Cho is the “godmother of adopted children.” She has checked the health of adoptees at the Holt Children’s Service Pediatric Clinic and the Holt Ilsan Center for five decades. She actually retired in 1993. But she couldn’t stop caring for children, so continued the job. She has treated more than 50,000 adoptees until now. Unfortunately, the severe pain in her shoulders will force her to abandon her stethoscope soon.

Dr. Cho Byung-kuk checks a baby at the Holt Children’s Service Pediatric Clinic.

Cho first became involved with Holt Children’s Services in 1958 while working as a resident doctor at Yonsei University Severance Hospital. “There were a lot of abandoned children after the Korean War. Children with contagious diseases, children who became retarded because of malnutrition…,” she said.

When she saw ailing children get healthy only a month or two after she treated them, she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to them. “I did the job because I like children,” she noted. “I felt pity for abandoned kids and wanted to help them find new families.

“I decided to become a children’s doctor, because I had compassion for children who are weak. My devotion bore fruit at the Holt Children’s Services,” she said.

In 1997, she received a visit from a young violinist in his 20s from Canada. He was born with a hearing impediment, but partially recovered after an operation he received after being adopted. He later became a musician. A spastic boy who was adopted by an American family and likewise became a children’s doctor also visited her. “I was pleased when he told me that he adopted a Korean girl 8 years ago,” Cho said.

“It made my life worth living when I heard that children I had once looked after had started happy lives in new families.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )