Dr. Norman Bethune as a surgeon

Dr. Norman Bethune's recognition as a Canadian of renown resulted from his devoted work in China during the late 1930s. He had received a general surgical training, but his personal illness with tuberculosis led him to specialize in thoracic surgery. A surgical program at McGill University under Dr. Edward Archibald, a pioneer thoracic surgeon, was initially successful, but by the mid-1930s Bethune was rejected by McGill and Dr. Archibald. He became chief of thoracic surgery at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur outside Montreal. H developed thoracic surgical instruments and wrote numerous scientific papers. The outbreak of civil war in Spain in 1937 attracted Bethune to oppose what he viewed as fascist aggression. He went to Spain, where he established the value of mobile blood banking. On his return to Canada in 1937 he became aware of the escalating war between China and Japan. He joined the Chinese communist forces in northern China and spent 18 months doing Herculean mobile war surgery, while improving the state of medical services in primitive, depressing conditions. He died in 1939 at the age of 49 years of septicemia as a result of accidental laceration of his finger during surgery. The Chinese have venerated Norman Bethune and stimulated his memorialization in Canada. His surgical record can be viewed as mixed in quality, but overall his performance remains impressive for its achievement.