목에다 보이지 않는청진기를 걸고 손에는 “부모도 반의사가 되어야한다-소아가정간호 백과”책을 들고 태어난 안면도 태생 이상원 소아과전문의
Anmyeondo-born pediatrician Lee Sang-won, born in Anmyeon-eup, Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, with an invisible stethoscope around his neck and holding the book “Parents Should Become Half-Doctors Too – Encyclopedia of Pediatrics and Family Nursing” in his hand
He is the eldest son of nine children born to his father, Lee Si-woo, a farmer in Jangdeunggae, and his mother, Jeong Hyang-seop, a farmer. He was born in a three-thatch house with an invisible stethoscope around his neck and holding the book “Parents Should Become half-Doctors Too – Encyclopedia of Pediatrics and Family Nursing” in his hand.
When I woke up in the three-thatch bedroom, there were bedbugs crawling on the walls, and when I pressed my hand, red blood flowed. On top of that, mosquitoes kept biting me at night. There was not a single mosquito net. During the day, fleas were annoying. Lice crawled on my head and body, biting and laying eggs.
When I went to the bathroom, white roundworm parasites wriggled around. Sometimes, I even saw tapeworms. Adults or children got malaria from a mosquito bite.
At that time, Anmyeondo was the seventh largest island among Korean islands with six elementary schools, but there was not a single doctor who graduated from medical school until I came to the United States in 1968.
My six-year-old sister had a sore ear, so I went to a general store in Jungjang-dong, 10 li away, by myself, and bought penicillin pills. I gave her penicillin for 2-3 days, and she got better.
My mother got malaria, so I bought some Santoning from the store and gave her some.
My mother was always sick, so I bought her some snake liquor and gave her some medicinal herbs like Bongyang, Banha, and Changchol that I dug up in the mountains.
When I was attending Hongseong Middle School, I went to the Hongseong Market and heard that they advertised tiger liver and skin as a cure for all diseases, so I bought some and gave them to my mother.
I heard that both Jandae and Changchul were good, so I had a hard time treating my mother’s illness while attending elementary and middle school. When I was a first year student at Yonsei Medical School, I first examined my mother’s heart with a stethoscope and found out that she had a heart disease and abnormal heart sounds, which was the first time I knew she had heart disease.
When I was a student at Yonsei Medical School, President Park Jeong-he created the no doctor village system in Korea. After hearing the news, I established a medical doctor-village relationship with my native Anmyeondo and Yonsei Medical School. For four years, I went to Anmyeondo with a professor and medical students and me from Yonsei Medical School, providing free medical treatment to the Anmyeondo medical village.
After providing free medical treatment, I didn’t go back straight to Seoul during vacation and provided free medical treatment in the Anmyeondo village, so I kept complaining that I would become a member of the National Assembly later.
I went to Anjung Middle School, a round trip of 20 li, by myself for six years, even when it snowed, rained, or was windy. At the graduation ceremony, I was the top student and the top prize was a shovel.
After that, I finished Hongseong Middle School and entered Hongseong High School. During my first year, I developed a rash on the back of my neck and squeezed it with my hands and applied Jo Myeong-rae ointment. The next day, I had a high fever and crawled 20 minutes from my boarding house to the provincial hospital.
The doctor at the provincial hospital was a graduate of Seoul National University.
He just looked at my throat, gave me an aspirin, and returned to my boarding house.
I must have been very sick because my boarding house owner contacted my mother-father who lived 20 li away and started treating me with an oriental doctor.
Thinking back now, I got sepsis (my current diagnosis). After that, the oriental doctor gave me one dose of herbal medicine a day and one injection of penicillin a day for three months, and never visited me for a visit. When neighbors came, he said loudly, “I guess I’m going to be in a coma so that everyone in the living room and the upper room can hear.” My mother never visited me in Anmyeondo.
I lay down like this, got an injection, and was treated, and then one day I went to a western doctor in Gwangcheon. That doctor was a doctor who came down from Seoul because of the 625 war. The doctor examined me from head to toe and diagnosed that I had pus in my thigh and leg. He took a bowl of pus out of my thigh and leg. I survived, took a year off from high school, and attended Hongseong High School for four years.
The first doctor I saw, a Seoul National University graduate from a provincial hospital, gave me aspirin and didn’t call my parents and did not give me any follow-up treatment. The next oriental doctor I saw didn’t even examine the pus in my leg. of it. The year I graduated from Hongsung Sung High School, I was the top student out of 500 graduates from Hong High School.
Born in Anmyeondo, I was the first in Korean history to enter Yonsei University College of Medicine. After graduating from Yonsei University College of Medicine in 1963, I passed the national exam for Korean medical licenses and received my Korean medical license.
During my time in medical school, I received a national scholarship, a school scholarship, money I earned from handing out newspapers, money I earned from tutoring, and money my parents gave me, and I graduated from medical school with excellent grades in six years. I passed the ECFM exam to become a doctor in the US during my 4th year of medical school, but I, who was born with a soil spoon in my mouth, shed tears and chose a different path.
After graduating, I worked for 2 years in Seosan as a non-doctor medical villager, and then served as a military officer in the Republic of Korea Army for 3 years. After that, I went to the US and majored in pediatrics at UCONN Medical School and Yale Medical School. When I practiced pediatrics in Willimantic, Connecticut for 32 years, the residents often praised me as a good doctor.
I was a professor of pediatrics at Kosin Medical School, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut Medical School, a top doctor in the US, and a top pediatrician in the US. I am the author of the encyclopedia of children, adolescents, and parenting health and I run Drleepdiatrics.com. (Here is a newspaper article praising the doctor who is the best in the world in the First, Do No Harm policy, and a photo of the pediatrician examining a patient, and the book Encyclopedia of Pediatric Family Nursing – Parents Should Become Anti-Doctors, too”.
When I think about myself, I think I am one of the rare doctors that God sent to this world.
My son who became a doctor who came to our house visit and played golf with us. While playing golf, he said, “Hey, Joe, how are you these days?” “Good.” “Your girlfriend?” “I broke up with her.” “Why?” “Why?” “Because she lied.” “What?” “She smoke and she said “Don’t smoke?” “How did you know?” “Because we kissed.”
“Daddy, how did you see 500,000 patients and not have a single medical malpractice lawsuit?”
“No patient, even any complaining, lived with you without any inconvenience?”
“Good question.
“When I saw a patient, I treated them with the principle of “First, Do No Harm”
and treat them like my own body and my own family.
And I treated them with 5Cs (Compassion, Concern, Communication, Cure, Care) and 3As (Ability, Availability, Affordability).
Thank you, Daddy.
Now you can see that in my library, there are 20,000 medical books and not only stethoscopes, but also blood pressure monitors for newborns, children, and adults, eye testers, ear testers, and other medical devices in one bag.
6/9/2027
Drleepediatrics.com
John Sangwon Lee,MD,.FAAP