Dr. Dang Cat-people's doctor

The people’s doctor
Dr. Dang Cat, a retired army surgeon and infectious disease expert, provides a free check up to a patient
Dr. Dang Cat spends his retirement days providing free medical treatment for those too poor to pay, riding a nearly 40-year-old bike across Hanoi and surrounding provinces each day.
As a chief army doctor through Vietnam’s wars with the French and the Americans, Cat was one of the nation’s top surgeons and infectious diseases experts.
Before retiring in 1989, Cat also worked as chief doctor of the Son La Province’s Armed Police along the Chinese border.
Born in Nam Dinh Province south east of Hanoi, Cat studied medicine with his father and worked as a volunteer army nurse through 30 years of war.
After a third of a century treating soldiers on the battlefield, Cat discovered a new calling post-retirement when he realized that most people did not have access to decent health care.
“Hospitals are a nightmare for poor people,” he says.
“The poor can’t afford private medical work and aren’t being treated well even with health insurance.
“That’s why I vow to continue treating poor patients for the rest of my days.”
Carrying a medical supply kit around his neck, Cat usually visits between 15 and 20 patients a day, often taking his bike on long bus rides out to the provinces.
After diagnosis, he visits his patients daily to ensure that treatment is going as planned.
If the patients require surgery or must be put through advanced medical examinations, Cat helps them deal with hospital procedures, which can be slow, bureaucratic and confusing.
Cat has also taken it upon himself to care for patients that hospitals have given up on.
One such patient, a pregnant woman with a narrow heart valve, was unable to be treated at Bach Mai General Hospital.
But Cat took her as a patient and worked with her for over six months, riding his bike to her house every-day.
Thanks to his care, she delivered a healthy baby.
“Crazy old man”
Cat often spends his entire monthly pension on those who can’t afford medicine.
The doctor has also refused every penny that has ever been offered for his services since retirement.
His neighbors in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District call him “the crazy old man.”
“I tell my patients not to waste any of their money on me. I’m happy as long as they feel well,” Cat says.
His wife remembers one time she reluctantly accepted a bottle of wine from a patient.
Cat then asked his wife to return the present the next day.
In another case, Cat refused VND50 million in payment.
Instead he asked for a box of chocolates and gave it to a child patient who “was too poor and would love to taste a chocolate bar,” he says.
Residents from several Northern provinces, including Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen and Bac Ninh, regularly travel to the doctor’s house asking to be cured.
“At this point I am pretty much satisfied with my life as my three children are grown up and have their own lives. Since living in the army, I’ve never had the desire for material things,” he says.
“I’ll go anywhere there is sickness until I pass away.”
Source: Tuoi Tre