Page 66 - HKU Surgery 110 Anniversary E-Book

Chapter III. Putting Hong Kong Surgery on the World Map
Doing More with Less
Researchers did not have much in
the way of laboratory equipment or
facilities, so they focused on clinical
cases, collecting the data by hand.
As Professor John Wong recalled:
“When I first came, research was
Adapted from British Journal of Surgery, 1964 . basically to record or summarise a
10
patient’s age, sex, disease, diagnosis,
operation, etcetera, onto a card a little
bigger than A4 with holes punched
Letter from the patient who underwent Hong Kong’s
first kidney transplantation in 1969. at the top and sides. Each hole
corresponded with a different item.
The Department’s clinical space also grew as Ong expanded his “empire” We had a file cabinet with the cards
over his 18 years as Head. In 1964, when he arrived, the Department was and to do research, you would get a
responsible for 92 beds in Queen Mary Hospital. By his retirement in 1982, long, steel narrow wire or stick and
it had 800 beds across four hospitals: Queen Mary Hospital, Kwong Wah thread that through the holes you were
Hospital, Grantham Hospital for the cardiothoracic unit, and Tung Wah interested in and pull those cards out.
Hospital for day surgery and convalescence.
It was rudimentary, but still we got
published.”
Oesophageal reconstruction
in humans (circa 1964).
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The lack of research training hindered
outcomes, though, said Professor KH
Lam. “We did so-called research every
Friday afternoon. We would go to the
animal laboratory on Sassoon Road
– it was very primitive with mainly
dogs. As I remember it, it was GB’s
idea to use them to prepare for liver
transplants. There would be me and
another classmate and two senior
surgeons. We would anaesthetise
the dogs, cut out the liver and try
to protect it. But we never succeeded
in keeping the dog alive. We also
operated to remove the oesophagus,
using the intestine to replace it, and
tested whether blood supply from the
skin could go into the intestine. It
was very primitive research, not well
thought out. I thought it was a waste
of time.”
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