1936 On 21 November, Dad is born Chang Yam Him and given the English name Victor Peter Chang, in Shanghai, China, son of Aubrey Chang and May Chang (nee Lee).

1938 The Chang family moves to Hong Kong (Kowloon) after the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Sister Frances is born.

1940 As tensions between China and Japan flare up once again, the Chang family leaves Hong Kong bound for Rangoon, Burma, where Aubrey is waiting for them. Brother Anthony is born.

1941 The Japanese bomb Rangoon and the family travels east along the Burma Road to Yunnan Province in south-west China, where they stay for several months. On this trip, they lose all their possessions when their transport lorry rolls over a steep cliff. After several months, they leave once more and head north to Chung King, China’s wartime capital. Dad starts preschool at the age of five.

1945 The Japanese surrender and the family returns to Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong. Dad attends Kowloon Tong Primary School.

1948 Dad nurses his mother who is diagnosed with breast cancer. However, on 7 April—after a long battle—May Chang dies in Australia. The children are in Hong Kong when this happens. At twelve years of age, Dad decides he wants to be a doctor.

1950 Dad attends St Paul’s Boys College in Bonham Road in Hong Kong, where he meets Peter Lee. The two boys share a passion for making model aeroplanes and cars. Dad’s school grades are average.

The Korean War erupts.

1951 Aubrey decides to send Dad and Frances to Australia to live with Aubrey’s older brother, Charlie, and his family in Campsie, Sydney. Dad attends a local school.

1952 Dad meets Pearl Hansen, Frances’ school friend.

1953 Frances returns to Hong Kong on 25 August after spending a miserable time in Sydney. Dad remains as he is not finding it so hard to adjust to his new environment. He moves from the local school, as it does not provide enough challenge for him, to the Christian Brothers College in Lewisham.

1954 Due to arguments between Dad and Charlie’s two sons, Dad moves to Punchbowl to live with Aubrey’s sister, Fung—Dad’s Sixth Aunt—and his Uncle Reg and their family.

1955 Dad passes his Leaving Certificate and is accepted into the University of Sydney to study medicine.

1956 First year medicine. Dad is awarded the Commonwealth of Australia Scholarship, which he is awarded every year throughout his university education.

1957 Second year medicine. Dad is awarded the Prosectorship Prize in Anatomy. He meets Michael Allam.

1958 Third year medicine. Dad meets Sister Bernice when he begins his clinical training at St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst. On 1 March he celebrates his 21st birthday at his Uncle Les’s house in Seaforth.

1959 Fourth year medicine. In mid 1959 Dad moves to Epiphany House, a boys’ hostel in Neutral Bay, Sydney. He works at the local supermarket, packing shelves, to earn extra money.

1960 In March he moves to Wesley College on the campus of the University of Sydney. He decides, after meeting Michael Rand, to interrupt his medical degree to undertake a year of medical research. He graduates with a Bachelor of Science (Med), First Class Honours, and is awarded the Medical Research Foundation Scholarship and the Boots (Aust) Ltd Research Scholarship. He publishes four articles. Later that year, he moves to a cottage in the grounds of St Vincent’s.

1961 Fifth year medicine.

1962 On 20 January he is admitted to degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (Distinction in surgery).

1963 First year resident medical officer (junior) at St Vincent’s Hospital, working in casualty for six months, then general surgery for six months. He attends a lecture given by cardiac surgeon Dr Mark Shanahan, and approaches Mark after his talk to express his desire to follow in Mark’s footsteps.

1964 Senior resident medical officer at St Vincent’s. He meets cardiac surgeon, Dr Harry Windsor. First he works for six months in surgery, then six months in the Department of Thoracic Surgery.

1965 Surgical registrar to cardiothoracic unit. In September Dad leaves for England to take up a position as senior house officer and surgical registrar at St Anthony’s Catholic Hospital in Cheam, Surrey, assisting the general surgeon, Dr Aubrey York Mason. On 8 November Dad obtains FRCS (Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons).

1966 Dad meets and diagnoses a patient, Ann Simmons, with tonsillitis. Later that year, he moves to another role as surgical registrar, again, to Aubrey York Mason at St Helier Hospital, Carshalton, Surrey.

1967 In December, Dr Christiaan Barnard performs the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant in Capetown, South Africa.

1968 On 20 April, Dad marries Ann Simmons. In October he starts at Brompton Chest Clinic as Surgical Registrar under Lord Brock.

October—The first heart transplant in Australia is performed on Richard Pye at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, by Dr Harry Windsor.

1969 On 28 May, Vanessa is born in Surrey.

1970 On 13 October, Matthew is born in Surrey. In December the Chang family moves to the United States, to live in Rochester, Minnesota, where Dad continues his thoracic training at the Mayo Clinic, working under Dwight McGoon.

1972 In January Dad brings his family to Sydney. He takes up the role as staff cardiac surgeon working alongside Dr Harry Windsor and Dr Mark Shanahan at St Vincent’s Hospital. Our family moves into a small unit at Manly.

1973 Dad obtains FRACS (Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons).

1974 In April he assists Harry and Mark in Australia’s second heart transplant. The patient dies after 62 days and the heart transplant program is temporarily put on hold.

In May, Marcus is born in Sydney.

1975 Dad obtains FACS (Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons).

1977 He visits China for the first time in three decades.

1978 The first visiting Chinese doctors come to Australia to train under Dad and the team at St Vincent’s.

1979 Cyclosporin A is first used.

1980 Dad is appointed Honorary Professor of Surgery, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. He begins research work on producing a low-cost artificial heart valve for use in the Asia-Pacific region. Eventually the valve is manufactured and implanted in 1000 patients in China.

1982 In June, the Australian Government recommends that a national heart transplant unit be set up in Australia.

1983 In December, federal and state Health ministers announce that St Vincent’s will house the first heart transplant unit and Dad is selected as its Director. He is appointed as Honorary Professor of Surgery, Shanghai Second Medical School, Shanghai, China; appointed as Honorary Professor, Xian University Medical School; appointed as Honorary Director of Heart, Lung and Blood Vessel Research Institute, Quandong Provincial Peoples Hospital, Quan-zhou, China.

1984 In February, Dad performs the first heart transplant in Australia since 1974. The patient is Neville Apthorpe. Approximately five weeks later, Dad gives Fiona Coote her first new heart.

1985 Dad is Visiting Professor Cardiothoracic Surgery, National University of Singapore. He receives the Advance Australia Award—Australian of the Year. He sets up the research team for work on the development of an artificial heart.

1986 Dad performs the first heart–lung transplant. In March he receives the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for ‘service to inter- national relations between Australia and China and to medical science’.

1987 Dad is Visiting Professor Cardiothoracic Surgery, National Cardiac Centre, Jakarta, Indonesia.

1988 On 16 May, Dad is awarded an honorary degree from the University of NSW.

1990 Fifth prototype of the artificial heart is ready for clinical testing.

1991 -

DR CHANG’S WORK CONTINUES through the FOUNDATION HE CREATED. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS ONGOING WORK WITH A DONATION.