"I want to save every child."
Ding Wenxiang, a 92-year-old professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the Shanghai Children's Medical Center affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is not hearing so well now. After repeatedly confirming the problem to reporters two or three times, he was full of silver wires and still in good spirits, and he confided the reason why he still had to go to the clinic every Friday. "There are also times when I can watch my former children succeed in their studies and careers, and even bring their own children and call me grandpa, which is an indescribable sense of accomplishment."
This post-90s "office worker" is not simple: in the 1950s, when pediatric surgery developed rapidly in the West, there was no independent pediatric surgery in China. Ding Wenxiang took the initiative to seek change, relying only on a novel of pediatric surgery English monographs, starting from urology to explore, filling a gap in the field of pediatric surgery; and pediatric heart surgery, the most difficult "highland", has also become the direction he has continued to attack for many years.
China's first pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, the first set of 24 domestic pediatric heart surgery special instruments... Some called him "the pioneer" and others called him "the magician." On this year's Doctors' Day, Ding Wenxiang won the title of "Most Beautiful Doctor" in 2020, "While still doing something, I want to try to bring health and hope to more children." ”
Who says pediatric surgery is "pediatrics"?
"Studying medicine is a family arrangement, and studying pediatrics is a choice that conforms to the times." Ding Wenxiang, who was born in Su County, Anhui Province, was admitted to the medical school of Aurora University at the age of 18, graduated with honors and stayed in Guangci Hospital (now Ruijin Hospital) to work with the famous surgeon Fu Peibin.
In 1955, Guangci Hospital began to create the earliest pediatric surgery department in China, "nothing more than the treatment of fracture plaster fixation, hernia, appendicitis, pediatric surgery is simply too 'pediatric', who will do it?" Ding Wenxiang, who was hot-blooded, was the first to join, "This is the need of the country, the line is out of shape, who said that pediatric surgery has no future?" ”
By chance, an English edition of "Pediatric Surgery" became his "library", "Although children are small, they may also get sick in all their internal organs, and there are many articles in it." "There are not enough cases, he goes to the corresponding adult specialist to study." Urology, burns, plastic surgery; cystoscopy, tracheoscopy, esophagus... From head to toe, every time he learned a systematic operation, he took an apprentice and established a corresponding sub-specialty under pediatric surgery. By the 1960s, all sub-specialties had been basically established, becoming the most complete pediatric surgery department in the country.
At this time, Ding Wenxiang, who had made small achievements, set his sights on the most difficult branch - pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. In March 1963, after transferring from Ruijin Hospital to Xinhua Hospital, he focused all his research efforts on this field. "At that time, the treatment of children with congenital heart disease mainly relied on cardiotonic drugs, antibiotics and diuretics, and this method could not solve the cause of congenital heart disease: heart malformations, and many children died every year." He felt sorry and decided to deepen the field.
In 1974, Ding Wenxiang established China's first pediatric cardiothoracic surgery department, when there were only 6 doctors, 7 beds, and only one operation per day. "You can't just stand still!" Ding Wenxiang, who encountered any difficulties and tried to solve them himself, had a new idea.
Imported equipment "cures the symptoms but not the root cause", we must independently develop!
At that time, the country was still in an extraordinary period: literature query was difficult, and the introduction of imported equipment was even more fantastic, what to do? Liu Jinfeng, a student of Ding Wenxiang and former director of the Children's Center, recalled, "When I first reported to the department, I found that Mr. Ding was very special - he was not always in the hospital, but ran the factory. ”
"We can't wait, we can develop independently without equipment!" Ding Wenxiang set his sights on the Shanghai Electric Meter Factory adjacent to Xinhua Hospital, drawing drawings, building models, doing experiments, measuring performance with the engineers... Kung Fu pays off, and China's first pediatric artificial heart-lung machine has finally come out. With the assistance of the necessary equipment such as this equipment, in the mid-1970s, Ding Wenxiang's team successfully performed the direct-vision repair of the ventricular septal defect under the extracorporeal circulation of deep and low temperature for a child born 18 months and weighed 10 kilograms, creating a precedent for deep cryogenic open-heart surgery in infants and young children in China, and the special instruments for pediatric cardiac surgery that he designed and supervised were also widely used and praised by domestic and foreign counterparts, and were named "Ding's" instruments.
In the early 1980s, Ding Wenxiang's team launched an attack on the deep and low temperature stop circulation technology, "At the beginning we failed, the actual operation situation is different from foreign literature, it should be a lung problem, but how to solve it, I don't know." In the bottleneck period, in 1981, Ding Wenxiang led a small team to visit Japan, "there is no video, can only be observed in a glass stand a few meters high." At a glance, Ding Wenxiang understood: their artificial lungs are membrane lungs imported from the United States, and the domestic use of Ding Wenxiang's design of the second generation of artificial lungs - bubbling lungs.
In addition to the excitement, Ding Wenxiang soon realized that simply importing membrane lungs from the United States "cures the symptoms but not the root causes", and China still needs independently developed products. After returning to China, he immediately launched a tripartite cooperation with the Institute of Polymer Materials of Fudan University and Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, and for 4 years, the domestic membrane lung was finally launched. In 1985, the first case of deep cryogenic stop-loop open-heart surgery using domestic membrane lung was successfully implemented, which once again set a milestone for the disciplinary development of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery.
Discipline "pregnant" hospital, to create a shining business card of pediatric medicine in China
In the early 1980s, the president of the World Health Foundation of the United States came to China on a business trip to Shanghai to visit the cardiovascular specialty of a Chinese hospital. During the exchange, Ding Wenxiang comprehensively introduced the process of self-reliance to the US side to carry out pediatric cardiac surgery, and demonstrated the surgical instruments developed and produced independently.
The American team was shocked by what they saw and heard, and then, with the support of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and Shanghai Second Medical University (now Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine), a pediatric cardiovascular and surgical team led by Boston Children's Hospital came to Xinhua Hospital to guide the first case of macrovascular dislocation correction in China, and also opened the door for international cooperation in pediatric cardiovascular disciplines.
In 1988, an even bolder vision was born – the two sides collaborated in Shanghai to build a high-standard, modern children's specialist hospital. Ding Wenxiang was both excited and sad, after all, Sino-US cooperation in organizing a hospital was a "groundbreaking" thing at that time. But he was not willing to give up, from the university to the government, from Shanghai to Beijing, tirelessly running around. Finally, he looked forward to the approval of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government on the approval of the construction of sino-American Children's Hospital (later renamed "Shanghai Children's Medical Center"), which was officially opened on June 1, 1998.
New soil, new starting point, new height. Today, the minimum age and weight for congenital heart disease surgery in the pediatric center has once again been refreshed to 2 hours of birth and 850 grams. After nearly half a century of development, under the leadership of Ding Wenxiang, Shanghai Children's Medical Center Heart Center has become one of the world's largest infant and child heart diagnosis and treatment centers, and has also become a shining business card in China's pediatric medical community.
Ding Wenxiang, who is an elderly man, still sits in the clinic every Friday morning. "Now, I see more seriously ill children from other places, and some of them have poor economic conditions, so it is not easy to see a doctor." If he found that it was too late to produce the inspection report in the morning, he would wait patiently until two or three o'clock in the afternoon, "Don't let them run again." He and his juniors said, "We are doctors, don't think that there are a few technologies that make you feel mad, parents have paid money, energy, and even the lives of their children as the price to let generations of doctors have the ability they have today." Ding Wenxiang sighed, "We must better repay them, continue to climb the peak of medicine from generation to generation, and build China's pediatric career better!" ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Yong Text Editor: Huang Yangzi Title Image Source: Wang Qingbin
Source: Author: Huang Yangzi