Heritage Snapshot: Part 223 Dr. C. Joan Coggin

LOMA LINDA>> After a decision had been made to participate in The China Project, Dr. C. Joan Coggin, a at-the-time practicing pediatric cardiologist and co-founder of the Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery team, along with Dr. Bruce W. Branson, chair of the department of surgery, were some of the first to enter China to evaluate Loma Linda’s potential involvement. During one period of time, Coggin and Dr. Thomas J. Zirkle were flying to China every other month for a week at a time. During this time she became assistant to the president for International Affairs at Loma Linda University. She eventually made approximately 20 trips to China. On one occasion, Dr. Zheng Shu showed Branson and Coggin the possible location of the new hospital. From downtown Hangzhou, they drove to the end of a paved road, onto a narrow dirt road which led to a three-story apartment complex. From there, the entourage could get a good view of the surrounding countryside and the potential site. Off to one side was the city of Hangzhou. In the other three directions were nothing but fields, five or six houses and a number of small farms. The woman announced the building of a future highway through the area and stated that the city would eventually extend to the site. After concern was expressed for the current residents, the woman reassured the Loma Linda administrators that the farmers would be given land elsewhere, where they could still farm. The dirt road eventually became a four-lane highway and the little farms were replaced by hundreds of apartment houses and high-rise office buildings. Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, after 23 years, is now near the center of Hangzhou. Coggin met Sir Run Run Shaw many times and considered themselves to be good friends. "I was very fond of him and his wife, Lady Mona Shaw," she said. "He was a tremendous person and very friendly and brilliant, a superb businessman.” She acknowledged that he remembered Dr. Harry Miller as a person who took good care of the people. “He didn’t seem like a doctor," she said. "He reportedly was more like a friend who knew how to doctor. He loved the Chinese people and they could sense that.” She said that The China Project came about because of this friendship and the high esteem in which Sir Run Run Shaw held Miller. Miller served Sir Run Run Shaw’s mother at the Shanghai Sanitarium and Hospital in the early 1900s. Dr. Gordon Hadley, the first president of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital after it opened said, “We would not be in China today if it were not for Dr. Harry Miller.” Although Coggin had no patients under her direct care, she frequently participated in patient rounds. The primary challenge was introducing many people into a completely new milieu of hospital operations—the combination of Eastern and Western Medicine. At first, according to Coggin, it was a difficult adjustment for everyone. But the Chinese were eager that Loma Linda University would control the new endeavor so that they could progress as fast as possible. Because Hangzhou was a tourist city, locals were used to being around people of different perspectives. When the Chinese employees could see that their hospital was advancing faster than any of the others, she said everybody was happy and that special relationship has continued. Everyone participating in the project is pleased with the outstanding outcomes experienced. Participants on both sides feel like they are brothers and sisters, sharing in the acknowledgement of the institution’s accomplishments. Some of the practices of Western Medicine, such as simply keeping patients and members of their families informed — which were unheard of in China — have become a standard practice at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital and something that is greatly appreciated by the hospital’s clientele. Over the years, when Sir Run Run Shaw visited the hospital, he was accompanied in a motorcade by local politicians. Sir Run Run Shaw died in Hong Kong on January 7, 2014, at age 106. Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital is located on 100 hectares, almost 250 acres of land near the heart of Hangzhou. It has more than 2,000 employees and 286 specialists. One of its administrators, Yang Lili, RN, earned a PhD degree in nursing on June 12, during this year’s Loma Linda University School of Nursing graduation.