"Though turtles live long, they meet their end. Though dragons ride the mist, they eventually turn to dust. Aged but still full of fire, ambitious till the very end. The natural order isn't the only clock; contentment brings longevity. How fortunate indeed, to express these sentiments through song."
— "Though Turtles Live Long" by Cao Cao of the Eastern Han Dynasty

My father was born on November 3rd, 1936, or September 20th according to the lunar calendar. He’s a Rat in the Chinese Zodiac. Following our local tradition, which counts one extra year, he is currently 88 years old.

Father’s name is Li, Mingjie, his courtesy name Hao, and his art name is Cuisheng. Born into a struggling intellectual family, his youth was filled with hardship and adversity. Lack of finances kept him from attending university, a lifelong regret.

In March 1956, my dad graduated from the Wuhu Health School and has been involved in medical work for 67 years. After a stint in schistosomiasis prevention and two years in public health administration, he shifted his focus to surgical clinical work in 1961. During this period, he served in various hospitals for decades. Even as he nears 90, my dad hasn’t completely retired. His eyes still sharp, ears still keen, and hands steady, he remains engrossed in his profession, staying updated with the latest surgical developments.

Passionate about medicine, dad has dedicated himself to healing people. With remarkable intelligence, energy, and skill, he has brought health and life to countless patients and restored joy to many distressed families.

Self-taught and self-made, dad mastered his medical skills from books. His natural gifts and relentless hard work have enabled him to perform a wide variety of high-level surgeries, earning him unparalleled achievements in various medical domains.

My dad had the rare opportunity to fully express his skills and talents in those special times, treating countless financially challenged patients from rural areas. He has executed surgeries almost every day for decades, becoming an outstanding general surgeon by sheer determination, passion, and love for his patients.

Outside the operating room, father is buried in medical books. A true workaholic, he hardly ever takes a break. In many ways, we believe he is a modern Hua Tuo, a doctor of exceptional range and humanitarian service.

Surgery requires intuition and steady hands, qualities that my dad naturally possesses. His insatiable thirst for knowledge, attention to detail, and high intelligence make him a born surgeon. Dad’s surgeries are aesthetically pleasing; his techniques are almost artful. His excellent team spirit has also cultivated a cadre of meticulous, dedicated, and continuously improving junior doctors.

As soon as he got onto the operating table, my dad seemed like a different person: calm, in his element, skillfully making quick incisions, neatly exposing the surgical area, ensuring a clear view. He performed surgeries brilliantly and efficiently, earning praise from peers, patients, and their families. Over the years, his reputation spread far and wide, drawing a constant stream of patients. Even the family members of surgical directors from top-tier hospitals sought out my dad for surgeries, feeling only he was trustworthy. His lifelong “healthcare” patients include the elderly spouse of a nursing director, and the daughter of an ENT director, among others, who were both successfully treated for breast cancer. In particularly challenging cases, my dad took risks and saved lives that were otherwise given up on. He even personally performed surgeries for our own family, a task requiring immense self-confidence and mental fortitude.

After the Cultural Revolution, professional titles were reinstated, and my dad climbed from a medical practitioner to a chief surgeon, never missing a step. In every second-tier hospital he worked at, with more than 100 staff, he was often the only one with such a high-ranking title. His peers from technical school rarely had a chance to reach that level. It demonstrates that my dad was truly outstanding among his peers.

Although my dad never had formal education beyond junior high and medical technical school, he earned his reputation through hands-on medical practice. He expressed regrets that some procedures, like microsurgery and limb reattachment, were beyond reach due to equipment limitations at the county hospital. He also lamented that advances like stem cell regenerative medicine, gene editing, and precision medicine were more suited for medical research rather than the practice of a grassroots clinician like him.

Times create people. Dad never attended elementary, high school, college, or graduate school. He only has two formal education credentials: junior high school and a medical vocational diploma. Yet, through countless medical practices, he was promoted to the chief physician in general surgery and became a well-known general practitioner. While doctors are respected, they are often poor in the then China. The struggle was not so much about making ends meet, but how to save up money for books. Expensive professional textbooks like “Surgery” and “Orthopedics” were essential for his work. Surprisingly, he sold his blood secretly to afford these books. For 300cc of fresh blood, the going rate was 30 yuan at the time, a significant sum that usually took six months to save.

Dad often casually said, “Humans have a blood-producing mechanism; losing some doesn’t matter.” There are often cases where doctors transfuse their blood to save patients in emergencies, and I’ve experienced this multiple times in my practice as well. However, buying professional books by selling blood is rare, historically and globally. Perhaps only in that specific era could a reputed doctor resort to such means to own medical books.

On June 3, 2007, Dad faced the biggest crisis of his life. He suddenly vomited blood and had a mysterious high fever reaching 40 degrees Celsius. The condition was immediately life-threatening with a diagnosis of “stomach adenocarcinoma, low differentiation.” After a significant operation in Wuhan, he got through this life-and-death crisis. Despite always being healthy, this illness was the most significant challenge and a turning point for his health.

Dad is the backbone of our family, and he remains vibrant despite his age, always appearing younger than his peers. The ordeal turned out to be a blessing in disguise, allowing for early diagnosis and treatment. Thankfully, Dad received the best medical care, and our family was there to take care of him. He recovered quite fast but appeared significantly older post-surgery. After a half-year of rest, he slowly gained back his strength.

Currently semi-retired, Dad remains healthy and doesn’t look like an 88-year-old. Although still not wealthy, he’s organized and maintains an eagerness to learn. He’s curious about the latest in technology and even asked me about the etymology and background of OpenAI and ChatGPT in February. He is more familiar with smartphones and computers than many young people, uses Taobao for online shopping, calls Didi for transport, and orders food via Meituan. He continuously updates his knowledge and, despite my formal education in English, his vocabulary surpasses mine.

Before his illness, he was active in surgery, driving, browsing the internet, writing memoirs, and playing chess. Although his physical condition has deteriorated over the past decade, he still hasn’t fully retired. He has now focused solely on general surgery, hoping to stay updated and “young” in his lifetime. His multidisciplinary clinical experience continues to contribute to society and relieve patients’ suffering.

Medicine is an attachment that my father will never be able to let go of throughout his life.

My father is gentle in temperament, kind to others, upright, and warm-hearted. He takes the diagnosis of diseases very seriously, is never impatient or irritable, answers questions with patience and detail, and is amiable. Regardless of the patient’s wealth or social status, he treats everyone equally and does his best to provide medical treatment, truly embodying the compassionate heart of a physician and the spirit of humanitarianism.

My father is open-minded and forward-thinking, treats his children as equals, never scolds, let alone physically punishes, and never lets anyone feel aggrieved! He always encourages rather than discourages, gently persuades and leads by example. The individual development of his children is his greatest comfort, and the growing anecdotes of his grandchildren bring him much joy and satisfaction.

This book contains some of the medical papers my father publicly published after the Cultural Revolution. While far from comprehensive, they still preserve many precious experiences and theoretical summaries from his medical practice—indeed, an immortal monument! These papers illustrate the process of how a doctor in a grassroots hospital became tempered and continuously transcended himself, expressing the baseline, conscience, responsibility, and mission of a physician, highlighting the elegance of the ‘doctors in white’ in saving lives and healing the wounded and the profound implications of “relieving the world’s suffering.”

Recently, while compiling some medical papers, my father looked back on the journey he has walked over more than 60 years, filled with emotions and pride. Although his papers are mostly clinical experience summaries and contain little research components, they are highly practical. The papers are rigorous in style and standardized in format, representing the crystallization and theoretical sublimation of my father’s medical practice, and have a certain heritage value. The excellence, sincerity, and unceasing quest for learning displayed by my father in his lifetime, along with his humility, integrity, and kindness, are invaluable treasures for us, the younger generation.

Due to the long span of time, it has been extremely difficult to find these papers, and many have been lost. We have tried our best to collect my father’s past medical papers and compile them into a book as a birthday gift for my 88-year-old father, who has been practicing medicine for 67 years non-stop. We wish him a happy birthday, good health, and a peaceful twilight year!

【李名杰从医67年论文专辑】（电子版）

【李名杰从医67年论文专辑（英语电子版）】