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When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand.
我在上中学的时候，被一只有毒的蜘蛛咬了右手。
I ran to my mom for help, but instead of taking me to a doctor, my Mom set my hand on fire.
我去向母亲求救，但是她没有找医生，而是用火来烤我的手。
After rubbing my hand with several layers of cotton then soaked in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth and ignited the cotton.
她用酒浸过的棉纱绕住我的手。缠了好几层之后，让我嘴里咬住一根筷子，然后点燃了棉纱。
Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand.
热量快速穿透棉花，开始炙烤我的右手。
The searing pain made me want to scream but the chopstick prevented it.
这股灼痛让我想要大叫，不过我嘴里咬着的筷子让我叫不出来。
All I could do was watch my hand burn, one minute, then two minutes, until my mom put out the fire.
我当时唯一能做的就是看着我着火的手，一分钟过去了，两分钟过去了，直到母亲把火熄灭。
You see the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time, pre-industrial.
如你所见，我是在中国的一个小山村里成长的，在那个时候那里还没有实现工业化。
When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water and we certainly didn't had access to the modern medical resources.
在我出生的那个年代，我们村没车、没电话、也没电，连自来水都没有，更没法获得现代化的医疗资源。
There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about this spider bite.
当我被蜘蛛咬伤时，根本没有我母亲可以带我去看的医生。
For those who study Biology, you may have brought the science behind my mom's cure: heat deactivates proteins and the spider's venom is simply a form of protein.
对于学生物学的人来说，你也许已经知道了我母亲这种治疗方式的科学依据：热量能够让蛋白质失去活性，而蜘蛛的毒液只是蛋白质组成的。
It's cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates the base of biochemistry, isn't it?
土办法里竟然也包含着现代生物化学的基础原理，想想也挺酷的，不是吗？
But I am a Ph. D student in Biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatment existed.
但是作为一个在哈佛学习生物化学的博士，我现在知道了其实有更好的、不那么痛、危险系数更小的治疗方法。
So, I can’t help but ask myself, why I did't receive one at that time?
所以我忍不住问我自己，为什么那个时候我没有用这样的方法来治疗呢？
Fifteen years have passed since that incident, I am happy to report that my hand is fine.
这件事已经过去十五年了，我很高兴地告诉你们：我的手现在恢复地很好。
