KAINAN, Wakayama – A 100-year-old woman in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture continues to practise medicine to support the health of local residents.
Dr Teru Kasamatsu, a doctor at Kasamatsu Hospital in Kainan, sees outpatients three days a week, mainly regular patients. At the hospital facing Wakayama Bay, Dr Kasamatsu was clad in a white coat and speaking to patients with a gentle smile while checking their medical charts.
“Your blood pressure is a little high,” she told a patient. “Please bring your medication record book next time you come.”
The hospital was founded in 1909, and Dr Kasamatsu has been examining and treating residents as a physician for nearly 80 years.
Her creed as a doctor is very clear. “The best thing to do is listen to what the patient wants to say,” she said.
Now, her second son, Dr Satoshi, 68, serves as the hospital director, and his wife, Ms Hitomi, 61, serves as the head of the nursing department. Dr Kasamatsu is highly trusted by both of them.
Dr Satoshi said: “She’s good at creating an atmosphere where it’s easy to talk. Patients rely on her.”
Ms Hitomi said, “She talks about even trivial matters and it seems to lighten the pressure on patients’ hearts.”
According to Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry, as at the end of 2022, approximately 340,000 doctors reported on their status at the time to the government. Of these doctors, 86 were 98 years old or older.
Dr Kasamatsu was born in 1925 in what is now Kinokawa, Wakayama prefecture, as the youngest of five siblings.
She chose to become a doctor because the war intensified while she was still attending a girl’s high school. Seeing many women lose their husbands in the war, her father recommended that she learn to support herself, Dr Kasamatsu said.
Dr Kasamatsu studied hard and became a doctor in 1948. She married Dr Shigeru, an orthopedic surgeon, at the age of 24. When Dr Shigeru took over Kasamatsu Hospital from his father, she began working at the hospital with her husband.
The couple ran the hospital together while raising three children. She said she sometimes saw 120 patients a day. As the hospital used to accept emergency patients, it was not uncommon for her to stay up all night attending to surgical operations.
“I did everything from examining patients to dispensing medicine and even accounting,” she recalled. When the hospital began accepting more inpatients and needed a cook to provide meals, she decided to do it herself, and obtained a cooking licence when she was over 30 years old.
Despite her busy and hectic days, she continued to work energetically, even though she was once hospitalised for cancer treatment. Dr Kasamatsu said that the secret to her longevity and health lies in her diet.
“Eat lots of vegetables, like spinach, broccoli, cabbage and okra. Eating vegetables helps keep blood sugar levels down, so it’s good.”
Dr Shigeru died in 2012 at the age of 91, and Dr Kasamatsu currently lives alone in her home, which is next to the hospital. Even at 100, she still walks without a cane. She receives support from those around her. However she remains healthy both physically and mentally.
Her daily routine is solving number puzzles, which she says is a way to prevent dementia. She spends one to two hours every day solving them to keep her mind active.
Dr Kasamatsu’s hobby is playing the piano. Inspired by Dr Shigeru, who had started learning to do so before her, she started playing at the age of 70. She plays skilfully while humming along to pieces like Moon River. She still takes lessons every week and worked hard to master Beethoven’s Fur Elise, even performing at a recital alongside young people.
She also tries to update her medical knowledge by reading materials from medical associations whenever she has time. She has no intention of retiring just yet.
“I’m not feeling unwell at all,” she said. THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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