Bethune: The Making of a Hero

Norman Bethune is hospitalized at the Trudeau Sanatorium after contracting tuberculosis. He pushes past medical caution and performs a pneumothorax on himself, triggering a dramatic recovery. This victory leads to a renewed relationship with Frances, and they remarry.

After his recovery, Bethune is mentored by Dr. Clifford Archibald, who trains him as a surgeon. He meets Marie-France Coudaire and the two form professional ties that will influence his career. Bethune and Archibald debate high casualty rates and his methods begin to clash with established practice.

In 1938, Bethune travels to Hankou to join the Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The train carrying his medical supplies is bombed, forcing a perilous journey by boat and on foot toward the army's headquarters in Yan'an. He eventually continues on to Yan'an to begin his medical work with Chinese forces.

Mao appoints Bethune as the medical advisor to the Eighth Route Army and head of all hospital units. He treats victims of a Japanese air raid and immediately confronts the hospital's administrative failures. His reformist zeal clashes with locals who are slow to donate blood and trust his methods.

Bethune dismisses the head doctor and berates the staff for incompetent care under siege conditions. He pushes for better operating procedures and more organized medical response despite resource shortages. The harsh environment exposes the limits of medical care in wartime Yan'an.

During the Great Depression, Bethune champions socialized medicine and criticizes the existing medical system. He engages in a public exchange with journalist Chester Rice, arguing against certain communist and Soviet models, and later returns from the Soviet Union praising its health system.

Bethune studies the Spanish Civil War via newsreels and begins a tour condemning fascism. He travels to Spain to aid Republicans, with Rice acting as his medical assistant. Rice becomes a political commissar and reports Bethune for disrespect toward women and drinking, leading to his dismissal from Spain.

Back in North America and Europe, Frances divorces Bethune so she can marry Alan Coleman. The breakup marks personal turbulence that coincides with Bethune's continued international medical work.

Bethune organizes a medical training facility near the frontline to train relief workers. The facility is destroyed by the Japanese, underscoring the brutal conditions of war. Dowd begins smuggling in supplies in response to the siege.

During a procedure, Bethune cuts his finger and develops sepsis, highlighting the ever-present dangers of frontline medicine. Veronica Dowd continues smuggling supplies as Japanese forces press their advantage.

Bethune dies while serving on the frontline medical project, and Mao Zedong eulogizes him as a symbol of humanitarian dedication amid war. His death cements his legacy within both Chinese resistance and international medical history.

Chester Rice reads about Bethune's death in Canada and recounts his research for the Labour Gazette, highlighting how his life bridged Canadian, Chinese, and Soviet spheres. The funeral procession in China memorializes his contributions to war medicine and international solidarity.