Page 60 - HKU Surgery 110 Anniversary E-Book

Chapter III. Putting Hong Kong Surgery on the World Map

General Surgery is King Rounds with ‘Napoleon’

Hospital conditions were still affairs where Ong demanded details
relatively poor during Ong’s reign about cases gone wrong. But his
due to serious overcrowding. The insistence on answers had an upside
surgical wards were located on the that is rarely seen today: Residents
fifth floor of Queen Mary Hospital were often dispatched to autopsy
and consisted not only of dozens sessions to learn more about the case,
of hospital beds but also foldable an experience that also reinforced
camp beds – a piece of canvas strung their understanding of anatomy,
between two rattan rods – that filled pathology and surgery.
corridors and even the lift lobby with
Ong’s ideas on how the Department even had a competition going with the overflow of patients. There was
should be organised differed from Professor Komei Nakayama of Japan also no air-conditioning.
his predecessor Stock and successor over who was the fastest surgeon.) He
Wong, who both saw value in greater especially liked to do big, complicated None of this prevented Ong from
specialisation (Wong would increase operations, such as those involving insisting all 50 or so Department staff
sub-specialty divisions from five to the liver and multiple blood vessels. join his twice-weekly rounds. They
13). Ong was a committed generalist traipsed behind him “like Napoleon
who insisted that all staff be general However, Ong’s haste had a downside. leading the Grand Armée,” as an
surgeons, too. He still encouraged For example, the 30-day mortality obituary from the Royal College of
them to acquire specialty skills and for esophagectomy, one of Ong’s Surgeons of England put it. Those at
arranged for training overseas, but specialities, was 25%, meaning the end of the line might still be in A
he assigned staff their specialties – one in four never left hospital. A ward while Ong was expounding in B
there was little choice. People with contributing factor was the high ward and they could not hear a thing.
specialist training were also still rate of post-operative anastomotic Ong was always keen to know if
expected to perform general surgery leakage. Wong would substantially results were good. Subsequently,
and be on call at night, even if, say a improve that situation in future years, if a patient experienced leakage or
breast surgeon found it difficult to bringing mortality to near zero. other problems, petrified Residents
perform an emergency abdominal would sometimes sneak that patient
operation. “I remember when I saw GB on my into the toilet before Ong arrived, to
first day, I told him the areas I was keep them out of sight in the hope
Ong himself had no such difficulties. familiar with and the areas I didn’t that Ong would not remember his
As far as he was concerned, nothing have much experience in. The first less successful cases. Morbidity and
was beyond his surgical abilities. thing he did was put me down for mortality meetings were also blustery
He was the archetypal “general everything I didn’t have experience
surgeon”, performing more than in. I said, whoa, you expect me to
10,000 major operations over the do all of that in one day? But he
course of his career and relishing was always in control, an expert
the speed at which he worked, doing operator.”
up to five operations a day when - Professor John Boey -
most surgeons would do two. (Ong

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