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Protecting neighbors' health
Mrs. Chang, who accompanied her 90-year-old father to the hospital, recounted her unpleasant past experiences with doctors.

It all happened within a few short months. First she had an operation to remove a uterine fibroid tumor. Then the doctor told her that her entire uterus had to be removed. Then, the complications appeared: she couldn't tell when her bladder was full, so she had to use a clock to figure out when she needed to go to the toilet. The nerves around her large intestine were also damaged, and she needed laxatives for her bowel movements.

"If the doctor had explained beforehand all of the complications that might arise from the surgery, I would not have felt so lonely in dealing with all of the inconveniences." Mrs. Chang said that doctors seem to worry so much about whether they are seeing enough patients that they do not pay sufficient attention to how the patient feels.

"I trusted my doctor and hoped that he would solve my problem, but he betrayed my trust when I was at my most vulnerable," Mrs. Chang said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Her husband added, "Most hospitals don't make people feel warm, and the medical procedures have become so formalized that there is no human feeling involved." However, he had high hopes for the new Tzu Chi hospital. "When I saw the sign, 'Guarding Life, Health and Love,' I felt it spoke my mind. I had new hope that this hospital would become our good neighbor and do its best to protect our health, and that the doctors would truly treat patients as their own family members."

He said that when he first stepped into the emergency ward of the hospital, he heard a volunteer singing to a patient. "It felt so different." He had accompanied his father-in-law to many emergency wards before, but he had never felt as much warmth as he did at the Xindian Tzu Chi Hospital. "The hospital has a large force of dedicated volunteers to back it up. I hope they will help promote the best and most attentive care for patients."

"Gratitude," "respect," and "love" are the words of reminder that Master Cheng Yen gives to the medical staff of every Tzu Chi hospital. The opening of the Xindian Tzu Chi Hospital symbolizes the beginning of new responsibilities and possibilities. The hospital has a duty to carry out its medical care with love, to serve the public, and to live up to its expectations.


Translated by Wu Hsiao-ting and Lin Sen-shou
Photographs by Lin Yen-huang
Source: Tzu Chi Quarterly Summer 2005

04/27/2010 Making Use of Our Abilities to Do Good

*Xindian Tzu Chi Hospital is now called Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital