For The Love of God: Logefil Memorial Hospital Director Dr: Frank Dennis(Chang Chung-fang/photos by Vincent Chang/tr. by Phil Newell)

When you first see Dr. Frank Dennis, the first thing that strikes you is that his Mandarin Chinese is very fluent, his face is lit up in a smile, and his eyes sparkle. He seems to fly around the hospital on his rounds, and doesn't have any of the "posture" of a person with the status of director of an institution. And you can't tell that he is 64 years old and on the verge of retirement.

But when you look a little closer, the slightly bent back, the thinning hair, and the fingers, misshapen and arthritic from overwork, all unintentionally reveal the marks left on him by long and arduous effort and by the passage of time.

The injury victim in the picture had his leg fractured in 15 places, and was told at another hospital it would have to be amputated. Dr. Dennisfigured a way to repair it.

God's will:

Thirty-two years. The time this foreign doctor has spent in Taiwan just happens to be same as that spent in his native land.

"Coming to Taiwan was entirely arranged by God," states Dr. Dennis. When he finished his residency in the U.S., he originally planned to go to Africa to practice. It just happens that at that time a missionary in Taitung sent a letter to the United States Christian Association asking for a doctor and a nurse to be sent to Taitung, which has always been rather shortchanged in medical resources. So he applied to the association.

In 1961, Dr. Dennis brought his wife and four small children to the place then known most commonly as "Formosa." The fifth and youngest was not born until after coming to Taiwan.

First they spent two years in Taipei studying Chinese, then went south to serve in Christian hospitals in Kaohsiung and Pingtung. Only after that did they get to Taitung and set up a clinic.

"Everytime I saw a serious case that required surgery, I thought to myself that this place really needed to get a hospital," says Dr. Dennis, explaining his motives for conceiving the institution. He reveals that this went on until one day the father of the girl who cooked for them died because he could not get to surgery on time. Deeply affected, Dr. Dennis made the decision to set up a hospital in Taitung. After explaining the situation to the church back home and collecting contributions, Dr. Dennis was finally able to set up Taitung's first Christian hospital in 1969.

"Only then did our family really set down roots, and not move back and forth each year," says Mrs. Sally Dennis.

（Left, right） The Logefil Memorial Hospital, established in 1989, doesn't look like much from the outside. But the achievements of its staff are something ordinary hospitals cannot even dream of.

Half Taitungese:

In the past thirty years, Dr. Dennis has become a Taitungese. His five offspring have all grown up in Taitung, and can speak Chinese as well as a little Ami aboriginal tongue.

When friends come to visit, Dr. Dennis always plays the role of the local host, taking time out to show his visitors around. "Taitung has progressed very rapidly these past few years, and there is digging and construction everywhere," he says. Pointing to a newly opened road, he adds, "I remember 30 years ago when we first got here, Taitung didn't even have one asphalt road; they were all gravel tracks."

To be sure, Taitung is different. It is rumored that the area permitted for construction will soon be limited, so everywhere work is being hastened to put up major projects before implementation. In comparison, the three storey Christian hospital that was the pride of Taitung 20 or 30 years ago doesn't even get a second glance.

Nevertheless, three of the seven physicians in this humble hospice have won the highest honor of the "Medical Contribution Award." And when you add the director of nursing, the Logefil Memorial Hospital has four award winners, one of whom is Director Dennis.

Tsai Hsiu-ching, in charge of public relations, says that in the past these foreign missionaries refused to accept any honors or interviews; they preferred to quietly do the Lord's work without making a fuss. Only recently has their attitude changed, and they feel that "letting people get to know our little hospital" and "letting people know what we are doing" will be helpful to attracting more people to participate.

Dr. Dennis has endless praise for Taiwan's undersea world. In fact, the sea is the only place he can really relax.

Personally changing medication for his patients:

You don't need to hear miraculous tales or lectures about kindness and benevolence. Just sit in Dr. Dennis's clinic for a while, or just go with him on his rounds, and the answers you seek are right there before you.

Have you ever seen a doctor personally bringing a patient their medication, or changing a bandage? These tasks, ordinarily done by the nurses, are done by the doctors themselves at LMH, the same way they've been doing them every day for the last 30 years. The director gets no special exemptions.

Is it that there aren't enough nurses? "Only by direct contact every day can you understand the progress of the patient's condition," explains Dr. Dennis, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Thus, whether it be a fracture, fixing broken bones, covering an ulceration, or repairing cuts, indeed all types of injuries, after Dr. Dennis carefully observes the healing process, he brings out the new medication and dresses the wound.

In the diagnostic room, a woman points to an X-ray she has brought from another hospital, saying that they want her to go under the knife there. She's afraid of complications.... Dr. Dennis says to the lady, "First we'll look at you, then we'll look at the X-ray."

When did the symptoms begin? Where does it hurt? What does the pain feel like? After meticulous questioning and note taking, he asks the patient to lie down for an examination. Wherever the touch of the hand brings pain, he makes a mark with his pen on the patient's body.

Only afterward does he take down and study the X-ray, and without the slightest appearance of impatience takes out his instruments and, gesticulating, explains to the woman: This is a dislocated disc, but because it isn't pressing up against the nerves, there's no need at the moment for surgery. Then he instructs the patient what sleeping posture to use to reduce the pain, how to take the medication, and why she should lose weight to reduce the burden on the waist.... In this way he has spent nearly 20 minutes on someone who has a sore back.

His five children are all grown and are spread out all over the world. Relying on each other, the husband and wife get closer as they get older.

Respect each life:

This is nothing special. A mother brings in her child, who has suffered a bone fracture, for a follow-up check-up. After taking off the plaster for a closer inspection, Dr. Dennis gives her a slip of paper and a pen and says, "I want you to write it down so you don't forget!" Then he repeatedly demonstrates and explains what kinds of exercises will help the child recover.

With this type of care, no wonder it takes from 15-30 minutes per patient. On average, he can only see 15-20 patients in one morning. Thus patients who want to have surgery at Dr. Dennis's hospital have to register a few days in advance.

This man, who is Taitung's leading medical authority judging from the comments of his patients, has his medical doctorate from the University of Minnesota in the States, and is licensed to practice as a surgeon in the U.S. Leaving aside for the moment his skill as a physician, what's especially rare about him is that missionary doctors all respect each individual life.

One patient, whose leg was fractured in 15 places in a car accident, had his bones repaired in an operation by Dr. Dennis. "The other hospitals said it would be necessary to amputate, but I got out of it by coming here."

Thirty years of medical contributions have passed like a day. Is he tired? Dr. Dennis responds, "Not in the least," because he has many "intriguing" patients as well as conditions that he hasn't come across yet.

Chinese Christians, where are you? Logefil needs more people to enter its ranks.

A workshop that needs a new master craftsman:

A certain woman who owns an orchard was bit on the behind by a wild boar. Dr. Dennis spent five or six hours to clean and sew up the wound. Later he asked the patient, "How's the boar these days?" She retorted, "Very tasty!" It turns out her husband captured and butchered the beast.

There was also the case of the person bitten by a shark who needed more than 300 stitches.

"In 30 years in Taitung I've never seen a single shooting victim, which is virtually impossible in the U.S.," says Dr. Dennis with a sense of relief.

Nevertheless, however interesting and invigorating it has all been, the 64-year-old is at the time when it is necessary to pass the baton along.

A poster recently printed up by Logefil has as its theme: "We need you to pick up the baton--Chinese Christians, where are you?" And after the line "Sources of manpower and funding in the year 2000," there is just a big question mark.

The reason is that beginning in 1989, the Department of Health stipulated that foreign doctors who come to Taiwan to practice medicine must pass a local examination. "In the past we could invite foreign doctors to make a contribution, but that's impossible now," states Dr. Dennis. Perhaps learning to speak Chinese isn't all that hard, but if you want someone to pass an exam in Chinese, that's not going to be easy.

Find me a Chinese Christian:

Since it's not easy to bring foreign doctors to Taiwan, the only hope is to attract local medicos. "We hope that all the medical staff in this hospital will be Christians in order to bring out the love inherent in Christianty, but there aren't so many Christian doctors in Taiwan, and even fewer are willing to go to Taitung," he says.

Last May, the first--and still only--Chinese Christian doctor, Henry Kuan, entered LMH. His enlistment and performance over the past year are praised endlessly by Dr. Dennis.

But LMH needs even more Chinese Christian doctors like Henry Kuan who are willing to voluntarily work for lower pay. How can more be attracted? Dr. Kuan feels that the primary requirement is to let people know "this type of hospital exists," and that "there is this kind of need." Recently the hospital received a letter from the Taipei Medical College expressing interest in doing an internship, which is a good start.

Changes in the medical regulations created a shortage of personnel for Logefil. But it has been Taiwan's rapid economic growth that has caused a decline in that hospital's funding.

Funding has always depended on the Christian church in the U.S., and both the original construction and the expansion in 1980 were paid for by funds raised personally by Dr. Dennis on trips back to the States. Even the salaries of the missionary doctors have been donated by American Christian churches rather than being sustained by the hospital.

Taiwan's recent economic growth and foreign exchange reserves have given people the impression Taiwan is "quite well off," and so contributions from abroad have fallen correspondingly. Dr. Dennis says frankly that, "Right now the American economy is having problems. If you want people to donate for the poor in Africa, they are happy to. But to give money for a hospital in Taiwan? Even I'm embarrassed to ask."

The end is near?

Some people note that religious medical centers, not only Logefil but also including the Changhua Christian Hospital, the Luotung Catholic St. Mary's Hospital, and so on, are all facing a transformative challenge. In the past these hospitals all focussed on providing services, not on management of the enterprise. Today, in a different environment, should they "make a graceful exit now that their work is done"?

LMH administrator Lin Hsiang-ming doesn't care too much for this idea. "Society progresses, but the spirit of giving declines. Is that real progress?" He argues that Logefil's responsibilities haven't been completed, and "some of the things we do can't be replaced by other institutions." He states that this is the only hospital willing to patiently do "mending." That is, a lot of hospitals look at cases like they are repairing watches, so that when fixing something seems too troublesome they just tell the patient to forget it and get a new one!

Dr. Kuan states, on the other hand, that taking the perspective of the hospital, he by no means opposes larger hospitals replacing Logefil. But he believes that care of human beings means not just treatment of the body, but also of the spirit. Only a hospital which is steeped in "love" can provide complete care for people.

So how can the hospital keep going?

Right now they are trying to strengthen the hospital's organizational management to upgrade the unit and maintain this "workshop of God."

Maintaining the workshop of God:

Three years ago LMH began a dual director system. They invited Bruce Bredeson, who has an MA in hospital management, to serve as the administrative director.

Bredeson states that although the financial structure is not yet fully sound, there is already a surplus, and performance has been constantly improving. "We established a mission group to tell the Taiwan churches what we are doing," says Bredeson. Although the numbers are still small, some Taiwan churches already make fixed periodic donations to the hospital.

Lin Hsiang-ming, the first Chinese to enter the ranks of management, is insisting that this hospital that in the past has only known how to survive on contributions must adopt a cost and investment viewpoint. Although some of the missionary doctors are not too thrilled, Lin argues that there is no other road but "business-like rationalization."

"When three years ago the branch of the Mackay Memorial Hospital was opened, business plummeted at LMH, because everyone ran over to enjoy the air conditioning at Mackay," says Lin. When Logefil added air conditioning to the first floor clinic and replaced its old wooden door with an automatic glass one, the patients returned. According to Bredeson's calculations, the case load has increased 50% over two years ago.

"I hope that in the next three to five years we can develop into a 100-bed teaching hospital; only then will medical personnel be willing to come here," he says, outlining his ambitious blueprint.

Although it is already fixed policy that in the future there will be "Taiwanization" as Chinese take over, Lin does not wish that the foreign missionary doctors all leave. "They are spiritual symbols, and can constantly remind us of the spirit of this institution," he says.

Hopes that the spirit will linger:

The Logefil Memorial Hospital is facing a transition period, and its director Frank Dennis is facing imminent retirement. "My mother is already 88, and has been hoping that I will go back to the United States to spend some time with her," says Dr. Dennis.

Many people are sorry that Taitung will lose this medicine man, but there are many newborns in Taitung named after him (using his Chinese name of Wei-yi or his Ami name of Ngangis), who are growing up day by day. Perhaps in the future Dr. Dennis' spirit of giving will survive and grow in these children.

[Picture Caption]

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Dr. Frank Dennis is the founder of the Logefil Memorial Hospital in Taitung. A specialist in surgery and osteopathy, he is "not satisfied" if even a single day goes by without seeing a patient.

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The injury victim in the picture had his leg fractured in 15 places, and was told at another hospital it would have to be amputated. Dr. Dennis figured a way to repair it.

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(Left, right) The Logefil Memorial Hospital, established in 1989, doesn't look like much from the outside. But the achievements of its staff are something ordinary hospitals cannot even dream of.

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Dr. Dennis has endless praise for Taiwan's undersea world. In fact, the sea is the only place he can really relax.

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His five children are all grown and are spread out all over the world. Relying on each other, the husband and wife get closer as they get older.

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Chinese Christians, where are you? Logefil needs more people to enter its ranks.