I've had so many surgeries in the past, but I don't really understand the pain of patients after surgery. I didn't expect the situation to be so serious, I didn't expect the patient to be in such pain......
Hua Yiwei is a nationally renowned oncologist in mainland China, who has devoted his life to the research and treatment of digestive tract tumors, saving the lives of countless patients, and is a very remarkable doctor.
However, in the later years of his life, he was unfortunately diagnosed with stomach cancer, and after two surgeries and multiple chemotherapy treatments, he finally understood that cancer treatment should not be overtreated.
In 2006, at the last moment of his life, he also left a valuable warning to future generations: "A doctor should not simply treat the disease, but treat the patient who has suffered from the disease", reminding us to pay more attention to the quality of life of the patient while pursuing the treatment effect.
So, what's the story? Let's talk about it today.
Huayiwei's medical research and achievements
Hua Yiwei was born in Tianjin in 1933 into a medical family, graduated from Nankai University in 1950, and was sponsored to the pre-medical department of Yenching University of Peking Union Medical College.
In 1953, Hua Yiwei actively responded to the call of the country to study at the Military Medical University, which also changed the direction of his future life. In 1960, not long after he worked, he volunteered to join the Tibetan medical team, and was named an "activist" for his outstanding performance.
In the 1975 and 1976 Haicheng and Tangshan earthquakes, Hua Yiwei went to the front line of earthquake relief, and did his best every time, without making any requests to the organization.
Hua Yiwei's mother once said, "Lao Hua has lived a decent and frank life all his life, and rarely lives for himself and his family", which is indeed the case.
He devoted most of his energy to his medical career, inevitably taking less care of his family, wife and children, and even missed the last time he saw his mother, even when he retired, he still wanted to stay in the hospital to help.
Hua Yiwei is the director of the Department of Digestive Oncology of the hospital, and has organized regular academic seminars in the department, and sometimes invited well-known experts at home and abroad to give lectures to continuously improve the academic level of the department.
Under his leadership, the department's diagnosis and treatment level and scientific research capabilities have been rapidly improved, and many incurable diseases have been effectively treated here.
He used to be a member of the Standing Committee of the Surgical Society of the Chinese Medical Association, a member of the General Surgery Professional Group of the Medical Science and Technology Committee of the Whole Army, and was rated as a "Meritorious Expert in Cultivating Talents" by the former Beijing Military Region.
Huayiwei not only attaches great importance to the treatment effect of patients, but also pays attention to their mental health, and strives to provide patients with all-round care, and has won high praise from patients and colleagues for its medical ethics and medical skills.
He has made remarkable achievements in clinical research, and has sometimes published a number of important academic papers, sharing his research experience and clinical experience, which has had a wide impact on the domestic and international medical community.
Hua Yiwei, who has been practicing medicine for many years, has presided over and participated in a number of national scientific research projects, promoted the development of diagnosis and treatment technology of digestive tract tumors in mainland China, and continuously absorbed the latest scientific research results and applied them to clinical practice during the cooperation and exchange with domestic and foreign experts.
He firmly believes that only continuous innovation and progress can better serve patients, and his efforts and contributions have been widely recognized by all sectors of society, and he has won many important awards, including the "Bethune Medal" and the title of "Touching China".
These honors are not only an affirmation of his personal achievements, but also a high evaluation of his selfless dedication.
I do my best to alleviate the pain and prolong life for every patient who comes to see him, knowing that as a doctor, the greatest honor and achievement is the patient's recovery and smile.
However, fate was not fair to this great doctor, and in his later years, Hua Yiwei was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and the news was like a bolt from the blue.
There is an old saying in the mainland called "the doctor does not heal himself", some things can be dealt with calmly when they happen to others, but some things are spread out to oneself, which is not the case.
He is an experienced oncologist who still feels extremely heavy and helpless in the face of his condition.
Stomach cancer
Many times cancer patients need to remove a part of the tissue, and Hua Yiwei did this in the past, after all, if you want to prevent cancer cells from spreading, excision is the most effective method now.
Having been in the industry for a long time, he was well aware of the severity of stomach cancer and the difficulty of treatment, and finally decided to undergo total gastrectomy surgery, hoping to prolong his life.
In the past, he was the surgeon, and he only felt the nervousness of the excision operation, but he did not know how painful the patient was. Now, after experiencing the surgery, he knows how difficult it can be.
Hua Yiwei was suffering from stomach cancer, which was found to be at an advanced stage, so he had to undergo total gastrectomy surgery. I thought that I would get better after the surgery, but this was the beginning of the torture, and the postoperative complications and side effects of chemotherapy were not "human sins" at all.
Every organ in our body has an important role, and there is a biological concept called the feedback mechanism, once an organ is removed, this part of the function will be replaced by another organ, which will cause it to increase its burden.
The process of replacement is not achieved overnight, it requires a process of slow use, and the whole process needs to suffer, and the more important the organ that is removed, the more pain will be suffered.
After Hua Yiwei's stomach was removed, and it was completely removed, his physical condition deteriorated dramatically, and he suffered from intestinal fluid and bile reflux every day, burning pain in his esophagus, throat inflammation, and he could not even eat normally.
It's not too late, and in order to inhibit the spread of cancer cells, hyperthermic chemotherapy in the upper abdominal cavity is needed every day.
The patient was placed in the abdomen heated to 41 degrees for 90 minutes, which was extremely painful, with sweating profusely and abdominal cramps after each treatment.
If it is just simple pain, it is good that the disease can recover slowly, but sometimes it is not possible to recover after bearing the pain.
During that time, Hua Yiwei has been fighting the disease tenaciously, but the side effects of chemotherapy have become more and more serious, and eventually lead to intestinal obstruction in the terminal ileum.
If the human body wants to function, it must be nutritious, and it is not enough to maintain it by those injections in the hospital alone, and the side effects of resectable surgery and chemotherapy cannot be eaten normally, and it is even more difficult to get better.
As a result, Hua Yiwei had to undergo a series of chemotherapy treatments, which required strict preparation before each chemotherapy, including fasting, colon cleansing, etc. During chemotherapy, the drug is injected into the body through an intravenous injection, and strong side effects quickly become apparent.
He felt general weakness, nausea and vomiting, and even severe hair loss and mouth ulcers, and the pain that no one could have experienced.
Hua Yiwei still insisted on receiving treatment in the hope of prolonging his life, but the effect of chemotherapy was not as expected, the cancer cells continued to spread, and his physical condition deteriorated.
At the same time, chemotherapy not only did not bring about significant improvement, but made his body weaker.
Reflections after surgery
As mentioned above, chemotherapy caused Hua Yiwei's terminal ileal intestinal obstruction to not resolve on its own, and he had to undergo a second operation. During the operation, the doctors found that his physical condition was worse than expected, and the operation was extremely difficult.
Despite the best efforts of the surgical team, postoperative complications occurred frequently and the physical condition deteriorated further.
Hua Yiwei's abdominal cavity was seriously infected, and the intestinal anastomosis leak caused all the intestinal fluid, feces and blood to flow into the abdominal cavity, and he was forced to re-enter the intensive care unit, and even had to rely on various medical equipment to maintain his life.
Faced with endless pain and hopeless treatment, combined with his previous experience as a doctor, he finally realized that overtreatment not only did not prolong his life, but instead made him suffer unbearable torture.
At the end of his life, Hua Yiwei deeply reflected on his lifelong medical practice, recognizing that overtreatment often brings more pain than treatment to cancer patients.
According to his own situation, he warned future generations: "When you do gastrectomy in the future, if you can do it completely, don't do it completely." Even if you leave a little stomach left, it is better than a full cut, and the patient is not so painful. ”
In fact, when doing body tissue removal surgery, many people have such an idea, whether to live quality or survival time. If you can live well for a year without excision, and you can only live for 2 years in pain with excision, it is better to live happily.
Hua Yiwei's wife Zhang Yanrong once said, "If you don't do chemotherapy and slowly resume your diet, you may be able to recover better, but chemotherapy has completely destroyed him......
Hua Yiwei's deathbed admonition is a profound understanding of the dual identity of a doctor and a patient, and he uses his own experience and pain to leave valuable lessons and enlightenment for the medical profession and the majority of patients.
In the face of cancer and other major diseases, it is necessary not only to pursue the treatment effect, but also to pay attention to the quality of life and feelings of the patient, which is a concept embodied in Chinese medicine from a certain perspective.
To give a simple example, Western medicine only does surgery based on some data indicators, as long as the indicators are normal, the surgery can be done.
TCM should not only consider the patient's current situation, but also consider the patient's body to be able to withstand it in the future, and if not, it needs to make trade-offs.
Because treatment not only needs to be "cured", but also needs to be "cured" in the future, if the patient's body cannot function on its own to recuperate, what is the meaning of such "treatment"?
The purpose of treatment is to live a healthy life, but if you are living in pain all the time, what is the point of treatment?
Mao Qunan, a spokesman for the mainland's former Ministry of Health, once pointed out a statistic that 60 to 80 percent of many people's investment in health is spent before death, and cancer is the hardest hit area of this situation. Therefore, whether to live well in a short period of time, or to procrastinate in pain, we must be cautious.
Hua Yiwei only had 13 months from the time of treatment to his death, but he used his wisdom and pain to remind us to pay attention to the quality of life and feelings of patients in humanized medical practice, pursue a more rational and humane medical treatment, and bring more dignity and hope to every life, which is worthy of our admiration.
What do you think differently about this?
Reference: CCTV.com
80% of Chinese's money spent on medical treatment one month before death——Chinanews (chinanews.com.cn)
Hua Yiwei: Great doctors have souls - CNKI (cnki.net)