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Dr. Katharine Hsu's radical faith brought her from China to Houston to save the lives of children.

by Candi Cushman

"Ican see that the Lord directed my path all my life. We don't know what's coming, but God does," says Katharine Hsu, the 88-year-old physician who pioneered tuberculosis-prevention strategies now replicated around the world. The Houston resident and retired medical professor at Baylor College of Medicine is credited with writing the book on child-centered contact investigations—a systematic method of using TB patients to identify other infected individuals through skin tests and X-rays.

Born in 1914 in Fuzhou, South China, Hsu counts herself fortunate for having been raised in a Christian home. She is a fourth-generation Christian. Her great grandfather was the first ordained minister in China. Hsu's father, a physician serving in the Chinese navy, led his wife and six children in prayer and Bible study each night.

From an early age, Hsu wanted to become a doctor. Growing up, she saw the devastating effects of diseases such as typhoid and diphtheria. Then tuberculosis took the life of a younger brother and sister. Believing that being a doctor was "a great purpose for living," she prayed that God would provide a way, promising to make the practice a ministry without charge to her patients.

Soon after that prayer, Hsu won a full scholarship to Peking Union Medical College, one of three applicants accepted. As she studied the human body, the more she marveled at God's creation and worshiped him. Because her siblings died from tuberculosis, Hsu made that disease her primary focus.

"I had a drive to conquer it and find a solution that would save others from suffering," Hsu says.

In 1942, Hsu was chief resident of Shanghai Children's Hospital. There she treated Chinese refugee children, driven from their homes by the Japanese. Many of the children died from tuberculosis. When Shanghai fell to Japan, Hsu realized she needed to leave the country. Accompanied by a mother and her young children, the travelers felt divine protection as they crossed the river to unoccupied territory.

New dangers awaited them. Chinese soldiers, looking for spies, detained them. Hsu prayed before revealing she was a doctor. After the army commander asked her to treat his son for malaria, a 50-man escort guided the group to Yunhsin in free China.

In 1948, at her husband's urging, Hsu applied for and received a pediatric fellowship in the United States. Studying at the Henry Phipps Institute for Tuberculosis Research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she planned to bring the latest research back to China. The Korean War and what happened next delayed her return to her family for 30 years.

Hsu joined the staff at the Pennsylvania Tuberculosis Hospital for Children, where she first witnessed the use of isoniazid to kill TB germs. Immediately, Hsu says, God gave her an idea: Why not use this drug to prevent children from getting sick?

The hospital had no outlet for Hsu to test her concept, so once again the doctor prayed. A year later she received a letter from a place she had never heard of—Houston, Texas.

Houston was in trouble. Tuberculosis outbreaks were rampant. Hsu was invited by the Baylor College of Medicine's chief of pediatrics to initiate a TB control program for the city's children. First, Hsu needed a clinic.

For the next six years, Hsu converted a dilapidated boarding school into a children's TB clinic where she began treating patients. Soon after, a local millionaire funded a transformation of the clinic into a modern hospital.

Hsu remembered her childhood promise to God to make her practice a ministry. She provided a home-like atmosphere for the patients, trying to model Christ's compassion. Winning her patients' trust, Hsu was able to conduct the longest TB-prevention study in history. For 30 years, she tracked the progress of more than 3,000 children, proving that isoniazid could be used to prevent TB-infected patients from becoming sick.

But Houston physicians at the time questioned what they considered Hsu's unorthodox methods. She was invited to confront her skeptics.

"Here was my chance to explain what they called my 'strange idea.' I was confident the Lord would give me all the knowledge I needed to persuade them," Hsu says.

Not only did her presentation convince the roomful of Houston pediatricians; it also opened up opportunities to speak at national pediatric seminars. Hsu began publishing her studies in medical journals. Over her career, she has written 35 articles about her specialty. Six years after founding the clinic, Hsu created Houston's tuberculosis-control program, initiated a case registry still used today, and founded six new clinics in at-risk areas.

Since opening, the clinic has maintained an unprecedented 75 percent to 80 percent patient recovery rate. (It is now part of Houston's county hospital.) Dr. Jeffrey Starke, who currently oversees the clinic, was trained by Hsu and influenced by her approach to medicine. "Dr. Hsu taught me how to treat people with dignity and anticipate people's needs and desires."

Hsu broadened her studies when confronted with the controversy surrounding pediatric asthma treatment. After four years of testing 2,500 public school children, she successfully charted normal pulmonary function rates for three ethnic groups—Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic. Her findings are cited in many pediatric textbooks.

"This is not my own achievement, but what God has wrought by his mighty power," Hsu wrote in 1994 after receiving the coveted Distinguished Achievement Award from the 11,000-member American Thoracic Society.

True to her word to God, Hsu has not charged a patient in more than 50 years. She has lived on income from her career in academic medicine (teaching for more than 40 years at Baylor College of Medicine). In addition, Hsu has used all of her medical awards to fund scholarships for students and missionaries.

"What you cannot do, God will work out for you," Hsu says. "Then you become an instrument in God's will. That is a great privilege."

When given the opportunity to retire in 1979, Hsu instead donated the next 15 years to teach Baylor medical students. "I wanted to show students how to love the patient and his family," she says.

In recognition of more than 40 years of teaching, Hsu was awarded Baylor's Lifetime of Excellence Teaching Award when she retired the second time at the age of 80. The award cited her compassion for students as well as patients.

"What I enjoy the most about retirement is keeping occupied," Hsu says. She spends much of her time at Grace Chapel, a Chinese mission church in Houston where Hsu has been an elder, deaconess, and children's Sunday school teacher.

In 1999, Hsu began writing her autobiography, taught a missionary student to speak and write Chinese, and learned to use computers. Beside her television sits a notebook. Hsu takes notes during the news "to keep [her] mind alert."

"In the morning when I get up, the first thought that comes to me is, 'This is the day the Lord has made.' That's the way to live. I can live victoriously because I know God is faithful."

Editor's note: "I decided to write my autobiography to show how God has worked in my life. It's really a testimony," Hsu says. A Christian publisher in China is translating her book, Angel of Mercy for distribution in China. She keeps current with Christian work in China through Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) reports and is encouraged by what she reads. Though her husband died in 1990, Hsu enjoys the time she spends with their adopted daughter, Dahlia.

In the world of health, Hsu isn't surprised by the resurgence of tuberculosis worldwide. "It's because of AIDs. Those patients have no immunities and they are susceptible to any disease—including tuberculosis." Hsu is extremely grateful that God gave her, a young doctor, the idea for an ounce of prevention that has saved a countless number of children's lives.

Adapted from Physician (July/August 1999), © 1999 Candi Cushman.
Used by permission.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
Click here for reprint information.

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