63년 학형 여러분께 인사드립니다.
촌놈이 서울로 유학오다
63년 연세의대 졸업앨범에서.
Greetings to all the class of ’63. A hillbilly comes to Seoul to study. From the 1963 Yonsei University Medical School graduation album.
차에 탄 사랑이 촌놈 이상원 입니다
Copyright drleepediatrics.com 2/25/2026
A hillbilly comes to Seoul to study.
From the 1963 Yonsei University Medical School graduation album.
The eldest of nine children, I was born with a stick made of pine branches in my mouth.
Bedbugs crawled everywhere on the walls of the master bedroom of our three-room hut.
When I pressed them to death with my hand, they flattened and died, buried in their own blood.
When I caught crabs called neungjeongi and hwangbal from the sea, my mother would make soy sauce marinated crab. Protein, one of the three major nutrients, was consumed by our family from the marinated crab.
We picked wild greens from the sea, mountains, and fields, including burdock, aralia elata, wild chives, and burdock. The school had a shimji (shoes) drawing to wear the sneakers the government had distributed to rural schoolchildren.
I was chosen based on the shimji. So, I only wore one pair of sneakers.
I wore that one on my right foot, and a pair of house shoes on the other. I walked the 10-ri distance for a year and a half, still feeling strange.
I heard that a neighbor’s newborn was born without an anus and died a few days later.
I heard that a 40-year-old farmhand, who had been working for a neighbor for three years, fell ill with an unknown illness. When I found out, I built a shack out of straw bags on the hillside near my house, put a bowl of water and a bowl of barley rice in it, and laid a mat on the shore of the shack, where I lived for a few days and died. Those were the days.
My two adolescent younger siblings suffered from an unknown illness for months, but died without ever seeing a doctor. I never even knew a doctor. I remember visiting their graves alone, beating the ground and weeping in grief.
A doctor at Hongseong Provincial Hospital, a graduate of Seoul National University College of Medicine, treated me for sepsis by giving me aspirin. And without any follow-up treatment, I didn’t even know if he was alive or dead. I didn’t even know he’d become a doctor and write this.
But I survived thanks to a pepsi injection from a country doctor who hadn’t studied pharmacology or infectious disease…
I was the top graduate of Hongseong High School in my 500-person class, and I told my father that I would become a doctor (First, Do No Harm) and live a life of service. He told me I didn’t have the money, so I should go to teachers’ college and not medical school. Instead, I borrowed a suit from a neighbor, went to Seoul, and enrolled in medical school.
Those were the days when I shivered in Dadam’s room in the winter cold, slept in my own room, washed my face with cold water, lived alone, tutored, sold books, and worked as a day laborer while attending medical school. My older brothers, Dong-han Park Chan-gyu and Lee Gyu-deok, who attended medical school in Seoul for six years, invited me to their home for a meal. I’m grateful for this opportunity.
I passed the ECFMG exam in my fourth year of medical school, but I received a scholarship from a village medical school, so I worked there for two years. After completing three years as a military officer, one of the three basic duties of citizenship, I came to the United States.
In the United States, there are Uconn Medical School and Aile Medical School. I studied at Harvard Medical School and other institutions, paying my own way, and became a Korean pediatrician, an American pediatrician, and a Korean medical licensed physician in Connecticut, New York, and North Carolina. I am now ranked as one of the top pediatricians in the United States.
Now,
■ http://www.koreapediatrics.com/
-Parents Should Become Half-Doctors, Too”-
Approximately
20,000 pages. 13412 titles, published in 2013, free for 80 million Koreans worldwide.
Operates a website on child care, health, and diseases for children and adolescents. As of June 2019,
Visitors: 830,334/Pageviews: 73,061,480, Daily visits: Over 460
■ Encyclopedia of Pediatric Family Medicine, 618 pages, published in 1988
■ Encyclopedia of Pediatric Family Nursing – Parents Should Become Half-Doctors, 1076 pages, published in 1998
■ Newborns, Infants, and Toddlers Growth and Development of School-Aged and Adolescent Children, 623 pages, published in 2014
■ Diseases for Healthy Growth and Development in Newborns, 610 pages, published in 2014
■ Breastfeeding: Reasons for Breastfeeding, 308 pages, published in 2014
■ Epilepsy in Children and Adolescents: 100 Questions and Answers, 240 pages, published in 2015
■ From Pregnancy to Newborn Care, approximately 261 pages, published in 1998
■ How to Raise Your Teenage Sons and Daughters with Love, 210 pages, child psychiatrist
Ross Campbell, MD, a world-renowned classic, translated by pediatrician Lee Sang-won, published in 1988
■ Drugs and Children, approximately 200 pages, child psychiatrist Ross Campbell, MD, translated by pediatrician Lee Sang-won, published in 1988
■ Raise your sons and daughters with unconditional, true love, and character education like this: 647 pages,
Published in 2016
■ From Anmyeondo Island to Top American Pediatrician, Dr. Sangwon Lee, 241 pages, published in 2017
■ https://www.flickr.com/people/drleesangwon, approximately 18,214 views, Garden, Wildflower, Flower Photography and Landscape, Professional Photographer, Willimantic, USA, Joined 2011
■ Doctorleeflowerphoto.com
■ https://blog.naver.com/drsangwonlee
■ Newyorkkoreanet.com, New York Pediatrician
■ LAkoreanet.com, La Pediatrician
■ http://blog.naver.com/drsangwonlee, 1,230,279 visits as of April 2019
■ https://www.facebook.com/drleesangwon
■ John Sangwon Lee, flickr PRO
■ Ebook, approximately 18,214 views, ‘Caring for my beloved wife who was begging for a stroke’ 180 pages, May 2019
Parents Should Become Half-Doctors, Book Store
■ Life Story of Pediatrician John Sangwon Lee, Pediatrician Lee Sang-won’s Life Story (http://books.koreapediatrics.com/, Parents Should Become Half-Doctors, Book Store)
Currently working on “Love Your Sons and Daughters This Way.”
Last year, my beloved wife helped me get here. Thank you.
I hope you all contribute to my work, “Promoting Parenting in the Fatherland.”
I wish you a happy new year, good health, and success in all your endeavors.
I ask for your continued guidance and guidance.
January 20, 2020
Dear Sangwon Lee, Graduate
Photo
“A Country Boy Comes to Seoul to Study Abroad” from the 1963 Yonsei University College of Medicine graduation album
The love in the car is Country Boy Lee Sang-won.
Copyright drleepediatrics.com 2/25/2026