Andy Wang gets an examination from kids at the International Montessori School of Beijing
"I enjoy talking to people, figuring out what’s wrong and trying to help them"
When the Taipei air began to aggravate young Andy Wang’s asthma uncontrollably, his family decided to send him to live in the States, in Columbus, Ohio. Eventually, these difficult childhood experiences led Andy to graduate from medical school at the University of Washington and become a doctor. After returning to Taipei for a few months, Andy now lives in Beijing, where he has been practicing medicine for the past year as a family physician at Beijing United Family Hospital. Andy visited the International Montessori School of Beijing, where Elaine Kinlough’s Grade 1-3 class quizzed him on being a doctor.
Isabelle Pan, 6, America
What do doctors do?
Andy Wang: We treat illnesses when people get sick. Most of the time we help them get better. When a person becomes sick, a doctor can give them medication.
What’s inside medicine?
Andy: Something that will help the body heal.
Hugo Dujat, 8, France
Can doctors heal themselves?
Andy: Sometimes, yes. But if I get really sick, I still need to find myself a doctor; I need to see a different doctor.
Joshua Li, 11, Americ
Have you ever been in an operation before?
Andy: When I was in medical school, I used to do that, but not anymore. That’s a surgeon’s job. Surgeons are doctors who specialize in operating on people.
Erica Guo, 7, Canada
Are you special?
Andy: Some doctors are specialists. That means they only work on one area or problem. For instance, some doctors are specialized because they only treat patients with problems associated with the nose, ear or throat. And other doctors treat people with only bone and muscle problems. So if someone breaks a bone, there are special doctors for that. My specialty is that I take care of families. I can help bone problems sometimes, but not all the time.
Wilfred Guo, 9, Canada
How do you break a bone?
Andy: Usually people break a bone because they have a bad fall, like from a bicycle, or they got tripped over and fell really hard when they were playing sports, like football. That’s how people break bones.
Win King Lee, 7, Singapore
What do doctors not like to do?
Andy: We don’t like to see people not getting well, at least that’s what I don’t like. When people come to me or come to my co-workers, we want to help them. We want them to get better. So when they don’t get better, for whatever reason, we don’t like it. We also don’t like to wake up in the middle of the night to go see a patient, but sometimes that happens and that’s our job, so we have to do it.
Hugo Dujat, 8, France
Has that ever happened to you? How many times?
Andy: I’m on call three times a month, which means we work 24 hours. I will stay at home, but in the middle of the night, if somebody needs care, I will go to the hospital. Sometimes I have to wake up and go, but other times I get to sleep through the night.
Tom Sailer, 6, France/Germany
What is your normal day like?
Andy: My typical day usually starts around 9.30am. My nurses and I will go to our clinic and we start seeing patients, who are people who are sick. They tell us what’s bothering them and we try helping them by treating them with medication. I see about ten to 20 patients a day and I go home around eight o’clock.
Wilfred Guo, 9, Canada
Why did you want to be a doctor?
Andy: When I was your age, I spent a lot of time in the hospital, because I had asthma, which is a breathing problem. I had a lot of problems breathing. So I had to go to the hospital a lot and see the doctors and nurses, and also a lot of my family members were doctors. So the two things influenced me to become a physician. And that’s why I became a doctor. Also, I like to help people.
Erica Guo, 7, Canada
Do you like being a doctor?
Andy: Most of the time I do. I enjoy talking to people and figuring out what’s wrong with them and trying to help them.
Sergio Yap, 6, Singapore
Why do people need shots?
Andy: We need shots to keep us from getting sick. Sometimes these are called vaccines. Shots protect us from diseases.
How do people get nosebleeds?
Andy: Nosebleeds are very common in children. Some people are just more prone to develop nosebleeds but most people grow out of it when they get older.
Win King Lee, 7, Singapore
When was the stethoscope invented?
Andy: I think it was invented in the 1800s.
Tom Sailer, 6, France/Germany
How does a stethoscope work?
Andy: When you beat on a drum you hear a sound. So stethoscopes are like small drums. When you put it against the body, the heartbeat taps on this drum and the sound is transmitted through this tube and all the way to my ears. And that’s how it works.
Wilfred Guo, 9, Canada
What does listening to the heartbeat do?
Andy: When a person becomes sick, sometimes his heart rate can go really fast or really slow, and we listen to the heart to help us determine if something’s wrong. It’s not easy to hear the heartbeat sometimes. If you’re small like all of you are, it’s not hard, but sometimes for an adult, it’s difficult to hear. In the old days, before stethoscopes were invented, doctors would actually put their ear against their patient’s chest to hear the heart. But we don’t do that anymore.
