Education

The Victor Chang Foundation grants funds for EDUCATION. Training cardiac surgeons from Asia.

Dr Chang strongly believed that to be truly successful in life,  knowledge and expertise needed to be passed on to others. He said “For your work to develop and be remembered, the most important thing was to teach and to pass on skills to others so they could continue without you.”  He  felt there was nothing to be gained by keeping knowledge to yourself.

This is one of the key reasons Dr Chang decided to create the Victor Chang Foundation and include EDUCATION as one of its two key missions.  

Cardiac surgeons (Victor Chang Foundation Cardiac Fellows) are selected and granted funds so that they can come to Australia to be trained at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Their surgical knowledge is upgraded and most importantly they are trained to become skilled in the areas of cardiothoracic surgery particularly in the area of heart and lung transplantation and valve operations. Life-saving operations are taught to “Fellows” in Australia and are taken back to their homeland where they can continue to practice and teach others.

Throughout his life Dr Chang maintained a deep connection with Asia, and particularly his country of birth, China. For many years he took it upon himself to fund trips taking teams of doctors, surgeons and nurses to Asian nations to train and teach counterparts in cutting-edge cardiovascular surgical techniques and to give them the opportunity to be at the forefront of cardiovascular management. Doctors from Asia were also brought to Australia to live, study and learn in order to return to their own countries with these skills.

“The best surgeon is one who teaches others to be better than himself”.

Lord Moynihan, Renowned Cardiac Surgeon

From “Victor Chang: A Tribute to my Father

By Vanessa Chang, CEO of the Victor Chang Foundation

“Dr Chang said “I am Chinese and I feel I have an obligation to make a contribution to my own people.”

In 1977 as he was being escorted through a hospital to inspect all the facilities he noticed a young girl, a patient of about seven or eight, lying motionless with a dark grey  complexion. He stopped to feel her pulse, but those who were escorting him hurried him on; they thought she was unimportant and beyond help. Dad continued to inspect the operating theatres and on his way back, stopped to see the little girl again. He examined her and suspected she had a hole in her heart. He asked  if a theatre could be opened so he could operate immediately. His diagnosis was correct and he repaired  the hole that day. Upon his return, two days later, the little girl was pink-cheeked and chatting with her parents.

My father estimated that the Chinese hospitals were about fifteen years behind the rest of the world with their cardiac technology. On the same visit he was asked to attend an operation during which the patient was not anaesthetised in the way Westerners know it. The  hospital staff were feeding the patient—who was conscious—mandarin segments. At the same time, the treatment included acupuncture. Dad watched in amazement as surgery took place using these methods. After the operation, the patient was able to get out of bed and walk.

This shocked him, and he told them so. As a result, he was officially asked to  help upgrade the standards of cardiac surgery in China. He agreed to help. And so began a cultural and intellectual exchange program between China and Australia which helped in a small way to cement better relations between the two countries. It involved the training of Chinese surgeons in Australia under the tutelage of Dad and the whole  St Vincent’s team. They would take home what they learnt and pass this knowledge on to other surgeons in  China.

In 1978, the first Chinese surgeon was invited to Australia, and thereafter, between one and two surgeons from the more needy institutions in China visited Australia each year to work and learn with Dad’s team. This took place shortly after the opening of China to the West; Australian Foreign Affairs officers had been making slow progress towards improving relations with China, so the St Vincent’s Hospital initiative augured well for Australia–China relations.

After his visit in 1977, Dad started making annual trips to China. Taking his own delegation of surgeons, nurses and other specialists, he would stay for at least two weeks at a time. He would operate and lecture in Beijing and around China, and would delight in seeing and playing guide to the team.”

Read about our Victor Chang Cardiac Surgical Fellows here.