Beijing doctor Lin Jianhao led the team to Tibet more than 30 times and traveled to remote towns in Qamdo for free charity treatment
Treated 84 Kashin-Beck Disease patients in 6 years
A 25-year-old girl, 1.7 meters tall, has legs as thin as a plastic bottle, and both knees are bent to one side at the same time. From the front, her legs look like half the title of the book "".
This is a Kashin-Beck disease patient in Qamdo, Tibet. Lin Jianhao still has her medical records in his cell phone.
In the past, the incidence of this disease was relatively high in the local area, and due to the lack of timely treatment, there were many severely ill patients, and many people even lost the ability to move.
Some time ago, Lin Jianhao went to Tibet to treat the girl.
The operation was very complicated. After returning to Beijing, Lin Jianhao had been thinking about her recovery.
In July, he wanted to see the patient again. This is Lin Jianhao's fifth trip to Tibet this year. "She is very young, and I hope to cure her."
In the past 6 years, Lin Jianhao has led his team to Tibet more than 30 times, traveled to remote villages and towns in Qamdo, brought advanced medical technology, provided free charity treatment, and helped 84 Kashin-Beck Disease patients relieve their pain.
Seeing patients saying goodbye to wheelchairs, marrying and working like ordinary people, as the director of the Department of Orthopedics and Joints at Peking University People’s Hospital, Lin Jianhao feels that doctors should also devote themselves to the grassroots level, "let the common people enjoy the gospel brought by mature technology."
promise
Must come back to treat patients with Kashin-Beck disease
"I will definitely come back."
When he left Qamdo in Tibet six years ago, Lin Jianhao made such a promise.
Qamdo is located in eastern Tibet, in the Hengduan Mountains and the Sanjiang River Basin.
In the summer of 2015, Lin Jianhao and many other doctors came here for free consultation.
Although he had some mental preparations for the medical conditions of the local hospital before going, the reality was beyond his imagination-a county hospital with only about 20 medical staff, and a small clinic run by a couple across the road. I see more patients in a day than county hospitals.
What surprised Lin Jianhao was that there were many Kashin-Beck disease patients in the area.
This is an endemic, deformed osteoarthropathy. The patient's joints are swollen and bulging. In severe cases, they may also experience long-term pain and unable to walk normally.
In 2014, the Tibet Autonomous Region reported to the national health department that the incidence of Kashin-Beck disease in Qamdo and other regions was relatively high.
In a village in Azi Township, Chaya County, Changdu City, Lin Jianhao discovered that more than half of the villagers over the age of 40 suffer from Kashin-Beck disease, and there are many patients with severe joint deformities.
It is not easy to treat these patients.
It's not just the problems of poor local surgical technology, poor hardware conditions in hospitals, and critical lack of medical teams, but people also have different understandings of health and surgery.
"In Tibet, people may think that getting sick is normal and an arrangement of God's will. Of course, there are also economic reasons." Lin Jianhao explained.
But the local villagers always respect the medical staff.
Knowing that the free clinic team was coming, the students lined up at the entrance of the village to welcome them.
Lin Jianhao felt even more awkward, "I just sit there and can't do anything."
When leaving Chaya County, Lin Jianhao and a local deputy county magistrate were in the same car. The other party saw his loss and said, "You can come back later."
Run around
Seven or eight trips to and from Beijing and Qamdo, in order to save money and stay at the airport
But how do you go back?
Qamdo is 3000 kilometers away from Beijing, and there is not even a direct flight.
Lin Jianhao thought to himself that he had a stable job in Beijing, and there was no one and no equipment when he went to Tibet. What should I do?
In September 2016, he accidentally turned to a newspaper when he was flying on a plane, which introduced Professor Zhang Zhiyi of Harbin Medical University and his team to investigate Kashin-Beck disease in Aba, Sichuan.
Lin Jianhao was stabbed in his heart, "I think I should do it too."
He is not without confidence. He has done a lot of work on osteoarthritis of the elderly in Beijing before and has accumulated experience. "Why are there so many Kaschin-Beck disease? What are the factors?" He wanted to find out.
Lin Jianhao and the hospital took a three-month leave and promised to "come back as soon as something happens."
I borrowed a car from a friend and a mobile X-ray machine.
In July 2017, he and Li Hu, a doctor in the same department, came to Tibet.
At the beginning, I was unfamiliar with the place and language.
He wants to enter the school to screen the pupils, but how can the school open the school door?
The most difficult thing is to get the local government to approve of their actions, "I have nothing, and no red-head documents."
During that time, Lin Jianhao kept going back and forth between Beijing and Tibet seven or eight times.
In order to save money, Lin Jianhao often sleeps at the airport.
The hospital is busy with work. He usually takes the last flight in the evening from Beijing to Chengdu. He spends the night in an airport chair, and then transfers to Qamdo at 6 or 7 in the morning.
The conditions of Tibet’s highways are not good, with nine bends and eighteen bends, and some sections are still very dangerous. When encountering a landslide on the riverside and the road is blocked, Lin Jianhao can only reverse and make a detour, "There is a cliff on the side, and there must be a person behind to help me see. Otherwise, I would not dare to fall."
Lin Jianhao felt that although it was hard work, it was not his burden. "I like doing this, at least I feel very happy mentally."
Turnaround
Screening in local schools to correct polydactyly for children
The turning point came in the last month.
With the support of the Changdu government, the local school opened the door to them and allowed them to be screened for Kashin-Beck Disease.
At this time, it was mid-to-late September 2017.
"As long as you are doing the right thing and can persist, someone will definitely help you." Lin Jianhao believed.
Generally, Kashin-Beck disease has a special manifestation in wrist X-rays in the early stages of onset.
"When children get sick, their bones will grow laterally, which affects their height. Atypical patients, although they can grow taller, but they do not develop well, and the joints will hurt."
In the process of screening more than 6,000 students, Lin Jianhao found that many children had polydactyly. Affected by local medical and economic conditions, most of them did not receive treatment. "Some children have very obvious deformities, and they always wear long sleeves to block them. "
In November of that year, Lin Jianhao invited Professor Chen Shanlin from Beijing Jishuitan Hospital to the local area to correct polydactyly.
Later, under the leadership of Chen Shanlin, many domestic hand surgery experts joined one after another, and more than two hundred corrective operations have been completed so far.
"Some children are very happy after the operation, and they say they want to be doctors when they grow up." Lin Jianhao always remembers the touch of the children.
This has also shortened the distance between the Tibetan compatriots and the medical team.
People began to believe that Lin Jianhao didn't just simply check and take a look, he really wanted to help them solve their problems.
With the cooperation of the local government, village officials, and villagers, the research and treatment of Kashin-Beck disease finally opened a new horizon.
treatment
Corrected more than 100 joints for 84 Tibetan patients
“Doctors should devote themselves to the grassroots so that the common people can enjoy the gospel brought by mature technology.” As the director of the Department of Orthopedics and Joints of Peking University People’s Hospital, Lin Jianhao did not put all his energy on pursuing top-notch technology and solving intractable diseases. That’s right, but it’s what doctors should do to benefit the grassroots people. To cultivate sentimental and socially responsible doctors, doctors should sink to the grassroots to understand the situation.”
In Tibet, Lin Jianhao "sinked" to the furthest and most remote places, such as the elementary school in Bianba County, and Duwa Township, which has a population of only more than 3,000, and left his footprints. "After going so many times, The people and I are familiar."
In 2018, Lin Jianhao led the team to Qamdo again for Kashin-Beck Disease screening and free consultation. “Of the more than 600 patients, more than 300 need treatment.”
Jia Gong Zeren, director of the Shuodu Township Health Center in Luolong County, Changdu City, told the Beijing News that with the support of the government, the medical team led by Lin Jianhao has brought great changes to the local area.
"In the past, many patients could not get out of bed, but now they can work after the operation. We mainly do manual labor. We have to grow the land and dig up the mountain to dig cordyceps. If it is inconvenient, we can't do it at all."
Due to local medical conditions, doctors could only help patients relieve their pain, but they could not rectify them.
"Patients are very affectionate for Director Lin. We have a custom here to tell fortune-telling before surgery, but now everyone does it directly, trusting in science, and trusting medical staff."
So far, Lin Jianhao's team has treated 84 patients with Kashin-Beck disease in Tibet and corrected more than 104 joints.
The language barrier cannot stop the patient's gratitude.
The Tibetans who bid farewell to the wheelchair and got rid of the pain offered hada to the medical staff, gave the ghee used in the temple to light the lamp, performed the most intimate Tibetan forehead ritual, and put both hands on the chest and thumbs up.
In 2019, the Beijing Houai Joint Health Charity Foundation, founded by Lin Jianhao, cooperated with the China Overseas Chinese Talent Development Foundation to accept the first batch of 18 Kaschin-Beck Disease patients from Qamdo to Beijing for treatment.
After the successful operation of the first batch of patients, more funds and medical resources were attracted. The local government began to promote and approve medical insurance in other places so that patients who went to Beijing for surgery can enjoy the medical insurance reimbursement policy.
The government is also focusing on improving the local medical standards. Young orthopedic doctors in Qamdo will come to Peking University People's Hospital to study regularly.
This year is the third year that Tibetan patients have entered Beijing for treatment.
In July, the fourth batch of 20 patients will arrive, including Jiagong Zeren.
"My hip joints are not very good. Director Lin said before that he would perform surgery on me, but I want those who are seriously ill to do it first. I don't have to do physical work, so I can do it last." Jia Gong Zeren said with a smile.
Beijing News reporter Peng Chong