Professor Cheung

Professor Cheung feels that he was fated to practice medicine. Diagnosed with cholera at the age of five, he was cured by an Uncle who was also a doctor, and now feels that it is his responsibility to help others in need of healing. At 65 he is the senior member of Taiwan Root, all of the others call him “babysitter.” His first service was 38 years ago at Ming Kwung, back in 1955. Dr. Cheung has traveled all over the world on medical missions, becoming an expert on rare parasites in the process.
Now, when he looks at blood samples through his microscope he can quickly identify what kind of parasite the patient is suffering from. Not only does he know what these bugs look like- he knows how to stop them from killing their hosts. Wherever he goes with Taiwan Root, he is always collecting data about the parasites that he finds there, contributing to what the medical community knows about parasites in different places around the world. He also gives this information to the local government, so that they can have a better understanding of their community’s health needs. Of course, when he goes on a mission he can only treat his patients for what they are currently suffering from, not from what they will get in the future. He acknowledges this as a limitation of an organization like Taiwan Root.
The Root is a group of people who all have families and practices in Taiwan, so it is difficult for them to provide long term care for those that they help. To correct for this it is necessary to engage in what Dr. Cheung calls “seed spreading.” When Dr. Cheung treats patients for parasites during a medical service, he gives them not only medicine but tells them how they can take preventative measures so that they can protect themselves from future parasitic infections. He also imparts his wisdom to any health care providers that he encounters on the missions.
In Huampami, Dr. Cheung found that the woman working at the Centro de Salud lacked even basic knowledge about parasites. He gave her pictures illustrating the most common parasites that he had found in Peru, and taught her how fight them. So, while Dr. Cheung may have come home from Peru, his knowledge is still being put to good use there. This is the most important thing that Taiwan Root does, giving the people in the places that they visit knowledge so that they are capable of better addressing their own health care needs.