[Editor's Note] Example is the power of the visible. Since 2005, Hangzhou has selected more than 160 "moral models (civilian heroes)" and 130 "most beautiful Hangzhou people". Countless ordinary and extraordinary figures have become the most vivid annotations of the beautiful Hangzhou. The Hangzhou Branch of Zhejiang Daily and the Hangzhou Municipal Civilization Office jointly launched the "Hangzhou Temperature of Exemplary Power", analyzing the mental journey of the role models, listening to their understanding of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, and drawing on the spiritual strength to promote the progress of society.
"I never thought that it's been more than 30 years since I first started to today, and over the years, we've been doing the same thing over and over again."
What Han Kai said about this matter was to bring a full smile to those children with cleft lips and palate.
Cleft lip and palate has always been one of the highest birth defects in China. In recent years, one in every six or seven hundred newborns has fallen ill.
In the early years, many children were limited by economic conditions and local medical standards, and did not receive treatment in their lives.
32 years ago, with the efforts of Han Kai, the first public welfare medical activity for poor patients with cleft lip and palate in China was carried out in Hangzhou, and since then, this public welfare medical project called "Mother Smile Action" has been running so far, traveling through 25 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) across the country, organizing 211 volunteer medical teams, and repairing nearly 40,000 smiling faces.
32 years of persistence
"I'm going to do this thing"
A red and white surgical hat, a calm and steady voice, and an affinity and powerful smile are Han Kai's "standard".
Han Kai, a plastic surgery expert studying in the United States, returned to China with his lover in the 1980s to organize a state-run hospital, and also brought back "Operation Smile".
In the spring of 1991, a joint "Operation Smile" of Chinese and American plastic surgeons was launched at Hangzhou Plastic Surgery Hospital. "It was very simple to think about at that time." Han Kai said, "It is to enable Chinese and foreign medical technology and equipment to communicate and communicate." ”
During that time, more than 300 patients had come to register for surgery, but due to various factors such as manpower, equipment, drugs, and time, a maximum of 160 surgeries could be performed. This means that more than a hundred patients will have to return in vain.
As the Chinese initiator and attending physician, Han Kai should select the patients who have registered in accordance with the medical standards.
Who goes and who stays? Every day, a pair of hands pulled on his sleeve and repeatedly asked him: "Dr. Han, can we wait for the line today, no matter how late we are!" There was also a pair of simple and childish eyes, covered by the soft sobbing of the family members next to him, staring at him.
What impressed Han Kai the most was an old couple, who came early in the morning and left in the evening, until the last day of the event, the medical equipment has begun to be packed one after another, the old couple still did not give up, they asked: "Dr. Han, our children are not afraid to wait, will you come next year?" We wait! ”
The boy has tears and does not flick. But Han Kai, who walked behind the crowd, burst into tears. He kept the list in his pocket, the names of every child he had removed from the operating table. From that moment on, Han Kai made up his mind, "I want to do this thing!" ”
A full smile
"Not only is there a reward for the effort"
Doing good deeds is also legal and compliant. Han Kai registered and set up the "China Smile Action Office" to gather like-minded colleagues in China, but public welfare has not been smooth sailing.
When raising the foundation, due to the shortage of funds, Han Kai was anxious to burn a blister on his mouth; medical volunteers have their own posts, not at any time can say to go, sometimes in the face of emergencies, really can not go, Han Kai has to find a way to temporarily find a doctor in the world to replace it.
There are more realistic questions. Relying solely on volunteers to go to the scene of mobile assistance, has its fundamental defects, many patients with cleft lip and palate need to undergo multiple surgeries, if there is no fixed base, it will make many patients follow-up treatment into problems, Han Kai urgently needs to set up a charity hospital.
"Fortunately, these problems were all solved in the end." 32 years later, Han Kai sat in front of us with a light breeze.
Behind this sentence is the growing volunteer team of "Mother Smile Action", from dozens of people to more than 700 people today. In the warm city of Hangzhou, the Smile Action Charity Hospital has finally taken root.
Han Kai said that what they repaired was not only a mouth on the lips or palate, "but also their dreams, family relationships, and even future destiny." ”
When the child was carried out of the operating room, the mother showed a relieved smile on her face, and that moment was the greatest relief for Han Kai and many medical volunteers. After systematic treatment and the accumulation of years, you will find out how beautiful those smiles and voices are.
In November last year, a 2-year-old child from Nanning, Guangxi Province, underwent the third surgery to repair the cleft lip and palate, and can speak from then on; in April last year, ou Qinglan, an 8-year-old girl, underwent cleft lip and palate surgery at the "Mother Smile Action", and in the telephone return visit three months later, Qinglan's lively voice sounded crisply on the other end of the phone, and her world gradually became clear like her voice.
Put the time farther away, in the new spring of 2021, Dr. Han Kai opened his mobile phone, and on the screen was a pair of Buyi twin boys estimated to be six or seven years old, these two children in Guizhou, with their hands fists and childish voices, used video to greet him.
"Not only is there a payoff but there's also a gain." Han Kai said that many volunteers thought that this was just an ordinary donation of love, but they did not expect to harvest inner peace and satisfaction. "It also became a motivation for me and the people to persevere."
Many changes
"In the future, the focus will be on training grassroots doctors"
Over the years, Han Kai has received a lot of honors, he has won the title of "the most beautiful Hangzhou people", the sixth national moral model, etc., he said, in fact, the honor belongs to everyone, "'Mother Smile Action' itself touched everyone's inner kindness." It is precisely because there are so many kind people and so many volunteers from all walks of life that this activity can continue to be sustained. ”
There have been many changes in these years, and Han Kai has too much joy in his eyes.
"The families of patients who come to the surgery are dressed more and more decently and cleanly, and there are very few people who can't even pay for the road." Han Kai said, but due to the lack of knowledge and the difficulty of communication, there are still many people who do not have a scientific understanding of cleft lip and palate, "they think that as long as they have one operation, children with cleft lip and palate can speak clearly." ”
In fact, the treatment of cleft lip and palate is a multidisciplinary sequence treatment. The first surgery deals with the appearance, the second time the internal correction is done, but it is far from over.
Children with cleft lip and palate generally have pronunciation problems that need to be corrected by a voice trainer. As your child's skull develops, there are follow-up corrections and repairs, and even four to five surgeries are required until puberty is passed before it can be truly declared successful.
That is to say, the treatment of a child is as short as three or four years and as long as ten years. The doctor's skill is also the key to what kind of effect the child can achieve after treatment.
Han Kai said that one of the priorities of future work is to train grass-roots doctors.
Since 2012, the treatment of cleft lip and palate has been successively included in the scope of major disease protection of the new agricultural cooperative. Since then, more and more patients have chosen to do initial treatment in local primary hospitals.
"Most primary hospitals now have this capability, but the quality of surgery is uneven." In recent years, more than half of the patients in the "Mother's Smile Action" activities have often had surgery elsewhere, and the results are not good, and then come to do secondary repair.
Their surgery is more difficult and time-consuming several times that of a single operation. Han Kai made this analogy: "Like making clothes, this piece of fabric has been used up, and then re-cut, the material is not enough, it is more difficult to do well." ”
Therefore, he hopes to help grassroots doctors improve their capabilities more. Han Kai chose to "choose a few seedlings to come out", and tried to call them as much as possible in every activity and teach them hand in hand.
In March, the first "Mother Smile Action" of the year will enter Nanning again, and this time, Han Kai will bring up apprentices to repair the smiling faces of more children.
Han Kai said that he will work until the day he can't move, and the spread of kindness is endless: "These children who come to the hospital for surgery may forget everything here when they grow up, but they can definitely remember that there is a period of time in their lives, and they have been helped, then they will also help others in this way." ”