I have always maintained that as long as we are selfless and sincere, we can achieve understanding from our patients. Even if we face groundless accusations or be inflicted with injuries due to some malicious attacks, we should not complain. As long as we have a clear conscience, we have no fear.
I respect the media very much and I am very grateful to them. I do not advocate advertising, which is not to say that advertising is not good but what I am worried is that the advertising sometimes may mislead patients. Four years ago in Indonesia, I found many medical advertisements from China in the local media. Mr. Li Zhouhui, the chief editor of the International Daily News, the largest Chinese newspaper in Indonesia, said to me, “I think there are only two medical bodies in China that do not advertise with us, one is Tong Ren Tang and the other is your hospital.” He further said, “Fuda Cancer Hospital provides genuine medical treatment; there is no need for it to advertise.”
Freedom of press is a double-edged sword. In 2006 when our hospital was treating the two Malaysian elephant persons, reporters from many newspapers came to interview us. Some of our offices were filled with journalists, some at the desks, some on the sofa and some even on the floor. They rushed to issue reports every day. During that period the Malaysian’s newspapers published pages and pages of lengthy reports on our hospital. In a reporter’s own words, it was as intense, if not more, as the general election. Wang Nanxiao, the secretary then, said excitedly to me: “President Xu, we are great, very great!” I poured cold water on him and reminded him that when things came to an extreme, the opposite would take place.
I will always remember 1st November 2006, which to me was a black day. At about 11.00 a.m., I suddenly receive a call from a Malaysian reporter telling me that on that afternoon, the Malaysian newspapers would publish an article regarding a Malaysian brain cancer patient who was “cheated and died” in Guangzhou. The newspapers would report on the complaints lodged by the patient’s family members and also some cell phone text messages (SMS) from a certain “witness” from Guangzhou. A few hours later, many of our friends in Malaysia including some of our former patients called us and faxed the newspaper reports to us. A boy with brain cancer in Sibu phoned and told me “Grandpa Xu, we have faith in you. The newspaper reports are all nonsense. Please be firm!”
It goes like this: There was a patient with pons glioma from Kuala Lumpur. He could not be treated in Malaysia and he was expected to have another one to two months to live. His family members bought him to Guangzhou and consulted seven hospitals there. All the seven hospitals refused to admit him. Finally, they came to our hospital and consulted Professor Wu Nianzeng, who was a brain surgeon of our hospital. Professor Wu Nianzeng is a specialized in local immunotherapy of tumor bed to treat cerebric glioma, with 66% success rate, even some patients with the grade IV glioma, the most malignant one, have survived for more than six years. CCTV has a live coverage on Professor Wu’s deeds. However, Professor Wu still had not too much confidence to treat that patient. He told the patient and his family members that he would give it a try and repeatedly told them the great probability of significant postoperative intracranial hemorrhage. The patient’s family members gave assurance repeatedly to Professor Wu that as long as Professor Wu provided the treatment all the consequences would be borne by the family since they had no other way out. The operation was successful and the patient’s recovery for the first three day was satisfactory. However, on the fourth day, the patient had a sudden cerebral hemorrhage and died. At that time, his family members did not have much grouses.
The newspapers reported that when the family members returned to Kuala Lumpur, they received a short mobile phone text message (SMS) from a so-called “insider”. It said that Fuda Cancer Hospital was a “black-hearted hospital”, all its doctors were bogus, and that there were ghosts roaming at the hospital’s corridors every night.
The next day I left Kuala Lumpur for Sabah, a city in East Malaysia. Almost all the newspapers in Malaysia carried the “news”. I was very sad and puzzled. We had just successfully treated the two elephant Malaysians, Hong Xiuhui and Chen Jiaxin, and for the past few months after the successful treatment, the Malaysian newspapers had published more than 300 articles praising our hospital. Why all of a sudden, the same newspapers reported that we were “Black-hearted”, “Bogus” and “Ghosts roaming about”? I told myself that it must be the so called “freedom of the press”.
However, I was confident that there was no fault with us and hence we should not feel remorse. On the third day of the news report, I asked Esther Law Lee Poh, our representative in Malaysia, who had been described as a smart young lady by a Malaysian mainstream media, to hold a press conference in Kuala Lumpur. Many former patients of our hospital (some were invited, some came voluntarily) were present and told the audience their experience in Fuda Cancer Hospital and how they felt about the hospital. The following day, the same newspapers published the sharing by those former patients.
On Sunday, 5th November 2006 at 4 p.m., I was resting at home in Shenzhen. The officer-on-duty called to tell me that two reporters of the Guangming Daily from Malaysia were at our hospital asking to interview Malaysian patients at our hospital. I asked whether they had any reporter identification cards and the officer on duty said ‘Yes’. I said, “Don’t escort them but do let them conduct interviews freely. Don’t give them any reception but be friendly and hospitable to them.” An hour later, one of the reporters called me asking for the name list of all the Malaysian patients including their addresses and telephone numbers who had been treated in our hospital so that they could distribute the list to their colleagues in Malaysia. I immediately asked Mdm. Qiu who was in charge of the medical history room to provide the list accordingly.
On 6th November, 2006, I left Shenzhen for Guangzhou. Upon arriving at our hospital, I received a call from Esther Law Lee Poh that the Guangming Daily published a full-page “Investigation Report on Fuda Cancer Hospital” on that day. Out of the 26 patients interviewed, 20 of them praised the hospital, five of them made some comments and one of them whose condition was very critical had some grouses.
The next two days, I was interviewed by the two reporters of the Guangming Daily several times. The most exciting interview which I had a great sense of accomplishment was the online “debate” which I had with a high-ranking personality from Malaysia who held a different view. The following day, the Guangming Daily published the photographs and the detailed content of the online debate in their front page. During the debate, I talked about how we used new ideas and new technology to treat patients, the types of cancer patients that had undergone treatment in our hospital and how they escaped death etc. At the same time the newspaper also published the findings of their telephone interviews with more than 100 in-patients who had been treated in our hospital.
May 2007, the Sin Chew Daily, Malaysia’s largest Chinese Language newspaper organized a medical forum on “New Concepts and New Technology for Cancer Treatment” in its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Professor Wu, Dr. Niu Lizhi and I were invited to the forum. When the three of us were invited to the stage by the emcee, the audience of more than 1000 people gave us a standing ovation. After our presentations, three patients went up to the stage voluntarily. They shared on their experience in our hospital. Mr. Liu, the chairman of “Guo Lin Qigong Association” who made it a point to come, held my hands firmly; with tears in his eyes and after quite a while, he said, “President Xu, the Sin Chew Daily has vindicated Fuda Cancer Hospital of slender!”