(Minghui.org) People in ancient China cared more about other people’s well-being than their own material interests. Pharmacies at the time often displayed the following couplet: “We only hope people are disease-free, even if the medicines on our shelves get old and dusty [since few people buy them].” But the situation is almost the opposite in today’s China, where the ultimate goal in the medical profession is to increase revenue by increasing the number of hospitalisations and operations.
Take three hospitals in Guangdong Province as an example.
In November 2012, a large banner outside Wuchuan City Hospital in Guangdong Province proclaimed, “Congratulations to our hospital for handling over 40,000 inpatients in 2012.”
On February 2020, Shenzhen City Hospital, also in Guangdong, published an article online titled “Congratulations to the Department of Thoracic Surgery for exceeding 1,000 operations in 2020.”
On January 26, 2022, Kanghua Hospital in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, displayed a banner during its annual celebration that read, “You can get money everywhere in the operation room.”
Such things are common in China. Many doctors like the combination of “three dishes and one soup,” referring to the prescribing of antibiotics, vitamins, and hormones plus intravenous injections. Very often they skip the basic steps and rush to recommend highly risky and highly profitable procedures.
For example, there are usually five steps to diagnosing a chest problem.
First and foremost is the patient’s medical history.
Second is looking, touching, and listening: looking for signs of jaundice or anemia, touching the chest and stomach area for signs of abnormality, and listening with a stethoscope.
Third step is basic tests, such as electrocardiography (ECG) and a chest X-ray, which provide valuable information at a low cost.
Fourth step includes non-invasive auxiliary exams, such as a treadmill test and echocardiography (which can cost 10 times more than a normal ECG).
In the end, patients are required to undergo costly and invasive exams such as a CT scan and coronary angiography (about 10 times more costly than echocardiography in China).
Some doctors, however, don’t bother with all the steps. After saying a few words, they jump to the fifth step and order a CT scan and echocardiography, which generate more income. This not only increases the patient’s financial burden but can also cause health issues. China Youth Daily reported that a patient is exposed to 750 times more radiation for a CT exam than for a chest X-ray. Those who do not need such tests—especially young women—are unnecessarily increasing their lifetime risk of cancer.
Prescribing illegitimate and unnecessary tests and prescriptions and abusing the use of intravenous injections and medical devices is common in China and goes on in nearly all hospitals. That is, minor health issues get treated as major ones, while acute illnesses get treated as chronic ones. A simple surgery can cost thousands and even tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan.
It is a sad situation. Where can we find good-hearted doctors in China?
Fortunately, some do exist, at least among the practitioners of Falun Dafa, a meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Below are a few examples.
Doctors Who “Turn Down Red Envelopes” (Don’t Take Bribes)
In July 2011, the Minghui website published a report about a patient in a hospital in China that was diagnosed with gastric perforation, intestinal adhesions, and rectal cancer.
The patient’s family stuffed one thousand yuan into the hands of the surgeon, who refused to take it. But the family insisted so the surgeon relented. The surgery was very successful. When the patient was discharged, the surgeon gave the patient a bank deposit slip for 1,000 yuan. He told the patient’s family, “You gave me one thousand yuan. I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I have no desire or need to accept bribes, and it is against my beliefs to do so.”
It is very common for Falun Gong practitioners to decline to accept “red envelopes.” Dr. Wang Jiansheng is the Director of the Huanggang City Communication Bureau Health Centre. He started practicing Falun Gong at the end of 1995. He faithfully follows Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Everyone knows that it is very common for pharmaceutical companies to give bribes in order to sell their products. However, his colleagues told all the agents of these pharmaceutical companies: “You don’t have to give red envelopes. Dr. Wang will not accept them because he is a Falun Gong practitioner.” Dr. Wang has turned in more than 48,000 yuan in medicine rebates every year for the past 10 years. If he did not do that, the rebates would have gone to him.
He could make even more than that by just adding some non-essential medicines to his prescriptions. Why doesn’t he do that? It is obvious that Falun Dafa has become a “law of the heart” for him, which prevents him from indiscriminately prescribing medications to his patients.
A Judge and a Gynecologist
Below is a story received by Minghui submitted by a gynecologist in Guangxi Province.
A judge of about 42 years old approached me in August of 2007. Her menstrual period had been ongoing for two months and she’d been to many doctors and had taken many medications, but nothing cured her. She seemed quite upset. I found a small tumor in her reproductive tract. She had surgery to remove the tumor since that was the cause of her non-stop menstruation.
After the tumor was removed, she stopped bleeding. The judge decided to give me a red envelope out of gratitude. I refused and told her, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I cannot accept your red envelope. Master Li Hongzhi teaches us to abide by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a better person.”
The judge was stunned and asked, “You’re a Falun Dafa practitioner?” I said, “Yes, I am a Falun Dafa practitioner.” I smiled and asked if there was anything wrong in cultivating a practice that teaches one to be a better person.
The judge smiled and replied, “I am still indecisive as to whether practicing Falun Dafa is wrong or not. However, our law says that we have freedom of religion. Your actions already speak for themselves, so you are a good person.” The judge had to leave but said she would be back. Before she left, she accepted some truth clarification materials and a DVD with Falun Dafa information from me.
Seeing that I refused to take her red envelope, the judge came back a couple of days later and handed me a high-end cashmere sweater. I thanked her but still declined to accept her gift. She stayed and chatted with me for a while. Seeing the other patients leaving, she whispered to me, “I read and watched the materials you gave me. I understand what Falun Dafa truly is now. Although I can’t spread the wonders of Dafa like you do, I will speak out for Falun Dafa when the time comes.” I was relieved and smiled.
“Dr. Zhou One-Needle”
Dr. Zhou Wensheng was a doctor in Dongfa Township, Zhaodong City, in Heilongjiang Province. He was well-liked in town. He conducted himself according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and cared for the patients year-round, regardless of their income. He diagnosed with precision and prescribed the proper medications. He was very efficient at treating most headaches and colds, with one injection at the most, and did not overcharge anyone. His patients called him “Dr. Zhou One-Needle.”
The villagers were very sad when he was arrested for practicing Falun Gong. The village leader and 700 villagers signed a petition to ask for his release. The authorities, however, refused to listen and sentenced Dr. Zhou to three years in prison.
A Surgeon Refused to Accept Bribes
Dr. Li Lizhuang, an orthopedic surgeon, held himself to high ethical and moral standards and never accepted under-the-table cash or gift cards from patients. Instead, he even used his own savings to help his patients who could not afford to pay for treatment.
As a Falun Gong practitioner, Dr. Li followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, was sympathetic to his patients, and did not want to see their treatments delayed due to financial difficulties.
But because he practiced Falun Gong, Dr. Li was given two forced labor terms, was sentenced to prison for four years, and had his residence ransacked numerous times. He also lost his job.
While he was incarcerated in Linzi Detention Centre and Daqing Prison, Dr. Li was subjected to relentless torture: he was handcuffed behind his back, shocked with electric batons, tied to an iron chair, deprived of sleep, doused with ice water, held in solitary confinement for long periods of time, sexually harassed, and bound in a straitjacket.
A Doctor Who Really Cared About Her Patients
Dr. Tian Qingliang graduated in 2005 and started to work at Harbin Chinese Medicine Hospital. She was assigned to the area that looks after kidney and blood problems and tumors. Patients in this section were mostly severely ill and had been to the hospital repeatedly. Many of their families had spent nearly all their savings on medical bills. Dr. Tian sympathised with her patients and used the most inexpensive medications while achieving the best results.
She was exceptionally skilled and could tell what illness her patient had just by taking their pulse. Her patients often recovered after simply spending seven to eight yuan on Chinese medicinal herbs. At the same time, she also told patients and their families about the miraculous health benefits of practicing Falun Gong and explained the truth about the communist regime’s attempt to slander and persecute the practice.
She told people to denounce the Party to avoid disaster and got them to sincerely recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Consequently, her patients experienced significant improvements in their health.
A lot of fluid had accumulated in the abdomen of a terminally ill man with liver cancer, and he could not eat. Dr. Tian used herbal medicine to cure him and at the same time instructed him to recite in his heart sincerely, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” After finishing two courses of medication, the swelling in the man’s stomach was greatly reduced and he could eat again. He was so happy he could not stop smiling.
Another man suffered from a late-stage cancerous tumor. When he was admitted to the hospital, his condition was so severe that nothing more could be done for him. He could only wait for death. Dr. Tian told him to recite, “Falun Dafa is good.” The next day he said, “Thank you, Doctor. I have not been able to sleep well for a month already. Yet last night I slept very well.” She treated many similar cases.
But for practicing Falun Gong, Dr. Tian was arrested at her apartment on December 8, 2011. She was detained for over five months in Qianjin Women’s Forced Labor Camp in Harbin and was tortured so severely that she is now a paraplegic. When her family visited her, she couldn’t walk and had to be carried. Despite her condition, forced labor camp officials have refused to release her. Her family has hired an attorney to restore her lawful rights.
A Doctor in Hebei Province
Here is a story submitted by a doctor in Hebei Province to celebrate World Falun Dafa.
At work, I follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. As a medical doctor, I take full responsibility for my patients. Nowadays, there are many medical disputes. Some doctors are afraid of trouble and refuse to take on complicated cases. However, I try my best to help my patients and treat them compassionately.
Once, a three-year-old was brought to the emergency room by her family because she had fallen and bit her tongue badly. It just would not stop bleeding. The child was so young, the family was not willing to take the risk of a general anesthesia. They had gone to several hospitals in town, and nobody was willing to take them because of the risk involved in treating her.
I calmed the family down and started examining the child. The wound was severe. If not treated properly, her ability to speak and eat would be impacted. However, it is difficult to get such a young child to cooperate using local anesthesia. It wasn’t too surprising to me that other places had turned them away.
I thought that, as a Dafa practitioner, I should be considerate of others. I should not always think about protecting myself. I asked Master to help strengthen me so that the child would cooperate. Surprisingly, she did not move around and complied with me perfectly throughout the entire process. It was the power of Dafa and Master, along with a Dafa disciple’s compassion, that made this possible.
In a chaotic place like China, preserving moral values is difficult but is also very important. Had the Chinese Communist Party not instigated the persecution of Falun Dafa in 1999, more people could have learned the practice, which would not only have improved their minds and bodies but would have also benefited society in general.
Chinese version available
(Clearwisdom)