Like many of you, I’ve had a lot of different job titles. Most of them, including nurse, paramedic, and clinic manager, have been in medical care roles. In 2001, following a catastrophic stroke, I added disabled patient to the list. Where I was accustomed to helping patients, my view was now from the hospital bed looking up at those caring for me. That will snap your view around in a big hurry, and it certainly did mine.
After getting past the touch and go fears over immediate survival, I began learning the hard realities of being a patient with a disabling medical condition. I was now viewed as a long-term disability patient and told to accept my condition and apparent disabilities. I learned that insurance placed limits on the treatments and therapies I needed that did not allow enough care for me to recover. The nursing shortage that had been a worrisome statistic for a clinic manager had become a harsh, personal reality. Delays in getting appointments followed by endless minutes in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices suddenly became a source of added stress in my patient role. Worse, I wasn’t recovering the way I hoped and believed was possible.
When we find ourselves in need of healthcare, whether planned or unexpected, catastrophic or routine, we become reliant on a medical care system that is stretched to its breaking point. Hospitals and physicians’ offices are staffed with good people who are often tasked with doing too much with too little. The floor nurse in the hospital isn’t being short with me because she doesn’t care. She has many other patients, too many probably, whose needs are equally important and too few other nurses on duty to support them. It’s not that the doctor doesn’t want to spend time reviewing my condition. She, too, has patients who have already waited well past their appointment times. The harried guy in admitting is already doing the job of three people, all while trying to determine whether the crying baby is a higher priority than the guy with the visibly fractured elbow. I never doubted that they cared. I just knew that in order to recover I needed more.
With the encouragement of two exchange students from China and the support of family, I embarked on a non-traditional journey toward recovery through medical care in China. What hadn’t happened in three years of therapy began to return through the patient treatment offered by doctors and nurses at the First Teaching Hospital in Tianjin. I found myself regaining sensation and movement. Thoughts came clearer and my vision, which had bounced like a television with bad vertical hold, began to focus. I learned that my doctors were not focusing only on my symptoms. They were working toward improved function and overall medical outcome. I got my life back!
That experience became the foundation for China Connection Global Healthcare, our company that today has served hundreds of clients seeking hope and health. In just the past few months, we’ve helped families from Canada, England, Mauritius, South Korea, the Netherlands, and across the United States. One of the great compliments we hear from all of them is how wonderfully patient and caring the doctors, nurses, aides, administrators, and even the cleaning staff are. One patient commented that a highlight of his stay was a standing ovation from the housekeepers who stopped to encourage him as he was relearning how to walk.
One of the exciting differences in the hospitals in China Connection Global Healthcare’s Destination HealthCare Network™ is the abundance of nurses and experienced physicians. They know and live the Chinese phrase “bing ren shi shang di”, which translates to a central focus on each patient. The focus placed on each individual patient’s emotional and physical well-being by each of the members of the healthcare team is evident in all they do. They know and practice the principle, that attitude is just as important in treatment as medication, surgery, massage or acupuncture.
This superior, compassionate delivery makes Destination HealthCare™ a source of renewed hope, health, and healing, along with its benefits of premier medical quality, accessibility and affordability. Please contact us to ask how it can benefit you.
Ruth Lycke, President & CEO
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the story of stroke survivor Devin Dearth and what for many is a somewhat unconventional road to recovery. The film premiered two weeks ago at the Louisville International Film Festival, where it was runner up in the prestigious Audience Award category. It premiered last week in Los Angeles and appears Sunday, October 17 at The Other Venice Film Festival in Venice, CA. You can view the trailer through its Facebook fan page at:
Stem Cell Medical Center in Beijing is one of the top treatment facilities in the world today and provides care for international patients daily. The TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital is recognized for excellence by the World Health Organization. With a greater emphasis on outcomes over billed procedures, reduced hospital infection rates, access to premier doctors without extended waits, VIP attention to international patients, and the best in hospitals, international destination healthcare has become an integral part of the global marketplace.

