerns meaning cultivation throughout medical career—finding sustaining purpose through changing professional circumstances and inevitable disappointments. While idealism naturally modifies through practical experience, maintaining core sense of purpose beyond technical execution provides essential sustenance throughout professional life. This meaning derives from multiple sources: individual patient relationships, contributions to medical knowledge, institutional improvements, colleague mentorship, and connection to medicine's broader social purposes. Practitioners maintaining such multidimensional meaning sources demonstrate greatest resilience throughout extended career spans.
These perspectives, developed through extraordinarily extended practice period spanning multiple healthcare system iterations, technological revolutions, and political environments, represent neither rigid prescriptions nor universal truths. Rather, they offer reflective starting points for younger practitioners developing their own syntheses of technical skill, ethical awareness, and sustainable practice patterns adapted to contemporary healthcare environments that will themselves inevitably transform throughout their own careers.
Living History: Medicine Through Changing Eras
Few medical careers span sufficient time to witness fundamental transformation of entire healthcare systems and medical paradigms. My 67 years in medicine have provided this unusual perspective, allowing me to experience as participant-observer China's extraordinary healthcare evolution from basic post-revolutionary development through contemporary modern medicine. This longitudinal view offers unique insights into both remarkable progress achieved and continuing challenges within healthcare development.
When I began practice in 1956, China's healthcare situation reflected aftermath of prolonged warfare, economic underdevelopment, and societal disruption. Infectious diseases dominated the clinical landscape: tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, various parasitic conditions, and acute respiratory infections represented daily challenges in clinical practice. Maternal and infant mortality remained extraordinarily high by contemporary standards, while chronic non-communicable diseases received limited attention amid more immediate survival threats.
Available treatments during this early period appear remarkably limited from contemporary perspective. Antibiotics existed but in limited variety and availability, often requiring careful rationing among competing urgent needs. Surgical capabilities remained basic at county level, with limited anesthesia options, minimal blood banking capability, and rudimentary perioperative care. Diagnostic technology consisted primarily of basic laboratory testing, simple radiography, and clinical examination skills—the latter developed to remarkable sophistication through necessity despite limited technological support.
The healthcare delivery system during this initial period emphasized rapid workforce development through abbreviated training programs, geographic distribution of basic services, and mass campaigns addressing major public health threats. My own health school education exemplified this approach—shortened technical training prioritizing rapid deployment over comprehensive preparation. This strategy, while creating workforce with variable training quality, successfully extended basic healthcare to previously underserved populations with remarkable rapidity.
The Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976) created distinctive healthcare patterns reflecting broader political prioritization. The "barefoot doctor" movement extended basic care to village level but with practitioners having minimal training. Hospital hierarchies underwent dramatic reorganization, with revolutionary committees replacing traditional department structures and political criteria sometimes superseding professional standards in decision-making. These changes produced mixed outcomes: expanded geographic coverage alongside quality concerns, increased rural access alongside diminished specialist capability.
Throughout these challenging years, I observed how core medical values sometimes persisted despite official rhetoric emphasizing political rather than professional considerations. Many practitioners maintained focus on patient welfare as primary concern while outwardly conforming to political expectations—demonstrating how professional ethics sometimes transcend particular political environments when practitioners maintain internal commitment to medicine's fundamental purposes.
The post-Mao healthcare reforms beginning in the late 1970s brought renewed emphasis on professional standards, academic development, and technical advancement. Medical journals resumed publication, professional societies reformed, and healthcare institutions restored merit-based advancement rather than political criteria. These changes significantly improved technical quality but sometimes reduced accessibility as market-oriented reforms introduced financial barriers alongside quality improvements.
The scientific and technological acceleration of the 1980s and 1990s transformed clinical capabilities across all specialties. The progression from basic radiography to CT, MRI, and sophisticated functional imaging revolutionized diagnostic precision. Pharmaceutical options expanded exponentially, while surgical techniques evolved from traditional open approaches to minimally invasive procedures. These advances, implemented with increasing rapidity in Chinese hospitals, progressively closed gaps between domestic and international standards while creating new challenges in technology assessment, appropriate utilization, and equity of access.
Healthcare financing reforms beginning in the 1980s produced complex outcomes still being addressed today. Market-oriented approaches increased efficiency and innovation incentives but reduced accessibility for economically disadvantaged populations. The dissolution of rural cooperative medical systems and work-unit healthcare without immediate comprehensive replacements created coverage gaps that remained problematic for decades. Recent universal coverage initiatives have addressed these issues but challenges remain in balancing access, quality, and sustainability.
Medical education has undergone parallel transformation throughout my career. The abbreviated training programs of the 1950s and early 1960s, like my own health school education, prioritized producing large numbers of providers rapidly over comprehensive individual training. Subsequent decades saw progressive development of standardized medical education, specialty training programs, and continuing education requirements that dramatically improved practitioner preparation. Today's medical graduates receive education comparable to international standards—a remarkable achievement given starting conditions seven decades ago.
Perhaps most striking has been the transformation in healthcare facilities themselves. County hospitals that once operated with minimal equipment, unreliable electricity, and basic infrastructure have developed into modern institutions with sophisticated technology. Provincial and metropolitan hospitals now feature capabilities rivaling international centers, while village clinics have evolved from rudimentary structures to functional primary care facilities. This physical transformation parallels broader improvements in Chinese infrastructure and standard of living throughout recent decades.
Throughout these transformative decades, certain core challenges in healthcare delivery have remained remarkably consistent despite changing contexts: balancing quality with accessibility, distributing resources equitably across geographic and economic divides, integrating technological advancement with humanistic care, and maintaining prevention alongside increasingly sophisticated treatment capabilities. These fundamental tensions, present throughout my career despite dramatically different manifestations across eras, represent enduring challenges for healthcare systems worldwide rather than unique Chinese difficulties.
Having witnessed this extraordinary healthcare transformation firsthand—from the most basic post-revolutionary conditions to contemporary modern medicine—I appreciate both the magnificent progress achieved and continuing challenges requiring attention. This historical perspective informs my current practice and teaching, helping younger colleagues understand both how far we've come and what issues remain to be addressed in China's continuing healthcare development.
The Privilege of Aging: Perspective from Nine Decades
Reaching advanced age brings distinctive perspective rarely accessible through other means—the opportunity to witness long-term historical patterns, observe multiple societal transformations, and experience how seemingly permanent arrangements prove transitory when viewed across sufficient timespan. Having lived through nine decades spanning pre-revolutionary China through contemporary society, certain insights emerge regarding both historical processes and personal development across unusually extended lifespan.
Perhaps most fundamental realization involves the extraordinary pace and extent of change possible within single human lifetime. My childhood experiences occurred in essentially pre-industrial society where transportation relied primarily on animal power, communication remained limited to physical message delivery, and daily life proceeded according to patterns largely unchanged for centuries. Within same lifetime, I've adapted to digital communication, global transportation networks, and technological capabilities once belonging to realm of science fiction. This compressed historical experience demonstrates human adaptability beyond what previous generations could imagine.
The perspective of nine decades reveals how historical events appearing catastrophic or transformative in immediate experience often assume different significance when viewed within longer trajectory. Events that dominated consciousness during their occurrence—political campaigns, economic disruptions, institutional reorganizations—sometimes prove less consequential in extended view than subtle, gradual developments attracting limited contemporary attention. This longer perspective fosters certain equanimity regarding current developments, recognizing that their ultimate significance may differ substantially from immediate appearance.
Extended lifespan also demonstrates how individual agency operates within historical constraints—neither completely determined by circumstances nor fully independent of contextual limitations. Throughout nine decades, I've observed how individuals navigate historical circumstances with varying success: some maintaining personal integrity and purposeful action even amid severe constraints, others failing to exercise available agency despite relatively favorable conditions. This observation suggests that while historical circumstances significantly shape available options, individual response to those circumstances remains consequential within any context.
The aging process itself, when approached with appropriate perspective, reveals unexpected compensations balancing inevitable physical limitations. While youthful capabilities gradually diminish, extended experience develops complementary capacities less available to younger individuals: pattern recognition across diverse situations, emotional regulation through familiarity with life's cycles, appreciation for subtle experiences once overlooked amid more dramatic pursuits, and capacity to find meaning in circumstances once considered insufficient. These developmental gains, while different from youthful capabilities, offer genuine compensation rather than mere consolation for aging's physical dimensions.
Relationships assume distinctive quality and significance in advanced age, with long-term connections revealing dimensions inaccessible through shorter associations. Friendships maintained across six or seven decades, professional relationships spanning entire careers, and family connections across four generations demonstrate how human bonds develop textures and depths requiring extended time to manifest fully. This relational dimension provides perhaps aging's most significant compensation—opportunity to experience human connection across timespan revealing aspects unavailable through any other means.
The extended perspective of nine decades brings heightened awareness of continuity alongside change—the persistence of fundamental human experiences despite dramatic alterations in their external manifestations. Throughout extraordinary historical transformations witnessed in my lifetime, certain basic human concerns remain remarkably consistent: seeking meaningful connection with others, finding purpose through contribution to concerns beyond oneself, creating beauty through various forms of expression, and making sense of mortality within limited lifespan. This continuity within change offers reassurance regarding human capacity to maintain essential humanity despite transforming external circumstances.
Perhaps most significantly, aging across nine decades demonstrates how life naturally balances between individual particularity and universal human experience. Each person's journey through historical circumstances creates distinctive story uniquely their own, while simultaneously participating in fundamental human experiences shared across generations, cultures, and historical periods. This tension between particularity and universality creates life's distinctive texture—neither merely generic human life nor completely unique individual journey but constantly navigated balance between these complementary dimensions of human existence.
For younger individuals encountering this perspective from nine decades of experience, perhaps most valuable insight involves recognition that life rarely proceeds according to initial expectations yet offers compensatory possibilities at each stage when approached with appropriate openness and adaptability. The capacity to relinquish outdated expectations while remaining receptive to emerging possibilities represents perhaps the most essential life skill revealed through extended experience—allowing meaningful engagement with life's journey through its various stages rather than clinging to initial conceptions inevitably transformed through actual living.
CHAPTER 13: ANOTHER COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION APPROACHES
Educational Values Across Generations
Throughout Chinese history, education has held central position within family and societal values—tradition maintained despite dramatic transformations in educational content, methods, and purposes across tumultuous century. My own family's educational journey across four generations illustrates both remarkable continuity in commitment to learning and extraordinary adaptation to changing educational environments spanning traditional imperial scholarship through contemporary international education.
My grandfather received classical Confucian education typical of late imperial period, focusing on Four Books, Five Classics, calligraphy, and traditional poetry composition. This education emphasized character development alongside scholarly achievement, with memorization of classical texts providing foundation for moral reasoning and literary expression. Despite limited practical application in modernizing China, this traditional education instilled enduring values regarding learning's importance and scholar's social responsibilities that would influence subsequent generations.
My father's education represented transitional generation bridging imperial and republican periods. While maintaining significant classical component, his studies incorporated "new learning" including mathematics, modern Chinese language, and introductory science—educational hybrid reflecting China's early modernization efforts. This educational synthesis created distinctive perspective integrating traditional scholarly values with emerging appreciation for scientific knowledge and practical application.
My own education reflected early People's Republic priorities emphasizing technical training addressing urgent national development needs. The health school curriculum focused primarily on practical skills rather than theoretical foundations or broader intellectual development. This utilitarian approach, while limiting certain educational dimensions, successfully developed capabilities addressing immediate healthcare shortages during critical national reconstruction period. Throughout subsequent career, I supplemented this practical foundation through continuous self-education across multiple domains beyond technical medicine.
My children's education during 1970s and 1980s demonstrated further educational evolution reflecting changing national priorities and opportunities. Despite Cultural Revolution disruptions during their early schooling, both eventually accessed university education during restoration of academic standards in post-Mao period. Their educational experiences balanced scientific-technical emphasis with broader knowledge foundations, while maintaining traditional Chinese educational values regarding discipline, persistence, and achievement orientation.
My grandchildren's contemporary education incorporates dimensions unimaginable in previous generations: international perspectives, digital technologies, creativity emphasis, and preparation for global rather than merely national participation. While maintaining core achievement orientation characteristic of Chinese educational tradition, their learning encompasses far broader content domains, methodological approaches, and potential applications than any previous family generation experienced.
Throughout these remarkable transformations across five generations, certain core educational values have demonstrated surprising persistence: belief in education's transformative potential, commitment to diligent study regardless of circumstances, recognition of learning as lifelong rather than merely institutional process, and understanding that education serves both individual development and broader social purposes. These enduring values have enabled each generation to navigate changing educational environments while maintaining fundamental commitment to learning as essential life dimension.
This educational continuity across dramatic historical discontinuity represents perhaps our family's most significant cultural achievement—maintaining core values regarding knowledge and learning while adapting their expression to radically different historical circumstances. The capacity to preserve essential educational commitments while transforming their specific manifestations has enabled generational advancement despite historical disruptions that might otherwise have severed cultural transmission.
For contemporary young people navigating rapidly changing educational environment, this multigenerational perspective offers several insights: educational forms and content inevitably transform across time while core learning commitments transcend particular historical manifestations; formal education provides foundation requiring supplementation through lifelong self-directed learning; and educational achievement serves both individual development and broader social contribution rather than either dimension alone. These insights, developed through five generations' educational experience across extraordinary historical transitions, retain relevance despite continuing educational transformation.
The Examination System Through Time
The examination system has profoundly influenced Chinese education throughout its history, with imperial civil service examinations establishing pattern later transformed but never entirely abandoned through subsequent revolutionary changes. My family's experience across four generations illuminates how this examination tradition both persisted and transformed throughout modern Chinese history, creating distinctive educational patterns that continue influencing contemporary approaches despite dramatic contextual changes.
My grandfather's generation faced imperial examination system in its final manifestation before 1905 abolition. This elaborate testing structure—with county, provincial, and metropolitan examination levels—determined access to government positions representing primary advancement path for educated classes. The examination content emphasized classical texts, literary composition, and calligraphy rather than practical knowledge or administrative skills. While ostensibly meritocratic, this system favored those with family resources supporting extended preparation and reflected particular cultural-literary tradition rather than broader capabilities.
My father's education occurred during transitional period following imperial examination abolition but preceding establishment of standardized modern educational assessment. This interim period featured inconsistent evaluation methods across different institutions, with traditional literary assessments gradually yielding to more diverse testing incorporating scientific knowledge, mathematics, and modern language skills. This transitional generation navigated uncertain evaluation standards during educational system undergoing fundamental reorganization.
My own educational assessment during 1950s reflected early People's Republic emphasis on practical skills and political reliability alongside academic capability. The entrance examination for health school emphasized basic scientific knowledge, mathematical computation, and language proficiency while supplementing these academic measures with political background assessment and physical health evaluation. This multidimensional selection process reflected both practical workforce development needs and ideological priorities characteristic of early revolutionary period.
My children experienced perhaps the most dramatic examination system transformation following Cultural Revolution disruptions. After period when university admission relied primarily on political recommendation and class background rather than academic assessment, the restored national college entrance examination (gaokao) in 1977 reestablished academic meritocracy as primary university selection mechanism. This examination revival, while reintroducing genuine academic competition, created extraordinary pressure on students competing for limited university positions after educational disruption period.
My grandchildren's generation faces contemporary examination system maintaining gaokao's basic structure while incorporating significant modifications addressing changing educational priorities. Their assessment experiences include greater emphasis on application rather than memorization, incorporation of continuous evaluation alongside culminating examinations, consideration of diverse capabilities beyond traditional academic subjects, and supplementary assessment methods reducing single-examination determination of educational opportunity. While maintaining examination's central role, these modifications attempt addressing limitations observed in previous assessment iterations.
Throughout these transformations across generations, certain patterns demonstrate remarkable persistence: examination success remains primary legitimate advancement mechanism despite changing content; preparation intensity creates significant childhood and adolescent stress regardless of specific assessment content; examination outcomes significantly influence life trajectory despite varying predictive validity for actual performance; and preparation strategies develop rapidly in response to each assessment system iteration regardless of intended educational purposes.
The examination emphasis within Chinese educational tradition offers both significant advantages and persistent challenges that transcend specific historical manifestations. The meritocratic principle—advancement based on demonstrated capability rather than inherited privilege—represents enduring positive contribution despite implementation limitations during various historical periods. The shared cultural commitment to educational achievement creates motivation sustaining effort through challenges that might otherwise discourage persistent engagement. The objective assessment emphasis, while sometimes narrowing educational focus, provides transparency regarding advancement criteria often lacking in more subjective evaluation systems.
Simultaneously, examination emphasis creates persistent challenges across generations: excessive focus on assessable content at the expense of broader educational development; psychological pressure potentially undermining intrinsic learning motivation; strategic preparation sometimes replacing genuine understanding; and inevitable advantages for students from families providing enhanced preparation resources despite ostensibly equal competitive conditions.
My family's multigenerational perspective suggests neither uncritical embrace nor wholesale rejection of examination tradition serves optimal educational purposes. Rather, thoughtful engagement recognizing both genuine meritocratic contributions and persistent limitations offers most productive approach. Each generation necessarily adapts this educational tension to contemporary circumstances while maintaining awareness of both examination benefits and limitations revealed through historical experience.
For contemporary students and families navigating current examination pressures, this historical perspective offers several insights: examination success represents genuine achievement deserving recognition while remaining imperfect measure of broader capabilities; preparation strategies balancing assessment requirements with genuine learning serve long-term development better than narrowly instrumental approaches; and examination outcomes influence but need not determine life meaning or personal value. These balanced perspectives, developed through multiple generations' examination experiences across dramatically different historical contexts, provide wisdom transcending particular assessment manifestation.
Family Stories of Educational Struggle and Triumph
Beyond abstract educational principles, specific family experiences across generations illuminate how education functions within actual lives amid historical circumstances sometimes supporting and sometimes hindering learning pursuits. These family educational narratives, passed between generations, provide concrete manifestation of values otherwise remaining abstract and demonstrate how educational commitment operates within actual rather than idealized conditions.
My grandfather's educational journey illustrates determination overcoming economic limitations during late imperial period. As youngest son in merchant family with modest resources, his classical education required significant sacrifice including reduced diet, minimal material possessions, and extended study hours by oil lamp after completing household responsibilities. His persistence through eight examination attempts before achieving xiucai degree demonstrated commitment transcending initial disappointment. This example of perseverance despite repeated setbacks became frequently referenced family story encouraging persistence through educational challenges in subsequent generations.
My father's educational transition between classical and modern learning demonstrates adaptation to changing knowledge requirements during early Republican period. Initially trained exclusively in classical texts, he independently pursued "new learning" through self-study groups with like-minded students supplementing traditional education with mathematics, science, and foreign language exposure. This educational entrepreneurship—creating learning opportunities beyond institutional frameworks—established pattern of self-directed education extending beyond formal schooling that influenced subsequent generations' approaches to knowledge acquisition.
My own educational experience during revolutionary period reflects different manifestation of similar persistence amid limited options. When university education proved inaccessible due to family background and limited educational opportunity during tumultuous historical period, the health school technical training provided alternative educational path despite not representing ideal academic aspiration. This pragmatic adaptation to available educational opportunities rather than abandonment of learning altogether demonstrated flexibility within persistent educational commitment that proved valuable lesson for subsequent generations facing their own educational constraints.
My daughter's educational journey illustrates determination through Cultural Revolution disruptions and subsequent opportunity restoration. Her early education occurred during period when traditional academic learning faced significant curtailment, with political study and physical labor replacing substantial academic content. Despite these limitations, she maintained learning commitment through self-study beyond school requirements, preparing independently for educational opportunity restoration that eventually materialized with university entrance examination reinstatement in 1977. Her eventual medical school admission and subsequent physician career demonstrated how persistent educational commitment sometimes requires patience through adverse historical periods before finding appropriate expression.
My grandson's contemporary international education represents dramatically different manifestation of family educational tradition incorporating global rather than merely national perspective. His studies across multiple countries and educational systems—combining Chinese fundamental education with American university training—represent educational cosmopolitanism unimaginable in previous generations yet maintaining core family commitment to learning as life priority. This educational internationalization demonstrates how enduring values find expression appropriate to changed historical circumstances rather than merely replicating previous generational patterns.
Throughout these diverse educational narratives across five generations, certain thematic elements demonstrate remarkable consistency: education remains priority deserving sacrifice when necessary; learning transcends institutional frameworks requiring initiative beyond formal structures; temporary limitations or setbacks warrant persistence rather than abandonment; and educational purposes serve both individual development and broader social contribution rather than either dimension alone.
These family educational narratives serve multiple functions across generations: they transmit specific educational strategies proven effective through actual experience; they provide encouragement during inevitable challenging periods by demonstrating previous generational success despite difficulties; they establish normative expectations regarding educational commitment appropriate within family tradition; and they connect individual educational experiences to broader family identity extending beyond particular generation.
For contemporary young people navigating their own educational journeys, these multigenerational narratives offer perspective transcending immediate challenges or opportunities. They demonstrate how educational experiences gain meaning within longer personal and family developmental trajectory rather than merely through immediate outcomes or recognition. They illustrate how persistence through difficulty often proves more developmental valuable than smooth progression through unchallenging educational paths. Perhaps most importantly, they connect individual educational experiences to intergenerational continuity extending beyond individual lifespan.
Educational Reflections for Contemporary Youth
Based on educational observation across nine decades spanning imperial examination system through contemporary international education, certain reflections may prove valuable for young people currently navigating their own educational journeys amid rapidly changing knowledge environment. While specific educational content necessarily transforms across generations, certain principles regarding effective learning engagement maintain relevance despite contextual evolution.
Perhaps most fundamental insight involves distinguishing between educational credentials and actual learning development—related but distinct objectives sometimes confused in examination-oriented educational cultures. While credentials obviously matter within competitive opportunity structures, their purpose ultimately involves certifying capabilities actually developed rather than constituting goal themselves. This distinction between certification and development helps maintain focus on genuine learning rather than merely pursuing credentials potentially disconnected from substantive capability.
A second insight concerns effective knowledge integration within educational process. Throughout my career, I repeatedly observed how practitioners integrating knowledge across domains functioned more effectively than those maintaining rigid compartmentalization despite similar formal qualifications. This integration requires deliberate effort beyond institutional requirements, as educational systems typically organize knowledge into separate subjects without sufficiently emphasizing interconnections essential for effective application. The most successful professionals typically develop personal knowledge organization systems transcending institutional classifications.
The relationship between theory and practice represents third area where multigenerational perspective offers valuable insight. Each educational generation encountered different theory-practice balance, from imperial examination's abstract focus through revolutionary period's practical emphasis to contemporary attempts at integration. This varied experience demonstrates that neither pure theory nor mere practice serves optimal development; rather, continuous movement between conceptual understanding and practical application creates dynamic learning process where each dimension enriches the other through ongoing interaction.
Fourth insight involves balancing individual educational objectives with broader social purposes—tension present throughout Chinese educational history from Confucian scholar-official ideal through revolutionary collective emphasis to contemporary entrepreneurial focus. While specific manifestation necessarily varies across historical periods, education consistently serves both individual development and social contribution purposes. The most meaningful educational journeys integrate these dimensions rather than emphasizing either exclusively, recognizing how personal development enables social contribution while meaningful social engagement enriches individual development.
The role of struggle and challenge within effective education offers fifth observation transcending specific historical manifestations. Throughout multiple generations' educational experiences, developmental value emerged more reliably from challenging engagement requiring persistent effort than from effortless achievement. This observation contradicts some contemporary educational approaches emphasizing exclusive positive reinforcement and difficulty minimization. While excessive challenge obviously proves counterproductive, appropriate developmental challenge represents essential component of meaningful educational experience rather than unfortunate condition to be eliminated.
A sixth insight concerns technology's role within education—particularly relevant amid rapid digital transformation. Throughout my lifetime, I've witnessed multiple technological revolutions affecting knowledge acquisition: from limited manuscript access through printed textbook availability to current unlimited digital information accessibility. Each technological transition created both genuine advancement opportunities and potential superficiality risks. The consistent pattern suggests thoughtful technology integration serves learning effectively while uncritical technological enthusiasm often produces ephemeral benefits without substantive educational advancement.
The final observation involves lifelong learning necessity transcending any formal educational period. Throughout nine decades, I've observed how individuals maintaining active learning engagement throughout adulthood consistently outperformed those considering education complete upon institutional graduation—pattern increasingly relevant amid accelerating knowledge development. This continuity between formal education and subsequent self-directed learning represents perhaps the most significant educational principle emerging from multigenerational observation spanning dramatically different historical contexts.
For contemporary young people navigating educational journeys amid unprecedented information availability, technological transformation, and global integration, these perspectives from nine decades of educational observation offer contextual understanding extending beyond immediate circumstances. While specific manifestations necessarily differ from previous generations' experiences, these underlying principles regarding meaningful educational engagement maintain relevance despite contextual evolution.
The examination preparations, academic pressures, and credential pursuits dominating contemporary young people's immediate experience gain meaning within broader perspective recognizing education as fundamental human development process extending throughout lifelong journey rather than merely institutional requirement or credential acquisition. This extended perspective transforms educational experience from competitive sorting mechanism into meaningful developmental engagement serving both individual fulfillment and broader social contribution.## CHAPTER 12: WHEN THE GARDENIA BLOOMS AGAIN
Seasons of Life and Renewal
The gardenia has held special significance throughout my life. These delicate white flowers with their intoxicating fragrance marked important moments from childhood through late career, becoming personal symbols of renewal and continuity across life's changing seasons. Their recurring blooms provide metaphor for life's cycles of challenge and regeneration that has proven particularly meaningful in later years.
My first memory of gardenias dates to early childhood in the 1930s, when a bush grew in our family courtyard. Even amid wartime hardships, my mother maintained this plant with particular care, explaining that its blooms reminded her of life's persistent beauty despite surrounding difficulties. During spring flowering season, she would place a single blossom in a shallow dish, filling our modest home with fragrance that transcended material limitations.
Years later, during medical school, I encountered a massive gardenia hedge surrounding the hospital dormitory. During examination periods, I would sometimes study near these plants, finding their scent both calming and stimulating during long hours of memorization and practice. When particularly challenging exams approached, classmates and I developed tradition of placing gardenia blossoms on our desks for good fortune—minor superstition that nevertheless provided psychological comfort during stressful periods.
Throughout my surgical career, I maintained gardenia plants at each home, regardless of housing limitations or relocation disruptions. During difficult professional periods—particularly the Cultural Revolution years when medical practice faced significant constraints—tending these plants provided meaningful connection to continuing natural cycles beyond temporary political circumstances. Their reliable blooming despite neglect during overwhelming work periods demonstrated resilience that paralleled values important in medical practice.
In later career years, gardenia cultivation became more deliberate hobby rather than incidental pleasure. After partial retirement, I expanded from single plants to small collection featuring different gardenia varieties with varying bloom characteristics, fragrances, and growth habits. This horticultural interest provided structured yet flexible activity during transition from full professional engagement to more balanced later life—offering satisfaction of cultivating beauty while accommodating changing energy levels and interests.
The metaphorical significance of these flowers has deepened with age and experience. The gardenia's cycle—the quiet dormancy followed by exuberant blooming, then periods of apparent inactivity preceding renewed flowering—parallels how life itself proceeds through active and contemplative phases, each with distinct character and purpose. Their ability to withstand neglect during demanding periods yet respond vigorously to renewed attention reflects resilience particularly meaningful after experiencing historical disruptions throughout tumultuous Chinese century.
Perhaps most significantly, gardenias embody integration of apparent contradictions: delicate appearance with surprising hardiness, simple flower structure producing complex fragrance, brief individual blooms contributing to continuing lifecycle. This reconciliation of seeming opposites resonates with life wisdom developed through long medical career balancing scientific precision with human compassion, technical intervention with natural healing, individual mortality with continuing human endeavor.
In recent years, sharing gardenia cultivation with grandchildren has created intergenerational connection through activity engaging both youthful curiosity and elder experience. Teaching propagation techniques, optimal growing conditions, and appreciation for natural beauty provides vehicle for transmitting not merely horticultural knowledge but broader life values: patience, attentiveness to subtle changes, appreciation for beauty, and respect for natural processes beyond human control.
The gardenia thus symbolizes personal philosophy developed across nine decades: life proceeds through recurring cycles rather than linear progression alone, periods of apparent dormancy often precede renewal, beauty and meaning persist despite temporary disruptions, and careful tending of what we value yields continuing though sometimes unpredictable rewards. These insights, developed through observation of both plant cycles and human experiences, inform approach to later life stages with appreciation for their distinctive character and contribution.
Family Relationships Across Time
While professional narrative necessarily dominates much of this autobiography, family relationships have provided essential foundation throughout life's journey—though not without challenges, transitions, and reconciliations mirroring broader historical developments throughout tumultuous century. These relationships, evolving across decades, reveal how personal connections both shape and reflect larger social transformations.
My marriage to Lin Shuying in 1960 has provided life's central partnership across more than six decades. Our relationship began during professional association at county health department where she worked as nurse and I as administrator before transitioning to clinical practice. The partnership commenced during relatively stable period before Cultural Revolution disruptions, establishing foundation that would weather subsequent historical turbulence.
Early married years featured adjustments typical for professional couples of that era, with workplace responsibilities often extending into personal time through emergency calls, extended shifts, and community health campaigns. Housing limitations—two basic rooms with shared facilities—necessitated close coordination of daily activities and mutual accommodation. Despite these constraints, we established functional partnership balancing professional commitments with family development.
The arrival of children—daughter in 1962 and son in 1965—created both joy and challenge as parenting responsibilities coincided with increasing professional demands. Traditional gender expectations placed disproportionate domestic responsibility on my wife despite her own nursing career, arrangement that contemporary perspective recognizes as inequitable but that reflected normative patterns of that historical period. Her capacity to maintain both professional work and primary household management demonstrated remarkable capability that supported family functioning throughout critical developmental years.
The Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976) created distinctive family challenges as political expectations sometimes infringed upon domestic life. Children's participation in revolutionary activities through schools occasionally created tension when political pronouncements contradicted family values or historical understanding. Navigating these situations required careful balance between supporting children's necessary social participation while maintaining family integrity and core values despite external pressures.
Our family approach emphasized education regardless of changing political circumstances. Despite period when intellectual pursuits faced criticism, we maintained home environment valuing knowledge, reading, and academic development. Evening discussions often involved mathematical puzzles, scientific explanations of natural phenomena, or historical stories—intellectual engagement continuing family scholarly tradition despite external constraints.
Family transitions during reform era brought both opportunities and adaptations. My daughter's university admission in 1978 represented significant achievement during early restoration of academic meritocracy, followed by medical career development paralleling broader expansion of professional opportunities for women during this period. My son's technical education and subsequent transportation sector employment reflected emerging economic diversification beyond previous narrow occupational channels.
Geographic separations eventually emerged as professional opportunities led family members to different locations—common pattern in modernizing China but adjustment for family previously located within single community. These separations necessitated new approaches to maintaining connection despite physical distance, initially through letters and occasional telephone calls, later through evolving communication technologies that progressively reduced practical impact of geographic dispersal.
Grandparenthood beginning in the 1990s introduced new relationship dimension now extending across three decades. This role has evolved from traditional Chinese grandparent model emphasizing authority and continuity toward more interactive relationship balancing traditional values with recognition of changing childhood experiences in contemporary China. Relationships with grandchildren provide both personal fulfillment and opportunity for transmitting family values while accommodating inevitable generational differences in perspective and experience.In the mid-1970s, a 42-year-old woman presented with massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage secondary to previously undiagnosed peptic ulcer disease. Endoscopic capabilities were unavailable at our facility during this period, limiting both diagnostic precision and non-operative management options. The patient required emergency surgery to control hemorrhage that had already resulted in profound anemia and early shock manifestations.
The clinical situation was further complicated by the patient's religious beliefs, which prohibited blood transfusion under any circumstances. While such religious restrictions were uncommon in rural China during this era, this particular patient belonged to a small Christian sect with strict prohibitions against receiving blood products. Despite her critical condition, she remained adamant about this restriction, with family members reinforcing her decision.
This situation created profound ethical dilemma balancing respect for patient autonomy against the clear medical necessity for transfusion. Proceeding with surgery without blood product support carried extremely high mortality risk given her already compromised hemodynamic status and anticipated additional operative blood loss. However, proceeding with forced transfusion against explicit refusal would violate both personal and religious autonomy—ethical violation particularly significant during an era when individual rights were already compromised in many societal domains.
After careful consideration and discussion with surgical colleagues, I determined to proceed with surgery without transfusion while implementing every available blood conservation strategy. These included: careful positioning to minimize venous pressure at the surgical site, meticulous surgical technique with immediate control of bleeding points, judicious fluid management balancing perfusion requirements against hemodilution risks, maintained normothermia to preserve coagulation function, and intraoperative blood salvage through manual collection and filtration for autotransfusion (a rudimentary version of cell salvage techniques that would later become standardized).
The operation revealed large posterior duodenal ulcer with erosion into gastroduodenal artery—findings explaining the massive hemorrhage. Definitive control required vessel ligation, ulcer oversewing, truncal vagotomy, and pyloroplasty—standard approach for that era before effective pharmacological acid suppression became available. Throughout the procedure, the patient maintained tenuous but adequate perfusion despite hemoglobin level that would ordinarily mandate transfusion under standard protocols.
Postoperatively, we continued aggressive measures to support recovery without transfusion: supplemental oxygen to maximize hemoglobin utilization efficiency, careful iron supplementation, erythropoiesis support through available nutritional means, and vigilant monitoring for complications. The patient experienced prolonged but steady recovery, with gradual resolution of anemia through endogenous erythropoiesis over subsequent weeks.
This case profoundly influenced my approach to patient autonomy throughout subsequent practice. While transfusion would have simplified management and reduced risk, respecting this patient's deeply held belief demonstrated that alternative approaches could sometimes succeed even in apparently desperate situations. The experience reinforced principle that technical medical considerations, while critically important, must sometimes yield to broader human values when genuine autonomous choice exists—a perspective that would gain greater acceptance in Chinese medicine in subsequent decades.
From technical perspective, this case also demonstrated how constraint sometimes drives innovation. The necessity of managing without transfusion led to implementing blood conservation strategies that would later become standard even for patients without transfusion restrictions. This experience of "doing more with less" characterized much of rural medical practice during that era, often leading to approaches that maintained effectiveness while reducing resource intensity.
Medical Diplomacy: The Foreign Delegation Emergency
In spring 1982, I encountered situation where medical emergency intersected with political sensitivity—circumstances requiring both technical expertise and diplomatic finesse. A Japanese industrial delegation visiting local factory development project included elderly executive who collapsed during formal banquet, presenting with symptoms suggesting acute myocardial infarction: crushing chest pain, diaphoresis, nausea, and left arm pain.
The political circumstances created immediate complications beyond clinical considerations. This visit represented significant international cooperation during early reform and opening period when such relationships remained both economically important and politically sensitive. Local officials immediately suggested transferring the patient to provincial capital for treatment, fearing international incident if complications occurred at county-level facility. However, the patient's clinical instability made extended transport hazardous given limited monitoring and intervention capabilities during transfer.
After rapid assessment confirming probable acute myocardial infarction, I advocated for immediate stabilization at our facility before considering transfer. This recommendation encountered resistance from local officials concerned about potential diplomatic consequences of adverse outcome at county-level hospital. The Japanese delegation's interpreter conveyed their own medical consultant's preference for immediate treatment rather than risking transport, creating tension between medical recommendation and political concerns.
The situation required careful navigation of both clinical and diplomatic considerations. Rather than directly opposing officials' transfer preference, I suggested brief stabilization period with thrombolytic therapy (newly available at our hospital) while transport arrangements were prepared. This compromise acknowledged political concerns while prioritizing immediate clinical intervention during the critical early infarction period when treatment efficacy is highest.
Implementation proceeded with heightened attention to both clinical excellence and communication considerations. The Japanese delegation's physician observed treatment, with each intervention explained through interpreter. Local officials remained present throughout, receiving regular updates in terms understandable to non-medical personnel. This transparent approach reduced anxiety among all parties while ensuring appropriate medical care proceeded without political interference.
Thrombolytic therapy administration produced prompt clinical improvement, with resolution of chest pain and improvement in vital parameters. This positive response reduced transfer urgency, eventually leading to consensus decision for continued management at our facility rather than potentially destabilizing transport. The patient remained hospitalized for ten days, recovering sufficiently to return to Japan with medical escort arranged by his company.
This incident illustrated how medical judgment sometimes requires defense against non-medical considerations, whether political, economic, or social. The responsibility to advocate for optimal patient care regardless of external pressures represents core professional obligation transcending cultural and political contexts. However, the manner of this advocacy requires diplomatic sensitivity to legitimate concerns of various stakeholders, seeking solutions addressing both clinical and contextual considerations rather than dismissing non-medical factors entirely.
The case also demonstrated value of transparent communication during politically sensitive situations. By maintaining openness about the patient's condition, treatment rationale, and honest assessment of risks with all parties—patient, family, delegation members, and local officials—we established trust that ultimately enabled medical recommendations to prevail despite initial resistance. This communication approach proved useful in numerous subsequent situations where clinical decisions carried potential political implications.
From personal perspective, this incident provided valuable experience in balancing professional obligations against external pressures—skill particularly important during China's transition period when economic development priorities sometimes competed with healthcare considerations. The successful navigation of both clinical and political dimensions reinforced confidence in maintaining professional integrity while acknowledging legitimate concerns beyond purely medical factors.
The Iatrogenic Crisis: When Treatment Causes Harm
Among the most challenging clinical scenarios are those where medical intervention itself creates life-threatening complications. In 1990, I confronted particularly difficult case illustrating this category of iatrogenic crisis, requiring both technical intervention and ethical navigation of situation involving potential colleague error.
A 58-year-old male had undergone routine cholecystectomy at neighboring county hospital for symptomatic cholelithiasis. The operation appeared uncomplicated initially, but the patient developed progressive jaundice, abdominal pain, and fever beginning approximately 36 hours postoperatively. After several days of deterioration despite antibiotic therapy, he was transferred to our hospital with diagnosis of suspected bile leak and peritonitis.
Upon transfer, the patient presented with severe sepsis, marked hyperbilirubinemia, and worsening renal function indicating developing multiple organ failure. Urgent imaging with recently acquired CT technology revealed extensive intra-abdominal fluid collections containing both bile and purulent material. The clinical picture strongly suggested major biliary tree injury during the original cholecystectomy—a serious technical complication requiring immediate intervention.
The case presented multiple complexities beyond technical surgical management. The referring surgeon, a capable clinician with generally good outcomes, had failed to recognize the complication promptly and appeared reluctant to acknowledge potential technical error in operative notes. Local medical relationships and professional courtesy considerations complicated the situation, as directly attributing the problem to surgical error might damage both professional reputation and collegial relationships.
After stabilizing the patient with aggressive fluid resuscitation, antibiotics, and supportive care, I proceeded with reoperation. Exploration confirmed our suspicion of major bile duct injury, specifically complete transection and ligation of the common hepatic duct mistaken for the cystic duct during cholecystectomy—recognized complication but one representing significant technical error. Extensive intra-abdominal contamination with infected bile necessitated thorough irrigation alongside definitive biliary reconstruction.
The reconstructive procedure involved Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy to reestablish biliary drainage—challenging operation under emergency conditions in severely septic patient with inflamed tissues. The technical aspects proceeded successfully despite difficult circumstances, with restoration of biliary continuity and placement of multiple drains to manage ongoing contamination. The patient required extended intensive support postoperatively but eventually recovered after prolonged hospitalization.
The ethical dimensions of this case proved as challenging as technical aspects. The patient and family naturally questioned what had occurred and why reoperation was necessary. Without assigning explicit blame, I explained the nature of the injury in factual terms while emphasizing that such complications can occur despite appropriate care, particularly during the original hospital's transition to more complex surgical procedures. This explanation acknowledged the reality of complication without unnecessary destruction of patient's confidence in healthcare system or direct colleague criticism.
Communication with the referring surgeon required similar careful balance. Rather than accusatory approach, I framed discussion around educational opportunity, reviewing imaging findings and intraoperative observations as learning experience. This colleague ultimately acknowledged the error and participated constructively in the patient's follow-up care, maintaining professional dignity while accepting responsibility appropriately. This outcome preserved both professional relationship and, more importantly, continuity of patient care.
This case reinforced important principle regarding complications: their occurrence, while sometimes representing genuine error, requires management focused primarily on patient recovery rather than assignation of blame. The patient's welfare must remain central priority, with professional relationships and reputational concerns, while legitimate, remaining secondary considerations. Finding appropriate balance that neither ignores error nor creates unnecessarily adversarial relationships represents essential professional skill particularly relevant in interconnected medical communities.
From educational perspective, this case subsequently served as valuable teaching example (with appropriate anonymization) regarding both technical aspects of preventing bile duct injury and ethical dimensions of managing complications. By transforming difficult situation into learning opportunity without unnecessary colleague humiliation, we established departmental culture where complications could be discussed openly for educational benefit—approach that ultimately improves patient safety more effectively than blame-oriented responses.
Complex Decision-Making: The Inoperable Finding
A particularly challenging category of surgical crisis involves intraoperative discovery that planned intervention cannot proceed as intended due to unexpected findings. Such situations require rapid adaptation, creative problem-solving, and difficult intraoperative decisions balancing various suboptimal alternatives. A case from 1997 illustrates these challenges particularly well.
A 63-year-old male presented with progressive jaundice, weight loss, and intermittent right upper quadrant pain. Imaging studies available at that time, including ultrasound and CT, revealed apparent pancreatic head mass with biliary obstruction highly suspicious for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. After appropriate staging workup suggesting resectable disease, we planned Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) with curative intent—major operation but one offering only realistic chance for long-term survival.
Upon laparotomy and initial exploration, however, we encountered unexpected findings contradicting preoperative imaging assessment. Rather than discrete pancreatic head tumor, we found extensive retroperitoneal tumor extension with vascular encasement of superior mesenteric vessels and evidence of hepatic metastases not visible on preoperative imaging. These findings rendered curative resection impossible, creating intraoperative dilemma regarding appropriate next steps.
This situation required rapid reassessment and decision-making under anesthesia with family waiting anxiously for surgical outcome. Several options presented themselves, each with significant disadvantages: (1) abort procedure entirely, leaving patient with unrelieved biliary obstruction and jaundice; (2) perform palliative biliary bypass alone to relieve jaundice; (3) perform more extensive palliative procedure addressing both biliary and potential future gastric outlet obstruction; or (4) attempt cytoreductive debulking despite inability to achieve complete resection.
After rapid assessment considering patient's preoperative functional status, expressed goals of care, and nature of findings, I selected double bypass procedure (cholecystojejunostomy and gastrojejunostomy) providing palliation for both current biliary obstruction and potential future gastric outlet obstruction commonly developing with pancreatic head malignancies. This approach balanced intervention extent against realistic outcome expectations, providing meaningful symptom palliation without excessive operative morbidity.
Intraoperatively, I also obtained detailed tissue sampling for definitive diagnosis and potential guidance of subsequent non-surgical therapies. The palliative bypass procedures proceeded without complication, with successful relief of biliary obstruction evidenced by resolving jaundice postoperatively. The patient recovered appropriately from surgery and proceeded to palliative chemotherapy based on tissue diagnosis confirming pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
The most challenging aspect of this case involved postoperative discussion with the patient and family. They had anticipated possibility of curative procedure based on preoperative assessments and now required adjustment to significantly different prognosis. This conversation demanded balance between honesty about poor long-term prognosis and maintenance of appropriate hope for meaningful remaining life with symptom control. Through series of conversations rather than single disclosure, we gradually helped the family adjust expectations while identifying meaningful goals for the patient's remaining time.
This case exemplifies how surgical crisis sometimes involves reconciling preoperative expectations with intraoperative realities that fundamentally change treatment paradigm. The technical aspects of alternative procedure presented minimal challenge compared to rapid intraoperative decision-making and subsequent communication challenges. The ability to pivot from curative to palliative approach without requiring second operation represented genuine benefit to the patient despite disappointing primary finding.
From educational perspective, this case demonstrates importance of developing both primary and contingency plans before major operations. While specific intraoperative findings may prove surprising, comprehensive preoperative consideration of possible scenarios allows more organized response to unexpected developments. This contingency planning represents essential element of surgical judgment extending beyond technical operative skills—mental preparation allowing appropriate adaptation when original plans prove unfeasible.
Modern Crisis: Technology Failure During Minimally Invasive Surgery
As surgical practice increasingly incorporated advanced technology, new categories of potential crisis emerged involving equipment dependency and failure contingencies. A case from 2004 illustrates these modern challenges that would have been inconceivable during my early career decades.
A 49-year-old female underwent elective laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication for medically refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease. The procedure began routinely with pneumoperitoneum establishment, laparoscopic port placement, and initial dissection of the gastroesophageal junction. Approximately 30 minutes into the procedure, during critical hiatal dissection, complete failure of the video system occurred, with monitor displaying only electronic static rather than laparoscopic image.
This equipment failure created immediate crisis, as the operation had reached point where significant dissection had occurred but definitive repair remained incomplete. Several anatomical structures stood at risk from unvisualized instrumentation, including the esophagus, vagus nerves, and short gastric vessels. The pneumoperitoneum continued distending the abdomen while visualization was lost, creating time-sensitive decision requirement.
Initial response involved standard troubleshooting protocols—checking connections, power cycling equipment, and attempting backup camera—all proving unsuccessful in restoring visualization. The decision point required choosing between three suboptimal options: (1) maintain pneumoperitoneum while awaiting technical support and equipment replacement; (2) convert immediately to open procedure through standard upper midline incision; or (3) attempt controlled partial desufflation and placement of additional ports allowing alternative visualization angles with secondary equipment.
After rapid assessment, I selected immediate conversion to open procedure as safest option given the particular dissection stage and specific equipment limitations at our institution. The conversion proceeded in organized fashion through upper midline laparotomy, with careful attention to structures already partially mobilized laparoscopically. The open Nissen fundoplication was completed without further incident, though with expected increased postoperative pain and longer recovery compared to laparoscopic approach.
The equipment failure investigation subsequently revealed power supply component failure in video processor—malfunction that could not have been predicted or prevented through standard maintenance protocols. This understanding proved important for both institutional quality improvement and appropriate discussion with the patient, who understandably questioned why conversion to open procedure became necessary during planned minimally invasive operation.
This case illustrates how technology dependency creates new vulnerability categories requiring specific preparation and contingency planning. While equipment failure remains statistically uncommon, its occurrence requires immediate organized response to prevent patient harm. The preparation for such contingencies must extend beyond technical planning to include appropriate consent discussions with patients, ensuring understanding that conversion to open procedure may become necessary despite best preparations.
From systems perspective, this experience led to specific institutional improvements: development of rapid-access backup video systems, standardized conversion protocols for various minimally invasive procedures, and enhanced maintenance schedules for critical equipment. These systematic responses transformed individual adverse event into institutional learning opportunity with potential to prevent similar occurrences or improve management of unavoidable failures.
This technology crisis differs fundamentally from challenges characteristic of my early career, where resource limitations represented expected backdrop for all clinical care rather than unexpected failure. Yet despite these contextual differences, the core principles remain consistent across eras: maintaining focus on patient safety above other considerations, implementing orderly response to unexpected developments, and systematically learning from adverse events to improve future care.
Rural Ingenuity: The Improvised Equipment Case
While many clinical crises involve unexpected patient developments or complications, some arise from resource limitations requiring creative adaptation of available materials to meet clinical needs. A particularly memorable example from 1975 demonstrates how rural medical practice sometimes required improvisational approaches unimaginable in well-equipped modern facilities.
A 7-year-old boy presented to our county hospital after falling from significant height onto outstretched hand, resulting in severely displaced supracondylar humerus fracture with vascular compromise. The hand appeared pale with diminished pulses, indicating arterial compression or injury requiring urgent reduction to prevent permanent ischemic damage to the extremity.
The optimal management would normally involve closed reduction under general anesthesia with fluoroscopic guidance to ensure adequate alignment, followed by percutaneous pinning or appropriate immobilization. However, our facility at that time lacked both fluoroscopy capabilities and proper Kirschner wires for percutaneous fixation. The anesthesia options were also limited, with no dedicated pediatric equipment available.
The situation required immediate intervention despite suboptimal resources, as delay risking forearm ischemia would likely result in permanent disability or potential amputation. After brief consideration of transfer options—deemed excessively time-consuming given vascular compromise—we proceeded with creative adaptation of available resources to address the emergency.
For adequate visualization during reduction without fluoroscopy, we positioned two basic X-ray machines at perpendicular angles, allowing serial static images during reduction maneuvers—crude but functional substitute for real-time fluoroscopy. For fixation material in absence of proper Kirschner wires, we sterilized bicycle wheel spokes obtained from hospital maintenance worker who repaired staff bicycles. These stainless steel spokes, appropriately cut and shaped, provided adequate substitutes for commercial fixation devices.
The anesthesia challenge required particularly careful approach given pediatric considerations. Working with limited medication options and monitoring capabilities, our anesthetist colleague administered ketamine sedation supplemented with local field block—approach providing adequate anesthesia while minimizing respiratory depression risks without sophisticated monitoring.
Using this improvised setup, we successfully reduced the fracture with restoration of vascular flow confirmed by returning pulses and improved perfusion. The bicycle spoke "pins" maintained reduction adequately when placed through small incisions and driven into bone using hand drill. Post-reduction X-rays confirmed acceptable alignment, and the child maintained good vascular status throughout recovery period.
Follow-up extending several months confirmed appropriate healing without growth disturbance, neurovascular compromise, or functional limitation. The bicycle spoke pins were removed after four weeks once radiographic healing appeared adequate, with subsequent complete functional recovery. Years later, this patient (by then a young adult) returned to the hospital for unrelated reason and demonstrated normal elbow function with minimal visible evidence of previous serious injury.
This case exemplifies how resource limitations sometimes necessitate creative adaptations that—while diverging from textbook approaches—can achieve satisfactory outcomes when guided by sound understanding of underlying principles. The bicycle spoke substitution for commercial Kirschner wires represented not random improvisation but carefully considered adaptation based on understanding of required material properties: appropriate stainless steel composition, adequate rigidity, smooth surface for insertion, and biocompatibility for temporary implantation.
From ethical perspective, this approach required careful consideration of alternatives. The improvised solution carried certain additional risks compared to standard equipment but presented significantly lower risk than either non-intervention or excessive delay pursuing transfer to distant facility with appropriate equipment. This risk-benefit analysis, conducted rapidly but systematically, supported proceeding with adaptation rather than accepting poor outcome through inaction or dangerous delay.
For contemporary practitioners working in well-equipped facilities, such improvisations may seem alien or even inappropriate. However, understanding the principles guiding such adaptations remains valuable preparation for disasters, remote medical practice, or resource-limited settings where standard equipment may be unavailable. The fundamental principle transcending specific techniques involves focusing on essential treatment requirements rather than specific implementations when circumstances demand flexibility.
End-of-Life Decisions: The Futility Boundary
Among the most philosophically challenging crises in medical practice are situations involving potential futility—cases where continued intervention appears unlikely to achieve meaningful benefit despite technical capacity to continue treatment. A case from 2008 illustrates the complex ethical dimensions of such situations, particularly within Chinese cultural context where traditional family expectations sometimes conflict with medical realities.
An 87-year-old male with multiple pre-existing conditions including advanced heart failure, diabetes with end-organ damage, and moderate dementia suffered massive hemorrhagic stroke with intraventricular extension and midline shift. Upon presentation, he demonstrated minimal neurological responsiveness with abnormal brainstem reflexes and required mechanical ventilation. Neurosurgical evaluation deemed intervention inappropriate given extensive nature of hemorrhage, pre-existing comorbidities, and poor neurological prognosis.
The medical recommendation for palliative approach rather than aggressive intervention encountered strong resistance from the patient's son, who insisted on "doing everything possible" despite minimal chance of meaningful recovery. This family response reflected traditional Chinese values emphasizing filial responsibility and exhausting all options for elder family members regardless of likely outcome. The son specifically requested surgical intervention despite clear neurosurgical assessment of futility.
This situation created ethical crisis requiring balance between respecting family wishes within their cultural context and avoiding non-beneficial interventions potentially prolonging suffering. Complicating factors included absence of patient's own expressed preferences due to pre-existing cognitive impairment and the emotional intensity of family response that limited rational discussion of medical realities.
Rather than direct confrontation regarding futility, I approached the situation through series of educational conversations with the entire family, gradually establishing trust before addressing difficult prognostic realities. These discussions included detailed explanation of neurological findings with imaging review, specific description of intervention limitations, and honest assessment of potential outcomes even with maximal intervention. Throughout these conversations, I acknowledged and respected the son's filial devotion while gently redirecting focus toward patient-centered considerations.
After several such discussions over 48-hour period, we achieved tentative consensus supporting limited trial of conservative management while establishing clear parameters for reevaluation. These parameters included specific neurological assessments and timeline for reassessment, creating structure for subsequent decision-making rather than indefinite continuation of unsustainable intervention. This approach acknowledged family's need for demonstrable effort while establishing reasonable boundaries.
When subsequent assessments confirmed continued deterioration despite maximal medical management, the groundwork laid through earlier discussions enabled family acceptance of transition to comfort-focused care. The patient received appropriate palliation including extubation with comfort measures, and died peacefully with family present approximately 36 hours later. Follow-up conversation with the son several weeks afterward confirmed his acceptance of outcome and appreciation for approach that respected both medical realities and family values.
This case illustrates how apparent conflicts between medical assessment and family expectations sometimes reflect communication failures rather than genuine value disagreements. By approaching the situation through educational dialogue rather than ethical confrontation, we identified common ground centered on patient welfare rather than categorical intervention. The gradual, staged decision-making process provided family emotional space to adjust expectations while maintaining dignity.
From broader perspective, this case demonstrates how cultural competence requires more than superficial knowledge of cultural patterns—it demands understanding how specific values manifest in particular situations and flexibility in addressing these manifestations. The traditional Chinese emphasis on exhausting all options for elders represents not obstacle to appropriate care but contextual factor requiring specific communication approaches and decision frameworks that accommodate these values while maintaining medical integrity.
Throughout my career spanning Cultural Revolution through contemporary era, end-of-life decision approaches have evolved dramatically from primarily physician-determined to increasingly shared decision models. This evolution reflects broader societal changes regarding autonomy, information transparency, and decision-making authority. Navigating these changing expectations while maintaining focus on patient welfare has required continuous adaptation in communication approaches and ethical frameworks throughout seven decades of practice.
Reflections on Crisis Management
Throughout this chronicle of life-and-death experiences spanning seven decades, certain principles emerge that transcend specific clinical situations, technological contexts, and historical periods. These enduring approaches to crisis management represent distilled wisdom from thousands of critical situations encountered throughout unusually extended surgical career.
The foundational principle governing all crisis management involves maintaining calm, methodical approach despite situational urgency. Genuine emergencies require rapid response but rarely benefit from rushed or chaotic reaction. Throughout my practice, I've observed that composed, systematic assessment followed by deliberate intervention typically achieves better outcomes than reactive, disorganized response even when time pressures seem overwhelming. This disciplined approach requires practice to establish as default response pattern during crisis.
Second key principle involves appropriate delegation and team utilization during emergencies. The surgeon or physician leading crisis response cannot personally perform all necessary functions simultaneously. Effective leaders rapidly assess team capabilities, assign responsibilities matching individual skills, and maintain oversight ensuring coordination without micromanaging. This leadership approach transforms potential chaos into coordinated response leveraging collective capabilities beyond what any individual could accomplish alone.
Communication clarity during crisis represents third essential element transcending specific clinical scenarios. Under pressure, communication often deteriorates into assumptions, unclear directives, and incomplete information transfer. Effective crisis management requires deliberate communication discipline: clear, specific instructions; closed-loop confirmation of critical information; periodic situation summaries establishing shared understanding; and appropriate explanation to patients and families calibrated to their needs and emotional state.
Flexibility and adaptability constitute fourth critical principle applicable across diverse crisis situations. Predetermined algorithms and protocols provide valuable starting frameworks but rarely address all aspects of complex emergencies. The capacity to adapt standard approaches to specific circumstances, improvise when necessary, and revise plans as situations evolve distinguishes truly effective crisis management from rigid protocol application. This adaptive capacity develops through experience across diverse scenarios rather than from procedure memorization alone.
Maintaining perspective on intervention limitations represents fifth principle emerging from these collective experiences. In some situations, technical intervention reaches fundamental limits against overwhelming pathology. Recognizing these boundaries—neither abandoning potentially effective intervention nor pursuing futile measures—requires both technical knowledge and ethical wisdom. This balanced perspective develops gradually through witnessing both remarkable recoveries and inevitable failures throughout clinical practice.
The sixth principle involves systematic learning from crisis experiences, transforming even adverse outcomes into future improvement opportunities. Throughout my career, I've maintained practice of detailed post-event analysis examining decision processes, technical execution, team function, and system factors affecting outcomes. This reflective practice, initially personal but later formalized within institutional quality improvement, creates continuous learning cycle where even unfortunate outcomes contribute to future performance improvement.
Finally, self-care and emotional processing after crisis situations represent essential components of sustainable crisis management capacity. The cumulative psychological impact of multiple life-and-death scenarios creates potential for both acute stress reactions and long-term emotional consequences if inadequately processed. Throughout my career, I've developed increasingly deliberate approaches to post-crisis emotional integration, ranging from early-career informal discussions with colleagues to more structured debriefing practices in later professional years.
As I reflect on thousands of critical situations managed throughout seven decades, I recognize that technical capabilities, available resources, and specific interventions changed dramatically across this timespan. Yet these fundamental principles of crisis management—calm methodical approach, effective delegation, clear communication, appropriate adaptability, recognition of limitations, systematic learning, and emotional processing—remain remarkably consistent across eras, settings, and specific clinical scenarios.
For younger practitioners reading these experiences, I hope these principles provide framework extending beyond specific techniques that will inevitably evolve throughout their own careers. The capacity to function effectively during crisis—maintaining technical precision, ethical clarity, and human compassion amid challenging circumstances—represents perhaps the most enduring aspect of the physician's art across changing technological landscapes and healthcare systems.
CHAPTER 12: WHEN THE GARDENIA BLOOMS AGAIN contribution and growth well beyond conventional retirement timelines. This perspective values wisdom accumulated through experience while realistically acknowledging changing capabilities—an approach increasingly relevant as population aging creates need for sustainable models of later-life engagement across professions.
CHAPTER 9: SELECTED POEMS OF MINGQIN
[Editor's note: This chapter presents a selection of poems written by Dr. Li Mingjie (pen name Mingqin) throughout his life, with contextual notes explaining the circumstances of their composition and cultural references that might be unfamiliar to non-Chinese readers.]
Introduction to the Poetic Works
Throughout my life, poetry has provided both expressive outlet and meditative practice complementing the scientific precision of surgical work. While never considering myself a professional poet, I have composed verses throughout seven decades, recording significant experiences, expressing philosophical reflections, and maintaining connection with classical Chinese literary traditions despite modern professional focus.
My poetic sensibilities were formed during childhood education that emphasized classical literature alongside modern subjects. Traditional Chinese education integrated poetry into core curriculum rather than treating it as specialized artistic pursuit. Students memorized classical poems, practiced calligraphy through poetic texts, and learned composition through established forms. This foundation created lifelong appreciation for poetic expression even among those pursuing scientific or technical careers.
Most poems presented here follow classical Chinese forms—particularly five-character and seven-character regulated verse (wǔyán lǜshī and qīyán lǜshī) along with quatrains (jueju). These traditional structures impose specific patterns of tonal variation, parallelism, and thematic development requiring technical discipline alongside creative expression. The English translations necessarily sacrifice formal elements while attempting to convey meaning and imagery from the original Chinese.
These poems span the full arc of my life—from youthful compositions during medical training through reflections on surgical practice to contemplations on aging and mortality in recent years. Together, they provide glimpse into interior life complementing the external professional narrative presented elsewhere in this volume, revealing dimensions of experience difficult to express through conventional autobiographical prose.
Early Works (1950s-1960s)
First Night on Duty
(Written during medical internship, 1956)
White coat newly donned,
Stethoscope cool against skin.
Midnight ward rounds while
Others sleep in distant dreams—
Responsibility weighs heavy.
Someone's father, someone's child
Trusts their breath to my watch.
Dawn breaks—I am changed.
This early poem captures the transformative experience of first independent clinical responsibility—the moment when theoretical knowledge transitions to practical care with real consequences. The simple imagery of medical instruments contrasts with weighty philosophical recognition of patients' humanity and vulnerability. This tension between technical and human dimensions of medicine would remain central theme throughout both my clinical practice and poetic expression.
Village Clinic
(Written during rural service campaign, 1959)
Mud-brick walls, thatched roof,
Wooden table serves as desk.
Farmers' callused hands
Hesitantly extended.
Trust slowly building while
Rain drums messages above.
Ancient ailments, modern cures,
Two worlds meeting through my hands.
Composed during mandatory rural service during early socialist healthcare campaigns, this poem reflects encounter between traditional rural life and emerging modern medicine. The physical setting's simplicity contrasts with complex social and cultural negotiations occurring within that space. The physician serves as mediator between knowledge systems and social worlds typically separated—a bridging role frequently referenced in my poems from this period.
Operating During Power Outage
(Written after emergency surgery during infrastructure failure, 1962)
Flashlights held by steady hands,
Shadows dance across open flesh.
Crisis creates strange intimacy—
Nurse, assistant, patient, surgeon
United in silent concentration.
When electricity fails,
Human connection powers through.
Some lessons only darkness teaches.
This poem emerged from actual experience performing emergency appendectomy during extended power outage at county hospital. Without generator backup, surgery proceeded using flashlights and headlamps—creating both technical challenge and unusual solidarity among operating team. The experience exemplifies frequent theme in my writing: constraints and limitations sometimes revealing essential human connections otherwise overlooked amid technology and routine.
Mid-Career Works (1970s-1980s)
After Losing a Patient
(Written following unsuccessful trauma resuscitation, 1974)
Some deaths arrive announced,
Others strike like summer lightning.
Blood spreads across white sheets
Despite all hands pressing against fate.
Science has limits. Hearts stop
Regardless of our desperate prayers.
Tonight I walk home slowly,
Carrying invisible weight.
Medical practice inevitably includes failure despite best efforts. This poem addresses emotional impact of unsuccessful resuscitation following agricultural accident—circumstances where theoretical knowledge proves insufficient against overwhelming injury. The straightforward description avoids both excessive self-criticism and detached clinical objectivity, instead acknowledging profound human impact of such experiences on the physician while recognizing death's inevitability despite medical intervention.
Teaching the Resident
(Written while supervising junior surgeon, 1979)
Hands hover uncertainly,
Eyes seek confirmation.
Should I intervene or wait?
Learning requires space for growth.
Once my hands moved just as hesitantly,
Now they carry decades of memory.
Knowledge transfers not through words
But through guided discovery.
The educational relationship between experienced and novice surgeons creates particular tensions expressed in this poem. The supervising surgeon must balance intervention against allowing productive struggle that develops capability. The reference to embodied knowledge—skills residing in practiced hands rather than verbal instruction—reflects understanding of medical education as apprenticeship requiring physical presence and demonstration beyond textbook learning.
Morning Hospital Rounds
(Written during chief surgeon period, 1983)
White coats follow in formation,
Shoes squeak against polished floors.
Each room contains separate universe—
Joy, fear, relief, pain.
We move between worlds hourly,
Adjusting voices, faces, words.
Twenty patients before noon,
Each deserving undivided attention.
The structured ritual of hospital rounds provides framework for this meditation on clinical practice's emotional complexity. The formal procession of medical team contrasts with intimate human dramas encountered in each room. The poem addresses challenge of moving rapidly between emotionally distinct situations while maintaining appropriate presence for each patient—the compartmentalization necessary for clinical effectiveness while remaining genuinely responsive to individual suffering.
Later Works (1990s-2020s)
On Seeing Former Patient Twenty Years Later
(Written after chance encounter with patient from early career, 1997)
Your face vaguely familiar,
Then recognition dawns.
Twenty years ago my hands
Reached inside to repair what broke.
Now your daughter graduates college,
Life extending through generations.
Some surgeries continue healing
Long after sutures dissolve.
Extended medical practice allows unique perspective on long-term outcomes extending far beyond immediate surgical recovery. This poem reflects actual encounter with patient operated upon during early career, now encountered with adult daughter. The surgical intervention's impact extends beyond individual patient into family and community continuing through time—creating ripple effects impossible to fully appreciate during immediate clinical encounter.
Learning New Technology
(Written while mastering laparoscopic surgery, 1998)
Young doctors move effortlessly
Through virtual landscapes.
I learn again to tie knots,
Hands reborn awkward at sixty-four.
Ego bruises more easily than tissue,
Yet persistent practice rewires old circuits.
The patient cares not about surgeon's age,
Only that healing occurs.
Continuous technological advancement requires perpetual learning throughout surgical career. This poem addresses psychological challenge of returning to novice status despite decades of mastery, particularly while younger colleagues adapt more easily to new technologies. The humility required for continuing education in late career becomes central theme, with ultimate focus remaining on patient outcome rather than physician's status or comfort.
Retirement Ceremony for a Colleague
(Written for hospital chief's retirement, 2006)
We praise accomplishments,
Recount notable cases.
Speeches enumerate contributions,
Awards acknowledge service.
Yet thirty years of 3 a.m. responsiveness,
Thousands of kindnesses unrecorded,
Family dinners interrupted—
These define the healer more than certificates.
The formal recognition occurring at retirement often fails to capture medical career's full dimensions. This poem contrasts official accomplishments suitable for public acknowledgment against private sacrifices and daily commitments that cumulatively define medical practice but resist ceremonial recognition. The tension between public achievement and private dedication represents recurring theme in my reflections on medical life.
Morning Exercise in the Park
(Written during later years, 2015)
Elderly bodies move in slow precision,
Tai chi flowing like water finding path.
Former factory workers, teachers, doctors—
Now equals in the democracy of aging.
My surgeon's hands, once swift and certain,
Now deliberate in each movement.
The body remembers its limitations
While the mind accepts with growing grace.
Late-life reflection on physical changes affecting not only professional capability but daily existence becomes increasingly prominent in recent poems. The communal morning exercises common among elderly Chinese provide setting for meditation on aging's universality transcending former professional identities. The deliberate movement quality in traditional exercises parallels necessary adaptations to changing physical capabilities while maintaining purposeful activity.
The Young Doctor Consults Me
(Written after clinical consultation with former student, 2021)
She presents the scans, seeking confirmation.
Behind digital images I see
The student from decades past.
Our positions now reversed—
She with current knowledge,
I with accumulated experience.
Together we find the path forward.
Medicine always conversational across time.
The mentoring relationship evolves throughout extended career, eventually transforming as former students develop into established practitioners while the mentor ages. This poem addresses this role reversal with former trainee now possessing greater familiarity with current techniques while the elder physician contributes perspective from extended experience. The collaborative model replacing hierarchical teaching relationship represents positive adaptation to changing capabilities and knowledge distribution across generations.
CHAPTER 10: MY LIFE WITH THE 127TH HOSPITAL
Joining a Specialized Institution
My relationship with the 127th Hospital of the Ministry of Railways began in 1996, when I accepted the position of Chief Surgeon during a significant period of institutional transition. After spending a decade at Wuhu Changhang Hospital, this move represented both professional advancement and new challenge—leading surgical services at an institution undergoing modernization while maintaining its specialized focus on railway workers and their families.
The railway hospital system occupied unique position within Chinese healthcare, combining features of both public health service and sector-specific institution. Originally established to serve transportation workers operating across geographic regions, these hospitals developed distinctive organizational cultures combining military-like efficiency with specialized expertise relevant to transportation-related health issues. The 127th Hospital exemplified these characteristics while facing adaptation challenges during China's broader healthcare reforms.
My recruitment to this institution occurred through professional networks rather than formal application. Several surgical colleagues had moved from Changhang Hospital to the railway system previously, establishing connections that led to discussions when the Chief Surgeon position became available. The hospital administration specifically sought experienced leadership to guide surgical modernization while maintaining service continuity during transition period.
Initial impressions of the institution revealed both strengths and challenges. The hospital maintained excellent basic infrastructure, reliable supply chains through ministry connections, and stable funding compared to many public hospitals increasingly dependent on patient fees. Staff demonstrated strong organizational discipline and procedural consistency reflecting the railway system's operational culture. However, surgical capabilities had fallen somewhat behind contemporary standards, with limited adoption of newer techniques becoming standard elsewhere.
The hospital's patient population presented interesting clinical profile combining characteristics of both occupational medicine and general community practice. Railway workers presented distinctive injury patterns and occupational exposures requiring specialized knowledge, while their families required comprehensive general medical services across all age groups. This diverse patient mix created both challenges and opportunities for surgical service development.
My appointment came with significant expectations for modernization while respecting institutional traditions. Rather than revolutionary change, the administration sought evolutionary improvement building upon existing strengths while addressing identified limitations. This balanced approach matched my own leadership philosophy developed through previous experience with institutional transitions.
Building the Surgical Department
The surgical transformation strategy I implemented focused on four key elements: staff development, technology integration, protocol modernization, and quality assurance systems. This comprehensive approach recognized that sustainable improvement required attention to human resources, technical capabilities, standardized processes, and continuous evaluation rather than isolated initiatives in any single area.
Staff development began with careful assessment of existing surgical team strengths and limitations. The department included several experienced surgeons with excellent technical skills in traditional procedures but limited exposure to newer surgical approaches. Younger staff demonstrated greater comfort with emerging technologies but sometimes lacked fundamental surgical principles that remained relevant regardless of technical evolution. This complementary distribution of capabilities created foundation for mutual learning rather than hierarchical knowledge transmission.
Rather than imposing change through administrative authority, I emphasized demonstration and education—showing colleagues the benefits of updated approaches through my own practice while respecting their existing expertise. This strategy proved particularly effective when introducing modifications to post-operative care protocols. By implementing early mobilization approaches with my own patients and documenting improved outcomes, I gradually built support for these changes even among initially skeptical colleagues.
Technology integration proceeded incrementally rather than through wholesale replacement. The hospital administration supported acquisition of laparoscopic equipment in 1997, beginning our transition toward minimally invasive surgery. Rather than restricting this technology to younger surgeons as often occurred elsewhere, I encouraged participation across age groups, personally undertaking training in these techniques at age 63. This inclusive approach eventually created surgical team with productive balance between experienced senior surgeons and technically innovative younger practitioners.
Protocol modernization addressed both clinical pathways and administrative processes affecting surgical care. We systematically reviewed existing protocols against current literature and professional guidelines, making evidence-based modifications while maintaining practices that functioned effectively within our institutional context. This selective approach preserved valuable institutional knowledge while addressing outdated elements requiring revision.
Quality assurance development represented perhaps the most significant long-term contribution to institutional improvement. We implemented systematic case review processes, complication tracking systems, and regular morbidity and mortality conferences that created culture of continuous improvement. Rather than focusing on individual blame for adverse outcomes, these processes emphasized systemic factors and learning opportunities—an approach initially unfamiliar within railway hospital culture but gradually accepted as valuable organizational improvement tool.
Throughout this development process, I maintained active clinical practice alongside administrative responsibilities. This continued surgical involvement served multiple purposes: demonstrating new techniques directly, maintaining credibility with clinical staff, remaining connected to patient care realities, and providing advanced surgical capabilities for complex cases. The combination of administrative authority with continued clinical excellence proved more effective than purely managerial leadership would have been in this context.
Distinctive Aspects of Railway Medicine
The railway hospital system developed distinctive approaches reflecting both the unique needs of transportation workers and the organizational culture of China's railway ministry. Understanding these distinctive elements proved essential to effective leadership within this specialized institution.
Occupational health considerations significantly influenced surgical practice within the railway system. Transportation workers experienced distinctive injury patterns related to their work environments: crush injuries, electrical burns, toxic exposures, and traumatic amputations occurred with greater frequency than in general population. These occupation-specific patterns required specialized expertise, equipment, and protocols optimized for railway-related trauma.
The geographical distribution of railway operations created unique continuity of care challenges. Workers might sustain injuries or develop medical conditions far from their home facilities, requiring coordination across institutions throughout the railway medical system. We developed standardized documentation, communication protocols, and transfer procedures facilitating seamless care transitions for patients moving between facilities—an early version of integrated healthcare networks that would later become more common throughout Chinese medicine.
Administrative systems within railway hospitals reflected the broader organizational culture of China's transportation ministry. Highly structured reporting relationships, standardized procedures, and emphasis on operational reliability created environment quite different from typical public hospitals. This organizational discipline provided certain advantages—particularly in emergency response capabilities and supply chain reliability—while sometimes limiting flexibility for innovation outside established channels.
The railway hospital funding model offered relative stability during period when many Chinese healthcare institutions faced financial pressures from market-oriented reforms. While still affected by broader healthcare system changes, railway hospitals maintained stronger base funding through ministry support, reducing dependence on procedure-generated revenue that sometimes created problematic incentives elsewhere. This financial stability enabled care decisions based more consistently on clinical rather than economic considerations.
Patient expectations within railway system also presented distinctive characteristics. Transportation workers and their families typically maintained long-term relationships with railway hospitals, creating continuity rarely experienced in more fragmented healthcare environments. This longitudinal relationship fostered trust and communication advantages but also created higher expectations for personalized care and institutional responsiveness to individual needs.
The railway medical system's military-influenced organizational heritage created distinctive emergency response capabilities particularly valuable during disasters. Railway hospitals maintained disaster preparedness protocols, equipment caches, and staff training specifically designed for mass casualty events affecting transportation infrastructure. These capabilities, routinely exercised through drills and occasionally activated for actual emergencies, represented significant community resource extending beyond routine healthcare provision.
Understanding and respecting these distinctive aspects of railway medicine proved essential to effective leadership within this specialized environment. Rather than imposing standardized approaches from general hospital experience, successful integration required adapting improvement initiatives to complement existing institutional strengths while addressing specific limitations. This balanced approach maintained valuable aspects of railway medical culture while facilitating necessary modernization.
Modernization Amid Tradition
Leading surgical services during period of significant healthcare transformation required careful balance between embracing necessary modernization and preserving valuable traditions. This balancing act characterized my thirteen years as Chief Surgeon at the 127th Hospital, requiring continuous assessment of which elements deserved preservation and which required change.
The most visible aspect of modernization involved technological advancement, particularly the introduction of minimally invasive surgical techniques. Prior to 1997, virtually all procedures at the hospital employed traditional open surgical approaches. The introduction of laparoscopic equipment that year initiated gradual transition toward less invasive techniques for appropriate cases. Initially focused on basic procedures like cholecystectomy, our capabilities progressively expanded to include more complex interventions as team experience developed.
This technological transition required significant investment beyond equipment acquisition. Staff training, procedure development, complication management protocols, and modified perioperative care pathways all required development to support successful implementation. Rather than rushing adoption, we proceeded methodically with careful case selection and comprehensive preparation, gradually expanding application as experience accumulated.
Imaging technology represented another significant modernization area, with dramatic advancement from basic radiography to sophisticated CT, MRI, and eventually enhanced functional imaging. These improved diagnostic capabilities transformed surgical planning and intervention timing, enabling more precise procedural approaches and better risk stratification. Integration of these technologies required not only equipment acquisition but development of clinical decision pathways appropriately utilizing advanced imaging without overreliance.
Anesthesia modernization paralleled surgical advancement, transitioning from primarily general anesthesia toward greater utilization of regional techniques, improved monitoring capabilities, and enhanced recovery protocols. This evolution significantly improved patient comfort, reduced complications, and enabled more rapid post-operative recovery—benefits particularly valuable for railway workers requiring return to duty obligations.
While embracing these technological improvements, we simultaneously preserved valuable traditional elements deserving continuation. The railway hospital system's emphasis on comprehensive patient responsibility—the physician's obligation extending beyond specific procedures to overall well-being—represented tradition worth maintaining despite healthcare trends toward fragmented specialist care. We preserved this holistic approach while incorporating technological advancement, maintaining primary surgeon responsibility throughout perioperative period rather than delegating to specialized teams.
The tradition of meticulous clinical examination received continued emphasis despite growing reliance on advanced imaging. Railway hospital culture historically emphasized thorough physical diagnosis before technological investigation—an approach sometimes neglected amid imaging availability. We maintained requirement for comprehensive clinical assessment prior to imaging studies, preserving valuable diagnostic skills while incorporating technological advantages appropriately.
Administrative traditions of standardized documentation, detailed handover procedures, and structured communication pathways similarly deserved preservation despite modernization in other areas. These systems, developed through decades of experience with geographically dispersed operations, provided reliability advantages worth maintaining while updating specific content to reflect contemporary practice.
Perhaps most importantly, we preserved the railway medical system's distinctive commitment to worker-focused care considering both clinical needs and occupational context. Treatment planning routinely incorporated considerations beyond medical factors alone: work requirements, geographic constraints, and family circumstances received attention within decision-making processes. This holistic approach, historically central to railway medicine, remained valuable despite broader healthcare trends toward increasingly specialized and fragmented care delivery.
This balanced approach—selective modernization while preserving valuable traditions—proved more successful than either wholesale transformation or rigid preservation would have been. By distinguishing between elements requiring change and traditions deserving continuation, we maintained institutional strengths while addressing limitations. This nuanced strategy facilitated staff engagement with necessary changes while respecting their existing expertise and the legitimate value of established practices.
Educational Leadership and Legacy
Throughout my thirteen years at the 127th Hospital, teaching assumed increasingly central role alongside clinical and administrative responsibilities. The distinctive railway medical environment provided valuable educational setting combining specialized occupational health perspectives with general surgical principles—a combination offering unique training opportunities for developing surgeons.
Formal teaching responsibilities included supervision of surgical residents rotating through our department from affiliated medical schools, visiting physicians from other railway hospitals seeking specific procedural training, and continuing education for practicing surgeons throughout the railway medical system. These structured educational roles carried explicit expectations and formal evaluation processes within institutional framework.
Beyond these formal responsibilities, informal teaching through case-based discussion, observed procedures, and mentoring relationships provided equally important educational impact. Regular case conferences I instituted focused particularly on surgical decision-making rather than merely technical execution—addressing when to operate, when to wait, when to refer, and how to manage complications. These discussions drew participants from throughout the hospital and occasionally from other institutions, creating valuable forum for continuing education.
Between 1996 and 2008, I formally mentored 16 surgeons at various career stages, many of whom subsequently assumed leadership positions throughout the railway medical system and beyond. My mentoring approach emphasized progressive independence within structured framework—giving trainees increasing responsibility while maintaining appropriate supervision. This developmental model proved particularly effective in producing surgeons capable of practicing across varied settings with adaptability and sound judgment.
Perhaps the most meaningful teaching initiative developed during this period involved "return to basics" seminars designed primarily for younger surgeons. While enthusiastically embracing new technologies myself, I recognized that excessive reliance on sophisticated equipment could atrophy fundamental skills. These seminars focused on techniques essential when technology fails or is unavailable: physical diagnosis without imaging, surgery without specialized instruments, and management of complications with limited resources.
These sessions drew on experiences from my early career in resource-limited settings, reminding younger surgeons that technology supplements but cannot replace surgical judgment and fundamental skills. The popularity of these seminars suggested genuine hunger for this historical perspective alongside technological training—recognition that certain surgical principles transcend particular eras or equipment availability.
My educational philosophy emphasized integration of technical skill with ethical practice and clinical judgment—three dimensions equally essential to effective surgical care. Technical instruction naturally occupied substantial teaching time given surgery's procedural nature. However, equal emphasis on ethical decision-making and clinical judgment development distinguished our educational approach from programs focused primarily on technical execution.
This comprehensive educational orientation reflected commitment to developing complete surgeons rather than merely technically proficient operators. Trainees learned not only how to perform procedures but when intervention was appropriate, how to select optimal approaches for individual patients, and how to manage expected and unexpected outcomes responsibly. This integrated perspective prepared them for independent practice in various environments rather than dependency on specific technologies or settings.
As administrative responsibilities gradually transferred to younger leadership in my later years at the 127th Hospital, educational roles assumed increasing prominence. By 2008, teaching activities occupied approximately 40% of my professional time, with proportional reductions in administrative duties while maintaining selected clinical responsibilities. This transition leveraged my accumulated experience while creating space for new administrative leadership to emerge.
The educational legacy extending from this period continues influencing railway medicine and beyond through surgeons trained under this comprehensive approach. Former students now direct surgical departments, lead quality improvement initiatives, and conduct their own training programs throughout China's healthcare system. This multiplication effect extends influence far beyond direct patient care I provided, creating ripple effects through subsequent generations of surgical practice.
Looking back on these educational contributions from current perspective, I consider them perhaps the most significant and durable aspect of my work with the 127th Hospital. While administrative systems evolve and clinical technologies advance, the transmission of surgical wisdom combining technical skill with ethical practice and sound judgment creates legacy continuing through successive generations of practitioners influenced by these educational principles.
Concluding a Chapter
My formal leadership role at the 127th Hospital concluded in 2009, when I stepped down as Chief Surgeon at age 75 after thirteen years directing the department. This transition represented planned succession rather than abrupt departure, implemented through phased reduction of administrative responsibilities while continuing clinical practice and educational activities at reduced intensity.
The succession planning process began approximately two years before formal transition, with systematic delegation of specific administrative functions to identified successor candidates. This gradual approach allowed observation of leadership capabilities in actual practice rather than merely theoretical assessment, creating opportunity for mentorship through incremental responsibility increases with appropriate support and feedback.
Dr. Zhang Liang, my eventual successor, demonstrated exceptional combinations of clinical expertise, administrative capability, and interpersonal skills throughout this evaluation period. Having joined the department in 1998, he had absorbed both the traditional railway medical culture and modern surgical approaches, positioning him ideally to continue balanced modernization while respecting institutional heritage. His selection received broad support from both department members and hospital administration.
The formal transition ceremony in January 2009 appropriately emphasized continuity alongside leadership change. Rather than focusing exclusively on my contributions, the event highlighted departmental accomplishments and future directions, positioning the transition within context of ongoing institutional development rather than mere personnel change. This approach reflected my conviction that sustainable organizations require smooth leadership transitions preserving institutional momentum beyond individual tenures.
Following formal leadership transition, I continued clinical practice at progressively reduced schedule while maintaining educational responsibilities. This continuing involvement provided consultative support for the new leadership while avoiding interference with their authority. The arrangement benefited the institution through continuing access to my experience while supporting my own gradual transition toward eventual retirement.
This phased approach to leadership succession reflected lessons learned through hospital transitions observed throughout my career. Abrupt leadership changes often created unnecessary disruption, institutional knowledge loss, and implementation discontinuity for ongoing initiatives. Our planned transition process significantly reduced these risks while facilitating knowledge transfer and relationship continuity during leadership change.
Reflecting on the thirteen years at the 127th Hospital from current perspective, I recognize both accomplishments and limitations characterizing this career chapter. The department successfully modernized surgical capabilities while maintaining valuable institutional traditions, improved quality assurance systems while preserving operational efficiency, and enhanced education while continuing clinical excellence. These balanced achievements reflected the collaborative efforts of the entire surgical team rather than individual leadership alone.
Limitations during this period included slower-than-optimal implementation of certain technological advances, particularly in areas requiring significant capital investment beyond departmental control. Information system integration proceeded more gradually than ideal, creating transitional inefficiencies during paper-to-electronic conversion. These limitations reflected broader institutional constraints rather than departmental resistance, illustrating leadership realities within complex organizations with multiple competing priorities.
The relationships formed during these thirteen years have endured beyond formal institutional connections. Former colleagues continue seeking occasional consultation on complex cases, invitation to educational events, and personal connection during significant life events. These continuing relationships represent perhaps the most meaningful personal outcome from this career chapter—professional connections that evolved into enduring human bonds transcending institutional affiliations.
The 127th Hospital itself has continued evolving since my leadership tenure, adapting to ongoing healthcare system changes while maintaining its distinctive railway medicine heritage. The surgical department under subsequent leadership has continued advancing capabilities while preserving the balanced approach to modernization established during my tenure. This continuing institutional development represents the true measure of successful leadership—creating sustainable systems that continue functioning effectively beyond individual leadership tenures.
This significant career chapter, spanning ages 62 to 75, demonstrates the potential for meaningful late-career contributions within appropriate institutional frameworks. Rather than arbitrary retirement at conventional age thresholds, this experience suggests value in creating flexible arrangements allowing experienced practitioners to continue contributing while gradually transitioning responsibilities to subsequent leadership generations. Such arrangements benefit institutions through knowledge preservation while supporting individual transitions through graduated role evolution.
CHAPTER 11: CHRONICLES OF LIFE-AND-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Introduction to Critical Moments
Throughout seven decades of medical practice, I have experienced numerous critical situations where life hung in precarious balance—moments when decisions made under pressure determined whether patients survived or perished. These life-and-death experiences, while representing minority of overall practice, create indelible memories that shape physician identity and practice philosophy in profound ways.
This chapter presents selected episodes from throughout my career illustrating different dimensions of these critical encounters. While maintaining patient confidentiality through appropriate anonymization, these accounts preserve the essential elements of actual clinical experiences that proved formative in my development as surgeon and physician. They range from early career cases managed with minimal resources to complex interventions in better-equipped settings later in professional life.
These narratives serve multiple purposes beyond mere dramatic recounting. They illustrate practical application of surgical principles in challenging circumstances, demonstrate evolution of both technical capabilities and decision-making approaches across different eras, and reveal the human dimensions of critical care that transcend purely technical aspects of medical intervention.
For younger practitioners, these accounts may provide perspective on practicing medicine in resource-limited settings while maintaining focus on fundamental principles that remain applicable regardless of technological context. For general readers, they offer glimpse into realities of medical decision-making under pressure that rarely appear in idealized media portrayals of healthcare dramatics.
While certain technical details necessarily reflect medical knowledge and capabilities of their respective eras, the human elements—decision-making under uncertainty, communication during crisis, maintaining focus amid chaos, balancing hope with realism—remain remarkably consistent across time periods. These enduring aspects of medical practice connect generations of physicians across changing technological landscapes.
Early Career: The Ruptured Ectopic Pregnancy
One formative early experience occurred in 1963, approximately two years into my surgical practice at Nanling County Hospital. A 26-year-old woman arrived by ox cart from a distant production brigade, having collapsed while working in the fields. She presented with profound hypovolemic shock—barely detectable blood pressure, rapid thready pulse, and extreme pallor. Brief history from accompanying family members indicated missed menstrual period and sudden onset of severe abdominal pain preceding collapse.
The clinical presentation strongly suggested ruptured ectopic pregnancy with massive intraperitoneal hemorrhage—a life-threatening emergency requiring immediate intervention. However, several critical constraints complicated management: no blood bank existed at our county facility, laboratory testing was limited to basic hemoglobin measurement, and anesthesia capability consisted of mask-administered ether without intubation capability or sophisticated monitoring.
Faced with clearly moribund patient who would certainly die without intervention, I made rapid decision to proceed with emergency surgery despite suboptimal conditions. While surgery began, we implemented desperate measures to address critical blood loss. The patient's husband and two male relatives volunteered as direct donors, with crude bedside cross-matching performed using glass slides to detect obvious agglutination. Direct transfusion proceeded using basic tubing connecting donors sequentially to the patient.
Upon entering the peritoneal cavity, we encountered massive hemoperitoneum with approximately 2.5 liters of blood and clots. The ruptured right fallopian tube with attached ectopic pregnancy was quickly identified and removed. Throughout the procedure, anesthesia remained problematic, with patient's tenuous hemodynamic status complicating appropriate anesthetic depth management.
The operation succeeded in controlling hemorrhage, but the patient remained critically ill throughout the night, receiving additional direct-donor transfusions from brigade members who arrived during surgery. Basic post-operative monitoring consisted of hourly blood pressure checks, pulse monitoring, and clinical assessment of perfusion without laboratory guidance or electronic monitoring.
Against considerable odds, the patient survived both the acute crisis and post-operative period. She gradually recovered over three weeks in hospital before returning to her village. The case represented technological limitations overcome through rapid decision-making, creative resource utilization, and community mobilization supporting medical intervention.
Twenty-five years later, in 1988, this same patient sought me out at Wuhu Changhang Hospital where I had since relocated. She brought her 24-year-old daughter and infant grandson to meet "the doctor who saved our family." Despite losing one fallopian tube, she had subsequently conceived and delivered a healthy daughter who now presented with her own child. Three generations stood before me—living testimony to the far-reaching impact of a single successful operation and the body's remarkable compensatory capacity.
This case, while reflecting medical practices no longer standard in contemporary settings, illustrates several enduring principles: decisive intervention despite suboptimal conditions when alternatives guarantee poor outcomes, creative resource utilization during crises, and recognition of community support as essential element of successful medical care in resource-limited environments. The longitudinal follow-up across decades also demonstrates surgery's profound impact extending far beyond immediate survival to influence subsequent generations.
Rural Trauma: The Thresher Accident
In August 1969, during harvest season, a 19-year-old agricultural worker suffered devastating injury when his right arm was pulled into mechanical threshing machine. Fellow workers transported him 28 kilometers to our county hospital via tractor-pulled cart, applying improvised tourniquet that likely prevented immediate exsanguination but created its own complications.
When the patient arrived approximately two hours post-injury, he presented with near-complete traumatic amputation of the right arm at mid-humeral level, with the limb attached by only a narrow skin bridge and partially intact neurovascular bundle. The improvised tourniquet, fashioned from rubber tubing, had been continuously tightened for the entire transport duration, creating concerns about ischemic damage and reperfusion injury.
The management decision presented difficult dilemmas given our limited resources. Complete traumatic amputations typically warrant consideration for replantation in optimal settings with microsurgical capabilities. However, our facility lacked microscopic equipment, microvascular expertise, and necessary support systems for such complex reconstruction. The prolonged warm ischemia time further reduced chances for successful replantation even in ideal settings.
After rapid assessment, I determined that attempted limb salvage would likely result in both failure and increased patient risk given our capabilities. Instead, we focused on performing definitive completion amputation with appropriate tissue management to optimize subsequent prosthetic fitting and rehabilitation potential. While disappointing compared to limb salvage possibilities in more advanced centers, this approach prioritized patient survival and realistic functional outcomes within our setting's constraints.
The procedure involved careful exploration of remaining neurovascular structures, appropriate nerve handling to minimize neuroma formation, myoplasty to stabilize muscle groups, and tissue-sparing techniques preserving length while ensuring adequate soft tissue coverage. Throughout surgery, we maintained awareness that functional outcome would depend not merely on surgical technique but on subsequent rehabilitation and prosthetic fitting quality.
Post-operatively, we faced another crisis when the patient developed acute kidney injury from myoglobinuria secondary to crush injury and reperfusion—a complication we anticipated but had limited capacity to address given absence of dialysis capability. Management relied on aggressive hydration, urinary alkalinization using available agents, and careful electrolyte management with limited laboratory monitoring. The patient survived this complication through combination of appropriate supportive care and remarkable physiological resilience.
Rehabilitation began during hospitalization using locally manufactured temporary prosthesis constructed by hospital maintenance worker with previous experience creating similar devices. This early prosthetic fitting, while rudimentary, allowed initial adaptation and prevented psychological devastation sometimes accompanying delayed prosthetic provision. The patient eventually received more sophisticated prosthesis through disability program, though still basic by contemporary standards.
This case exemplifies essential principle of appropriate care level selection rather than attempting interventions exceeding realistic capability. While limb replantation represents theoretically superior outcome, attempted implementation in setting lacking necessary resources would likely have resulted in catastrophic failure potentially costing patient's life. The decision to perform definitive, appropriate-level intervention rather than attempted heroic procedure beyond our capabilities represented sound surgical judgment despite its apparent technical simplicity.
The case also illustrates how optimal care sometimes involves not merely technical management but engagement with broader rehabilitation and psychological support extending beyond acute surgical episode. The coordination with prosthetist and early rehabilitation initiation proved as important to eventual outcome as the surgical procedure itself, demonstrating the comprehensive care perspective essential in resource-limited settings where specialty referral options may be limited or unavailable.
Cultural Complexities: The Refusal of Blood
In the mid-1970s, a 42-year-old woman presented with massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage secondary to previously undiagnosed peptic ulcer disease. Endoscopic capabilities were unavailable at our facility during this period, limiting both diagnostic precision and non-operative management options. The patient required emergency# The Li Family Legacy
A Surgeon's Journey Through China's Transformation
FOREWORD
The Brothers Xin Wei devoted their patience and energy to compile this monumental work, "The Li Family Legacy," now published in two volumes totaling six hundred thousand words. This work reconstructs times and places past, bearing witness to societal changes, and tracing the cultural lineage of a scholarly family passed down through generations. It also fulfills the wishes of several generations of the Li family.
My grandfather, Li Xiansheng (1871-1935), the principal author of "The Calligraphy Legacy of Teacher Li," followed his father's aspirations by emphasizing education. Adapting to changing times, he founded the Chongshi Academy, later renamed Chongshi School. Moving beyond traditional education centered on Confucian classics and classical literature, he introduced mathematics, natural science, English, physics, chemistry, history, music, art, geography, and other subjects. The school was equipped with organs, pianos, Western drums, and horns. He sent his second son to study in Japan, where he earned degrees in law and political science from Meiji University. Upon returning to China, his son established the Eighth Normal School and the Provincial Chengcheng Middle School in the provincial capital of Anqing, while also supporting the family business. Under their combined efforts, the Chongshi School flourished, attracting numerous students. The Li family compound thrived during this period, nurturing many future pillars of society.
After my grandfather's passing, to honor their father's teachings, his eldest son Li Yingwen (1896-1965), together with respected scholars and disciples, published "The Calligraphy Legacy of Teacher Li" in 1935. This edition also included works by his third brother, Li Yinghui (1902-1932), who had died prematurely, as a tribute to his memory. As a collection of folk historical and literary materials, "The Calligraphy Legacy of Teacher Li" is now being reprinted as part of "The Li Family Legacy," demonstrating the continuity of our family's grassroots cultural heritage. Beyond its literary value, "The Calligraphy Legacy of Teacher Li" offers life lessons to posterity. This rare traditional Chinese text, written in the transitional style between classical and modern Chinese, reflects the progressive spirit of its time. After nearly being lost to time, its typesetting and reprinting represent a significant contribution to the preservation of our family's cultural heritage.
Time flows like a river, and the world undergoes tremendous changes. By learning from the past, we can continue the legacy for future generations. All of us, the Li family descendants, have compiled this book, "The Li Family Legacy," which uses simple language to truthfully record modern social transformations and the human responses to them.
"River of Life in Hanyang" (by Li Yangxin, among the first university students after the Cultural Revolution, who also authored "Verdant Days in a Small Town") wrote "Chronicles of River City," expressing his understanding and feelings about his homeland, future, and life, revealing a loyal heart.
"Morning Gleanings" by Li Wei (Ph.D., Chinese-American, computational linguist) showcases the life journey of an overseas Chinese who drifted across three continents, experienced two forms of rural labor and research, and then struggled to establish himself in a new land.
I, Li Mingjie, wrote "Seasons of Wind and Rain," narrating the legendary career of an ordinary Chinese surgeon. Beginning my medical practice in the 1950s, I tackled numerous clinical challenges and climbed to the position of Chief Surgeon. Diligently working until today (2022), I continue without pause, still on duty, cultivating my own small plot of expertise, finding contentment in this.
— Li Mingjie, 2022
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
- Cover and Preface
- Family Genealogy
- Second Preface
- Table of Contents (Volume I)
- My Surgical Career
- Professional Autobiography and Work Reports
- My Surgical Career—Outside the Hospital
- The Burning Sunset Glow
- Seasons of Wind and Rain
- Yangzhen – My Father and Family
- Seasons of Wind and Rain (Continued Part One)
- Seasons of Wind and Rain (Continued Part Two)
- Selected Poems of Mingqin
VOLUME II 14. My Life with the 127th Hospital 15. Chronicles of Life-and-Death Experiences 16. When the Gardenia Blooms Again 17. Another College Entrance Examination Approaches 18. Sweet – Tania's Brilliant Life 19. Recent Gathering Speeches 20. The Li Family Values 21. Selected Poems of Yingfan 22. Biography of Yaogui
CHAPTER 1: MY SURGICAL CAREER
The Beginning of a Journey
In March 1956, I graduated from the Wuhu Health School and embarked on what would become a 67-year journey in medicine. My early career was diverse – I spent time in schistosomiasis prevention and two years in public health administration before finding my true calling in surgical clinical work in 1961.
The path I've walked spans more than six decades now. I served at Nanling County Hospital for 25 years, Wuhu Changhang Hospital for 22 years, and China Railway Wuhu Hospital for 16 years. Even as I approach my nineties, I haven't fully retired. My vision remains clear, my hearing sharp, and my hands steady. I continue to conduct research, read medical literature, and remain engaged with the latest surgical developments. My mind remains coherent and focused, and I still perform surgeries. As the medical field transitioned to digital documentation, I adapted seamlessly, never falling behind the technological wave.
My life has been devoted to medicine and the art of healing. Throughout more than half a century, I've come to understand the emotional states of patients, monitored their health conditions, and with whatever intellectual capacity, energy, and manual dexterity I possess, I've crafted treatments tailored to individual needs. I've restored health to countless patients, rescued numerous lives from the brink of death, and returned joy to many families shrouded in sorrow.
I worked diligently at the grassroots level of healthcare. Despite only having a diploma from a technical health school and lacking formal professors or mentors to guide me, I forged my own path through self-education. My medical skills were developed through personal insights and countless hours poring over medical texts. Natural aptitude, intelligence, diligence, and unwavering passion paved the way for my medical aspirations. Even in remote and impoverished regions, during an era when intellectuals often faced marginalization, I managed to carve out my own success.
A Surgeon's Breadth and Depth
As I often reflect, "My surgical career has been one of the longest, with numerous operations across a wide spectrum of specialties." Many of the surgeries I performed at the grassroots level presented extraordinary challenges. Some procedures I undertook in county hospitals during the 1960s were considered cutting-edge even in provincial hospitals at that time. Liver and lung surgeries, removal of cervical spine tuberculosis lesions, and repairs of injuries to the retroperitoneal duodenum – I took the initiative to perform these complex operations in modest county facilities, achieving success through careful preparation and determination.
I've always maintained a philosophy about surgery: "Sometimes, you have to pull a tooth from a tiger's mouth. But this isn't about blind risk-taking! It's about calculated risks, advanced skills, and providing high-level treatment." Being brave yet cautious, challenging conventions while prioritizing scientific and pragmatic approaches – these principles have guided my practice.
My surgical experience spans an unusually broad spectrum of medical specialties: abdominal surgery, thoracic surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery, urology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, radiology, and anesthesiology. In each of these fields, I successfully performed many high-difficulty level-4 surgeries – truly an unusual achievement for a physician without specialized training in each field.
These operations ranged from procedures for acute pancreatitis in abdominal surgery, carotid artery aneurysm resections in head and neck surgery, spinal tumors in neurosurgery, lung malignancies and esophageal cancer in thoracic surgery, to clearing lesions of various forms of osteomyelitis and tuberculosis affecting the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral vertebrae, along with treating complex fractures in orthopedics.
Academic Contributions
My contribution to medicine extends beyond the operating room. Since the resumption of professional journals and academic activities following the Cultural Revolution in 1979, I have published dozens of papers in journals such as Southern Anhui Medicine, Journal of Bengbu Medical College, Provincial Medical Lectures, Domestic Medicine (Surgery), and Transportation Medicine.
In 1979 and 1980, I participated in the re-establishment of the Anhui Orthopedic Society and Surgical Society respectively, regularly attending their annual meetings. I've been active in numerous academic activities related to surgery both at the national level and within the Ministry of Transportation.
In 1994, I helped plan and organize a symposium on orthopedics in the Yangtze River Basin area, assisting in the compilation of a special issue of Orthopedic Clinic for the Journal of Southern Anhui Medical College. Under the guidance of Professor Jingbin Xu, editor of the Chinese Journal of Orthopedics, we published over 100 papers with contributions from across the country.
In September 1995, I presented two papers at the National Academic Conference on Acute and Severe Surgery in Guilin. My paper "Problems in the Treatment of Liver Trauma" was recognized with a certificate for excellence. I've also published in international forums, including the First International Academic Conference of Chinese Naturopathy held in Chengdu in 1991, with work appearing in the Taiwanese publication "Naturopathy."
Reflections on Spleen Surgery
[Editorial note: The following section reflects Dr. Li's specialized knowledge in a particular surgical field and demonstrates his thoughtful approach to evolving medical practices.]
"The spleen is not essential for life; it can be freely removed." This perspective on splenectomy persisted for two to three hundred years. However, with the advancement of modern medicine and deeper exploration into splenic functions, we've progressively discovered the spleen's significant role in infection resistance, anti-cancer immunity, and other immune functions.
Consequently, selective and effective spleen-preserving surgeries have become the preferred approach in our era. Nevertheless, comprehensively understanding splenic functions and the adverse effects of splenectomy on the body, while correctly mastering the indications for spleen removal, remains crucial to ensuring quality care in splenic surgery.
Pioneering Rural Surgery
The 1960s and 1970s represented the most challenging period of my career, but also the most rewarding. At Nanling County Hospital, we faced severe resource constraints. Modern anesthesia machines were nonexistent; instead, we relied on rudimentary ether and chloroform methods administered through mask inhalation. Monitoring equipment was limited to the most basic blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes. Antibiotics were in short supply, and blood transfusion capabilities were minimal.
Despite these limitations, we performed surgeries that would intimidate many specialists even in today's well-equipped hospitals. I remember one winter night in 1964 when a young farmer was brought in with severe abdominal trauma following a tractor accident. Upon exploratory laparotomy, I discovered extensive liver lacerations with massive hemorrhaging. Without modern hemostatic tools or sophisticated blood products, I had to rely on basic surgical techniques and improvisation.
Using simple sutures, packing with available materials, and meticulous manual compression, I controlled the bleeding sufficiently to repair the damaged liver tissue. The operation lasted over six hours, performed under the dim light of basic surgical lamps. The patient survived and eventually made a full recovery, a testament to what could be achieved through determination and resourcefulness even in the most challenging settings.
This case, like many others from that period, taught me that successful surgery depends not only on advanced equipment but on fundamental surgical principles, careful technique, and sound judgment. These lessons have stayed with me throughout my career, even as I later gained access to more sophisticated medical technologies.
Surgical Research and Innovation
While my formal education was limited, I maintained a lifelong commitment to learning and medical research. During the 1980s, I conducted several clinical studies on surgical techniques that were particularly relevant to rural healthcare settings.
One area of particular interest was the management of complex fractures with limited resources. I developed modified traction methods using locally available materials that could be implemented in basic hospital settings or even in patients' homes. These techniques significantly improved outcomes for patients unable to access specialized orthopedic care.
I also conducted research on simplified surgical approaches for thyroid disorders, which were common in our region due to iodine deficiency. By refining and standardizing the surgical procedure, I was able to reduce complication rates and operating times, making this surgery more accessible to patients in rural communities.
Between 1985 and 1992, I compiled data on over 200 thyroidectomy cases performed using my modified technique. The results showed a significant reduction in complications such as recurrent laryngeal nerve injury and hypocalcemia compared to previously reported rates from similar settings. This work was eventually published and contributed to improving surgical care beyond our local hospital.
My research philosophy has always been practical rather than theoretical, focused on solving immediate clinical problems rather than pursuing academic recognition. Nevertheless, this approach has led to innovations that benefited countless patients and influenced surgical practice in resource-limited environments throughout our region.
CHAPTER 2: PROFESSIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND WORK REPORTS
Early Professional Development
My journey into medicine began during a pivotal moment in China's history. Having graduated in 1956 from Wuhu Health School with a specialization in preventive medicine, I entered a healthcare system that was being rebuilt and reformed under the young People's Republic. My initial assignment to schistosomiasis prevention work reflected the national priorities of that era—combating parasitic diseases that had plagued rural China for centuries.
For two years, I traveled to remote villages throughout Anhui Province, conducting screening campaigns, administering treatments, and educating communities about prevention. This work immersed me in the realities of rural healthcare and the challenging living conditions of China's peasantry. The experience instilled in me a deep appreciation for preventive medicine and public health that would inform my approach to surgical practice throughout my career.
In 1958, I was transferred to administrative work in public health, where I gained valuable experience in healthcare organization and policy implementation. While this position offered stability and recognition, I increasingly felt drawn to clinical practice, particularly surgery. The opportunity to intervene directly and immediately in a patient's suffering called to me in a way that administrative work could not.
Transition to Surgical Practice
In 1961, I made the pivotal decision to pursue surgical practice, beginning as a general surgical resident at Nanling County Hospital. Without formal surgical training programs as exist today, my learning was largely self-directed and experiential. I studied whatever surgical textbooks I could obtain, often reading late into the night by oil lamp during the frequent power outages that characterized rural China in that era.
Senior physicians at the hospital provided some guidance, but they themselves had limited specialized training. The shortage of qualified surgeons meant that even as a novice, I was quickly entrusted with increasingly complex procedures. This "learn by doing" approach was fraught with challenges but accelerated my development as a surgeon.
By 1963, just two years into my surgical career, I was performing independent operations across multiple specialties. My surgical logbook from this period reveals a remarkable diversity of procedures: appendectomies, hernia repairs, cholecystectomies, hysterectomies, bone setting, and even emergency craniotomies for traumatic injuries. This breadth of practice, while daunting, provided me with a uniquely comprehensive surgical education.
Professional Achievements and Recognition
My commitment to surgical excellence and continuing education gradually earned recognition beyond our small county hospital. In 1973, I was promoted to Associate Chief Surgeon at Nanling County Hospital, a significant achievement considering my limited formal education. This promotion came after successfully handling a series of complex trauma cases following a major construction accident in our region.
The changing political climate after the Cultural Revolution created new opportunities for professional advancement. In 1979, I presented my first academic paper at the reconstituted Anhui Surgical Society meeting, documenting our hospital's experience with 45 cases of complex abdominal trauma. The paper was well-received and later published in the Provincial Medical Journal, marking my entry into the wider medical academic community.
By 1982, I had been recognized as one of the leading surgeons in Anhui Province's county hospital system. This led to an invitation to join Wuhu Changhang Hospital, a more advanced facility operated by the transportation ministry, where I would serve for the next 22 years. At this institution, I continued to expand my surgical repertoire while mentoring younger physicians and contributing to regional medical education efforts.
Throughout my career, I remained committed to improving surgical standards in rural and underserved communities. Between 1985 and 1990, I participated in a provincial initiative to provide surgical training to township doctors, conducting workshops and demonstrations that helped extend basic surgical care to even more remote areas. This outreach work, conducted alongside my regular clinical duties, represents one of my proudest professional contributions.
Work Report: Surgical Outcomes and Case Series
During my tenure at Nanling County Hospital (1961-1986), I performed over 5,000 major surgeries with a remarkably low mortality rate considering the limited resources available. My case records show an overall surgical mortality of 3.2%, which compared favorably with published rates from similar settings during that period.
Particular areas of surgical focus included:
- Traumatic Injuries: 732 cases of major trauma surgery with a 92.3% survival rate
- Abdominal Surgery: 1,845 procedures including 427 cholecystectomies and 136 gastric resections
- Orthopedic Procedures: 964 major fracture repairs and 43 spinal operations
- Gynecological Surgery: 682 procedures including 213 hysterectomies
- Thoracic Operations: 97 major chest surgeries including 18 lung resections
- Urological Procedures: 346 operations including 85 prostatectomies
- Neurosurgical Interventions: 67 emergency craniotomies and 29 elective procedures
This diverse caseload reflects both the breadth of surgical needs in our community and my development as a multidisciplinary surgeon capable of addressing a wide spectrum of conditions. For many patients, referring to specialized centers in distant cities was simply not feasible due to economic constraints and transportation difficulties. Our hospital represented their only hope for surgical intervention, a responsibility I never took lightly.
My transition to Wuhu Changhang Hospital in 1986 brought access to improved facilities and resources, allowing me to tackle even more complex cases. During my 22 years there, I performed an additional 4,200 major surgeries, increasingly focusing on higher-risk procedures that reflected my growing expertise and the hospital's enhanced capabilities.
Work Report: Teaching and Mentorship
Teaching has been an integral part of my professional identity since the mid-1970s. Without formal academic appointments or teaching titles, my educational contributions occurred primarily through apprenticeship-style mentoring of younger physicians. Over the decades, I have directly supervised the surgical training of 78 physicians who have gone on to serve throughout Anhui Province and beyond.
My teaching philosophy emphasizes the integration of theoretical knowledge with practical skills. I require all trainees to demonstrate both understanding of surgical anatomy and pathophysiology as well as technical competence. My students often note that I place particular emphasis on developing sound clinical judgment—knowing when to operate, when to wait, and when to seek additional assistance.
Documentation and record-keeping form another cornerstone of my teaching approach. I have maintained detailed surgical logs throughout my career, creating an invaluable resource for analyzing outcomes and refining techniques. I instill this same discipline in my students, emphasizing that systematic documentation is essential for continuous improvement.
The most rewarding aspect of teaching has been witnessing the development of surgeons who now lead departments and perform procedures I could only dream of during my early career. Several of my former students have gone on to receive advanced training at provincial and national centers, bringing specialized surgical capabilities back to our region. This multiplication of surgical expertise represents perhaps my most enduring professional legacy.
CHAPTER 3: MY SURGICAL CAREER—OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL
Medical Outreach in Rural Communities
While my hospital duties formed the core of my professional life, some of my most meaningful work occurred beyond the hospital walls. From the earliest days of my career, I recognized that many rural residents lacked access to even basic surgical care due to geographic, economic, and cultural barriers. Beginning in the mid-1960s, I established a regular program of surgical outreach, traveling to remote townships and villages to bring surgical care directly to underserved populations.
These outreach visits initially focused on minor procedures that could be performed safely in basic healthcare stations: draining abscesses, removing superficial tumors, repairing hernias, and treating simple fractures. Over time, as relationships with local healthcare workers strengthened and basic facilities improved, we gradually expanded to more complex interventions.
The challenges of practicing surgery in these settings were immense. Operating rooms, if they existed at all, were often converted classrooms or administrative offices. Sterilization relied on simple pressure cookers rather than autoclaves. Lighting came from whatever sources could be assembled—sometimes automobile headlights powered by portable generators when electricity failed. Anesthesia options were limited to local infiltration and occasionally rudimentary general anesthesia administered by minimally trained personnel.
Despite these constraints, we achieved remarkable results. Between 1965 and 1975, my team performed over 1,200 operations during these rural outreach visits with complication rates only marginally higher than those in our county hospital. More importantly, we brought surgical care to patients who would otherwise have suffered or died without intervention.
A particularly memorable outreach experience occurred during the spring of 1969 in a remote mountain village near the Anhui-Jiangxi border. A local epidemic of complicated appendicitis had overwhelmed the small township clinic. Over a period of five days, I performed 17 appendectomies in a makeshift operating room set up in the village school. Working with minimal equipment and assisted only by a local doctor and a nurse from our hospital, we successfully treated all patients without mortality.
These outreach efforts also served an educational purpose, as each visit included training for local health workers. I developed simplified protocols for identifying surgical emergencies, initial management of trauma, and post-operative care that could be implemented by personnel with limited training. Many of these healthcare workers later referred appropriate cases to our hospital and some eventually pursued formal medical education.
Military Medical Support
Another significant dimension of my extramural practice involved collaboration with military medical units, particularly during the period of heightened border tensions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although I never held a formal military appointment, I was repeatedly called upon to provide surgical consultation and assistance to military hospitals in our region that faced shortages of qualified surgeons.
In 1969, during a period of intense border confrontation, I was temporarily seconded to a military field hospital in northern Anhui. For three months, I worked alongside military doctors treating both combat injuries and routine surgical conditions among military personnel. This experience broadened my trauma surgery skills considerably and exposed me to military medical protocols that emphasized efficiency and resource conservation—approaches I later incorporated into my civilian practice.
The military work required adaptations in both technique and mindset. Operating under field conditions, often with the possibility of sudden relocation, demanded surgical approaches that prioritized speed, simplicity, and definitive intervention. The military emphasis on detailed protocols and standardized procedures contrasted with the more individualized approach typical in civilian settings, offering valuable lessons in systematizing surgical care.
My contributions were recognized with a special commendation from the regional military command, an unusual honor for a civilian physician during that politically sensitive period. More importantly, this experience forged lasting professional relationships with military medical personnel that would prove valuable throughout my career, particularly in obtaining medications and equipment during periods of severe shortages.
Disaster Response and Emergency Surgery
Natural disasters and industrial accidents repeatedly called me away from routine hospital duties throughout my career. The most significant of these events was the catastrophic Anhui flood of 1969, which devastated communities along the Yangtze River and its tributaries. As one of the few trained surgeons in our county, I was mobilized as part of the emergency medical response.
For nearly a month, I worked from a makeshift medical station established on higher ground, treating victims of the flooding. Traumatic injuries were common—lacerations, fractures, and crush injuries sustained during evacuation efforts or building collapses. Equally challenging were the infectious complications that emerged in the days following the initial disaster: wound infections, waterborne illnesses, and respiratory infections that spread rapidly through crowded evacuation centers.
Working under these conditions required improvisation and adaptation. Surgical supplies quickly ran short, forcing us to reuse sterile materials and employ unconventional substitutes. Local anesthetics were reserved for the most painful procedures, with many minor operations performed using only sedation and psychological support. Medical records were kept on whatever paper could be found, often school notebooks or administrative forms repurposed for clinical documentation.
Despite these hardships, our team maintained remarkably high standards of care. Of the 243 surgical procedures I performed during this disaster response, only 11 developed serious complications, and we lost only two patients—both of whom arrived with severe traumatic injuries and hypovolemic shock that proved irreversible despite our interventions.
The experience reinforced my belief in the resilience of basic surgical principles even under the most challenging circumstances. It also highlighted the critical importance of preventive measures and early intervention in disaster settings, lessons I would later incorporate into emergency preparation protocols at both hospitals where I served as department head.
Consulting and Advisory Roles
As my reputation grew within the regional medical community, I increasingly served in consulting and advisory capacities beyond my home institutions. Beginning in the early 1980s, following the restoration of professional activities after the Cultural Revolution, I was frequently called upon to provide second opinions on complex surgical cases at smaller hospitals throughout southern Anhui Province.
These consultations typically involved patients with unusual presentations, complications following surgery, or conditions requiring specialized procedures. While sometimes I would perform the necessary operations myself, more often my role was to advise local surgeons, helping them develop the skills and confidence to handle such cases independently in the future.
This consultative work evolved into a more formal arrangement in 1985 when the Provincial Health Bureau appointed me to a rotating surgical advisory team that visited county-level hospitals quarterly. As part of this program, I conducted case reviews, performed demonstration surgeries, and led teaching sessions for local surgical staff. This initiative significantly improved surgical capabilities across our region, gradually reducing the need to transfer patients to distant urban centers for standard procedures.
In addition to clinical consultation, I served on various advisory committees addressing regional healthcare planning and resource allocation. My practical experience with rural surgical care provided valuable perspective in these forums, where I consistently advocated for approaches that would extend basic surgical services to underserved communities rather than concentrating all resources in urban centers.
Research and Documentation Outside Traditional Academic Settings
Without formal academic affiliations, my research activities developed along unconventional paths. Much of my investigative work focused on pragmatic questions arising from daily practice: How could standard surgical techniques be modified to accommodate resource limitations? Which approaches yielded the best outcomes in our specific patient population? What local materials could substitute for expensive imported surgical supplies?
I meticulously documented my findings in handwritten journals long before publishing became possible. These records—filled with technical observations, modified surgical approaches, and patient outcomes—formed a valuable resource when academic publishing resumed in the late 1970s. Between 1979 and 1995, I published 37 papers in various medical journals, most addressing practical aspects of surgery in resource-limited settings.
One notable research project involved the development of a modified approach to managing complicated appendicitis with localized peritonitis. Using a combination of limited resection, careful drainage, and locally developed antibiotic protocols, we achieved outcomes comparable to those reported from major urban hospitals despite our resource constraints. This work, published in 1983, was cited in national surgical guidelines and adopted by numerous county hospitals throughout central China.
Another significant contribution involved the documentation of indigenous medical practices I encountered during rural outreach work. While maintaining scientific skepticism, I cataloged traditional treatments that appeared to have genuine therapeutic value, particularly herbal preparations used to prevent wound infections. Several of these traditional remedies were later subjected to laboratory analysis, with some shown to contain compounds with antimicrobial properties. This work represented an early example of the integration of traditional and modern medicine that would later become a national healthcare priority.
Building International Connections
Despite geographical isolation and political constraints, I maintained a persistent interest in international surgical developments throughout my career. Beginning in the late 1970s, as China's contacts with the outside world expanded, I sought out whatever international medical literature became available, often relying on colleagues in provincial centers to share journals and textbooks that reached their institutions.
In 1982, I had my first opportunity for direct international exchange when a visiting surgical team from Japan conducted a week-long teaching seminar at Wuhu Central Hospital. Despite language barriers—communication occurred through interpreters and anatomical drawings—this interaction provided valuable exposure to alternative surgical approaches and contemporary technologies not yet available in our setting.
This initial exposure to international surgery spurred me to greater efforts in self-education. I began studying English medical terminology, eventually gaining sufficient proficiency to read international journals with the aid of a medical dictionary. This linguistic effort opened access to a wealth of surgical literature that dramatically influenced my practice during the latter half of my career.
A particularly significant international connection developed in 1990 when a former student, now working at a provincial teaching hospital, arranged for me to observe visiting American surgeons performing laparoscopic procedures. Although our hospital would not acquire laparoscopic equipment for several more years, this early exposure prepared me to implement these techniques as soon as the technology became available to us.
While never having the opportunity for formal international training or observation common among later generations of Chinese surgeons, I nevertheless managed to incorporate international surgical standards and innovations into my practice through persistent self-education and these limited but valuable cross-border professional exchanges.
CHAPTER 4: THE BURNING SUNSET GLOW
Embracing Later Career Challenges
As I entered my sixties—an age when many physicians contemplate retirement—I found myself facing new professional challenges with undiminished enthusiasm. The 1990s brought dramatic transformations to China's healthcare system, with new technologies, changing administrative structures, and evolving patient expectations. Rather than viewing these changes as a reason to step back, I embraced them as opportunities for continued growth and contribution.
In 1996, at age 62, I accepted the position of Chief Surgeon at China Railway Wuhu Hospital, a role that would define the final chapter of my formal hospital career. This appointment came with significant responsibilities at a time of transition for China's railway hospital system, which was modernizing its facilities and practices while maintaining its special focus on railway workers and their families.
The hospital administration specifically recruited me to lead the surgical modernization program, a task requiring both technical expertise and change management skills. Many of the surgical staff were excellent practitioners but had limited exposure to newer surgical techniques becoming standard elsewhere. Similarly, the hospital's equipment and protocols had fallen somewhat behind contemporary standards despite adequate basic resources.
With the energy of a much younger physician, I threw myself into this revitalization project. My approach balanced respect for the institution's established practices with gentle but persistent pressure for advancement. Rather than imposing changes by administrative fiat, I relied primarily on demonstration and education—showing colleagues the benefits of updated approaches through my own practice.
A particularly successful initiative involved the introduction of modified early ambulation protocols following abdominal surgery. Against considerable initial resistance, I demonstrated that carefully structured early mobilization reduced complication rates and shortened hospital stays without increasing surgical risk. After implementing these protocols in my own patients with documented success, other surgeons gradually adopted similar approaches, eventually transforming post-operative care throughout the department.
Technological Adaptation in Late Career
The most visible aspect of my late-career evolution involved adaptation to new surgical technologies. Throughout my professional life, I had witnessed—and embraced—successive waves of surgical innovation, from the introduction of modern anesthesia techniques in the 1960s to increasingly sophisticated imaging modalities in the 1970s and 1980s. But the technological acceleration of the 1990s presented challenges of a different magnitude.
The arrival of laparoscopic surgery at our hospital in 1997 exemplifies this dynamic. At age 63, I undertook training in these minimally invasive techniques, beginning with basic procedures like laparoscopic cholecystectomy and gradually advancing to more complex interventions. Learning these skills required not only manual dexterity but adaptation to an entirely different surgical visualization paradigm—operating while watching a monitor rather than looking directly at the surgical field.
Many colleagues my age declined to learn these new techniques, content to continue with traditional open surgery until retirement. I understood their reluctance but couldn't imagine practicing surgery without offering patients the benefits of these advancing technologies. The learning process was humbling—my early laparoscopic procedures took significantly longer than the equivalent open operations—but perseverance eventually yielded proficiency.
By 1999, I had performed over 120 laparoscopic procedures and began training younger surgeons in these techniques. My experience demonstrated that age need not be a barrier to technological adaptation, a message I emphasized when encouraging other senior physicians to expand their skills. Several colleagues who had initially resisted eventually followed this path, creating a surgical department unusually balanced between experienced senior surgeons and technically innovative younger practitioners.
Similar adaptation occurred in my embrace of computerized medical records and digital imaging technologies that transformed hospital operations during this period. Having begun my career maintaining handwritten surgical logs and film-based radiographs, I now enthusiastically adopted digital documentation systems that enhanced record-keeping accuracy and accessibility. While the transition required considerable effort, the resulting improvements in patient care coordination made the investment worthwhile.
Teaching and Mentorship in the Sunset Years
Throughout my later career, teaching assumed increasing prominence. With decades of experience across an unusually broad surgical spectrum, I offered younger colleagues something increasingly rare in an era of subspecialization—a perspective that integrated surgical knowledge across traditional specialty boundaries.
My teaching during this period addressed not only technical skills but the cognitive and ethical dimensions of surgical practice. Regular case conferences I instituted focused particularly on surgical decision-making: when to operate, when to wait, when to refer, and how to manage complications. These sessions drew participants from throughout the hospital and occasionally from other institutions, creating a valuable forum for continuing medical education.
Between 1996 and 2012, I formally mentored 23 surgeons, many of whom have gone on to leadership positions throughout Anhui Province and beyond. My mentoring approach emphasized autonomy within a structured framework—giving trainees increasing responsibility while maintaining appropriate supervision. This progressive independence model proved particularly valuable in developing surgeons capable of practicing effectively in various settings, from modern urban hospitals to more resource-limited rural facilities.
Perhaps the most meaningful teaching of my later career occurred through the "return to basics" seminars I developed for younger surgeons. While enthusiastically embracing new technologies myself, I recognized that excessive reliance on sophisticated equipment could atrophy fundamental surgical skills. These seminars focused on techniques that remain essential when technology fails or is unavailable: physical diagnosis without imaging, surgery without specialized instruments, and management of complications with limited resources.
These sessions drew on my experiences during the resource-constrained early decades of my career, reminding younger surgeons that technology supplements but cannot replace surgical judgment and fundamental skills. The popularity of these seminars among residents and young attendings suggested a genuine hunger for this historical perspective alongside their technological training.
The Rewards of Persistence
The extended duration of my surgical practice has provided unique personal and professional satisfactions. Unlike colleagues who retired in their sixties, I've witnessed the long-term outcomes of surgical interventions performed decades earlier. Patients return years—sometimes decades—after their operations, often bringing their children or even grandchildren to meet the surgeon who had such an impact on their lives.
One particularly memorable case involved a young woman on whom I had performed emergency surgery for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy in 1973. The operation saved her life but required removal of one fallopian tube, raising concerns about her future fertility. Twenty-five years later, in 1998, she visited me at Railway Hospital, bringing her 24-year-old daughter and infant grandson. Three generations stood before me—living testimony to the far-reaching impact of a single successful operation and the body's remarkable compensatory capacity.
Similar encounters occur with surprising frequency, creating a tapestry of human connections spanning decades. Former patients stop me on the street, approach me in restaurants, or make special visits to the hospital simply to share updates on their lives and express continued gratitude. These interactions provide a profound sense of fulfillment that transcends professional accomplishment, connecting surgical practice to the broader human community it serves.
Beyond these personal connections, continued practice has allowed me to witness the evolution of surgical outcomes over time. Operations considered risky experimental procedures in my early career have become routine, with dramatically improved success rates. Conditions once considered fatal or permanently disabling are now managed effectively, often on an outpatient basis. Having participated in this transformation—first adapting to it and then helping to advance it—provides a professional satisfaction few other careers could match.
Remaining active has also preserved my connection to younger generations of medical professionals, preventing the isolation that often accompanies retirement. I continue to learn from younger colleagues even as I teach them, creating a mutually beneficial exchange that keeps my practice contemporary while preserving valuable historical perspectives that might otherwise be lost.
Facing Mortality with Professional Insight
At an age when many contemporaries have passed away, my lifetime in medicine has given me a uniquely informed perspective on mortality. Having witnessed countless deaths throughout my career—some peaceful, others difficult—I approach my own inevitable end with neither excessive fear nor artificial detachment. The surgeon's intimate familiarity with human frailty fosters a certain clear-eyed acceptance.
This perspective has shaped my approach to aging and health. I maintain realistic expectations about physical capabilities while refusing to surrender to unnecessary limitations. I follow the preventive health measures I've advocated to patients for decades, not with the desperate hope of immortality but with the rational goal of maintaining function and independence as long as possible.
My surgical background has made me an informed patient during my own inevitable health challenges. When I developed hypertension in my seventies, I approached treatment decisions with the same evidence-based methodology I applied in surgical practice. Similarly, when arthritis began affecting my hands—a particularly concerning development for a surgeon—I sought appropriate interventions while adapting my techniques to accommodate changing capabilities.
Perhaps most importantly, this professional familiarity with mortality has focused my attention on purposeful living in whatever time remains. Having seen how suddenly life can end through accident or illness, I appreciate each day of continued health and activity as the gift it truly is. The privilege of continuing meaningful work into advanced age—still helping patients, teaching colleagues, and contributing to my profession—represents a form of immortality more satisfying than any desperate grasp at extended biological existence.
Legacy Considerations
As I approach the end of an unusually long surgical career, questions of legacy naturally arise. What remains after 67 years of medical practice? What endures beyond the thousands of operations performed, most of which will eventually be forgotten as patients themselves pass away?
The most tangible legacy exists in the surgeons I have trained, who now practice throughout China and in some cases internationally. Their work extends and multiplies my own, often in ways that surpass my contributions. When former students introduce innovations or achieve academic recognition beyond what I accomplished, I feel a paternal pride that rivals any satisfaction from personal achievement.
Another significant legacy lies in the systems and protocols I helped establish at three successive hospitals. Standardized approaches to common surgical emergencies, quality assurance mechanisms, and training programs continue to function long after their origins are forgotten. The surgical department at Railway Hospital, in particular, developed under my guidance into a regional center of excellence that continues to serve patients effectively today.
My academic contributions, while modest by the standards of university professors, represent another aspect of professional legacy. The papers and presentations I produced over decades have been cited in subsequent literature and incorporated into surgical training materials. Several of the modified techniques I developed for resource-limited settings continue to be taught to surgeons working in similar environments.
Perhaps the least tangible but most meaningful legacy exists in the changed trajectory of thousands of lives impacted by successful surgical interventions. Patients who would have died or remained disabled without surgery went on to live productive lives, raise families, and contribute to their communities. This ripple effect extends far beyond what can be measured or counted, representing surgery's profound social impact across generations.
Reflections at Dusk
As the sun sets on my surgical career, I find myself reflecting on the extraordinary privilege it has been to practice this profession across seven decades of tumultuous Chinese history. From the early years of the People's Republic through the Cultural Revolution, from the reform and opening period to today's modern China, I have witnessed my country's transformation while participating in the parallel revolution in surgical care.
When I began practice in 1956, surgical outcomes that would be considered catastrophic by today's standards were accepted as inevitable limitations of medical science. Infant mortality, maternal death during childbirth, and fatalities from common conditions like appendicitis or gallbladder disease were regular occurrences. Today, these outcomes have become so rare that each instance prompts intensive review and corrective action.
This transformation occurred not through any single breakthrough but through countless incremental improvements in understanding, technique, technology, and systems—each building upon what came before. Having participated in this process for over 67 years provides a perspective few contemporary surgeons can match, a living connection to historical developments that younger colleagues know only from textbooks.
The sunset years of a long career bring their own satisfactions. The ambition and competition that drive younger surgeons has mellowed into a deeper appreciation for the art of medicine itself. Free from the need to prove myself or advance professionally, I can focus entirely on patient needs and the cultivation of the next generation of surgical leaders.
If asked what wisdom I would share from this long journey, it would be the enduring importance of balance: between technical skill and compassionate care, between embracing innovation and preserving fundamental principles, between professional dedication and recognition of our common humanity. This balance, more than any specific technique or accomplishment, represents the true art of surgery as I have come to understand it over a lifetime of practice.
As I continue to practice even now, well into my ninth decade, I recognize each operation might be my last. Rather than creating anxiety, this awareness brings a profound appreciation for the continued opportunity to serve. The sunset glow of a surgical career illuminates not only accomplishments past but the ongoing privilege of meaningful work in the present moment—a gift I continue to treasure each day I enter the operating room.
CHAPTER 5: SEASONS OF WIND AND RAIN
Early Life and Education
I was born in 1934 in Anhui Province, a child of Republican China in its final, turbulent years. My earliest memories are colored by the Japanese occupation and the subsequent civil war—events that shaped not only national destiny but individual families like mine. Though we lived in a relatively small city, the larger currents of Chinese history swept through our community, bringing both hardship and opportunity.
My father, a teacher with a classical education, valued learning above all else. Despite limited means, especially during wartime shortages, he maintained a small collection of books and insisted on education for his children regardless of circumstances. When regular schooling was disrupted by conflict, he arranged informal study groups with other educated locals to ensure our learning continued.
My mother, practical and resourceful, managed our household with remarkable efficiency despite frequent shortages. Her ability to create nutritious meals from minimal ingredients, to repair and repurpose clothing, and to maintain family stability amid external chaos left a lasting impression. From her, I learned the value of adaptability and careful stewardship of resources—lessons that would later prove invaluable in my medical career.
The China of my childhood was a land of stark contrasts and rapid change. Traditional practices and beliefs existed alongside emerging modernization, particularly in healthcare. I witnessed both traditional Chinese medicine practitioners with centuries of accumulated knowledge and the gradual introduction of Western medical approaches. This dual exposure sparked my early interest in medicine as a potential career.
My formal education began in local schools that, despite limited resources, provided solid fundamentals in literacy, mathematics, and science. Teachers recognized my academic aptitude early, encouraging my parents to continue my education despite the financial sacrifices involved. By the time I completed primary education, the civil war had ended and the newly established People's Republic was beginning to reorganize the educational system.
The high school years coincided with the early campaigns of the new government, including land reform and early collectivization efforts. Political study became a required component of education, and students were expected to participate in various mass movements. While focusing primarily on academics, I participated sufficiently in political activities to avoid negative attention during this sensitive period.
My academic performance, particularly in science subjects, qualified me for consideration for higher education. However, family financial constraints and the national emphasis on practical technical training rather than university education for most students led me toward the Wuhu Health School rather than medical university. This vocational path focused on creating healthcare workers who could be deployed quickly to address the nation's massive health challenges.
The two-year program at Wuhu Health School, beginning in 1954, provided basic training in preventive medicine, public health principles, and clinical skills. The curriculum, heavily influenced by Soviet models, emphasized practical skills over theoretical knowledge. We learned to diagnose and treat common conditions, administer vaccinations, implement sanitation measures, and provide maternal-child healthcare in rural settings.
Despite the program's practical orientation, I sought deeper understanding of the scientific basis for our clinical protocols. I supplemented the required curriculum with additional reading, borrowing medical texts when possible and taking detailed notes during the limited time such resources were available. This self-directed study laid the groundwork for continued learning throughout my career.
Early Career and Political Turbulence
Graduating in early 1956, I entered professional life during the "Hundred Flowers" period when intellectual expression was briefly encouraged. My initial assignment to schistosomiasis prevention work reflected national health priorities following the 1955 decision to eradicate this debilitating parasitic disease that affected millions of rural Chinese, particularly in lake and river regions.
For nearly two years, I traveled throughout rural Anhui Province, screening populations for infection, administering treatments, and educating communities about prevention. The work was challenging—primitive transportation, basic accommodations, and resistance from some communities suspicious of government health teams. Yet it provided invaluable exposure to rural healthcare realities and the social determinants of health that textbooks could never convey.
The political climate changed abruptly with the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957 and subsequent Great Leap Forward beginning in 1958. As a medical worker rather than an intellectual, I was not a primary target of these movements. Nevertheless, the changing political environment affected all aspects of work and social life. Criticism meetings, political study sessions, and mass campaigns became regular features of professional life.
During this period, I was transferred from field work to administrative duties in the county health department. The transition to office work insulated me somewhat from the harsher aspects of rural conditions during the Great Leap Forward, but also removed the direct patient contact that had given meaning to my work. Increasingly, I found myself drawn to clinical practice rather than public health administration.
The opportunity to pursue this interest came in 1961, as the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward created personnel shortages in many sectors. The county hospital desperately needed clinical staff, and my request for transfer from administrative work was approved with minimal resistance. Thus began my surgical career, initially as a general medical officer but increasingly focused on surgical cases as my skills and confidence developed.
The early 1960s represented a brief period of recovery and relative pragmatism in Chinese governance. For the healthcare system, this meant some relaxation of ideological requirements and greater emphasis on professional competence. I took full advantage of this environment to develop my clinical skills, volunteering for extra duties that offered learning opportunities and seeking guidance from more experienced physicians.
This relative stability ended with the onset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. As a medical professional with only technical education rather than university credentials, I was not classified among the "intellectual" targets of the movement. Nevertheless, the disruption affected all aspects of hospital function. Political study sessions, criticism meetings, and "revolutionary activities" consumed time previously devoted to patient care and professional development.
The hospital hierarchy was dramatically reorganized, with revolutionary committees replacing traditional department structures. Some senior physicians were sent to "May Seventh Cadre Schools" for reeducation through labor, creating critical personnel shortages. As one of the remaining trained healthcare providers, I shouldered increasing responsibility despite my limited experience.
Paradoxically, these tumultuous circumstances accelerated my surgical development. With many senior surgeons removed from practice, relatively junior physicians like myself were thrust into roles far beyond our formal training. Necessity became the mother of capability as I performed increasingly complex procedures simply because no one else was available to do them.
Throughout this period, I maintained a deliberately low political profile, participating in required activities without particular enthusiasm or resistance. My focus remained on patient care, a relatively safe position as even the most zealous revolutionaries recognized the necessity of maintaining basic medical services. This period taught me to navigate complex political environments while preserving professional integrity—maintaining focus on patients' needs regardless of external pressures.
Personal Life Amid Professional Development
Amid these professional challenges, my personal life followed its own course. In 1960, I married Lin Shuying, a nurse at the county health department where I worked during my administrative period. Our partnership combined professional collaboration with family life, as we shared both healthcare perspectives and the daily challenges of raising children in tumultuous times.
Our first child, a daughter, arrived in 1962, followed by a son in 1965. Parenting during this era required careful balancing of family responsibilities with increasingly demanding professional obligations. My wife shouldered a disproportionate share of child-rearing duties, particularly during periods when surgical emergencies kept me at the hospital for extended hours. Her support and understanding made my professional development possible.
Housing presented persistent challenges throughout this period. Hospital-provided accommodation consisted of two small rooms with shared bathroom facilities, barely adequate for a growing family. Privacy was minimal, and storage space for even essential items was severely limited. Like most Chinese families of that era, we adapted to these constraints, developing storage systems that maximized use of the limited space and establishing family routines compatible with close-quarter living.
The Cultural Revolution brought particular stress to family life. Children were heavily involved in revolutionary activities through their schools, sometimes returning home with political perspectives that created tension with parents. We navigated these delicate situations by emphasizing family unity while allowing appropriate participation in the movements of the time.
Economic hardship was a constant companion during these years. My modest salary as a hospital physician provided basic necessities but little beyond that. My wife's nursing income supplemented the family budget, but careful management remained essential. We grew vegetables in a small plot behind the housing block, raised a few chickens for eggs, and repaired clothing repeatedly before replacement. These practices, common among our colleagues, represented not deprivation but normal life in China during that period.
Despite these challenges, family life provided essential balance and meaning beyond professional responsibilities. Evening meals together, however simple, maintained family connections. Weekend outings to nearby parks or countryside areas offered respite from work pressures and created lasting memories for our children. Reading remained a valued activity, with whatever books were available shared among family members.
As the children entered school, their education became a primary concern. Despite the disruptions of the Cultural Revolution, which severely affected educational quality, we supplemented their schooling with home instruction whenever possible. Mathematical concepts, scientific principles, and historical knowledge were woven into everyday conversations and activities, maintaining educational progress despite institutional limitations.
Throughout these challenging years, our extended family provided crucial support networks. My parents, though aging, assisted with childcare when schedules required. My wife's siblings, living in the same city, provided social connections and practical assistance during difficult periods. This family ecosystem, flexible and mutually supportive, enabled both professional careers to continue while ensuring children received necessary care and attention.
The Turning Point: Professional Recognition
The death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and subsequent political changes created a significant turning point in both Chinese society and my professional trajectory. The gradual normalization of healthcare institutions, reinstatement of professional credentials, and renewed emphasis on medical expertise rather than political criteria created opportunities for recognition based on actual clinical skills.
By this time, I had accumulated substantial surgical experience despite the lack of formal specialist training. My case records documented successful management of complex procedures across multiple specialties—experience gained through necessity during the personnel shortages of the preceding decade. As professional evaluation systems were reinstated, this practical expertise finally received formal acknowledgment.
In 1978, I was evaluated by a provincial medical committee and certified as an Associate Chief Surgeon, an unexpected advancement for someone with my educational background. This certification reflected not academic credentials but demonstrated clinical competence across a broad surgical spectrum. The recognition brought not only professional satisfaction but practical benefits: increased salary, improved housing allocation, and greater autonomy in clinical decision-making.
The following year brought another significant development with the reinstatement of medical societies and academic journals after their suspension during the Cultural Revolution. I participated in the re-establishment of both the Anhui Surgical Society and Anhui Orthopedic Society, attending inaugural meetings and subsequent annual conferences. These forums provided my first exposure to formal academic surgery after years of isolated practice, connecting me to broader professional networks and contemporary surgical developments.
My first academic presentation, delivered at the 1979 Anhui Surgical Society meeting, addressed management of complex abdominal trauma based on our county hospital experience. The paper documented 45 cases of penetrating and blunt abdominal injuries, analyzing outcomes based on treatment protocols we had developed through practical experience. The presentation received unexpected attention from provincial-level surgeons, who recognized the value of our approach despite its development outside academic centers.
This presentation led to my first published paper in Southern Anhui Medical Journal later that year—the beginning of a publishing record that would eventually include dozens of articles in regional and national publications. Academic writing did not come naturally after years of purely clinical focus, but I developed this skill through persistent effort, recognizing its importance for disseminating practical knowledge gained through frontline experience.
The early 1980s brought significant expansion of my professional reputation beyond county boundaries. Increasingly, I received referrals from surrounding counties for complex cases, particularly in trauma surgery and difficult abdominal procedures. I was also invited to provide consultation at neighboring hospitals for challenging cases, gradually expanding my influence throughout the region.
In 1982, I was appointed to the Anhui Province Rural Surgery Guidance Committee, a body established to improve surgical standards at county-level hospitals. This appointment recognized my unusual combination of advanced surgical capabilities and extensive experience in resource-limited settings—a perspective valuable for developing realistic improvement strategies applicable across rural institutions.
These professional developments coincided with improving family circumstances. My promotion brought access to larger housing—three rooms rather than two, with private rather than shared bathroom facilities. This modest improvement represented significant progress in living standards, providing growing children with dedicated study space and the family with increased privacy and comfort.
Our children thrived during this period of relative stability. My daughter, showing academic promise, received encouragement to prepare for university entrance examinations—opportunities becoming available again after the educational disruptions of the Cultural Revolution. My son, more technically oriented, developed interests in mechanical systems and electronics, skills that would later guide his vocational choices.
Mid-Career Transition and New Horizons
The reform and opening policies initiated under Deng Xiaoping progressively transformed Chinese society throughout the 1980s, creating both opportunities and challenges for healthcare professionals. The increasing emphasis on economic efficiency, including within the healthcare sector, created pressures for productivity and cost control that sometimes conflicted with clinical priorities.
In our county hospital, these changes manifested in new performance metrics, altered compensation systems that partially linked income to surgical volume, and increasing administrative responsibilities for department heads. While continuing to prioritize patient care, I adapted to these new expectations, developing management skills to complement clinical expertise.
A significant career opportunity emerged in 1986 when I was recruited to join Wuhu Changhang Hospital as Chief of Surgery. This transportation ministry hospital, while still located in Anhui Province, offered significantly better resources than the county facility: more advanced equipment, better-trained support staff, and a patient population that included both transportation workers covered by ministry insurance and local residents.
The decision to leave Nanling County Hospital after 25 years involved difficult tradeoffs. The move would separate me from longstanding colleagues and the community I had served for decades. However, the professional advantages were compelling: better surgical facilities, increased academic opportunities, and enhanced compensation that would benefit my family. After careful consideration and family discussion, I accepted the position.
The transition proved challenging both professionally and personally. Professionally, I encountered a different institutional culture with established hierarchies and practice patterns. As an outsider bringing different approaches from county-level practice, I faced some initial resistance from existing staff. Integration required both diplomacy and demonstrated competence to gain acceptance and implement changes where appropriate.
Personal adjustments included family relocation to Wuhu city, a significantly larger urban environment than our previous home. While offering better educational and cultural opportunities, the move disrupted established social networks and routines. My wife transferred to a nursing position at the new hospital but initially at a lower grade, requiring time to re-establish her professional standing.
Our children, teenagers by this time, experienced mixed reactions to the relocation. My daughter, preparing for university entrance examinations, benefited from access to better secondary schools with stronger academic programs. My son found the adjustment more difficult, missing established friendships and familiar environments, though eventually adapting to urban life and its opportunities.
Despite these challenges, the move ultimately proved beneficial for both professional development and family prospects. The hospital's superior resources allowed me to expand my surgical repertoire, particularly in more complex elective procedures that had been difficult to perform in the resource-limited county setting. The academic environment, with regular case conferences and journal clubs, stimulated intellectual growth after years of relatively isolated practice.
Family circumstances improved substantially, with better housing, increased income, and enhanced educational opportunities for our children. My daughter successfully gained university admission in 1988, entering a medical program that would eventually lead to her own career as a physician. My son completed technical education and secured employment in the transportation sector, establishing his independent adult life.
Throughout this period of transition and adaptation, I maintained the core surgical principles developed during my years of county practice: resourcefulness, careful patient selection, meticulous technique, and close post-operative monitoring. These approaches, refined in resource-limited settings, remained relevant even as additional technologies and support systems became available. Indeed, colleagues sometimes noted that my surgical complications were remarkably low for someone undertaking such complex procedures—an outcome I attributed to habits formed when backup options were limited or nonexistent.
Late Career and Legacy Construction
By the 1990s, as China's economic development accelerated, healthcare underwent further transformation. Market-oriented reforms introduced greater competition between institutions, increasing emphasis on technology acquisition, and growing disparities between urban and rural healthcare facilities. These changes created both opportunities and ethical dilemmas for healthcare providers.
In 1996, after a decade at Changhang Hospital, I accepted the position of Chief Surgeon at China Railway Wuhu Hospital, where I would spend the final 16 years of my formal hospital career. This appointment came during a significant reorganization of China's railway hospital system, which was modernizing facilities and practices while maintaining its specialized focus on railway workers and their families.
The hospital administration specifically recruited me to lead the surgical modernization program, leveraging both my technical expertise and my experience navigating institutional change. The role required balancing clinical leadership with administrative responsibilities, including department staffing, equipment acquisition, protocol development, and quality assurance.
Rather than imposing changes through administrative authority, I emphasized demonstration and education—showing colleagues the benefits of updated approaches through my own practice. This strategy proved particularly effective when introducing modifications to standard procedures or implementing new protocols for post-operative care. By documenting improved outcomes, I gradually built support for these changes even among initially skeptical colleagues.
A significant focus during this period involved integrating new technologies into surgical practice while maintaining fundamental surgical principles. The arrival of laparoscopic surgery, improved imaging systems, and advanced monitoring equipment created opportunities to improve patient care but required careful implementation to ensure safety during the transition.
At age 63, I undertook training in laparoscopic techniques, beginning with basic procedures like cholecystectomy and gradually advancing to more complex interventions. Despite the learning curve inherent in mastering these new approaches, I recognized their potential benefits for patients and considered it my professional responsibility to offer these options when appropriate.
By demonstrating that age need not be a barrier to adopting new techniques, I encouraged other senior surgeons to expand their skills rather than maintaining exclusively traditional practices until retirement. Several colleagues who had initially resisted eventually followed this path, creating a surgical department with a productive balance between experienced senior surgeons and technically innovative younger practitioners.
Throughout this final phase of hospital practice, teaching assumed increasing prominence among my professional activities. With experience across an unusually broad surgical spectrum, I offered younger colleagues perspective that integrated surgical knowledge across traditional specialty boundaries—a perspective increasingly rare in an era of subspecialization.
Regular case conferences I instituted focused particularly on surgical decision-making: when to operate, when to wait, when to refer, and how to manage complications. These sessions drew participants from throughout the hospital and occasionally from other institutions, creating a valuable forum for continuing education that extended my influence beyond direct clinical practice.
Between 1996 and 2012, I formally mentored 23 surgeons, many of whom went on to leadership positions throughout Anhui Province and beyond. My mentoring emphasized autonomy within a structured framework—giving trainees increasing responsibility while maintaining appropriate supervision. This progressive independence model proved particularly valuable in developing surgeons capable of practicing effectively across various settings.
Perhaps the most meaningful teaching of my later career occurred through "return to basics" seminars developed for younger surgeons. While embracing new technologies myself, I recognized that excessive reliance on sophisticated equipment could atrophy fundamental surgical skills. These seminars focused on techniques essential when technology fails or is unavailable: physical diagnosis without imaging, surgery without specialized instruments, and management of complications with limited resources.
These sessions drew on experiences from my early career, reminding younger surgeons that technology supplements but cannot replace surgical judgment and fundamental skills. The popularity of these seminars suggested genuine hunger for this historical perspective alongside technological training—recognition that certain surgical principles transcend particular eras or equipment.
As I approached traditional retirement age, I chose to continue active practice, gradually reducing administrative responsibilities while maintaining clinical work. This phased transition allowed me to continue contributing professionally while creating space for younger leadership to emerge. By age 75, I had relinquished formal leadership positions but continued performing surgery and teaching—roles I maintain even now at 87, albeit with appropriate adjustments for age-related changes in stamina and dexterity.
This extended career has provided unique satisfactions, including the opportunity to witness long-term outcomes of surgical interventions performed decades earlier. Patients return years after their operations, often bringing their children or even grandchildren, creating a tapestry of human connections spanning generations. These encounters provide profound fulfillment beyond professional accomplishment, connecting surgical practice to the broader human community it serves.
Continued practice has also preserved connection to younger generations of medical professionals, preventing the isolation that often accompanies retirement. I continue learning from younger colleagues even as I teach them, creating mutually beneficial exchange that keeps my practice contemporary while preserving valuable historical perspectives that might otherwise be lost.
As I reflect on nearly seven decades in medicine, questions of legacy naturally arise. The most tangible legacy exists in surgeons I have trained, whose work extends and multiplies my own, often exceeding my contributions. Another significant legacy lies in systems and protocols established at three successive hospitals—standardized approaches that continue functioning long after their origins are forgotten.
My academic contributions, while modest by university standards, represent another aspect of professional legacy. Papers and presentations produced over decades have been cited in subsequent literature and incorporated into training materials. Several modified techniques I developed for resource-limited settings continue being taught to surgeons working in similar environments.
Perhaps the most meaningful legacy exists in the changed trajectory of thousands of lives impacted by successful surgical interventions. Patients who would have died or remained disabled went on to live productive lives, raise families, and contribute to their communities. This ripple effect extends far beyond what can be measured, representing surgery's profound social impact across generations.
As the sun sets on my surgical career, I reflect on the extraordinary privilege of practicing across seven decades of Chinese history. From the early People's Republic through the Cultural Revolution, from reform and opening to today's modern China, I have witnessed my country's transformation while participating in the parallel revolution in surgical care.
The sunset years bring their own satisfactions. Free from ambition and competition that drive younger surgeons, I focus entirely on patient needs and cultivating the next generation. If asked what wisdom I would share from this long journey, it would be the enduring importance of balance: between technical skill and compassionate care, between embracing innovation and preserving fundamental principles, between professional dedication and our common humanity.
As I continue practicing into my ninth decade, I recognize each operation might be my last. Rather than creating anxiety, this awareness brings profound appreciation for the continued opportunity to serve. The sunset glow of a surgical career illuminates not only past accomplishments but the ongoing privilege of meaningful work—a gift I treasure each day I enter the operating room.
CHAPTER 6: YANGZHEN – MY FATHER AND FAMILY
[Note: This chapter is narrated from the perspective of Dr. Li's nephew, offering an external view of Dr. Li and the broader family context.]
A Family Portrait
My uncle, Li Mingjie, represents a remarkable example of perseverance and achievement against formidable odds. Due to our family's limited financial circumstances, he completed only a vocational health school education. Yet through extraordinary determination, he distinguished himself in the medical field as early as the 1950s and 1960s.
His intellectual pursuits have always been remarkably diverse, combining medical expertise with broader cultural interests. In medicine, he mastered a comprehensive range of surgical specialties, including general surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, radiology, anesthesiology, thoracic surgery, urology, and neurosurgery. His writing demonstrates meticulous attention to detail and fluid, precise language.
Despite having only vocational health school credentials, his relentless pursuit of excellence and outstanding surgical skills earned him recognition as a Chief Surgeon and appointment to the National Ministry of Transportation's Medical and Health Senior Professional Title Evaluation Committee. Even today, at eighty-seven years old, he continues practicing medicine and healing patients. The students he mentored have achieved distinction in various medical roles. His children, raised in a family that valued scholarship, have worked diligently to become accomplished professionals.
Uncle Mingjie exemplifies the transmission of our family's noble character and scholarly traditions. His generosity, positive outlook, and progressive thinking distinguish him among his contemporaries. In the 1990s, when many of his age struggled with foreign languages, automotive skills, and computing technology, he had already mastered these modern necessities.
His contributions to our family extend beyond moral and spiritual support. During the Cultural Revolution, he made the difficult decision to sell our ancestral home. This residence, built in the Ming-Qing architectural style, featured timber reportedly transported from ancient forests in Jiangxi Province via the Yangtze River. The two-story Huizhou-style building had front and back halls, three courtyards, and wings on either side, providing abundant natural light to all rooms. The compound included main and secondary gate towers with guard houses positioned on both sides. The main building featured doors and windows adorned with dragon and phoenix carvings, while the main beams displayed exquisite woodcarvings of remarkable artistic value. Stone steps led to the main entrance, flanked by stone drums and lion statues, with six persimmon trees lining the right side.
The Cultural Legacy
Our family's cultural heritage extends back through multiple generations, creating a foundation of scholarly values that shaped my uncle's life and work. My grandfather, Li Xiansheng (1871-1935), continued traditions established by his father, placing tremendous emphasis on education while adapting to changing times.
When my grandfather established the Chongshi Academy, later renamed Chongshi School, he demonstrated remarkable foresight in educational approach. While maintaining respect for classical Chinese learning, including the Four Books and Five Classics, he incorporated modern subjects: mathematics, natural science, English, physics, chemistry, history, music, art, and geography. The school featured modern musical instruments, including organs, pianos, Western drums, and horns, representing extraordinary innovation for that period.
My grandfather sent his second son to study in Japan, where he earned degrees in law and political science from Meiji University. Upon returning to China, this son established the Eighth Normal School and Provincial Chengcheng Middle School in Anqing, while supporting the family's educational enterprises. Under their combined leadership, Chongshi School developed an outstanding reputation, attracting numerous students and elevating the Li family compound's status as an educational center that produced many future community leaders.
After my grandfather's passing, his eldest son, Li Yingwen (1896-1965), collaborated with scholars and disciples to publish "The Calligraphy Legacy of Teacher Li" in 1935. This publication also included works by his third brother, Li Yinghui (1902-1932), who died prematurely, preserving his memory alongside their father's teachings.
This text holds significance beyond its literary value, providing moral and ethical guidance for posterity. Written in the transitional "modern style" that bridged classical and contemporary Chinese writing, it represents a literary form that has nearly disappeared. Its preservation through inclusion in "The Li Family Legacy" represents an important contribution to maintaining our family's cultural heritage.
The Li family genealogical records trace our lineage back to Li Guang and Li Hu, with roots extending to Laozi (Li Er). Our ancestral migration from Qinan County in Gansu's Longxi region to Xingang in Fanchang established the Keshan Li clan, with our current generation representing the ninety-fourth generation descended from Li Guang. This extensive genealogical history provides a sense of connection and continuity across nearly a hundred generations.
Throughout this extended family history, certain values have remained consistent: emphasis on education, adaptation to changing circumstances, ethical conduct, and service to community. These principles, evident in the lives of our ancestors, continue to manifest in my uncle's remarkable medical career and the achievements of subsequent generations.
Medical Lineage in Modern Context
While our family traditionally emphasized scholarly pursuits rather than medical practice, my uncle established a new direction that has influenced subsequent generations. His dedication to medicine created a model of service that combines intellectual rigor with practical application—an approach particularly valuable during China's tumultuous twentieth century.
My uncle began his medical career during a transformative period in Chinese healthcare. The newly established People's Republic faced enormous public health challenges: infectious disease epidemics, high maternal and infant mortality, widespread parasitic infections, and minimal healthcare infrastructure in rural areas. The government's emphasis on rapid training and deployment of healthcare workers reflected these urgent needs.
Despite beginning with modest vocational training rather than university medical education, my uncle transformed potential limitations into advantages. The practical orientation of his health school education prepared him for immediate effectiveness in frontline healthcare delivery, while his self-directed study developed the intellectual foundation for continued growth throughout his career.
When he transitioned from public health work to surgical practice in 1961, he entered a field traditionally dominated by university-trained physicians. That he eventually achieved recognition as a Chief Surgeon and served on national evaluation committees demonstrates extraordinary perseverance and capability. His career suggests that determined self-development can sometimes compensate for initial educational constraints—a lesson relevant to subsequent generations facing their own challenges.
My uncle's medical practice spans an era of extraordinary transition in Chinese healthcare. When he began in the 1950s, medicine in China blended traditional approaches with emerging Western techniques, often implemented with minimal resources. By the 2020s, he continued practicing in a healthcare system transformed by technology, specialization, and modernization. Few medical careers encompass such dramatic evolution, providing him with a historically unique perspective.
His surgical work reflects a philosophy increasingly rare in our specialized age—the general surgeon capable of addressing diverse medical challenges. While contemporary medical education emphasizes narrow specialization, my uncle's career demonstrates the value of broader capabilities, particularly in resource-limited settings where multiple specialists may be unavailable. His adaptability allowed him to serve communities that would otherwise have lacked surgical care entirely.
Beyond technical skills, my uncle's approach to medicine emphasizes compassion and ethical practice. Throughout political upheavals that might have compromised professional integrity, he maintained focus on patient welfare as his primary concern. This moral consistency, maintained across decades of changing political environments, offers a model of professional ethics transcending particular historical circumstances.
The medical tradition he established has influenced younger family members, including my own children who have pursued healthcare careers. While they enter a medical system vastly different from the one he encountered in 1956, the core values he demonstrated remain relevant: commitment to ongoing learning, adaptability to changing conditions, compassion for suffering, and unwavering professional responsibility. These principles constitute perhaps his most important legacy to subsequent generations.
Family Connections Across Generations
Despite geographic dispersal and the disruptions of modern Chinese history, our extended family has maintained connections that provide context and continuity across generations. My uncle's role within this family ecosystem extends beyond his professional achievements, encompassing responsibilities as elder brother, uncle, family historian, and transmitter of cultural values.
Family gatherings, increasingly rare in modern China's mobile society, remain important occasions in our family tradition. At these events, my uncle often serves as both storyteller and cultural interpreter, connecting younger generations to family history through narratives that blend personal reminiscence with broader historical context. His remarkable memory for details of family history—names, dates, relationships, significant events—preserves knowledge that might otherwise be lost.
These gatherings typically feature conversations bridging generational perspectives on China's transformation. Younger family members describe contemporary experiences in technology, global connections, and career opportunities unimaginable to previous generations. Older members, including my uncle, provide historical context that helps younger relatives understand their place within longer historical trajectories. This intergenerational dialogue enriches all participants, creating shared understanding despite different life experiences.
My uncle's relationships with the youngest family members reveal a gentle, playful aspect of his personality sometimes less visible in professional contexts. With grandchildren, grandnieces, and grandnephews, he demonstrates patience and genuine interest in their development, often engaging them in age-appropriate conversations about science, history, and ethics. These interactions transmit family values to the youngest generation while providing him connection to emerging perspectives.
Throughout challenging periods when political circumstances complicated family relationships, my uncle maintained connections that preserved family cohesion. During the Cultural Revolution, when intergenerational conflicts were sometimes politically encouraged, he emphasized family loyalty above ideological differences. This commitment to family continuity across political divides helped our extended family weather historical transitions that fragmented many other Chinese families.
In recent decades, as some family members have established lives abroad, my uncle has embraced technologies that maintain connections across geographic distance. Despite beginning his career in an era of limited communication options, he adapted readily to video calls, social media, and digital photo sharing. These technologies enable continuing family connections despite physical separation, preserving the extended family network despite modern dispersal.
The family history my uncle helps preserve extends beyond genealogical records to encompass cultural knowledge, ethical traditions, and collective memory. His efforts ensure that younger generations understand not only their ancestry but the values, experiences, and perspectives that shaped our family identity across tumultuous historical transitions. This cultural transmission represents a contribution perhaps as significant as his medical achievements, though less visible beyond family boundaries.
Looking Forward: A Legacy in Progress
While much of this narrative necessarily focuses on past achievements, my uncle at 87 remains actively engaged in both professional work and family life. His continuing contributions demonstrate that legacy building remains an ongoing process rather than merely a retrospective assessment.
His current medical practice, though reduced in volume from earlier decades, continues to benefit patients directly through surgical interventions and consultations. Equally important, his continuing presence in medical settings provides younger practitioners access to his accumulated wisdom—perspective particularly valuable as healthcare becomes increasingly technology-focused and protocol-driven.
Within our family, his role continues evolving as younger generations mature and older ones pass away. As one of the eldest surviving family members, he increasingly serves as connection to family history extending beyond living memory. His stories about our grandparents and their world preserve understanding of family roots that would otherwise fade from collective awareness.
My uncle's adaptation to changing circumstances throughout life suggests he will continue contributing meaningfully despite advancing age. His lifelong pattern of learning, adapting, and persevering through challenging transitions indicates capacity for continued engagement despite inevitable physical limitations. This forward-looking orientation, maintained into his ninth decade, provides inspiration to family members facing their own life transitions.
The profound historical transformations spanning my uncle's lifetime—from pre-revolutionary China through war, political campaigns, reform and opening, to today's modern society—provide context for appreciating his resilience. Having witnessed and adapted to changes far more dramatic than most contemporary lives encompass, he embodies a perspective increasingly rare in our rapidly changing world.
As family members navigate our own professional and personal journeys, his example reminds us that circumstances need not determine outcomes. Beginning with limited formal education in challenging historical circumstances, he nevertheless built an extraordinary career through persistence, continuous learning, and ethical practice. This legacy of determined self-development despite constraints remains relevant to subsequent generations facing their own challenges in different contexts.
While my uncle would likely dismiss such characterizations as overly reverential, his life demonstrates qualities increasingly recognized as essential to both individual and societal flourishing: adaptability to change, commitment to continuous learning, balance between tradition and innovation, and service extending beyond self-interest. These qualities, manifested across nearly seven decades of medical practice and family life, constitute a legacy that will continue influencing future generations long after his remarkable surgical career concludes.
CHAPTER 7: SEASONS OF WIND AND RAIN (CONTINUED PART ONE)
Historical Context of a Medical Career
My surgical career unfolded against the backdrop of China's remarkable transformation from an impoverished, largely rural society to a modernized global power. This national metamorphosis forms the essential context for understanding both the challenges and opportunities that shaped my professional life across seven decades.
When I graduated from Wuhu Health School in 1956, China's healthcare system faced overwhelming challenges. The newly established People's Republic inherited a population suffering from widespread infectious diseases, malnutrition, high infant mortality, and minimal healthcare infrastructure—particularly in rural areas where the majority of citizens lived. Medical resources were severely limited: few trained physicians, minimal pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, and hospitals concentrated primarily in major cities.
The government's response emphasized rapid training of healthcare workers through abbreviated programs like my own health school education. This approach prioritized quantity over depth of training, aiming to extend basic healthcare to previously underserved populations as quickly as possible. While this strategy successfully increased healthcare access, it created a workforce with variable training quality and limited specialization—constraints I would work to overcome throughout my career.
Early health campaigns focused heavily on preventive measures and public health interventions: mass immunization, improved sanitation, maternal-child health initiatives, and infectious disease control. My initial assignment to schistosomiasis prevention work reflected these national priorities, addressing a parasitic disease that had plagued agricultural communities along the Yangtze River basin for centuries.
By the time I transitioned to surgical practice in 1961, healthcare priorities were shifting toward development of clinical capabilities alongside continuing preventive efforts. County hospitals like Nanling, where I began my surgical career, represented the front line of this clinical expansion. These institutions faced the challenging task of providing increasingly sophisticated medical care with limited resources, minimal specialized equipment, and staff who—like myself—often lacked formal specialist training.
The political campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s significantly impacted healthcare delivery. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), political considerations often superseded professional criteria in medical decision-making. Hospital revolutionary committees replaced traditional administrative structures, while many senior physicians were sent for "reeducation" through rural labor. The "barefoot doctor" movement emphasized basic training for rural healthcare workers over specialized medical education.
Within this challenging environment, I focused on maintaining professional standards while adapting to political requirements. When senior surgeons were removed from our hospital for political reasons, I assumed greater responsibilities despite limited experience. This politically-driven personnel shortage paradoxically accelerated my surgical development, as I performed increasingly complex procedures simply because no one else remained to do them.
The post-Mao era brought dramatic changes to Chinese healthcare. The restoration of professional credentials, reinstatement of academic journals and societies, and renewed emphasis on technical expertise rather than political criteria created new opportunities for recognition based on actual clinical skills. My appointment as Associate Chief Surgeon in 1978 reflected this shifting environment, acknowledging practical expertise developed despite limited formal training.
The reform and opening policies initiated under Deng Xiaoping progressively transformed Chinese society throughout the 1980s and beyond, creating both opportunities and challenges for healthcare professionals. Market-oriented reforms introduced competition between institutions, increasing emphasis on technology acquisition, and growing disparities between urban and rural healthcare facilities. These changes required adaptation to new administrative systems, performance metrics, and financial incentives that sometimes created tension with clinical priorities.
My move from county-level practice to larger urban hospitals in the mid-1980s paralleled broader urbanization trends throughout Chinese society. This transition provided access to better resources and professional development opportunities but required adaptation to different institutional cultures and practice patterns. The integration of new technologies, from improved imaging systems to minimally invasive surgical techniques, offered enhanced capabilities but demanded continuous learning throughout late career.
By the time I reached traditional retirement age, China's healthcare system had undergone revolutionary transformation. Modern hospitals featured advanced technology often equal to international standards, while medical education had developed into a sophisticated system producing highly specialized practitioners. Yet challenges remained, particularly in balancing healthcare access across economic and geographic divides. My continuing practice into advanced age reflects both personal commitment and response to ongoing need for experienced practitioners despite these systemic advances.
Throughout these transformative decades, my surgical practice both influenced and was shaped by evolving national healthcare priorities. From basic surgical interventions in resource-limited settings to advanced procedures in modernized facilities, from politically constrained practice during the Cultural Revolution to internationally connected academic surgery in recent decades, my career spans the full arc of modern Chinese healthcare development.
Professional Challenges and Adaptations
The extraordinary duration of my surgical career—67 years and continuing—has required continuous adaptation to changing knowledge, technologies, institutional environments, and my own evolving capabilities. This adaptive process represents not merely passive response to external changes but active engagement with emerging opportunities and constraints throughout seven decades of practice.
My earliest professional challenge involved transitioning from health school training to effective clinical practice with minimal guidance. Without formal mentorship or structured residency programs, I developed surgical skills through careful observation, diligent study of available textbooks, and progressive assumption of responsibility under limited supervision. This self-directed learning established patterns of independent study and skill acquisition that would serve me throughout my career.
The resource limitations of county hospital practice in the 1960s and early 1970s necessitated creative adaptations that profoundly influenced my surgical approach. Working with basic instruments, limited anesthesia options, minimal blood banking capacity, and restricted antibiotic availability required careful patient selection, meticulous technique, and heightened attention to potential complications. These constraints fostered surgical discipline that remained beneficial even after gaining access to better-resourced facilities later in my career.
Political campaigns periodically disrupted normal hospital function, requiring adaptation to changing administrative structures and ideological requirements. During the Cultural Revolution, traditional hospital hierarchies were replaced by revolutionary committees, while scientific decision-making sometimes yielded to political considerations. Navigating these environments required careful balance between maintaining professional standards and demonstrating sufficient political conformity to continue practice—a challenge faced by all healthcare workers during this turbulent period.
The restoration of professional standards following the Cultural Revolution brought different adaptive challenges. Reestablished medical societies, academic journals, and formal evaluation systems created opportunities for recognition but required development of previously unnecessary skills in academic writing, formal presentation, and professional networking. Despite limited formal education, I developed these capabilities sufficiently to publish dozens of papers and participate effectively in professional organizations throughout the latter half of my career.
Institutional transitions—from county hospital to transportation ministry hospital to railway hospital—each required adaptation to different organizational cultures, administrative systems, and patient populations. These changes involved both professional and personal adjustments: learning new institutional protocols, establishing credibility with unfamiliar colleagues, and relocating family to different communities. Each transition brought improved resources and opportunities but required flexibility and patience during integration periods.
Technological evolution throughout my career necessitated continuous learning well beyond formal education. From adoption of improved anesthesia techniques in the 1960s to integration of advanced imaging in the 1980s to implementation of minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s, each technological wave required developing new skills despite already being an established surgeon. This ongoing technological adaptation continued into advanced age, including mastery of electronic medical records and digital imaging systems in my seventies and eighties.
Age-related changes in my own capabilities have required particularly thoughtful adaptation in later career stages. Diminished stamina necessitated more careful case selection and scheduling, while subtle changes in manual dexterity influenced technical approaches to certain procedures. Rather than denying these natural changes, I have adapted surgical practice accordingly—choosing procedures appropriate to current capabilities while maintaining the judgment and experience that continue benefiting patients despite physical changes.
Throughout this adaptive journey, certain core principles have provided continuity: commitment to patient welfare above all other considerations, emphasis on fundamental surgical skills regardless of technological context, rigorous self-evaluation to maintain quality, and determination to continue learning regardless of career stage. These constants, maintained across seven decades of dramatic change, have enabled productive practice spanning from China's early development into contemporary modern society.
Personal Growth Through Professional Practice
Beyond technical skill development, my surgical career has profoundly shaped personal development across multiple dimensions. The physician's privileged access to human experience at its most vulnerable moments provides unique perspective on fundamental aspects of existence—perspective that has progressively deepened throughout decades of practice.
Early in my career, I approached surgery primarily as technical challenge, focusing intensely on developing manual skills and clinical judgment necessary for good outcomes. Patient interactions, while always respectful, remained somewhat secondary to technical aspects of care. This technically-centered approach reflected both my youth and the urgent need to develop procedural competence rapidly in a setting with few experienced mentors.
As technical confidence grew through accumulated experience, my perspective gradually shifted toward greater appreciation of the human dimensions of surgical care. Increasingly, I recognized that technical success alone, while necessary, provided insufficient satisfaction without meaningful human connection with those receiving care. This evolving perspective led to more attentive communication with patients and families, deeper consideration of their concerns and preferences, and growing awareness of emotional aspects of the surgical experience.
Repeated exposure to suffering, mortality, and human resilience through surgical practice has progressively shaped my philosophical outlook on fundamental questions of existence. Daily confrontation with human fragility—the thin margin separating health from illness, life from death—fosters perspective difficult to achieve through ordinary experience. This awareness of life's precariousness has paradoxically led not to pessimism but to deeper appreciation for life's value and beauty despite its inherent vulnerability.
The surgeon's responsibility for life-altering decisions, often made with incomplete information under time pressure, has developed capacity for decisive action despite uncertainty—capacity extending beyond professional contexts into personal life. Rather than paralysis through analysis, surgical practice encourages thorough but time-limited evaluation followed by committed action once decision thresholds are reached. This decisiveness, tempered by appropriate humility about human knowledge limitations, has served well in both professional and personal realms.
Inevitable surgical complications and occasional poor outcomes, despite best efforts, have taught essential lessons in resilience and perspective. Early in my career, complications affected me deeply, sometimes disrupting sleep for days and generating excessive self-criticism. With experience came more balanced perspective—thorough analysis of adverse events for learning without destructive self-recrimination, maintaining confidence despite occasional setbacks, and developing emotional resilience while still caring deeply about patient outcomes.
The progressive recognition of personal knowledge limitations has fostered intellectual humility that deepens with increasing experience rather than diminishing. Early career confidence sometimes bordered on overconfidence, with insufficient appreciation for biological complexity and clinical uncertainty. Decades of practice have revealed how much remains unknown despite scientific advancement, fostering appropriate epistemic humility alongside continued pursuit of improved understanding through study and observation.
Perhaps most significantly, sustained engagement with patients across seven decades has developed deeper empathy and appreciation for diverse human experiences beyond my own limited perspective. From peasants to officials, from children to the elderly, from the highly educated to the illiterate, patients have provided window into lives and circumstances I would otherwise never encounter. This exposure to human diversity in moments of vulnerability creates understanding that theoretical knowledge alone cannot provide.
These dimensions of personal growth—from technical focus to holistic perspective, from youth's confidence to mature wisdom, from emphasis on knowledge to appreciation of its limits—represent the inner journey accompanying external professional development. The physician's privilege of accompanying others through critical life moments offers opportunity for profound personal growth for those receptive to its lessons. This inner development, though less visible than technical accomplishments, represents equally important aspect of a lifetime surgical career.
Witnessing Healthcare Transformation
Few medical careers span sufficient time to witness fundamental transformation of an entire healthcare system. My 67 years in medicine have provided this extraordinary vantage point, allowing me to observe China's healthcare evolution from basic post-revolutionary development through contemporary modern medicine. This perspective offers unique insights into both progress achieved and challenges remaining within our healthcare system.
When I began practice in 1956, healthcare in China remained primarily divided between traditional Chinese medicine and basic Western approaches, with limited integration between these systems. Many rural areas lacked access to either tradition beyond folk remedies administered by minimally trained practitioners. Urban hospitals provided more advanced care but remained inaccessible to most citizens due to geographic and economic barriers. Preventable and treatable conditions routinely resulted in disability or death simply due to healthcare inaccessibility.
The early focus on communicable disease control and basic preventive measures—campaigns against smallpox, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, and other infectious diseases—achieved remarkable public health improvements despite limited resources. My participation in schistosomiasis prevention represented part of this broader effort that dramatically reduced disease burden through relatively simple interventions: mass screening, basic treatment protocols, and public health education.
The development of the rural cooperative medical system and urban work-unit healthcare during the 1960s and 1970s, despite limitations, extended basic healthcare access to previously underserved populations. County hospitals like Nanling, where I spent 25 years, represented the frontline of this expansion, providing increasingly sophisticated clinical care to rural populations previously lacking any hospital access. Though resource-constrained, these institutions dramatically improved healthcare availability throughout the countryside.
The barefoot doctor movement, despite legitimate criticisms regarding training adequacy, nevertheless extended basic healthcare to village level previously lacking any formal medical presence. These minimally trained practitioners—healthcare workers rather than physicians—provided preventive services, basic treatments, and appropriate referrals that significantly improved rural healthcare access. Their integration with county hospitals created rudimentary but functional healthcare networks reaching previously unserved communities.
The post-Mao healthcare reforms beginning in the late 1970s brought renewed emphasis on professional standards, academic development, and technical advancement. Medical journals resumed publication, professional societies reformed, and healthcare institutions restored merit-based advancement rather than political criteria. These changes significantly improved technical quality but sometimes reduced accessibility as market-oriented reforms introduced financial barriers alongside quality improvements.
The scientific and technological acceleration of the 1980s and 1990s transformed clinical capabilities across all specialties. Advanced imaging modalities—first CT, then MRI and other sophisticated techniques—revolutionized diagnostic accuracy. New pharmaceutical options, improved anesthesia, minimally invasive surgical approaches, and enhanced intensive care capabilities dramatically improved outcomes for conditions previously untreatable or highly dangerous to address. These advances, implemented with increasing rapidity in Chinese hospitals, progressively closed gaps between domestic and international standards of care.
The healthcare financing reforms beginning in the 1980s created mixed outcomes still being addressed today. Market-oriented approaches increased efficiency and innovation incentives but reduced accessibility for economically disadvantaged populations. The dissolution of rural cooperative medical systems and work-unit healthcare without immediate comprehensive replacements created coverage gaps that remained problematic for decades. Recent universal coverage initiatives have addressed these issues but challenges remain in balancing access, quality, and sustainability.
Medical education has undergone parallel transformation throughout my career. The abbreviated training programs of the 1950s and early 1960s, like my own health school education, prioritized producing large numbers of providers rapidly over comprehensive individual training. Subsequent decades saw progressive development of standardized medical education, specialty training programs, and continuing education requirements that dramatically improved practitioner preparation. Today's medical graduates receive education comparable to international standards—a remarkable achievement given starting conditions seven decades ago.
Perhaps most striking has been the transformation in healthcare facilities themselves. County hospitals that once operated with minimal equipment, unreliable electricity, and basic infrastructure have developed into modern institutions with sophisticated technology. Provincial and metropolitan hospitals now feature capabilities rivaling international centers, while village clinics have evolved from rudimentary structures to functional primary care facilities. This physical transformation parallels broader improvements in Chinese infrastructure and standard of living throughout recent decades.
Throughout these transformative decades, core challenges in healthcare delivery have remained remarkably consistent despite changing contexts: balancing quality with accessibility, distributing resources equitably across geographic and economic divides, integrating technological advancement with humanistic care, and maintaining prevention alongside increasingly sophisticated treatment capabilities. These fundamental tensions, present throughout my career despite dramatically different manifestations across eras, represent enduring challenges for healthcare systems worldwide rather than unique Chinese difficulties.
Having witnessed this extraordinary healthcare transformation firsthand—from the most basic post-revolutionary conditions to contemporary modern medicine—I appreciate both the magnificent progress achieved and continuing challenges requiring attention. This historical perspective informs my current practice and teaching, helping younger colleagues understand both how far we've come and what issues remain to be addressed in China's continuing healthcare development.
Balancing Professional and Personal Life
The integration of demanding surgical career with meaningful family life has presented continuous challenges throughout seven decades of practice. The physician's commitment to patient care often conflicts with family responsibilities, creating tensions requiring thoughtful navigation rather than perfect resolution. My experience with these challenges, while reflecting particular historical circumstances, contains elements relevant across generations of medical practitioners.
Early in my career, newly married and beginning surgical practice, I established patterns that would persist for decades: long and unpredictable hours, frequent emergency recalls to the hospital, and mental preoccupation with difficult cases even when physically present at home. These demands reflected not only personal commitment but systemic realities of understaffed facilities with minimal coverage redundancy. When emergencies arrived, no alternative surgeon was available—creating responsibility that couldn't be delegated regardless of family circumstances.
My wife, herself a healthcare professional working as a nurse, demonstrated extraordinary understanding of these demands. Her insider's perspective on medical necessity provided foundation for partnership that accommodated professional requirements without resentment, though not without occasional frustration during particularly demanding periods. Her support proved essential to maintaining both career and family functioning throughout decades of practice.
The arrival of our children in the early 1960s increased both the importance and difficulty of achieving appropriate balance. Unpredictable surgical emergencies meant missed family meals, abbreviated holiday celebrations, and absence during significant childhood events. I attempted to compensate through quality of engagement during available time—maintaining genuine interest in children's activities, participating meaningfully in their education, and creating family traditions sustainable within the constraints of medical practice.
Cultural expectations regarding gender roles somewhat eased professional-personal tensions during this period. In 1960s China, mothers were expected to provide primary childcare regardless of their own professional responsibilities. While my wife maintained her nursing career, societal norms placed disproportionate family responsibility on her rather than expecting equal domestic participation from fathers. This arrangement, while enabling my surgical immersion, created inequitable burden I recognize more clearly in retrospective assessment than I did contemporaneously.
The political campaigns of the Cultural Revolution paradoxically improved work-life balance in certain respects while creating different family tensions. Reduced emphasis on professional advancement and increased focus on political activities actually decreased hospital hours during certain periods. However, political study sessions and mandatory participation in mass campaigns consumed time that might otherwise have been available for family. The politicization of education created concerns about children's development requiring careful navigation between official expectations and family values.
My transition to larger hospitals in the 1980s and 1990s brought both increased professional opportunities and improved work-life balance. Better staffing and more sophisticated call systems reduced emergency disruptions, while improved transportation shortened commuting time. Our children had reached adulthood by this period, transforming family responsibilities from daily parenting to supporting their educational and career development—support requiring financial resources more than time commitment.
Throughout all career stages, I maintained certain protective practices for family relationships: preserving regular meals together whenever possible, maintaining genuine interest in family members' activities and concerns, and creating clear boundaries around vacation periods except for genuine emergencies. These practices, while imperfectly implemented amid professional demands, preserved family connection despite workload that might otherwise have proven devastating to meaningful relationships.
In retrospective assessment, I recognize both successes and shortcomings in this lifelong balancing effort. My children developed into successful, well-adjusted adults despite my frequent absences during their formative years—testament primarily to their mother's excellent parenting rather than my limited contribution during their early development. Our marriage has endured for over 60 years with genuine partnership and mutual support, despite sacrifices my wife made to accommodate my professional commitments.
The primary shortcoming I acknowledge is insufficient recognition and appreciation for my wife's disproportionate contribution to family functioning throughout the demanding decades of my surgical career. Her management of household, primary childcare responsibility, and maintenance of her own nursing career created foundation that enabled my professional development. Contemporary perspective reveals inequity in this arrangement that seemed normal within historical context but deserves acknowledgment from current vantage point.
For younger physicians seeking insight from my experience, I would emphasize several principles: first, explicit recognition and appreciation for family members' sacrifices supporting medical career; second, intentional creation of protected family time despite professional demands; third, genuine engagement during available time rather than mere physical presence; and finally, recognition that while medical practice offers profound satisfaction, family relationships provide irreplaceable meaning that professional accomplishments alone cannot supply.
The ideal balance between professional commitment and personal life remains elusive across generations of physicians. My experience suggests not perfect resolution but thoughtful navigation of inevitable tensions—maintaining patient commitment without sacrificing family relationships that ultimately give meaning to professional service itself. This balance, pursued imperfectly but persistently across seven decades, represents perhaps the most challenging and important aspect of a long medical career.
CHAPTER 8: SEASONS OF WIND AND RAIN (CONTINUED PART TWO)
Philosophical Reflections on a Surgical Life
Surgical practice across seven decades has generated philosophical perspectives extending beyond technical aspects of medicine into broader questions about human existence. The surgeon's intimate engagement with both human frailty and resilience, with suffering and healing, with life's beginnings and endings, fosters insights developed through thousands of such encounters throughout a long career.
Perhaps the most fundamental insight concerns human vulnerability. Every person—regardless of status, wealth, intelligence, or power—inhabits a physical body susceptible to injury, illness, aging, and eventual death. This universal vulnerability creates profound equality transcending social hierarchies. In the operating room, the government official and the peasant farmer manifest identical human frailty, requiring the same careful attention to their wounds, the same biological processes of healing, and ultimately facing the same mortality.
This recognition of shared vulnerability forms foundation for medical compassion that transcends social categorization. Throughout changing political eras—from class-based distinctions of early revolutionary period through Cultural Revolution's political classifications to market reform era's economic stratification—I've maintained awareness that human suffering itself recognizes no such boundaries. The universal experience of physical vulnerability connects all patients regardless of background, creating ethical obligation that supersedes social distinctions.
Paradoxically, witnessing human frailty daily has increased rather than diminished my appreciation for life's preciousness and resilience. The extraordinary complexity of biological systems that usually function seamlessly becomes apparent precisely when those systems falter. Seemingly minor interventions—repairing vascular injury, draining infection, restoring anatomical relationships—can dramatically reverse potentially fatal processes, revealing the body's remarkable capacity for recovery when key functions are restored or supported.
This perspective on biological resilience extends to appreciation for human psychological and spiritual resilience witnessed repeatedly throughout clinical practice. Patients facing devastating diagnoses, painful treatments, or permanent disability frequently demonstrate extraordinary courage, adaptability, and determination that transcends mere biological recovery. This human capacity to find meaning amid suffering, to adapt to changed circumstances, and to maintain dignity through adversity repeatedly manifests itself across diverse patients and conditions.
Surgical practice provides unique perspective on causality and agency within human affairs. The surgeon acts decisively to change biological outcomes that would otherwise progress to disability or death. Yet this apparent agency operates within strict biological constraints and unavoidable uncertainty. The surgeon influences but cannot control healing processes, can improve probabilities but cannot guarantee outcomes. This tension between decisive action and inherent limitations fosters philosophical perspective balancing confidence with humility, agency with acceptance of ultimate constraints on human control.
The time-bound nature of surgical intervention—operating within critical windows beyond which intervention becomes futile—parallels broader recognition of opportunity and limitation within human affairs generally. Throughout life, certain actions must occur within specific timeframes to be effective, certain developments must unfold in proper sequence, and certain possibilities exist only temporarily before biological or circumstantial changes render them inaccessible. This surgical perspective on timing and opportunity has influenced my approach to life beyond medicine, encouraging decisive action when appropriate conditions arise rather than indefinite deliberation.
Regular encounter with mortality throughout seven decades of practice has progressively refined my perspective on death itself. Early in my career, patient deaths affected me deeply—each representing personal failure despite rational understanding that some conditions exceeded contemporary treatment capabilities. With experience came recognition that death represents not failure but inevitable conclusion to every life, with medical intervention attempting not immortality but appropriate extension of meaningful life when possible.
This perspective fosters neither resignation nor detachment but realistic assessment balancing intervention with acceptance. Certain deaths—young patients with treatable conditions—remain tragic and warrant aggressive intervention. Others—elderly patients with multiple system failure or terminal conditions—may call for supportive care rather than invasive procedures unlikely to provide meaningful benefit. Distinguishing between these situations requires both technical knowledge and ethical wisdom developed through repeated engagement with mortality throughout a long career.
Perhaps most significantly, surgical practice across multiple eras has demonstrated both remarkable progress in technical capabilities and unchanged fundamentals of human experience. Conditions routinely fatal in the 1950s now represent manageable chronic diseases. Procedures requiring extended hospitalization and recovery now occur on outpatient basis. Diagnostic precision unimaginable early in my career now guides therapeutic decisions with remarkable accuracy. Yet despite these advances, the human experience of illness, the need for compassionate care, the importance of trusting relationship between healer and patient, and the fundamental questions of meaning raised by suffering remain essentially unchanged across generations.
This perspective on both progress and constancy provides balanced assessment of modern medicine's achievements. Technical advancement deserves genuine celebration for reducing suffering that earlier generations accepted as inevitable. Yet focus on technology alone risks overlooking unchanged human needs for connection, understanding, and meaning amid illness. The fully developed physician integrates technical excellence with humanistic understanding, recognizing that neither alone provides sufficient foundation for truly healing practice.
These philosophical reflections, developed through decades of clinical engagement rather than abstract theorizing, represent perhaps the most valuable perspective gained from a lifetime in medicine. While technical skills become obsolete with advancing technology and scientific knowledge undergoes continuous revision, these deeper insights into human vulnerability, resilience, and meaning provide enduring wisdom that remains relevant across changing eras of medical practice.
The Question of Retirement
At 87, having practiced medicine for 67 years, the question of retirement naturally arises both from others and in my own reflection. Why continue practicing well beyond typical retirement age? What considerations inform this unusual professional longevity? How does one appropriately match continuing practice with changing capabilities? These questions deserve thoughtful exploration beyond simplified narratives of either stubborn persistence or exceptional dedication.
The conventional retirement age for Chinese physicians—60 for men and 55 for women during much of my career—reflects administrative policy rather than assessment of individual capability or contribution potential. These standardized retirement timelines, established during era of physically demanding manual labor and shorter life expectancy, poorly fit intellectual professions like medicine where experience often enhances rather than diminishes effectiveness well beyond these chronological markers.
When I reached official retirement age in 1994, I remained physically vigorous, mentally sharp, and professionally engaged. Having finally achieved the clinical judgment and technical refinement that comes only through decades of practice, retirement would have prematurely ended my most effective professional years. The healthcare system, still developing advanced specialist capabilities, continued needing experienced surgeons capable of managing complex cases and training younger physicians. These factors supported continuing practice beyond administrative retirement age.
My transition to post-retirement practice occurred gradually rather than abruptly. Administrative responsibilities were progressively delegated to younger colleagues, on-call duties reduced, and case selection increasingly focused on procedures matching current capabilities. This phased approach maintained valuable contributions while acknowledging changing energy levels and the importance of leadership succession for institutional health.
Financial considerations play minimal role in my continuing practice. The pension system provides adequate if modest retirement income, while family circumstances remain stable without requiring supplemental earnings. The professional fees generated from current limited practice contribute to comfortable living but do not drive the decision to continue. Unlike some continuing physicians motivated primarily by financial needs, my ongoing practice reflects professional rather than economic considerations.
The primary factors supporting continued practice involve both contribution capacity and personal fulfillment. Despite advancing age, I maintain surgical skills sufficient for carefully selected procedures, particularly those where judgment and experience matter more than physical stamina or the latest techniques. Teaching capabilities actually improve with age, as accumulated experience provides perspective increasingly valuable to younger practitioners focused on rapidly evolving technical aspects of surgery.
Personal fulfillment through continued professional engagement represents equally important consideration. Having defined my identity substantially through medical practice for nearly seven decades, abrupt cessation would remove central source of meaning, purpose, and social connection. The structure provided by even limited continuing practice—the rhythm of hospital visits, patient interactions, colleague consultations, and teaching responsibilities—maintains cognitive stimulation and social engagement proven to support healthy aging.
Balanced against these factors supporting continuation are realistic assessment of changing capabilities and ethical responsibility toward patients. I acknowledge specific age-related changes requiring adaptation: somewhat diminished physical stamina limiting surgical duration, minor changes in manual dexterity affecting certain technical maneuvers, and occasionally requiring more time to integrate complex information. These changes necessitate appropriate case selection, declining procedures exceeding current capabilities, and sometimes referring patients to colleagues better positioned for certain interventions.
Cognitive function represents particular concern for aging physicians, as subtle changes may affect clinical judgment before becoming apparent in everyday functioning. I've addressed this through regular self-assessment, colleague feedback, ongoing continuing education to maintain current knowledge, and particular attentiveness to cases where outcomes diverge from expectations. This vigilance recognizes both individual responsibility and the reality that self-assessment has inherent limitations requiring external validation.
The healthcare institutions where I practice have supported this extended career through flexible arrangements accommodating changing capabilities while utilizing valuable experience. Reduced clinical hours, elimination of night call responsibilities, focused scope of practice, and emphasis on teaching roles alongside direct patient care create sustainable practice model benefiting both the institution and aging physician. This represents enlightened self-interest rather than mere accommodation, as experienced practitioners provide valuable stability amid healthcare system in continuous flux.
When asked directly about retirement plans, I typically respond that each case might be my last—not from morbid preoccupation but realistic recognition of both mortality and unpredictable capability changes. This perspective brings appreciation for each patient encounter as privilege rather than entitlement, each teaching opportunity as gift rather than obligation. Rather than arbitrary chronological endpoint, I anticipate practice will conclude when either health changes prevent safe continuing contribution or when I no longer find fulfillment in professional engagement.
For younger colleagues contemplating their own career trajectories, my experience suggests several principles worth consideration. First, chronological age alone provides poor predictor of continuing capability, with individual assessment far more relevant than arbitrary age thresholds. Second, gradual transition rather than abrupt retirement often better serves both practitioner and healthcare system. Third, thoughtful career planning should consider not only financial preparation for eventual retirement but development of interests, relationships, and purposes beyond medicine providing meaning when practice eventually concludes.
The question of retirement ultimately resolves to deeper inquiry about purpose, contribution, and meaning in later life stages. While certain cultures view aging primarily through lens of diminishment and withdrawal, my experience suggests possibility of continuing
