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He also trained local medical professionals with advanced wound-treating methods, which helped patients with large wounds heal faster, with less infection, suffering and aftereffects.

Since then, Topaz has visited Sichuan regularly, to train local medical personnel with new plastic-surgery technologies and techniques.

In 2011, Li's hospital established close ties with Topaz's. In 2012, with help from Topaz, Li and a colleague were invited to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center to study with medical experts there.

Benefiting from Topaz's help, the hospital has exponentially extended its burns and plastic surgery department's ability and capacity: The department now has 17 doctors and nurses, up from the original two doctors.

"Professor Topaz has visited Deyang dozens of times to teach and help our doctors here in the past few years," Li says.

"He is very nice and a good friend to Chinese people."

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