Page 98 - HKU Surgery 110 Anniversary E-Book

Chapter IV. A Centre of Excellence
Invaluable Excursions
Surgeons in the Department have been and Head of the Breast Division and
and still are encouraged to spend time initiated new programmes, such as the
with surgical units abroad to watch and Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer
learn and take insights back to Hong Family Registry. “Professor John Wong
Kong. For many, this has proven to be a was my major mentor. He looked after
pivotal experience. me,” she said.
Professor Lo Chung-Mau, for instance, Wong also helped Professor John Boey
spent a year training at the University of secure a James the Fourth Surgical
California, Los Angeles, in 1993 where Travelling Fellowship that took him to the
he participated in 275 transplants, being UK, US and Australia in the 1980s. Boey
on-call for both donor and recipient credited John Wong with establishing the
operations. “This was extremely Department’s strong relationships with
important for me in my career. I always overseas surgeons and surgical societies
encourage younger people to go out and and opening doors with China in the early
see the world. Try to pick a technique or 1980s – which in the early days, proved
technology not available in Hong Kong, to be an eye-opening experience. On his
learn and bring it back. It changed my first surgical visit to China, Boey brought
career.” his own equipment – staple machines,
headlight, Foley catheters and the like –
Professor Ava Kwong gained much from but it was not quite enough. “After I put
her fellowship at Stanford University in in a Foley catheter, I gave the nurse the
the early 2000s. She was on staff at Queen end and she looked at me. I said, connect
Mary Hospital under Hospital Authority it. She said, to what? I thought they’d have
terms at the time, but Wong, as Chief of a bag. Well, they just took a glove and
Service, encouraged her to take up the tied it with a piece of straw. That became
fellowship opportunity – and more. “He the Foley bag.” When he cut open the
said, it’s time to use your brain. You’re small bowel of his first patient there, he
doing a fellowship anyway, why not apply found a colony of worms. Boey yelped
to do a PhD at HKU at the same time?” and jumped back. “The whole operating
Kwong did so, working on her PhD under room was roaring with laughter. I guess
the supervision of Professor Paul Tam they saw that all the time.”
while she was at Stanford. She later went
on to join HKU and become Professor
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John Wong’s Legacy
Professor John Wong, BSc (Med) (Hons), developed new techniques that reduced
MB BS (Hons), PhD, MD honoris causa, post-operation mortality from 25% to
FRACS, FACS (Hon), FRCS (Hon), was near zero. His achievements for the
born in Hong Kong in 1941 and moved Department as a whole were deep and
to Australia, aged 11, where he received comprehensive, as recounted on these
his education and medical training. pages, driven by a focus on specialisation,
Graduating with first class Honours in a desire to push everyone to achieve
his MBBS from the University of Sydney excellence, and a keen interest in elevating
in 1966, Wong also completed his PhD the Department’s standing in the world
there in 1971 (on cell proliferation and of surgery.
differentiation in the squamo-columnar
junction of the rat stomach) and became Those who worked under Wong recalled
Lecturer in Surgery. He was serving in this his strong and demanding character. He
capacity when GB Ong visited Australia was the “king”, not to be challenged. But
in 1975. I was Intrigued by Ong’s accounts he also had a gentle side, for instance,
of Hong Kong, Wong decided to visit the quietly taking care of support staff when
city for three months that same year. He they encountered financial problems.
never left. He was also very supportive of staff in
advancing their careers. Wong’s own
By 1979 Wong was appointed Professor assessment of his impact, made at the
of Surgery and in 1982 Head of time of his Festschrift in 2015, is simple
Department. He took over Ong’s specialty and rather humble: “I really only had one
of oesophageal cancer surgery and job, that of being a surgeon in academia.”
“Integrity, dignity and humanity are the hallmark trinity that for me characterises
John Wong the surgeon, the professor and above all the person. These are rarefied
traits that have become virtually extinct, even in high academia.”
- Professor Gabriel Leung quoted in Festschrift for John Wong -
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