Video PlayerClose

By Quan Xiaoshu, Qu Ting & Li Bin

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese neurosurgeon Li Yongjie can still recall the details of the first brain operation he did to treat Parkinson's disease after he returned from the United States 20 years ago.

"It was the first microelectrode-guided stereotactic surgery ever conducted in China. Although there was an assisting team, no one actually knew how to do it except me," says Li, director of the Beijing Institute of Functional Neurosurgery at Xuanwu Hospital, and a pioneer in his field.

Stereotactic surgery was developed from the stereotactic method in the 1940s. The patient's head is fixed in a frame so that a thin electrode can be precisely directed to the target area in the brain through a small hole on top of the skull.

Hoping the advanced technique would take root in China, Li was clear about the significance of the first operation. He didn't sleep well for several nights before the operation, and went over the procedures again and again in his head.

On July 12, 1998, he completed the operation in eight hours, mostly by himself. "I blended and injected the anesthetics, installed the fixing frame on the patient's head, scanned the brain with magnetic resonance, calculated the position of the target spot, and kept on comforting the patient during the operation," he recalls.

It was a success. More patients came to him. By the end of that year, Li and his team had worked out a set of standard procedures and performed dozens of operations each month, each taking only two hours.

"I brought back the operation skills as a seed, and it has grown into a thriving tree," Li says.

The institute now treats more than 30 neurological dysfunctions, including epilepsy, dystonia and chronic pain, making it one of the world's most comprehensive medical institutions in the sector.

CHOOSING ADVENTURE

Li attributes his achievements to China's reform and opening-up, which allowed him to be adventurous and have a say on his own destiny.

Born in 1961 in Datong, north China's Shanxi Province, Li grew up during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). His father, labeled a "rich peasant" who had to be "remolded", urged him to study hard in those chaotic days.

"I was timid and reticent; I had to grow up early and it was lonely," Li said.

China resumed the gaokao, the annual college entrance exam, in 1977. Li was happy to see the nation starting to embrace "the spring of science," which valued education and knowledge.

Good grades gave him confidence. He came top in a provincial physics competition in high school. In 1979, he enrolled at the prestigious Beijing Medical University, now the Health Science Center of Peking University, to study medical science.

"It wasn't really my choice. It was my mother who wanted me to be a doctor," says Li, who took more than five years to agree that it was a worthwhile career. From then on, he was more aware of his inner voice at each decisive moment.

In 1994, Li, with a doctor's degree from Shanxi Medical University, gave up a steady job as a surgeon in Taiyuan, and sold his allocated apartment -- a much coveted goal under the housing distribution system -- to pursue advanced studies at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"When I was a graduate student, two teachers from the United States had aroused my curiosity of the outside world. They were eloquent and open-minded, and the knowledge and techniques they brought to us were new and advanced," Li recalls.

After China emerged from its long closure and began its reform and opening-up in 1978, many talented young Chinese went to study abroad to expand their horizons and better themselves. At its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam drew more than 100,000 students every year, as a pass was required for admission to universities and colleges in the United States. (More)