Description: Meet our own saint, who lived among the sick in the hardest of places, guided by the Hippocratic Oath and the Bible to live a truly doctor-like life—Sunwoo Kyung-sik! As the economy worsens, the hardships of the poor grow ever greater. It is precisely at times like these that we must embrace the lives of the poor and the sick. Dr. Sunwoo Kyung-sik, who called his poor patients "flower buds more precious and noble to a doctor than anything else" and spent his entire life providing free medical care to them, is someone we long for even more today. Unfortunately, the life of Dr. Sunwoo Kyung-sik has not been widely known until now. Joseph's Clinic, where he worked his entire life, was itself a free clinic for the homeless and destitute—people left out of the medical insurance system—and he himself was never one to seek the spotlight. But in times like these, when our society is divided and struggling, the life of someone like Dr. Sunwoo Kyung-sik deserves to be brought into the light all the more. Until now, his life has only been shared through documentaries and news articles. Lee Chung-ryul, a master of Korean biographical literature known for works such as Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil, Ah, Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, and Father Lee Tae-seok, was deeply moved by the life of Sunwoo Kyung-sik—a saint of our time who wrestled with what it truly means to be a doctor and devoted his life to the poor and the sick—and wrote Doctor Sunwoo Kyung-sik. This book is the official and only biography of Joseph's Clinic (Joseph Sharing Foundation), authorized by the Archdiocese of Seoul. The Life of Dr. Sunwoo Kyung-sik, the 'Saint of the Slum,' Vividly Portrayed by Master Biographer Lee Chung-ryul After choosing to become a doctor, Sunwoo Kyung-sik came face to face with the harsh reality of having to turn away patients who could not afford treatment. Disillusioned, he moved to the United States, where emergency care could not be denied to poor patients, and worked there as a specialist. But he refused a comfortable life as a well-paid American doctor and returned to Korea. Back home, through medical volunteer work at St. Francis Clinic and the House of Love in Sillim-dong, he found the path he was meant to follow: to be a doctor who loves poor patients as friends and becomes their neighbor. Realizing that a hospital was needed to provide medical care to poor local residents, he formed a cooperative to establish one. But building a hospital required enormous funding, so Sunwoo Kyung-sik sought the help of Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan. The Cardinal helped make it an affiliated institution of the Seoul Catholic Welfare Council, and funds were raised through donations. After many hardships, Joseph's Clinic was finally established, later relocating from Sillim-dong to its current location in Yeongdeungpo, where it became a steady haven of free care for the poor. Being a free clinic, many around him worried, "How can this possibly be sustained? It probably won't last three months." But Sunwoo Kyung-sik overcame these challenges with unwavering will and faith, laying the foundation for a model free clinic. Yet because it was a free clinic, it treated many homeless people, vagrants, and patients struggling with alcoholism. Being human himself, Sunwoo Kyung-sik felt discouraged and exhausted whenever a patient he thought had recovered returned to the clinic drunk once again. Each time, he steadied himself with the belief that "what a doctor needs more than medical skill is a heart that loves the patient and never gives up on them." Even harder than this was securing the funds the clinic needed. As the IMF crisis caused the number of patients to skyrocket while management grew more difficult, Sunwoo Kyung-sik pushed through by organizing a support group and holding charity concerts. "If there is one gift that the reality of poverty awakened in me, it is the realization that the patient of all patients—the flower bud more precious and noble to a doctor than any other—is the poor. It is they who needed me, and they who called me to this place, to Joseph's Clinic." Having never married, Sunwoo Kyung-sik devoted his entire life to free medical care. Suffering from acute cerebral infarction and stomach cancer, he continued working for his patients until the very end, passing away in 2008 at the age of 63. This book is not meant simply to praise the life of Dr. Sunwoo Kyung-sik. Rather, it invites reflection on what it truly means to be a doctor, and on...