From rxpgnews.com
Hu Jintao meets Dr. Kotnis' family
By Indo Asian News Service,
Nov 23, 2006 - 7:35:30 PM
Mumbai, Nov 23 (IANS) Chinese President Hu Jintao Thursday met with nine members of the family of Dwarkadas Shantaram Kotnis - an Indian physician who earned abiding respect and goodwill of the Chinese people for his services during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war.
Even 65 years after his death, Kotnis is seen as an example of humanitarianism and has been a vital link between India and China, Hu said during his meeting with the family members at the Taj Mahal Hotel here.
During the 25-minute meeting with Kotnis family - including his sisters Vatsala and Manorama - the Chinese president was presented with a handcrafted bedspread, a biography of the late physician and a VCD of a Bollywood film.
'We gave something ethnic and connected to our brother,' said Vatsala, referring to the bedspread, which has been made in Solapur in Maharashtra where Dr. Kotnis was born.
'The president told us that said China will always be grateful for the sacrifice of Dr. Kotnis. He said they see him as a link of friendship between China and India and an example of humanitarian support,' she added.
The Kotnis family, in turn, received an album with photos of the physician when he was serving in China between 1938 and 1942 as part of a five-member team of physicians sent by India to treat injured soldiers.
Kotnis served the Chinese army for around four years till he died of epileptic suffocation in 1942 at the age of 32.
Chinese officials said the dedication of the late doctor is still remembered by the Chinese people. Apart from his story becoming a part of Chinese textbooks, a medical school is also named after him, the officials added.
His team is said to have once treated more than 800 soldiers and performed some 575 surgeries in just two weeks during one offensive launched by the Japanese in 1940.
While in China, Dr. Kotnis married a Chinese nurse Guo Qinglan, who is 91 now, and lives at Dalian in China and has visited Mumbai several times to meet with her late husband's family.
Their only son died of a stomach illness at the age of 25.
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