Chang Kee-ryo

Seongsan Chang Kee-ryo (성산 장기려/聖山 張起呂 1911-1995.12.25) was a medical doctor respected for his innumerable big and small miracles of love.

Chang not only used his medical knowledge and skills for people who were poor and weak, but also treated everyone the same way regardless of their status and wealth. He ate at the same table with a beggar who came to his house and gave him his paychecks without any hesitation.

It is said that, when Yi Kwang-su (이광수/李光洙 1892-1950), a pioneer of modern Korean literature, authored his novel Sarang (lit. Love), he modeled his protagonist Ahn Bin after Dr. Chang Kee-ryo. People called him "a sage or a fool". Chang had many other nicknames — the fool-doctor, Schweitzer of Korea and the little Jesus — all of which describe his commitment to being a true medical doctor and devout Christian. His nicknames also tell us what kind of life he lived, for the good of other people.

Key words
Chang Kee-ryo, Little Jesus, family reunion, Blue Cross Medical Cooperative, Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service

Life
Chang was born in Yongcheon, Pyonganbuk-Do, North Korea, on August 14, 1911 by the lunar calendar. He studied medicine at the Kyongsong Medical College (currently Seoul National University College of Medicine), and graduated summa cum laude in 1932. Shortly after he cut his teeth as a practitioner, Chang had a life-changing encounter with a naive and helpless elderly lady. The woman believed that if only the doctor would touch her with a stethoscope, she would be healed, so she requested Dr. Chang touch her chest with his stethoscope. He made up his mind to devote his life to the poor and weak and those who could not receive proper treatment.

While he was teaching at Pyongyang Medical School (later Kim Il-sung University), the Korean War broke out. When South Korean soldiers retreated from Pyongyang in January 1951, Chang defected to the South with his second son, leaving behind his other five children and his wife. In the South, he opened a clinic in a ramshackle hut to provide free medical services. That was the beginning of Gospel Hospital (복음병원) where he served with all his strength for 25 years. Poor patients flocked to the clinic from all over the country. The clinic was chronically awash in red ink, so finally he had to delegate to the staff the authority to decide whether to treat certain patients for free. Chang regularly didn’t pay himself, and still secretly helped poor patients run away without paying their medical fees.

By the time he breathed his last breath, he was living in a small rooftop room. In the 49.5 m2 room were a photo of him and his wife, his glasses, and a worn-out white medical gown, all of which were a testimony to his simple life. Living for others, he lived a lonely life. He must have missed his wife and the five children he had left behind in North Korea. When he passed away at the age of 84 in 1995, he became a symbol of humility and love for others.

Achievements
Chang founded the Blue Cross Medical Cooperative (청십자의료협동조합), the nation’s first-ever medical cooperative, in 1968, a decade before the government introduced a national medical insurance program. The cooperative was an attempt to solve the socio-structural problem that volunteer work alone cannot address. Although a purely private medical insurance program, the Blue Cross Medical Cooperative had as many as 230,000 members.

He didn’t remain sentimental in serving society. Although he was already recognized as a competent surgeon, he studied with graduate school students in order to catch up on up-to-date medical breakthroughs. Through such efforts, he greatly contributed to the development of medicine in Korea. He succeeded in performing the first partial hepatectomy and massive hepatic resection in Korea in 1943 and 1959 respectively. When he was hospitalized due to a cerebrovascular disease, he sent a letter to fix an error in a surgical procedure textbook that he had authored. His life committed to poor patients was recognized in 1979 by the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

Family reunion
Dr. Chang's life seems to sybolize the situation and sentiments of families separtated by the DMZ after the Korean War. See more about Inter-Korean family relations.

In January 1951 when Pyongyang was about to fall to the enemy, Dr. Chang couldn't help but leave his hometown and beloved family because Korean army requested VIPs and Christians like him to avoid Communists' persecution and to come with them to the South. He didn't say goodbye to his family that morning.

So for all his life, Dr. Chang intensely missed his wife, Kim Bong-sook, and children. At bedside he kept two photos - one was 38-year old young wife and another was 79-year old aged wife which his niece, a U.S. citizen, had brought during her visit to Pyongyang. In 1985 when he was given the chance to meet his family in the North, Dr. Chang yielded the opportunity to other applicants still in great numbers. He said, "Each day I spiritually communicate with my wife. It is no use meeting with her physically. I'll be the last person to visit North Korea to meet separated family members."

In August 2000 after Dr. Chang's death, his dream came true in part. His second son, Professor Chang Ga-young (장가용/張家鏞) at Seoul National University College of Medicine, who had come to the South with his father in 1951, visited Pyongyang as a doctor accompanying the South Korean visitors for family reunions between the North and the South and met with his mother. His mother said to her son, "Is this a dream or real life?" (이게 꿈이요 생시요?) He conveyed Dr. Chang's favorite things - a finger ring, the wrist watch and an album of funeral photos of Dr. Chang - to Mother. One more thing to be added at the time of his departure - a sponge cake bought at a Myeongryoon-dong patisserie.

All these stories were illustrated in a musical named "Chang Kee-ryo, The Person", which was performed at Theater Ellim Hall at Daehak-no, Seoul in November 2001. Audiences were reportedly moved by the musical which was mixed with contemporary christian music (CCM), poems and drawings focused on the freedom and dream, sea of hopes (소망의 바다).

Video messages from the South
In this regard, a quite different effort has been made for personal messages to be exchanged between the two Koreas. As the North and South family reunion meeting has been influenced by the inter-Korean or international situations, several times of visiting meetings or video meetings could not satisfy the needs of such separated families. In May 2013, the Korean Red Cross imbarked on sending video letters of South Koreans who wished their messages to be delivered to the beloved family members in the North. In a first series of the said event, the Korean Red Cross has completed 12-minute video letters for 815 families. Of the registered 75 thousand separated family members at the Integrated Information System for Separated Families (이산가족 통합정보시스템) jointly managed by the Ministry of Unification and the Korean Red Cross, 16,823 families applied for their video messages to be sent to the North.