Yan'an spirit inspires surgeon's career path

Zhu Yue still dreams about Yangjialing and the caves of Baota Mountain five years after leaving Yan'an.

As a senior professor of bone surgery at Shenyang's China Medical University and leader of one of China's most authoritative orthopedic departments, which conducts more than 4,000 operations each year, 52-year-old Zhu may well be the busiest man in the capital city of Liaoning. But that didn't stop him from spending one and a half years in remote northwestern Yan'an city, where he had to start again from scratch.

"Going to Yan'an was in many ways a return to the beginnings of the CMU. Then, its intention was to treat the soldiers, but now it treats the people," Zhu said.

Founded in 1931, CMU workers accompanied the Central Red Army (the First Front Red Army) to Yan'an in 1935 after the Long March, and it developed there over the course of the next 10 years. According to Guo Xiuzhi, executive deputy chief of the university's publicity department, CMU staff members originally went to serve the army, but also provided free medical services to residents.

Despite its status as the cradle of China's revolution, Yan'an was haunted by insufficient medical services for decades, due to the lack of support for the city from a high-level medical college.

In 2012, the CMU began to collaborate with the Yan'an People's Hospital on health poverty alleviation. Zhu was tasked with leading the first team of medical experts to the city, and of exploring ways to improve the region's healthcare.

"Working in Yan'an was not only about raising medical standards, it was also about educating and improving myself," he said.

Before leaving, Zhu packed several large boxes of surgical instruments and brought them with him the 1,000 miles from Shenyang to Yan'an. The move proved farsighted when three months later, he was faced with a rare case.

Hao Yangang, a farmer from Yanchuan county, was unable to stand due to a backbone injury. Because of limited medical services and tight family funds, Hao had been transformed from breadwinner to burden, pushing the family to the brink of collapse.

Zhu and his colleagues took up the challenge, worked out a detailed plan, and carried out the operation themselves. Thankfully, it was a success. Hao regained the ability to stand, and his family was saved. Hao's grateful wife made the doctor a set of northern Shaanxi paper cutouts by way of thanks.

"These cutouts are the greatest possible praise of my work, I will treasure this gift. The trust these patients placed in me reconfirmed my determination to help the people of Yan'an," Zhu said.

While he was in the city, Zhu trained medical teams and set up new departments at the hospital to help fundamentally improve the area's healthcare system.

Under his guidance, the Yan'an People's Hospital set up a department of pain relief and rehabilitation, and its orthopedics department successfully applied to become a national key clinic. Three years after his arrival in Yan'an, the hospital successfully upgraded. It was further promoted to a top-level hospital in 2016.

"CMU's team of experts, led by Zhu, played a major role in three different areas, by providing medical services, training local teams, and helping the Yan'an People's Hospital build up its academic system," Liang Hongxian, former mayor of Yan'an city, said.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Zhu was made an honorary citizen of the city.

"CMU came here out of a love for local residents. This was a way of repaying the old revolutionary base, and an example of the Red doctor spirit," said Hao Jiandong, director of Yan'an Health Commission.

Zhu continues to provide guidance to friends in Yan'an and helps with the development of orthopedics in the region, and local doctor friends often send him millet or red dates as festival gifts.

"As senior intellectuals, doctors possess a lot of knowledge. Returning to Yan'an was about carrying out the work of health poverty alleviation. My team and I received a patriotic and a professional education. Returning to the starting point of the Chinese revolution and of CMU helped me rediscover my original aspirations as a doctor. This was an invaluable, lifelong gift," Zhu said.

Chen Mo contributed to this story.