Professor Tadashi Yamamoto has brought smiles to hundreds of children through harelip and cleft palate operations, which he does free of charge in rural areas of Vietnam every year.
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| Doctor Tadashi Yamamoto is diagnosing a a child in Vietnam |
“I was born and grew up in the countryside in Japan, where we also have harelip children. Therefore I know thoroughly the sadness of these unlucky children and their parents,” he said.
Because of this understanding, Yamamoto flies to Vietnam two to three times a year to visit rural and mountainous areas, providing free orthopedic surgery for children suffering from cleft lip and palate. He also gives them VND300,000 ($14) each.
“Yamamoto is my family’s benefactor. I felt self-pity and usually cried alone about my defect when I did the dishes in the evening. My parents were also sad and worried about my marriage in future.
Thanks to Yamamoto, I can speak and eat normally and feel more confident, as I am now a normal person in society,” said Ninh Thi My Linh, a patient from the central province of Quang Nam.
“I hope that Yamamoto and his friends will help other poor children with these defects so that they will also be happy like me,” she said.
After finishing his work every day, Prof. Yamamoto usually disguises himself as a clown and performs magic tricks, making the children double over with laughter.
Nguyen Thi Vang from Tam Ky City in Quang Nam Province, whose child received a free surgery from Yamamoto, said that he is very kind and virtuous and loves children very much.
Besides treatment, Yamamoto asks annually for medical equipment from hospitals and his friends in Japan; he also hires technicians to examine and repair the medical equipment before dispatching it to Vietnam.
The value of the equipment sent to Vietnam totals more than VND10 billion ($481,000). Yamamoto wants Vietnamese doctors not only to see the surgeries but he also hopes to train them in performing the surgeries so that they may do it themselves when he is not there, he says.
Over the last 18 years, Yamamoto has become a respectable teacher of several generations of doctors at the Quang Nam General Hospital, the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and the Central Hospital of Odonto – Stomatology in Hanoi.
He also invites delegations of doctors and probationary students from the Toyohashi General Hospital in Japan and Chonbuk University in South Korea to treat diseases for children in remote areas of Vietnam.
“If doctors only work in large hospitals and cure the rich, they cannot feel the importance of their responsibility to society and cannot experience the boundless, moving affection from poor residents,” he said.
Looking at activities that Yamamoto has performed in Vietnam, several people say that he must be a millionaire or even a billionaire in Japan.
Only few know that the well-known professor and his wife are living in a small apartment, where all pictures, photos and souvenirs from Vietnam are put in the attic, as there is no room to display them.
“My house is small but it is all right because I have a big family in Vietnam,” he said. Although Yamamoto has been retired for three years, receiving a meager pension and his health has weakened, he still saves to spend on his non-stop charity trips to Vietnam.
“The largest reward for me is the smiles of children, that is enough,” he said.
Professor Tadashi Yamamoto