Page 5 - CUHK MEDICAL ALUMNI Newsletter Issue 2 Vol 4 2016

FEATURES
04

KNEE INJURY INSPIRES

YOUNG UNDERGRADUATE

TO TURN TO ORTHOPAEDICS

AND SPORTS MEDICINE

“Don’t see your work as just a job, treat it as a mission…
a gift from God to be able to serve the community.”

- Professor Patrick Yung Shu-hang
（容樹恆教授, MBChB 1994）

rofessor Patrick Yung could
Pbe what one would call
a “reluctant winner”. For
him, winning awards
a n d a c c o l a d e s a r e
not as important as
gratitude from patients
and students. He had the world.
refused to apply for the And we consistently
Ten Outstanding Young have about 70 postgraduates a year,
Persons (TOYP) Award locally and from overseas."
several times when asked,
but finally gave in after He adds: “In the old days, sports
friends told him that winning the medicine was limited to elite athletes.
prestigious prize could boost his several After working as a volunteer at the
passion - the sports medicine industry. ye a r s . I n Hong Kong Sports Institute for several
years, I began to think…why not
In 2009, he became one of the 1991, he sustained provide sports medicine to the whole
winners of the TOYP Award. At the a severe knee injury during a match community?”
presentation ceremony, to his surprise, against Guangzhou. Because of the
Professor Yung was asked to say a few injury, he had to be hospitalised three It is therefore not surprising to see him,
words. “I had no time to prepare, so times, culminating in a major surgery his colleagues or students sporting
what I said that night was something - one week after his final exams in tee-shirts or jackets, saying “CUHK
straight from the bottom of my heart.” 1994. “It was then I realised I wanted Sports Medicine”, on the sports field
to become an orthopaedic surgeon,” during weekends and holidays.
This is what he said: “If you can find Professor Yung recalls.
an area in which you have a special Professor Yung’s community spirit does
interest, you will enjoy all the work He remembers fondly his surgeon and not stop there. Back in 2008 during the
related to it every day.” And, this mentor, Professor Chan Kai-ming— Sichuan earthquake, he and Professor
has been his motto to this very day. one of the pioneers of sports medicine Chan Kai-ming founded the “Stand
in Hong Kong - who retired at the end Tall” project to help the victims. Medical
Professor Yung is currently Chief of the of July this year. education is still on-going there. He was
Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Team also a volunteer in Operation Concern,
at the Department of Orthopaedics Professor Yung is now a world started by Professor Leung Ping-chung
and Traumatology of The Chinese renowned leader in the field of in the 1990s, to treat poor and disabled
University of Hong Kong (CUHK). orthopaedic sports medicine. He people in the remote areas of China.
holds many titles and posts but most
Even when young, Professor Yung was notably, he is heading the first ever “As medics, don’t see your work as
drawn to sports. He was a very active Master Course in Sports Medicine just a job,” Professor Yung says. “Treat
sportsman at school and at CUHK, and Health Science. “It is probably it as a mission… a gift from God to be
he was the football team captain for the most well-recognised course in able to serve the community.”