Former Newtown Resident Brings Chiropractics To China

MACON, GA. — For what may be the first time in history, chiropractic medicine has been introduced to the People’s Republic of China. A Georgia chiropractor and former Newtown resident, Dr Lori Ugolik, was invited by the Chinese Government Foreign Affairs Office in their city of Zigong, Sichaun Province of China, along with two colleagues, Dr Cory Rodnick and Dr Steve Kern of Michigan.

The three American doctors went on a volunteer mission and adjusted over 3,000 patients in the People’s Number One Hospital and Foreign Language School in Zigong. They were greeted by the governor of Chengdu and the mayor of Zigong, as well as the entire administration of the People’s Number One Hospital and Foreign Language Schools.

Their goal was to recruit and sponsor four Chinese surgeons to train at Life University School of Chiropractic and to send them back to their homeland to establish a chiropractic curriculum within their university system in China.

“The residents were very receptive to chiropractic care,” Dr Ugolik stated. “We adjusted everyone from surgeons to rice farmers. My most memorable experience was adjusting an 11-year-old child with scoliosis whose parents wanted me to stay to correct the scoliosis or refer her to another chiropractor in China, and [also] that we were over there trying to develop and implement a curriculum, but the training would take four years of graduate school similar to a medical doctor’s education.”

The need for chiropractic practice in a nation of 1.2 billion residents is essential, Dr Ugolik said

“It is hard to believe in a country so overpopulated that there are no doctors of chiropractic health for the residents. When we arrived they explained this was a small town,” Dr Ugolik said. When she asked a government official just how small the town was, Dr Ugolik was given the population figure of 6 million residents.

“The hospitality and appreciation of the people were amazing. We were greeted by five television stations, a dozen newspaper reporters and music when we walked off the bus to the hospital,” Dr Ugolik said. When she and the other doctors arrived at the hospital, they were greeted by 500 people waiting behind a guarded barricade to receive care.

“It was amazing at how polite everyone was after waiting in line for several hours. I thought about how blessed we are to not have to normally wait hours for health care, and to receive care in sanitary conditions,” Dr Ugolik said.

 “This intrinsically rewarding experience was immense, knowing that we educated, exposed and helped over 3,000 people with chiropractic. The foreign affairs office has invited us back to work, and wish for us to go to other provinces as well back to Zigong. We’re looking forward to our return,” Dr Ugolik said.