Page 6 - CUHK MEDICAL ALUMNI Newsletter Issue 1 Vol 3 2016

FEATURES
05

DOCTOR FINDS ‘BIGGEST DREAM’

ACHIEVED IN WORKING AS

SURGEON FOR MSF

“You have to remember why you chose to be a doctor.”

- Dr Akin Chan Kin-wah

（陳健華醫生, MBChB 2004）

ow many of us can But Dr Chan thought otherwise. answer was “No.” Then he received a
Hsay that we are living call saying a staff member who was late
our dream job while still “She wasn’t conscious. Her blood for work that day was O-negative and
young? pressure was very, very low and she he had already donated blood to the
was in a state of shock. There was no
Well, Dr Akin Chan can. Only in his external wound but the tummy was a hospital. As it turned out the blood was
thirties and he has achieved what little bit swollen,” he said. perfect for transfusion.
has been his biggest dream - to work “I remember giving him a hug and I
as a surgeon with the non-profit “She looked pale and I guessed almost cried,” Dr Chan said.
making organisation, Medecins Sans there could be internal bleeding.”
Frontieres (MSF). Operating on her, he discovered she After the transfusion, the girl recovered
had ruptured her spleen and was very quickly and was dubbed the
“Ever since I was a teenager I had
longed to be surgeon so that I could losing about 2-3 litres of blood. “miracle girl.”
become an MSF volunteer,” Dr Chan She needed blood transfusion but Dr Chan wants to make his career
recalls. as luck would have it - she was with the MSF life-long. He is not
O-negative - a rare blood type. And deterred by the poor environment
“I believe in their principles of
offering assistance to people none of the relatives belonged to the of the countries he has visited or the
irrespective of race, religion, gender same blood group. patients he would be treating.
or political affiliation.” Dr Chan asked for her mother but
she was seven hours away looking “In Pakistan, at one time, I treated a
After finishing his specialist surgical son of a Taliban VIP.”
training in 2011, he joined MSF and after her baby.
has been out in the field four times But after explaining to the father how Dr Chan says his medical training
- three in Pakistan and one in South critical the girl was, the mother was at The Chinese University of Hong
Sudan. sent for. But unfortunately, although Kong (CUHK) helped him greatly
she was O-negative, she was a in mastering the basic technique of
Dr Chan has had many memorable how to stop a wound from bleeding.
moments but one in particular Hepatitis B carrier. “You just need a scalpel, sutures and
stands out. That was in South Sudan “I was in a dilemma,” said Dr Chan.
last year involving a 12-year-old light source and you can save a life
Sudanese girl who had fallen from a After some soul-searching he decided without any fancy equipment…it’s
mango tree. to defer the blood transfusion as the just so satisfying.”
patient was stable.
Relatives took her to the MSF clinic His advice to medical students: “You
thinking she had suffered a hand The next morning he asked the clinic have to remember why you chose to
fracture. staff if any of them were O-negative. The be a doctor.”