It says "I have a dream". [Remembering Academician Qiu Weiliu] There is always a faded note on his desk.

One of the founders and pioneers of oral and maxillofacial surgery, head and neck oncology surgery, and oral and maxillofacial reconstructive surgery in China, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, honorary chair professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and former president of the Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Qiu Weiliu, former dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Stomatology, passed away in Shanghai on May 24, 2024 at the age of 92.

In 2012, a reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Academician Qiu of the Ninth People's Hospital in his office and listened to him talk about his beliefs, ideals and life.

That year, he was 80 years old. I still remember that there was a note under the glass of his desk. The red writing on the note had faded slightly. He wrote: Ihaveadream, Enjoyyourlife, Nevergiveup.

Today, as people from all walks of life bid farewell to Academician Qiu, they would like to recall the report published in "Liberation Daily" on May 4, 2012.

"Liberation Daily" May 4, 2012 Page 17

"Medicine is a benevolent skill, and doctors have a benevolent heart." In an exclusive interview with reporters, Qiu Weiliu explained his understanding of the medical career. He has always believed that "those who practice medicine must have a benevolent heart and apply benevolent skills."

With a benevolent heart, Qiu Weiliu constantly challenges the "impossible" in people's eyes on the road to medicine.

More than 30 years ago, a young patient suffering from infratemporal fossa sarcoma came to Qiu Weiliu. The nerve pain caused by the tumor and the inability to open his mouth made this 30-year-old young man almost lose the courage to live. The examination revealed that the tumor was buried deep in the base of his skull.

To this day, the skull base is still considered a "no-go area" by many foreign medical guidelines. Because it does not fall within the scope of any medical specialty. Qiu Weiliu made an analogy. The base of the skull is like a floor in the brain. The upper floor is the field of neurosurgery, and the downstairs is the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery. But this floor in the middle has never been taken care of before. For a long time, once a tumor invaded the skull base, it was considered an incurable disease.

The young man in front of him who was suffering from the disease was not the first maxillofacial tumor patient that Qiu Weiliu had encountered. He could not forget that he was helpless when faced with similar patients. He told reporters: "Medicine is not a panacea, but seeing a patient suffering from pain and me not being able to save him is the biggest regret of a doctor. But it is this regret that prompted me to solve the problem."

Qiu Weiliu was determined to break into the medical restricted area of ​​the skull base. After repeated studies and trials with neurosurgeons, one day in June 1978, Qiu Weiliu inserted the scalpel into the crisis-ridden skull base.

For eight hours, the tumor was successfully removed, but there was no smile on Qiu Weiliu's face. Although the tumor was removed, the surgery also inevitably removed part of the patient's maxillofacial tissue. "Everything the doctor does is for the patient's healthy smile. If they can no longer smile, how can I smile?" What Qiu Weiliu cares about is not his own success, but the patient's regret.

In the "consent form" for surgery for all patients with maxillofacial tumors, the possible consequences of the surgery will be clearly listed. In addition to death, there are also facial deformities, that is, disfigurement. Qiu Weiliu didn't want to just save the patients' lives, but watch them lose their normal lives. But how can one successfully remove the tumor while restoring as much of the patient's appearance and facial function as possible?

After opening up a way of survival for patients with advanced maxillofacial malignant tumors, Qiu Weiliu tried to solve a bigger problem.

He turned his attention to the then-nascent field of microsurgery. Qiu Weiliu was keenly aware that if microsurgery's small blood vessel anastomosis technology was introduced into maxillofacial surgery, other tissues of the patient's body could be used to repair craniofacial defects. However, in order to complete this difficult surgery that combines resection and recovery, doctors not only need to have excellent oral and maxillofacial surgery skills, but also need to master plastic surgery techniques and be familiar with microsurgery techniques.

Qiu Weiliu performed the seemingly impossible operation. After years of unremitting efforts, he led his team to apply microsurgery technology to immediately transplant and repair defects after tumor surgery, reaching a leading level in the world. As this technology continues to mature, it also promotes the combination of oral and maxillofacial surgery, maxillofacial reconstructive surgery, and microsurgery. The "Chinese-style" oral and maxillofacial surgery has since been created and developed. Qiu Weiliu is therefore known as one of the founders and pioneers of oral and maxillofacial surgery in China.

Behind the success, Qiu Weiliu has endured unimaginable hardships. Under the microscope, surgery often takes nearly 20 hours or even longer.

After getting off the operating table, you may not be able to have a good rest, because if an emergency occurs to a patient who is still in the critical stage, he must rush back to the hospital as soon as possible.

"For surgeons, this is a common occurrence. After returning home after the operation, they are most afraid of the phone ringing and worrying that something will happen to the patient, and their hearts are so hung up." Qiu Weiliu said.

In the early 1960s, acupuncture anesthesia surgery was widely carried out in the medical community. In order to test whether acupuncture anesthesia can provide analgesia in oral and maxillofacial surgery, Qiu Weiliu decided to "try acupuncture on his own."

He said to his colleagues: "There happens to be a lymph node in front of my ear. You can try to remove this lymph node under acupuncture anesthesia. Let me know whether the level of pain is bearable by the patient."

"When cutting the skin, it hurt a little, but it was acceptable; when separating the lymph nodes, when it touched the nerve endings, it hurt like being struck by lightning." Afterwards, Qiu Weiliu wrote down the pain during the operation one by one. Through personal experience, he summarized a set of operating rules for acupuncture anesthesia and wrote them in two books, "Acupuncture Anesthesia" and "Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Theory and Practice" edited by him.

In Qiu Weiliu's view, the act of trying the acupuncture on his own stems from a certain "instinct" in the doctor's heart.

It is far more than just this time to feel the patient's pain personally. Sometimes, he himself became a patient. From tonsil removal to dangerous necrotizing pancreatitis and laparotomy and drainage, the reporter would have found it hard to believe that the energetic old man in front of him had gone through more than ten surgeries, large and small, if the young doctors around him hadn't told him.

"There were several times when I almost jumped out of the hospital bed in pain," Qiu Weiliu said.

Because he has suffered the pain of patients, he knows how to compare his feelings with his own.

Now 80 years old, he still insists on seeing patients. Because there are so many patients who come here to visit Qiu Weiliu, the number of outpatient clinics is always increasing. The students were worried about his health and advised him to see fewer patients, but he said: "Most of the people who come to me for treatment are difficult patients who come from other places. It is not easy for them to come." In this way, the number of calls increased. Every time, his outpatient service time would be postponed again and again.

From the patient's point of view, just seeing a doctor from Qiu Weiliu is like taking a reassurance. Because no matter how many patients there are, Qiu Weiliu will not neglect anyone just to save time. He feels that if the time for patients to wait in line for treatment becomes longer and longer, and the time to face the doctor becomes shorter and shorter, then the trust between doctors and patients will gradually lose, which is the most distressing thing.

He told the young doctors: "When you see dozens of patients in one morning, the communication time between doctors and patients will inevitably be compressed, but the tighter the time, the more patience is needed. When communicating with patients, you need to pay attention to skills."

In fact, Qiu Weiliu doesn't have any "unique skills" when it comes to patients, but he always has the word "understanding" in his heart. He deeply understands the patient's eagerness to be cured, as well as the dual mental and physical pain they suffer. What patients desire is not only relief from physical pain, but also spiritual comfort. As the famous American doctor Trudeau said: "Sometimes to heal, often to help, always to comfort."

"The key to a harmonious doctor-patient relationship lies with doctors, because patients are always vulnerable in the face of disease. Doctors should understand that patients are unfamiliar with medical knowledge. Even if they know some, they will inevitably be one-sided and even misunderstand the doctor's diagnosis and treatment. "We must answer this patiently," Qiu Weiliu said seriously, "Some young doctors always say to patients, 'Do you believe it or not' or 'You decide for yourself.' Doesn't the doctor-patient relationship become tense?"

A doctor's dignity does not come from his academic qualifications and professional titles

The reporter found that there was a note pressed under the glass of Qiu Weiliu's desk. The red handwriting on the note had faded slightly. It was three lines of English written by Qiu Weiliu: Ihaveadream, Enjoyyourlife, Nevergiveup.

What kind of dream does this silver-haired old man have in his heart?

In 1989, Qiu Weiliu went to the United States alone to participate in the international oral and maxillofacial surgery academic conference. As the only invited Chinese expert, he introduced China’s experience in the treatment of oral, maxillofacial and head and neck tumors to the international medical community for the first time. Standing on the stage, Qiu Weiliu thought, when will China be able to hold such an international academic conference?

After returning to China, Qiu Weiliu found ways to send batch after batch of students to study abroad so that they could bring the most advanced technology back to China. He firmly believes that although China's oral and maxillofacial surgery started late, as long as we continue to work hard, we will one day be able to impress "foreigners".

Twenty years later, with the continuous growth of the oral and maxillofacial surgery career led by Qiu Weiliu, Shanghai finally ushered in an international academic conference marking the highest level in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Oral medicine experts from 77 countries around the world were invited by Qiu Weiliu to attend this event. The holding of the International Medical Congress marks that "Chinese-style" oral and maxillofacial surgery has occupied a place in the field of international oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Also in that year, the International Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons awarded its highest award, the "Outstanding Fellow Award" to Qiu Weiliu. Previously, only four people have won this highest honor award in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery in the world, and Qiu Weiliu is the first person in Asia. When receiving the award, Qiu Weiliu said excitedly: "This honor not only belongs to me, it belongs to all oral and maxillofacial surgeons in China."

With the medal in hand, Qiu Weiliu's dream has not stopped. How to let patients "Enjoyyourlife" and live better after tumor removal has always been his concern. Qiu Weiliu said that the development of medicine never ends. After maxillofacial tumor surgery, how to better restore the function of the patient's defective area is a difficult problem that the oral and maxillofacial surgery team needs to constantly overcome.

Qiu Weiliu’s student, Professor Zhang Zhiyi of the Ninth People’s Hospital, still remembers this picture: Teacher Qiu on the hospital bed with six catheters inserted into his body, his face flushed, sweat dripping from his forehead, but holding a thick student thesis manuscript. At that time, Qiu Weiliu, who was suffering from acute pancreatitis, had just passed the critical period and was anxious to revise the paper for his students.

Qiu Weiliu, a rigorous man, never tells students any big principles. He just uses "example" to teach students what it means to "never give up."

Qiu Weiliu regards every student as his own child. He will plan a most suitable career path for students based on their personality characteristics. For some students who were meticulous in their work and pursued perfection in everything, he suggested that they specialize in the restorative plastic surgery profession of oral and maxillofacial surgery. He encouraged some students who were bold, careful and flexible to study temporomandibular arthroscopy, a field that had rarely been touched before.

What worries Qiu Weiliu is that many students graduating from dental schools are no longer willing to engage in oral and maxillofacial surgery, and instead go to dentistry or orthodontics. Qiu Weiliu knows the reason very well. The work of oral and maxillofacial surgery is risky and hard, but the economic income is often not as good as that of dentists.

What worries him even more is the current situation of the doctor-patient relationship. In the face of disease, doctors and patients are a closely related life community. In the process of saving lives, they should work together, but now they seem to have become "enemies."

"The conflicts between doctors and patients continue to escalate, making people miss the trust and respect between doctors and patients in the past. How to regain this trust and respect?" the reporter asked.

"Since ancient times, 'If you are not a good person, you are a good doctor.' The reason why people respect doctors is because doctors are responsible for treating diseases and saving lives, and doctors have a reverence for life." Qiu Weiliu said, "Being a doctor and patient Extreme incidents frequently break out, and doctors' dignity is gradually lost. We should ask ourselves whether we only focus on the improvement of knowledge and skills and ignore the improvement of medical ethics; while we pay attention to our own dignity, do we also respect the dignity of patients? "

Qiu Weiliu believes that a doctor's dignity does not come from his academic qualifications, status, or professional title. A doctor's dignity comes from the respect of his patients, his superb skills and his kindness. “Although the improvement of the doctor-patient relationship is inseparable from the continuous improvement of the medical system and the understanding of patients, the most important thing is to start from the doctors. We doctors can only call for the return of benevolence from the heart, respect patients, Only by understanding the patient can the problems between doctors and patients be resolved.”