Chapter 144 In memory of Dr. Lin Qiaozhi

On the morning of April 23, while I was having breakfast, I suddenly heard the news of Dr. Lin Qiaozhi's death from the radio. I couldn't help but put down my dagger and burst into tears of grief! I know how many people of different skin colors, ages, and genders sighed, shed tears, and sobbed when they heard this shocking news in China and overseas.There are too many patients, friends, colleagues, and students who respect and love her. She is a flame, a magnet.Her life of "serving the people" was extremely full and fulfilling.She never thought of herself, she devoted all her skills and emotions to everyone around her.

About her medical skills, medical ethics, her good words and deeds, people who have been treated by her, loved by her, and cultivated by her will write a very comprehensive and moving article.As for me, I am just a "patient" and a friend of hers, and I can only tell some past events in my many years of contact with her.It is these past events that make this extraordinary image shine in my heart forever! Dr. Lin and I knew each other very early. In the 1920s, I was studying at Yenching University, when Peking Union Medical College was just established.There are my classmates in the medical staff of Xiehe Hospital and in the social service department of the hospital.I often see her when I go to the Union Hospital to visit my classmates.I keep hearing this respectable and lovely name from my classmates.

I know her well because she delivered all three of my children (she often laughs and says, "Your children are all my children").In the prenatal examination and postnatal care, she gave me the impression of being agile, serious, careful and decisive.She is always warm and considerate to patients like relatives, although she often says, "a pregnant woman is not a patient".She is also very strict with her assistants and students.I remember when I gave birth to my second child in 1935, she was already the attending doctor, and her assistant intern was one of my students.When I was in unbearable pain and begged her to give me more gas in a low voice, Dr. Lin stopped her immediately when he heard it, and said to me, "How can you instruct her like this! She is young and inexperienced, and she used more gas." It is dangerous." In November 1937, when I gave birth to my third child, she was already the chief doctor.

At that time, Beijing had fallen, and we were both very heavy and depressed. Dr. Lin sat by the delivery bed and talked with me late into the night.At the end of the summer of the second year, I left Beijing and went to the rear.I often miss my relatives and friends who stayed in the old capital, especially Dr. Lin Qiaozhi. "My Classmate" in the book I wrote under the pseudonym "Men" in 1943 used Dr. Lin as the model, although I did not work with her, nor did she go to the rear during the Anti-Japanese War.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, before I went to Japan, I visited her in Beijing.I know that in the occupied Beijing city, she was still working hard to do her medical work in those years.

She was born in a Christian family and has always adhered to the doctrine of "love your neighbor as yourself".For the working people, she not only healed their suffering, but also helped their poverty.She buried herself in her work and never cared much about politics.After the Pearl Harbor incident, the Union Hospital run by the Americans was also occupied by the Japanese army. Dr. Lin still opened her own clinic and continued to do her work of treating diseases and saving lives.When I saw her, she had already returned to the Xiehe Hospital after the victory, but I felt that she was not in a very good mood and was also pessimistic about the current situation. We only talked for less than half a day before we hurriedly parted.

When I returned to the motherland after liberation in 1951, when I went to see Dr. Lin, she seemed much younger and radiant, her demeanor was more lively, and her conversation was more frank and full of political enthusiasm.As a scientist and a medical worker, she felt that in the socialist motherland, it was like a dead fish in a rut being suddenly thrown into a wide and free sea.She is excited, happy, and grateful. Her "handy" work has been highly valued by party and state leaders, especially Premier Zhou. Her range of services expanded, and she went down more often to investigate.We were very busy in those few years. Although it was said that we were "interlaced like mountains", we still saw each other from time to time in various occasions of foreign affairs or social activities.In addition, I often ask her for things: such as introducing patients or asking her to claim the baby on behalf of my friend.She readily complied with all my requests.The patients I introduced and the parents who received the healthy babies all came to thank me for Dr. Lin's enthusiasm and responsibility!

During the ten years of turmoil, I didn't have a chance to meet her. I only heard that her home was ransacked because of the photo of the prime minister on her desk.In the early 1970s, we met again, and we were both busy again.She often smiled and said to me: "You should really visit our obstetrics department when you have time. We have babies from all over the world here. There are white and fat European children, and there are black and fat African children. They are so cute! "At this time, I feel that her dedicated work has given her full happiness. In 1978, she suffered from cerebral thrombosis and was hospitalized. When I went to see her, she always sat in a chair, still like a doctor on duty. Before I finished asking her, she asked about "our child" , my job, my health.I see her in good spirits and come back every time with great relief. During the National People's Congress in 1979, we often met again. She still walked very lightly and spoke very fluently. Except that she was often seen stroking her crooked left finger with her right hand, it was hard to tell that she was a woman. People who have had cerebral thrombosis.In the summer of 1980, I also suffered from cerebral thrombosis and was admitted to the hospital.My doctor and her students told me that Dr. Lin suffered from encephalopathy again, this time it was more serious and he was bedridden.When her friends celebrated her 80th birthday at the end of 1980, her brain power had already declined, and people congratulated her on her bedside, and she hardly recognized people.

I was also lying on the hospital bed at that time, and I often thought: a person like her who is crisp and neat, who can do things quickly and well all her life, once paralyzed and unable to move, her gushing energy and overflowing enthusiasm , were all trapped in a tired and flaccid body, this kind of "powerless" state lasted for a long time, could she bear it?It was okay when she was in a coma, but when she temporarily woke up and looked around, she might see that the curtains were not drawn smoothly enough, and the vase of flowers was not inserted properly.Call someone, these things are too cumbersome and trivial, it's not worth and shouldn't bother people, it would be great if you can move yourself!Not to mention the major medical and scientific research events that she has been used to doing all her life.Now that she can be freed from this eternal contradiction of "powerlessness", I seem to feel relieved for her... Dr. Lin is one year younger than me. At the beginning of the 20th century, our motherland was in dire straits. In the midst of foreign aggression, we are all "born in adversity".Now, our beloved motherland is striding forward vigorously towards the construction of socialist modernization amidst the drums and horns of "revitalizing China".People of our generation who passed away during this period can be regarded as "died in peace".I think Doctor Lin will agree with me. May 11, 1983