Face to face丨The warm moment, the 90-year-old doctor warms the stethoscope for the patient every auscultation
March 24th is "World Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Day". At the Beijing Chest Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Ma Yue, a well-known domestic and foreign expert in tuberculosis prevention and control, is 90 years old, and is still carrying out detailed diagnosis and treatment for patients.
Fighting with intractable diseases for 67 years
Ma Yue has been engaged in tuberculosis prevention and treatment for 67 years.
Ma Yue was born in Shanghai in 1932. After graduating from Jiangsu Medical College in 1955, she was assigned to the Central Institute of Tuberculosis, the predecessor of the current Beijing Chest Hospital.
Tuberculosis is commonly known as "tuberculosis", and tuberculosis that occurs in the lungs is also called "tuberculosis". The transmission route is that the droplets discharged by TB patients who excrete bacteria through loud talking, coughing or sneezing are inhaled by people around them, thereby becoming infected.
In Lu Xun's novels, the story of "human blood steamed bread cures tuberculosis" is mentioned, from which everyone can feel the fear that this disease brought to people more than 100 years ago.
Until the 1950s, China's tuberculosis epidemic was still very serious, and it was a well-known intractable and stubborn disease among various infectious diseases.
Reporter: You live and work with infectious diseases at such a close distance, aren’t you afraid?
Ma Yue: I think first of all is responsibility for patients, and second, I think that patients should be treated equally. Many experts and professors talk about medicine being a science, but medicine is more of literature and more of a human study.
I think that because the objects we serve are people and sick people, then the equality of ordinary people is even higher.
So I think that after we study medicine, through medical ethics education, I always think that the patient is a vulnerable group, and we should serve him better, so the patient sometimes complains or something we can tolerate and understand, especially today I did X There is a lesion on the lungs on the light film or CT scan, but after a month or two, the patient does not get better. The patient no doubt complains a little. Sometimes he tells him that tuberculosis is a chronic disease, and even persuades him.
"Doing a lifetime of homework for patients"
With compassion, Ma Yue chose a career that was destined to be difficult and even at risk of being infected.
But at the beginning of her medical career, she still encountered something that she regretted.
Ma Yue: There was a patient with pulmonary tuberculosis. After treatment, the lesions on the lungs improved significantly, but the patient's clinical symptoms did not improve, with irregular fever and sometimes headaches.
When a doctor in the tuberculosis department sees a patient with a headache, he must think about whether the person has tuberculous meningitis in his head, so I still earnestly did a lot of physical examinations on him, and made a lot of observations, but found no tuberculous meningitis. , Finally, I told the patient that you have tuberculosis. It's so much better. Don't worry and don't be nervous. I think I have a good attitude.
But one day the patient had a sudden convulsion at night, and then fell into a coma. Of course, this patient was cured in the end, but I felt very guilty.
All the tests I have done on him are whether there are symptoms of tuberculous meningitis, but this patient is not tuberculous meningitis, he has a tuberculosis ball in his skull, when I was young, there was no brain CT or brain MRI at all.
Tuberculosis is a very stubborn bacteria. Even if the patient is cured, there is still the possibility of relapse, and this bacteria can infect any organ of the human body except nails and hair. high demands.
Ma Yu: I always say that there is no end to learning. There is a sentence in a report that I particularly appreciate. Doing a lifetime of homework for patients is indeed the case. I am so old now, and people say that you have a lot of experience. Why are you fighting so hard?
I said I told you there is no end to learning, and TB is always challenging us.
In the 1950s and 1960s, effective anti-tuberculosis drugs were still very limited. Seeing that many patients with cavities in the lungs were not treated in time, Ma Yue invented a new method of pulmonary catheter therapy on the basis of nasal catheter therapy. - This allows the injected drug to reach the cavity in the lung.
This was a pioneering move at the time and greatly improved the therapeutic effect.
Actively retrieve patients many times
A high degree of responsibility for patients and diligent pursuit of medical technology have made Ma Yue from a clinical doctor to a department director, from a chief physician to a well-known professor, and finally to an authoritative expert in tuberculosis that is well-known at home and abroad.
But no matter what stage he is in, Ma Yue strives to be strict with himself and lenient toward others.
Ma Yue: One of the patients was a physical education teacher. During the cardiac examination, he found two nodules on both sides. At that time, the cardiologist checked the heart. For these two nodules, they said you should go to the tuberculosis hospital to see if they were It wasn't tuberculosis, so he went to see me. After reading it, I said that your two diseases are not like tuberculosis. He left and never came back.
I then asked why the man didn't come back. I just told him that he didn't look like tuberculosis, but I didn't tell him what else he was sick with, and finally got him back.
In the end, the patient was diagnosed with lung cancer on both sides during the further examination. Fortunately, his lung cancer was relatively indolent and not so dangerous. Both operations proved to be lung cancer. Now we are old friends.
Reporter: It's hard to imagine if you don't look for him.
Ma Yue: If you don't look for him, you will delay things. So sometimes you have to be careful when you are a doctor. get him back.
90-year-old still insists on weekly visits
In 2021, Ma Yu won the honorary title of "The Most Beautiful Technological Worker".
Although she is 90 years old, she still insists on visiting every Thursday.
She also opened a second outpatient department next to the office, using non-outpatient time to see some patients in urgent need of diagnosis and treatment.
And, she said, to this day, she is still learning.
Reporter: Now you are still visiting the clinic to see patients and learning. Do you still think you can’t finish your studies?
Ma Yun: I haven't finished my studies, and now I'm facing new challenges. For example, AIDS patients are patients with very low cellular immunity, so the most serious infection caused by AIDS is tuberculosis. I met a patient in one outpatient clinic. This patient has cerebral tuberculosis, and there is no disease on the lungs, but he is HIV-positive. In the end, he underwent a craniotomy for cerebral tuberculosis, but how to prevent it is too difficult, and it is a challenge for us doctors.
The anti-AIDS drugs he used should also use anti-tuberculosis drugs. Are the anti-tuberculosis drugs and anti-AIDS drugs synergistic or antagonistic to each other?
I told this patient very frankly, you came today and I will check you, you will come next week, why did he say?
I said that I have to study when I go back to see if the anti-AIDS drug and the anti-tuberculosis drug are antagonistic to each other. I said that this is a new problem for my tuberculosis doctor, and the veterans have encountered new problems.
Reporter: You are so attentive and considerate to the patient that the stethoscope will be silent when listening to his heart.
Ma Yue: Because I've also been sick, and they've seen a doctor for me, a cold stethoscope connector makes me shiver.
And he told him that it was a little cold, and the patient was mentally prepared.
In her 67 years of medical practice, Ma Yue has received countless patients. With her help, tens of thousands of patients have driven away the disease and walked out of the shadows.
To this day, 90-year-old Ma Yue is still fighting on the front line of tuberculosis prevention and treatment.
Reporter: Your colleague told us that Ma Lao is doing one thing at work now, and all the incurable diseases in our hospital are looking for you.
Ma Yue: It didn't reach that level. Now let me tell you, our research institute has grown very fast. Now our middle-level young directors have already surpassed me. The only old doctor like me has an advantage. After all, there are many lessons for somersaults. Or more successful experience, so you may think more.
Since the 1980s, I have been teaching where to teach every time. My lecture task is to talk about the differential diagnosis of tuberculosis. Every year I teach, I have a requirement for myself.
Reporter: How many people are you doing your homework in your life for?
Ma Yue: Let's do our best as doctors, don't do regrets or regrets. I once said a word, 58 years ago, a patient had a cavity in his lungs, and he was treated with a pulmonary catheter. He will give me a pulmonary catheter after 58 years. I wrote a letter and sent me a photo. I said that this is the highest reward for me. I think I have no regrets when I think of this as a doctor.
Producer丨Liu Bin
Reporter丨Wang Ning
Planning丨Ying Huang
Choreographer丨Yin Jianzhang
Editor in charge丨Wang Feng
Editor丨Zhang Hongfei
Photography丨Yang Fan, Liu Hongbo, Gao Zhong
Responsible editor: Qiu Jing