This Chinese Hospital Saves Lives After Their Own Country Tells Them Theres No Hope

This Chinese Hospital Saves Lives After Their Own Country Tells Them There’s No Hope

October 3, 2017

Fuda Cancer Hospital / Credit: Getty Images

The Fuda Cancer Hospital in Guangzhou, China, has received over 30,000 overseas patients in the past decade, many with advanced stages of cancer.

Most of the foreign patients have been told by doctors in their own countries that there are no medical solutions for their diseases.

The hospital first gained recognition among international cancer patients after Gurli Gregersen, a stage-four pancreatic cancer patient from Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2008 reportedly saw her condition improve following her treatment at Fuda. In that year alone, 113 patients from Denmark came to Fuda.

Gregersen is now in her late 60s.

The hospital’s major focus is in cryotherapy, a procedure not available in many countries. Doctors use a probe to reach a targeted area and send liquefied gases such as argon and helium that have a temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius to kill the cancer cells by freezing them.

The process can be used on patients with liver, lung, kidney, pancreatic or breast cancer as well as soft tissue tumours, says Xu Kecheng, chief president of the hospital.

The surgery is not widely used in the US, although the FDA approved the technology in 1998.

“The equipment for carrying out this surgery is expensive and it requires doctors to be very skilful,” Xu told the South China Morning Post, adding it was not suitable for cancer cells located near the stomach, main blood vessels or brain.

Currently, about 40 per cent of Fuda’s 400 hospital beds are occupied by foreign patients. The hospital has hired multilingual staff to communicate with foreign patients. On the top floor, three separate rooms are provided for Muslims, Buddhists and Christians to pray.

For patients with aggressive cancers and nothing left to lose, it’s easy to see why Fuda has become their last beacon of hope.

According to the Hindu Times, “the surgeons said that between 2008 and 2014, they have treated close to 8,000 patients with a success rate of more than 70 percent.”