A healer of compassionate heart, passionate patriotism
Print Edition
DOCTOR Ke Deqiong, who died in 1978 at the age of 76, is still remembered by many people in Songjiang for his loving care of patients and his patriotic passion for China.
In 1935, he opened the Deqiong Hospital on Songhui Road in the Songjiang District. It had 30 beds, 34 medical staff and departments of internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and pulmonary medicine.
Two years later, when the anti-Japanese war broke out, Ke refused to leave for a safer area and stayed in Songjiang to treat the injured. His hospital was badly damaged during bombing raids.
When the People’s Public of China was founded in 1949, Ke used all his savings to repair the hospital facilities. A year later, he established the Songjiang Medical Association and created training courses in Chinese and Western medicine for local doctors and nurses.
In 1953, he sought to donate the hospital site and all its facilities and equipment to the local government, but the donation was rejected because there were no policies covering such a transfer.
Ke finally donated the assets to the non-governmental China Tuberculosis Prevention Association, a charity dedicated to the research, treatment and prevention of disease in rural villages.
During the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), Ke was sent to the countryside to be “re-educated.” Then in his 70s, Ke was forced to carry water every day for more than 100 people.
At his home in Songjiang, the doctor loved planting flowers in the courtyard, but when such horticulture was denounced as an “evil capitalist hobby,” Ke began cultivating medicinal herbs in his garden.
His granddaughter Ke Hua later recalled being her grandfather’s garden helper.
“Every evening, I happily ran barefooted between the garden and the tap to water his plants,” she said.
She said he taught her about herbal medicine plants. When she was sent to Yunnan Province to teach, she catalogued herbs there and mailed back specimens to her grandfather.
“My grandfather was a man of integrity with a warm heart,” she said. “I’m very proud of him.”
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