John W Wang

THE CANADIAN DOCTOR WHO DIED FOR CHINA. His full name: Henry Norman Bethune. You don't know his name. In China, every schoolchild knows it by heart. Born March 3, 1890 in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada. Died November 12, 1939 in Tang County, Hebei, China. 49 years old. In China, he is called Bai Qiu'en, 白求恩. It means "the White One sent." He was not a saint. He was a fighter. Son of a Presbyterian pastor. He studies medicine at the University of Toronto. He interrupts his studies to go to France in 1914 as a stretcher-bearer during the First World War. He is wounded by shrapnel. He finishes his degree in 1916. He becomes a surgeon. In 1926, he catches tuberculosis. He is on the verge of dying. He demands an experimental operation that saves him. After that, he specializes in thoracic surgery, the lungs. In Montreal, he becomes one of the best surgeons in Canada. He invents instruments that are still used today, like the "Bethune Rib Shears". But he is outraged. He sees poor workers dying because they cannot pay. In 1935, he opens a free clinic in Montreal. He campaigns for a public, free-for-all health system. He joins the Communist Party of Canada. He says: "Wars are motivated by profits, not by principles." 1936. Spain. Spanish Civil War. Bethune leaves for the Republicans, against Franco. There, he understands a simple problem: the wounded die because they lose too much blood before reaching the hospital, at the rear. He invents the *first mobile blood transfusion unit in the world. A truck, with preserved blood, that goes directly to the front line to transfuse the wounded on the spot. Today, it seems obvious. In 1936, it was revolutionary. He invented the principle of mobile blood banks that all armies use today. January 1938. China. He arrives in China. Not for the government of Chiang Kai-shek. For the 8th Route Army, the communist army of Mao Zedong, fighting the Japanese in northern China. He is 48 years old. He is alone. He brings with him a complete surgical unit. For 18 months, he lives like the Chinese soldiers. He sleeps in Buddhist temples, in caves, in bombed villages. He operates day and night, sometimes 70 hours in a row, without sleeping. He creates *mobile hospitals*. He teaches Chinese peasants to become nurses in 3 months. He writes a surgery manual in Chinese. He treats Japanese prisoners too, he says: "A wounded man is a wounded man." He meets Mao. Mao is impressed by him. Bethune is impressed by Mao. On November 12, 1939, during an operation on a wounded soldier, he cuts his finger with his scalpel. The wound gets infected. He keeps operating for 3 days with sepsis. He dies on November 12, 1939. He is 49 years old. Why did he become a god in China? Because Mao wrote a text about him. On December 21, 1939, Mao writes *"In Memory of Norman Bethune"*. It is a text of 800 words. It becomes required reading in all Chinese schools during the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976. Hundreds of millions of Chinese children learned this text by heart. Mao writes in it: "Comrade Bethune devoted himself totally to others without any thought for himself." In China, there are: - Statues of Bethune in every major city - Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences in Changchun - Bethune International Peace Hospital in Shijiazhuang, where he is buried - The Bethune Medal, the highest medical distinction in China In Canada, his own country, it took until 1972, when Canada established diplomatic relations with China, for people to remember him. His birthplace in Gravenhurst has become a museum. Rabe saved civilians with a Nazi armband. Vautrin saved women with an American flag. Bethune saved soldiers with a scalpel, and he died for it. Did you know this story? #NormanBethune #Bethune #BaiQiuen #China #Canada #History #WWII #Japan #TrueStory #HeroDoctor