Dharma Master Cheng Yen
Translated by Mindy Chen
Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital: Three Decades of Selfless Love
It’s been three decades since Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital was inaugurated. Thirty years ago, hoping that the sick in Hualien could also well receive medical treatment, I made a vow to build a hospital. Although experiencing many difficulties, Tzu Chi members, however, devoted themselves to not only fundraising but also overcoming obstacles during the process. The hospital was established nine month earlier than expected.
Firmly Providing Healthcare in Eastern Taiwan
I feel an immense gratitude to all the doctors and nurses who kindly devoted themselves in Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital during its early stage. Wishing to take care of Hualien residents’ health, Dr. Lee Jen-Jyh joined in 1988. To treat the patients with TB, he always delivered medicine to the patients living in the mountains and persuaded them to consistently take the medicine. Without being hold back because of bad road conditions and falling rocks, he walked to visit the patients. For thirty years, many patients with TB have been cured through the effort made by Dr. Li and his medical team.
Photo: For thirty years, Dr, Lee Jen-Jyh, together with his medical team, has cured many patients with TB.
Thirty years ago, Dr. Kuo Hann-Chorng was temporarily transferred to Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital from National Taiwan University Hospital. However, after serving for one year, he decided to continue his professional duty here. The next year, he even promised me to stay for thirty years to take care of patients with urological diseases who usually traveled to the hospitals located in western Taiwan. Moreover, he vowed to boost the medical skills and quality so as to attract more doctors all over Taiwan to serve in the hospital. He has achieved his goals until now. Besides, Dr. Kuo has given lectures in Tzu Chi University for years. He has nurtured many medical talents and given advice on conducting medical research as well. Many excellent papers have been published through his advice.
Passing down the Love and Care
The wheel of time turns; in the meantime, ideas have been turned into realities gradually. When Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital was inaugurated thirty years ago, there was only one doctor available for each department in the hospital. How to recruit doctors and nurses became an urgent problem. Because of inconvenient transportation during that time, it was not easy to recruit medical professionals and was even much more difficult to keep them. Therefore, Tzu Chi Medicine and Nursing Colleges were established in succession in order to locally nurture medical professionals. Today, there is a complete medical team consisting of many doctors and nurses in the hospital. What’s more, the local hospital has become an important medical center in eastern Taiwan. It’s joyful to see that many doctors and nurses graduating from Tzu Chi Medical and Nursing Colleges contribute themselves to the patients.
In the clinic room, regarding patients as family members, the doctors carefully and patiently treat the patients. In addition, the senior doctors share the junior doctors their abundant experience; train them to independently treat patients and perform operations. Through teachers’ teachings by example, students with gratitude know the right direction and the mission to fulfill in life; they wish to become compassionate medical professionals. Both excellent medical skills and proper medical ethics can be passed down generation after generation, through which the doctors and nurses shoulder the medical mission in eastern Taiwan.
In Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, a girl born with heart disease has been treated since her childhood. Many doctors and nurses who are like her parents have taken care of her for years. In return for the selfless love, she wished to become a nursing professional when recovering from illness. Last year, her wish eventually came true; she became a dental assistant in the hospital. She can take care of others herself. It’s touching that medical professionals and patients are like parents and children who give love and pay back with love respectively.
The Soft Power
Medical mission is noble. It’s hard to fully express my deep gratitude to all medical professionals serving in Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. Because of your selfless giving without seeking money and fame, the hospital has become the trustable medical center, which protects the residents’ health and life in eastern Taiwan and gives great love as well.
In addition to careful caring inside the hospital, the medical professionals often participate in the free clinics hold in the remote areas for treating the poor. Whenever disasters take place, they swiftly go to the areas and make an effort to save people and help with environmental recovery.
Mr. David Myers, the Director for the Faith/Community Center at the Department of Homeland Security, once visited Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. He witnessed the patients’ smiling faces and felt the selfless love existing between medical professionals and patients. And that is the soft power coming from the Tzu Chi medical system.
It’s the thirty anniversary of Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. I have witnessed both the Tzu Chi medical culture developed through the period of time and the great love between living beings. I hope that the medical professionals are able to keep the initial vows in mind all the time. With the spirit of Medicine Buddha, you are able to alleviate people’s suffering caused by sickness; comfort physical bodies and mind of the sick living in eastern Taiwan. Furthermore, I also sincerely expect that the great love will go on and on for innumerable three decades.
