[MUST READ] Stephen Linton and the Eugene Bell Foundation

by Robert Koehler on March 11, 2008

The WaPo ran a feature on American doctor Stephen Linton and his battle against tuberculosis in North Korea — if you haven’t read it, READ IT NOW.

The progeny of several generations of Christian missionaries, Linton spent most of his youth in South Korea. He speaks flawless Korean, marshaling it to shame obstructive bureaucrats in Pyongyang, charm hospital staffs in Kosong and bring assemblies of donors in Seoul to tears. He has insinuated himself into one of the world’s most forbidding and totalitarian regimes with strategic gifts: tuberculosis drugs for the elites (in Pyongyang, the disease carries a social stigma that can ruin a career) and, say, rebuilt carburetors for parts-starved truck drivers.

South Korean sources suggest that tuberculosis has affected as much as 5 percent of North Korea’s population of 23 million. Linton estimates the Eugene Bell Foundation has treated up to 250,000 patients, 70 percent of whom might have otherwise died. The foundation has a staff of seven full-time and three part-time employees, and it raises $2 million to $3 million annually. But for him, personally, the work has come with some costs: estrangement from his family, a divorce.

(HT to reader)

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

1 TakeM March 11, 2008 at 9:49 am: Read his book (in Korean). It’s one amazing tale.
2 exexpatPete March 11, 2008 at 10:48 am: With his background you’d expect him to treat the expat Engrish teacher with perhaps less respect than he’d like…but remarkably not so. The couple of times I met him (due to various accidents in my twenties) he came across as a classy and generous guy and the more I read about him the more I find to like.
3 Sonagi March 11, 2008 at 11:22 am: Dr. Linton has lasted as long as he has because he has mastered the art of negotiation:

Most of the cancellations involve small sanatoriums in rural areas — the very sites his donors are so keen to support. Linton suspects his hosts want to avoid those facilities because, relative to the urban care centers, their poor sanitation makes them legitimately hazardous. And the wear-and-tear issue isn’t just a red herring. Spending days crisscrossing the countryside on unpaved roads takes a huge toll on the delegation’s fleet of SUVs — vehicles that, between Linton’s visits, the ministry is allowed to use for its own purposes. In resource-starved North Korea, even government officials must barter to replace broken fan belts and transmissions. The last thing the bureaucrats want is to risk losing a precious automobile.

Whatever the reason for the recalcitrance, Linton decides to meet his hosts head-on by matching each canceled visit with a cancellation of his own — mostly at the expense of hospitals the ministry appears to favor. This choice comes with real consequences for both sides: Some patients will die without the fresh supply of drugs. And some of Linton’s donors will be angry that the care unit or hospital wings they gave money to support ended up being passed over.

And there are some horrifically revealing details about the quality of medical care:

When patients show obvious symptoms but do not respond to medicine taken orally, doctors inject isoniazid and ethambutol, part of a common four-drug tuberculosis regimen, directly into their lungs. It is a painful process: In North Korea, the needles required are often so dulled by repeated use that they can only be inserted with pliers.

And some unsung heroes among the North Korean medical community:

Like most hospitals and care centers in North Korea, the facility employs a direct-fluoroscopy machine, an X-ray device that irradiates the patient from behind while the doctor examines an image projected on a fluoroscopic plate of glass between them. “The negative is the doctor’s retina,” says Linton, who frequently admonishes physicians for submitting themselves to the machines’ potentially fatal doses of radiation. Most physicians in North Korea use them regularly, and suffer the consequences. The radiologist at Kosong, for example, has receding gums and low hemoglobin, common signs of radiation sickness. Three of his colleagues have died over the years — one from radiation overdose, another from cancer and a third from tuberculosis.

Physicians even harvest one another: Earlier, the director and three of his colleagues had lowered their trousers to reveal fresh scars on their inner thighs where patches of flesh had been sliced away to be used in skin grafts.
4 Clarification March 11, 2008 at 3:51 pm: It’s worth clarifying that Dr. Stephen Linton received a Ph.D. in Korean history; he is not a medical doctor. However, Dr. John Linton, Stephen Linton’s brother, is a medical doctor and the head of the International Health Care Center at Yonsei.

The mistaken identity is understandable, however, as Dr. John established the Korean office of the Eugene Bell Foundation and has provided his brother’s work with a variety of help over the years. By the way, Dr. John wrote the autobiography referenced by TakeM.

If anyone wishes to support the work of the Eugene Bell Foundation, you can find out more information here: http://www.eugenebell.org
5 lirelou March 12, 2008 at 4:31 am: Don’t know if this has been mentioned, but the Bell family also produced Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham’s wife, who passed on recently. She was a graduate of the Pyongyang International School back when that was the only real alternative for any westerners’ children in Northeast Asia. Despite being married to the famous Evangelist, she remained a Presbyterian all her life.
6 FYI March 12, 2008 at 10:15 am: Here is a link that will take you to information about John Linton’s book:

http://tinyurl.com/2vlst8
7 Baek du Boy March 12, 2008 at 12:27 pm: My Korean is ailing since leaving two years ago (not that is was good enough to read an adult novel or biography).

Did he publish an English version?
8 FYI March 12, 2008 at 3:18 pm: Unfortunately, there is no English-language version of the book.
9 WangKon936 March 13, 2008 at 6:18 am: He’s truly doing the Lord’s work.
10 taekwonV January 27, 2009 at 5:52 am: Thanks for the post and the link for the book. I’m going to attempt to find the book at the local ktown bookstore and decipher with my at-best-3rd grade level korean reading skills.