Bethune defeats infectious disease tuberculosis

2020 is the 130 anniversary of Bethune's birth.

Although Bethune is a household name in China, what is less known is that he once suffered from a very serious infectious disease-tuberculosis, and went through the gates of hell.

However, it was also this illness that made Bethune brave to try new treatments. After recovering, he devoted himself to research and became a surgical expert, an advocate of social medicine, and finally joined the Communist Party of Canada. These stories are the prelude to his coming to China to support the Chinese people's war of resistance.

Young people aspire to study medicine and have success.

The ancestors of the Bethune family were French Huguenot Christians, known as Puritans in the Americas, who moved from northern France to Scotland in the mid-16th century and to Canada in the 18th century. Bethune's grandfather, Henry Norman Bethune, was one of the founders of Trinity Medical College in Toronto, Ontario, and a famous surgeon. Under the influence of his grandfather, Bethune aspired to become a surgeon like his grandfather.

After graduating from high school, Bethune entered the University of Toronto Medical School to study medicine. He enrolled in the fall of 1909 and graduated in December 1916 with a bachelor's degree. While he was studying, the First World War broke out. In August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany, and Canada, a British autonomous territory, was involved. On September 8 of that year, Bethune enlisted in Valcatia, Quebec, and was the tenth enlisted in Toronto. More than 50000 Canadian soldiers were killed. Bethune served in Canada's Second Field Medical Rescue Corps. He went to the French front as a stretcher soldier. He was injured in his left leg in the second battle of Ipree in northwestern Belgium. After his injury, he continued to serve. After the war, he returned to Canada to continue his studies.

After graduating from college, Bethune practiced medicine in Canada and also served as a captain in the army. In October 1921, Bethune went to Edinburgh Royal Hospital to take the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was admitted as a member on February 5 of the following year and then became a surgeon at West London Hospital. While at the West London Hospital, Bethune became acquainted with Miss Frances Campbell Penney, the daughter of an Edinburgh judge. On 13 August 1923, he married Frances and went to the British Channel Islands for their honeymoon. They traveled to Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria and Germany for six months to observe the demonstration operations of famous European surgeons in various countries. In early 1924, they returned to Canada and later went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to study neurosurgery. In the autumn of 1924, Bethune moved to Detroit, Michigan, USA, and started practicing medicine in the city in early December.

Lung infection Fighting disease

In the summer of 1926, the unfortunate thing happened, Bethune suffered from infectious disease-tuberculosis. In October of this year, he returned to his hometown and went to Calido Sanatorium in Gravenhurst, Canada for treatment. On December 18, transferred to the Trudeau Sanatorium in the Adirondack Mountains on Lake Saranac, New York, United States. At the end of May 1927, he felt better and returned to Detroit to practice medicine. Later, his condition deteriorated and he had to return to Trudeau Sanatorium.

During this period, Bethune experienced all kinds of torture. In November 1927, he created nine murals, "The Course of a Tuberculosis Patient", predicting that he would die of tuberculosis. In these paintings, Bethune portrayed the source of the tuberculosis bacteria as a bat-like animal.

Before birth, he painted the womb as a dark cave, and the baby had been attacked by tuberculosis bacteria. The germ is represented by a red dragon, a prehistoric reptile with a long mouth, sharp teeth and bat-like wings. He sighed with this verse: "Oh, the newcomer, our hero, the embryo is in distress, the tuberculosis bat is like blood, how cruel."

Later, he drew a picture like this: "In the canyon of the capital city, the flowers are charming and beautiful, but they are no match for the clouds and fog of tuberculosis bats-in the filth, layers of shadows, he has gradually become very ill." "Chronic illness devours its life, coughing, spitting phlegm, and being withered......"

In the last set of murals, I painted myself in the arms of the angel of death, accompanied by the poem: "O dear death, thou angel of incomparable mercy, let me die in thy gentle arms. The stars in the sky are bright, the sun is long gone, and I finish my little act, and the boring drama ends."

Bethune, however, did not succumb to the disease. He is a doctor, in the hospital, he actively cooperate with the treatment, but also widely read the medical books. Once, he happened to read John Alexander's "Surgical Treatment of Tuberculosis", which gave him great inspiration. The author, John Alexander, is a famous thoracic surgeon, which introduces in detail the "artificial pneumothorax therapy" pioneered by this doctor ".

Artificial pneumothorax therapy has certain risks, because it needs to artificially cut the chest cavity to cause pneumothorax, atmospheric pressure lung retraction, volume reduction, pus and substances in the lung tuberculosis ball will be discharged and healed, and when the healing is almost complete, the gas will be pumped out and the chest cavity will be closed. In Bethune's day, effective anti-TB drugs had not yet been developed, and this dangerous practice was once adopted by countries.

He went to the doctors at the Trudeau Sanatorium and asked for this treatment. The doctors told him that "this kind of therapy is immature and dangerous", but he was not afraid of danger and insisted on trying. On October 27, 1927, at his own request, he tried a dangerous artificial pneumothorax therapy, and finally miraculously recovered through this immature therapy in two months.

On December 10, 1927, Bethune was discharged from hospital. Bethune used the rewritten Apostle's Creed as a Christmas card, writing: "I believe in the resurrection of a healthy body from the sick and the eternal care of tuberculosis patients." Looking back on this experience of fighting the disease, he said with emotion: "Fear is the greatest destroyer of happiness, and most fears are unfounded. It can be said that people live by hope. Don't be disappointed, be happy and calm, follow the rules, and play the game to the end."

Because he was suffering from tuberculosis, Bethune did not know whether he could recover. When he was undergoing artificial pneumothorax therapy, he divorced his wife Frances. He remarried Frances after his illness. Before coming to China, Bethune went to Montreal to visit Frances. On his deathbed, he made a will requesting the International Aid China Committee to take care of her.

North American doctors committed to scientific research

This illness led Bethune to devote himself to the study of tuberculosis infection. After his illness, Bethune immediately went to the United States New York Leixi State Early Tuberculosis Hospital for further study. Three months later, he returned to Canada and served as the first assistant to Dr. Edward Archibald, the chief of surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, and the famous North American surgeon. He worked here until the fall of 1932. He has published many academic papers in Canadian and American medical journals, such as: "The New Combination of Air Pump and Artificial Pneumothorax", "Calling for Tuberculosis Patients to Implement Compression Therapy as Early as Possible", "Bacterial Diagnosis of Pulmonary Spiral Disease", etc. He has become a famous doctor in North America. In May 1932, Bethune went to Herman Kiefer Hospital in Detroit to temporarily preside over the Department of Thoracic Surgery. In the same year, Bethune was elected a member of the American Society of Thoracic Surgery and served as a five-member board member of the society. In January 1935, Bethune returned to Montreal to become chief of thoracic surgery at the newly established Sacred Heart Hospital in North Carolina.

In order to better cure the disease, Bethune became an inventor. In the course of his medical practice, he is diligent in thinking and striving for perfection. He has developed and innovated some surgical instruments, such as scapula lifters and retractors, long rib scissors or rib scissors and rib strippers. The largest of these instruments were made by workers at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal under the guidance and direct supervision of Bethune. A company bought Dr. Bethune's patent and produced medical devices named after "Bethune": Bethune's chest gas injection device "Nurse's Friend" and Bethune's pulmonary tourniquet, etc.

Heart of the people called for reform

Suffering from tuberculosis made Bethune think deeply about the social medical system. He said: "The poor have tuberculosis of the poor, the rich have tuberculosis of the rich, the rich recover and the poor die." In 1934, Bethune delivered a speech at the Canadian Progressive Association in Montreal, advocating government funding for tuberculosis prevention and treatment. He set up his own clinic in the suburbs of Mongolia and treated poor patients free of charge every Saturday afternoon. In August 1935, during his visit to Leningrad, the Soviet Union to participate in the International Congress of Physiology, Bethune visited hospitals and sanatoriums to study the measures taken by the Soviet Union to prevent and control tuberculosis. After returning to China, he expressed his views on his visit to the Soviet Union at a rally held by the "Friends of the Soviet Union" Association in Mongolia, hoping to learn from the Soviet medical system, and initiated the establishment of the Montreal People's Health Care Association as its president. The main purpose of the association is to improve people's medical and health conditions. There are more than 100 doctors, nurses and social workers participating.

Since then, he has repeatedly promoted socialized medicine in medical conferences in Canada and the United States. He said, "The government should see the protection of people's health as its primary obligation and responsibility to its citizens. Let's redefine the ethical standards of the medical profession-not as a professional stereotactic among doctors, but as a basic code of ethics and justice between the medical profession and the people." On April 17, 1936, Bethune delivered a speech on "removing self-interest from medical care" at a seminar organized by the Montreal Medical and Surgical Society. From July to August, on the eve of the Ontario Assembly election, he issued the Montreal People's Health Association Declaration to candidates, the Governor of Quebec, and the medical and religious circles, suggesting the implementation of socialized medical care. He proposed to the Government a comprehensive and complete programme to provide planned medical services to the entire population.

From thinking about socialized medicine, Bethune further established his faith. In November 1935, Bethune joined the Communist Party of Canada. For his faith, he went to Spain in October 1936 to serve as the captain of the Canadian medical team. During the Spanish Civil War, Bethune designed a mobile blood transfusion team to go directly to the front to treat the wounded, which greatly reduced the death rate of the wounded, and in some theaters reduced it by as much as 75%.

After the outbreak of China's all-out Anti-Japanese War, in August 1937, Bethune expressed his willingness to go to China to support the Anti-Japanese War in his speech in Salmon Bay, British Columbia, Canada. In October, he went to the United States to discuss with the China Aid Committee and the Peace and Democratic League and prepare for the issue of aid to China, and purchased medical supplies with donations from the two organizations. On January 8, 1938, Bethune led the Canadian-American medical team to set off from Vancouver and took the ship "Queen of Asia" to Hong Kong for China. He wrote to his wife Frances: "Spain and China are both part of the same battlefield. I am going to China now because I feel that that is where the need is most urgent; that is where I can best make a difference."

In late January 1938, Bethune arrived in Hong Kong. Soong Ching Ling recalled: "Doctor Bai's visit to China was initiated by us and we tried our best to provide him with what he needed." This year, Soong Ching Ling established the Alliance for the Defense of China in Hong Kong, calling on international peace activists to help China. The New York International Aid China Committee is one of the organizations that cooperate with the Alliance. On August 15, 1939, Bethune wrote to his friend: "Can you send money from the China Aid Committee... Maybe they should send 1000 dollars to the Chinese Alliance in Hong Kong." However, shortly after he wrote this letter, in the early morning of November 12, Bethune died unfortunately in Huangshikou Village, Tang County, Hebei Province, and has been sleeping in the land of China ever since.

Bethune deeply loved the Chinese people. He said, "What more Chinese people who don't understand feelings! Here I have found the most humane comrades. They have encountered cruelty, but they know what kindness is; they have experienced pain, but they know how to laugh; they have suffered endless hardships, but they still maintain their patience, optimism and quiet wisdom. I have fallen in love with them; I know they love me too."

Source: People's Political Consultative Conference