The author of this article: to crisp
"I just paid this month's rent, and now I have 11,600 yuan left; The rent is 8,830 yuan a month, and I don't know where to find it next month." Five years after switching from a doctor, Lin Chenhui found that the day of leaving the hospital was not as easy as he thought.
In 2018, because of the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis, Lin Chenhui resigned from the third-class hospital where he had worked for eight years and switched to selling AEDs (automatic external defibrillators) and first aid training, fantasizing about relying on his professional knowledge to break into the world.
However, contrary to expectations, unlike the glamorous and million-dollar sales imagined, expulsion, contempt and deception are the norm in Lin Chenhui's life. He simply gave up the sales track and instead set up a non-profit organization focused on first aid - Heartsaver.
In four years, the HeartSaving Circle has become a well-known non-profit organization in Xiamen, attracting more than 50 professional doctors and more than 1,400 first-aid volunteers with international certificates. As the founder, Lin Chenhui has also been frequently interviewed and reported by state media, and has also appeared on TED's international speech forum.
Lin Chenhui and the volunteers of the Heartsaver Circle
But life is not a counterattack. Behind the spotlight, Lin Chenhui still has to worry about life.
The following is Lin Chenhui's self-statement.
After 8 years as a ruler, I chose to resign from the system
In 2018, I resigned from the hospital. Big three, within the system, cardiology, the fragrant food in the eyes of everyone. Perhaps because I suffer from ankylosing spondylitis and can no longer work high-intensity work, people around me also understand my departure.
The year I graduated with my master's degree, I came to work in the hospital. From the age of 25 to 33, I spent eight years in the hospital: cramming into the crowded elevator at half past seven in the morning, being busy between the ward and the operating room after checking the room, and receiving endless night emergency calls when I got home... Day after day, day after day.
Lin Chenhui in the hospital
Every time I repeat the night shift, I think, "My back hurts!" Do you want to change your life?"
At that time, the sudden death of a doctor at the brother hospital during exercise was in the news. Without an AED, even though a doctor colleague who performed a very standard CPR was not able to save his life. Perhaps because of the cardiology major, I thought about this matter and found that the laying rate of AEDs and the prevalence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in China are very low.
There are about 1.04 million patients with sudden cardiac death in mainland China every year, while the survival rate of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death emergency is only less than 1%. [1], early electrical defibrillation is a key factor in determining the survival of cardiac arrest patients. Effective defibrillation can be completed within 4 minutes, with a rescue success rate of up to 60% [2]; For every 1 minute delay in defibrillation, the survival rate of patients decreases by 7%~10% [3].
According to literature data, on average, there are 700 AEDs per 100,000 people in the United States and 276 in Japan [4]. In 2017, there were only 15 AEDs in Xiamen[5].
So I had a bold idea - quit my job and go selling AED and first aid training! My idea is simple, a huge gap must have a huge market; Coupled with their own doctors' specialties, if they set up first-aid training services, they will definitely be able to play their core competitiveness.
But at that time, I was too simple, thinking that if there was demand, there would be a market. Looking back now, I will also sigh at my own ridiculousness, and feel that I was like a neurotic at that time.
What I thought was great wisdom was actually just clear stupidity
Fitness and exercise sites are often the most common sites for sudden cardiac death. So I went door-to-door to Xiamen sports venues, found the people in charge of their venues, and told them straight to the point how AED and first aid training can save lives and reduce claims losses. The result was naturally driven out as a neuropathy, and his mouth was chanting: "What a shame!"
I continued to talk to companies about cooperation, but before I could even see the face of the decision-maker, I was stopped by the front desk or the doorman. Or find a relationship to meet some pretend decision-makers, they will usually nod their heads frequently to show affirmation, and then turn their heads and hear the other person say: "It's really enough to eat, there is nothing to do."
I found out that the doctor was like a monk in a temple, and the pilgrims looked at the temple instead of the monks, as long as the feng shui was good and the incense was good, the pilgrims would take the initiative to come; But when you leave the temple, you have to beg yourself.
If you want to make money by relying on the doctor's profession, it will naturally fail in society, and no one will identify with you as a small doctor with no background. Policymakers believe that more is better than less; And first-aid training, the Red Cross, etc. are all subsidized by the government and are carried out free of charge in society, and I think it is even more difficult to do commercial fees.
The robe in the temple lost its luster on the outside, and even stumbled the monk's footsteps.
Later, some companies approached me and told me to donate an AED to open the "door", and there would be a lot of follow-up cooperation after they publicized it. At that time, I naively thought that I would finally be affirmed, but I did not expect that the other party would not hear from us after accepting the equipment we donated. And the AED worth 20,000 yuan was made with money that I and a few partner doctors made together.
I don't have a mortgage, I don't have a car, I don't have children, and I don't have much pressure financially. Originally, I thought, no matter how difficult it is, there is one thing that has always been done, and it is good to sell AEDs to support myself. But then I found out that there was a gap in my heart that could not be filled.
Once in the hospital, I was not very happy. How to deal with interpersonal relationships? How to consider talking to patients? But after leaving the hospital, these unhappy things haven't changed, you still have to deal with those complicated relationships. It's the same with selling AED and training, and I feel very contradictory and ashamed to talk to others about money and benefits while telling others that it's a life-saving thing.
I sometimes wonder, if I stayed in the hospital, would my life be different?
For a long time afterward, I fell into an attitude of indifference. Anyway, I don't make money, I go around to do lectures that don't charge money, and the result is surprisingly quite attractive, and I get a lot of recognition, and some people are willing to donate money to us after understanding it. A young girl donated 40,000 yuan to us because her father also died suddenly.
Lin Chenhui does first aid training for enterprises
After being beaten by society for a year, it was like my "unexpected joy" to be recognized by these people. I realized that there are so many "somewhat naïve" people like myself in this world, and everyone gathers together for a very simple thing. Slowly, these people became the force that supported us to go down, and everyone's recognition also filled the gap in my heart.
At the end of 2018, I deregistered the company I had registered to sell AEDs, and together with the doctors I left behind, I founded the "Heart Saving Circle" and devoted myself to public welfare.
What should a "doctor" look like?
After the mentality is smooth, I am less able to screw things up, and the development of the heart-saving circle is much smoother than my entrepreneurial road. We concentrated on shooting medical science videos, doing medical knowledge popularization publicity, cooperating with large enterprises to do AED donations, writing AED research and publishing papers, and then shooting two medical micro-films, and also won the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Micro Film Outstanding Work Award.
So far, the HeartSaving Circle has gained a lot of influence in Xiamen, we have 1400 professional volunteers who have obtained the AHA International First Responder certificate, and we have also established an AED map of the city.
Sixth from left: The AED equipment that can be seen everywhere on Gulangyu Island is arranged by the selection point of the rescue circle Right: The mini program "You Can't Die" developed by the rescue circle can see the distribution of AED throughout Xiamen
We usually rely on the lesson fee for first aid training to maintain our operation, and the regular quotation is 2,000 yuan per class, but in fact we will encounter various "troubles". Various units invited us to give a lecture, but halfway through, they took out various banners and flags to take pictures around us, and asked us to wear their vests, and finally said that they could only reimburse 300 yuan for transportation expenses.
Many times people do not really have the need to learn, just to complete some public welfare performance indicators, in this case they are willing to come up with very little funds, so they can only choose between money and publicity. But any organization that wants to survive is always inseparable from money.
People around me always tell me, "You can't do this, how can you make a profit without a three- or five-year plan?" How to make money? How will you survive in the future?" I feel that I have not lived for a long time, where is the rent next month, I don't know yet, what more hammer planning? Planning this and that every day, isn't it all?
The studio is also a place for volunteers, and in the year when the epidemic was hardest, he lent us this office house in the city center as an office, waiving us of rent for a whole year. But despite this, it is still a bit difficult to face the rent of more than 8,000 in the city center.
Some time ago, I posted a few posts in the forum of Lilac Garden, which were regarded by many doctors as dissuasion posts for changing careers. Indeed, compared with the peaceful days in the hospital, I experienced anxiety, confusion, and constant beatings by society. But actually, I never regretted leaving the hospital.
A "highly respected" senior once asked me: "The country has trained you for so many years, don't you become a doctor and do such a thing, is it worthy of the country?" I was speechless.
What should a doctor look like? This question is actually not answered, and many people are bound by the hospital environment, thinking that doctors can only live one way. But in fact, doctors have read so many books, as long as they work hard, they can definitely live the way they want.
I just feel that now I am closer to my ideal of doing just one thing that I am good at, and then constantly learning new knowledge to live every day in the present.
When there was no activity, Lin Chenhui and co-doctor Cao Shubin took videos of each other in the office
It has also been said that I don't really call this a career change, because I have never been a real "businessman" from beginning to end. Only the doctors in the hospital sometimes joke and like to call me Mr. Lin. However, I still prefer to be called "Dr. Lam".
Many doctors come to me and ask me what kind of person is suitable to leave the hospital. My answer is that at least the ability to survive is the most important point, and finally the ability to resist and learn. If I had carried a kind of loan or had children who needed to go to school, I would have thrown away any face, ideals, and rules for the sake of life.
Everyone only said that the long robe of "Kong Yiji" was difficult to fade, but they did not know that this long robe could not be worn by anyone.
Curated by: ame | Executive Producer: Gyouza
Source: provided by Lin Chenhui
Resources:
[1] Xie X, Zheng J, Zheng W, et al. Efforts to Improve Survival Outcomes of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in China: BASIC-OHCA. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2023;16(2):e008856. doi:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.121.008856
[2] Hu Shengshou, Gao Runlin, Liu Lisheng, Zhu Manlu, Wang Wen, Wang Yongjun, Wu Zhaosu, Li Huijun, Gu Dongfeng, Yang Yuejin, Zheng Zhe, Chen Weiwei, representing the Chinese cardiovascular disease report writing team. Outline of Chinese Cardiovascular Disease Report 2018[J].Chinese Journal of Circulation,2019,34(3):209-220.)
[3] American Heart Association.What Is an Automated External Defibrillator? [EB/OL]．[2019-11-10]
[4] Lv Chuanzhu, Zhang Hua, Chen Song, Liu Xiaoran, Tian Guogang, Yan Shijiao. Expert consensus on AED layout and delivery in China[J].Journal of Hainan Medical College,2020,26(15):1138-1145.)
[5] LIN Shirong,LIN Chenhui,QIAN Xin. Analysis of automatic external defibrillator configuration in Fujian Province[J].Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine,2021,30(4):510-512.)