Opportunities and results in China
As I write, I am somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, approaching Japan the interactive map says, on a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and then on into Hangzhou, China. A group of us from Loma Linda University Health will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, a remarkable story that began 100 years ago when a Chinese mother brought her teenage son to see an American doctor in a clinic he had started in Shanghai. That son was impressed enough to remember that visit and sought care again some 60 years later at another hospital, now in Hong Kong, enabled by that same doctor.
Those two life journeys could not have been more different. Dr. Harry Miller, a 1902 graduate of the American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek, Michigan, gave his life to improving health in China. He eventually came to be known as the China Doctor after performing over 3,000 thyroidectomies for goiters, developing soy milk to combat malnutrition, and establishing 17 hospitals across the country.
That young Chinese boy, Run Run Shaw, became a powerful and benevolent businessman in Hong Kong, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and lived to the age of 107. In the 1980s, he dreamed of starting a western-style hospital in his home province of Zhejiang, and contacted the sponsor of those two hospitals, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and asked for their help. From there he was referred to Loma Linda University Health, and the 30-year journey began as a new hospital was conceptualized, designed, built, and staffed with LLUH’s collaboration. That initial 400-bed tower, with Sir Run Run Shaw and Loma Linda University’s names emblazoned on the front, has gradually expanded to six campuses with over 6,000 beds in Hangzhou. Its reputation for clinical quality and innovative administration is felt throughout the country.
What is most remarkable about this partnership is the core values identified and shared between a Christian institution in California — Compassion, Wholeness, Integrity, Teamwork, Humility, Justice, and Excellence — and a government hospital in China — Sincerity, Confidence, and Love. You may suggest the words are different, but I can assure you the spirit behind them is similar. The leadership at SRRS Hospital quickly recognized that what distinguished the hundreds of visitors from Loma Linda who spent time at SRRSH, and also witnessed by the hundreds of Chinese professionals who came to Loma Linda to be trained, was compassionate caring for each other and the patients they served as individuals, as children of God. This spirit of love became palpable as successive professionals shared time together, in clinics, patient wards, and operating rooms at both hospitals, or at Chinese feasts and museum visits in Hangzhou and trips to Disneyland and the Grand Canyon in America.
In February, leaders of both The Shaw Foundation and Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital came to Loma Linda to thank our institution for their key role in this incredible journey. Now we are returning that favor by visiting them during their major celebration of this 30th anniversary. Out of this has come lifelong friendships, major clinical advancements shared by both sides, innovative training programs for physicians, and new disciplines being taught in Dental Hygiene and Respiratory Therapy.
This relationship clearly transcends global politics. The spiritual roots that are at the foundation of our values and commitment has been translated many times over to a culture living without a visible religion for generations.
It is now a few days later as I finish writing this. We are preparing to head home, after many meetings and requests for more affiliations, tours of new hospitals, lots of food, and appreciation for what this relationship has meant to both sides. I wish each of you could have been with us last night as we listened to both former and current nursing students from our off-campus master’s degree in Thailand talk about the impact of Loma Linda on their lives. Twenty Chinese nurses have now completed, or will in July, their MSN degree. Most have moved into leadership positions and shared how it has been more than the knowledge gained, but rather their life perspective and personal values that have changed them forever.
What does this all mean on the world scene as we watch regional wars and conflicts play out daily on our news feeds? I do wish the thousands of young people and others who rally behind one cause or the other today could sense the satisfaction of personal engagement in the world’s challenges. Getting to know each other as individuals and the journeys we all live, shifting between tragedies and triumphs every day, could soften our differences. I am thankful that our campus at Loma Linda has ample opportunity to experience and appreciate this diversity of thought and perspectives, both on campus and through our many trips abroad. May we continue to be a symbol of peace, acceptance, and love in this world.
Sincerely,
Richard Hart, MD, DrPH
President
Loma Linda University Health
