In North Korea, Colorado doctor makes history

Orthopedist performs first knee replacement

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 7, 2008 at midnight

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Under giant photos of Kim Jong-il, a Denver doctor this spring performed the first-ever knee-replacement surgery in North Korea.

The secretive communist nation invited 21 American and South Korean doctors to the Red Cross Hospital in Pyongyang, the capital.

Dr. Raymond Kim, an orthopedist who practices at Colorado Joint Replacement and operates mostly out of Porter Hospital in Englewood, brought power drills, implants and instruments with him to the technology- starved medical facility.

"The physicians there are very bright and seem well-read on contemporary medicine," Kim said. "But they don't have any of the equipment they would need to do knee replacements. I brought 150 pounds of equipment with me."

Porter Medical Center and the Skyview Presbyterian Church donated money for implants and instruments. The trip was sponsored by the Wheat Mission Association in America, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian care to North Korea.

Kim and the other visiting doctors taught local doctors enough that they could perform the operations themselves.

"But until they get the instruments and implants, they can't perform them," he said.

'No access to care'

He couldn't help but notice the long lines of patients waiting for more general treatment each day. "They see about 1,500 patients a day there," he said.

He saw some extreme deformities, "significantly degenerative arthritis, severe pathologies.

"They were heightened by the fact that these people aren't getting treated sooner," he said. "They have no access to care."

Kim never found out how the people were chosen to get the first knee replacements - whether it was based on need or political clout.

"They seemed very grateful," he said.

He didn't get a chance to talk to people unchaperoned, but during his brief glimpses, he said, "The people seemed to be very content, very proud of their government.

"It's hard to know . . . maybe it's the way they're brought up to believe. Television is very restricted, and they have no Internet access, no way of communication with the outside world.

"But if you asked them if they are happy, they'd say they are happy."

Kim said he could never go anywhere without a guide, but he was treated well.

"For some reason, they seemed to treat Korean-Americans with a little more hospitality than they did the South Korean physicians," Kim said. "And they certainly treated Korean-Americans better than they did Caucasian physicians.

Plans to return

Every major tourist group that comes through the capital city is routed by a 70-foot-high bronze statue of Kim Il's father, Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea, he said.

"Every group is brought in front of the statue to pay tribute," he said.

"His portrait, and his son's, are mounted in every lecture hall, on every major building."

"It's very closed off to the outside world," he said. "We couldn't bring in cell phones - we had to leave them in Beijing. "We had to ask permission for any kind of photograph."

They were in the capital city for May Day, a big celebration in the communist world.

"It was a very festive atmosphere," Kim said. "People were out, barbecuing, singing and dancing. It was neat to see that sort of activity and life among the people. I wasn't expecting the people to be that lively. They were obviously very happy to enjoy that holiday."

Kim said his parents immigrated to the United States from South Korea in 1971. He was raised in Cleveland and got his medical training at Marshall University in West Virginia, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and at an orthopedic fellowship in New York City.

This was Kim's second trip to North Korea. He first went in 2007 following an invitation from Wheat Missions, and there did the first modern hip-replacement surgery.

"I'll probably go back every spring," Kim said. "It's important to help these people. There is a lot of medical need over there. I'd like to build a rapport with surgeons there, I'd love to create an exchange program, having North Korean doctors potentially visiting this state, getting them more exposed to orthopedic surgery."

Kim, who said he tries to stay out of politics, said, "My main goal is the medical need, and I think we should have a presence there. If something good happens out of it politically, that's fine."

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

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