Page 4 - CUHK MEDICAL ALUMNI Newsletter Issue 2 Vol 9 2018

FEATURES
03

These doctors battled against all odds to achieve their dreams - overcoming
debilitating diseases and language barriers. They are indeed Life Warriors…

STRUCK DOWN BY PARALYSIS…

SHE FOUGHT BACK TO BECOME FIRST

CUHK MEDICAL STUDENT IN WHEELCHAIR

“I was lucky to have had many nice people popping before,” she says. She was determined
to be the first.
up to help me during difficult times.”
At an Open Day event at The Chinese
- Dr Jennifer Lui Wai-cheung University of Hong Kong, she boldly
asked them if they would accept a
（呂慧翔醫生, MBChB 2012） wheelchair-bound candidate to take up
medicine. They said yes provided the
students’ academic results were good.
t age sixteen, Jennifer Lui was on top called for an ambulance and she was
A of the world - she was on the brink of rushed to hospital. The prognosis was She studied hard and when the time
adulthood and was looking forward to the bad - she had to undergo an operation came, she applied to do medicine at
CUHK and was successful.
future. She was active in sports - playing for spinal haemorrhage. After surgery,
basketball, volleyball and taking part in she was told nothing further could be Dr Lui says she would never forget how
X-country runs. But mid-way through her done to repair the damage. the professors at the Faculty of Medicine
sixteenth year, tragedy struck. She was Dr Lui was shattered. “I found it hard to and campus mates helped her overcome
struck down by a disease that rendered accept. I was so depressed and cried all the hurdles. “They were so helpful and nice,”
her paralysed from chest downwards. time during my stay in hospital,” she recalls. she recalls. “They took me on a tour of the
However, the plucky teen would not allow campus and upgraded facilities I found
self-pity or depression to get her down - But support from her family and inconvenient. The Faculty arranged for a
she fought back and achieved her dream schoolmates helped her pull through. After standing electric wheelchair for me in the
of becoming a doctor. being discharged, her parents took her to Dissecting Laboratory so that I could ‘stand
Beijing for a second opinion. Doctors there up high’ to see the body as well as carry
Sitting in her wheelchair in Tuen Mun could not do anything either. Nonetheless, out dissections. Professors would sit on a
Hospital where she works, she reminisces she stayed on for rehabilitation. After a wheelchair and demonstrate how I could
about how she overcame hurdles to be year, there was no improvement in her examine patients who are lying in bed.
where she is today. “I was lucky to have condition - she still could not walk. So her Classmates would also assist me during
had many nice people popping up to parents brought her back to Hong Kong. “I ward rounds.”
help me during difficult times,” she says. thought now it was time to go back to my
studies,” Dr Lui says. Dr Lui is now training to be a physiatrist -
Dr Lui recalls the day everything a doctor who specialises in physical
changed for her. She had just started a She returned to her old school, Holy medicine, rehabilitation and pain
first aid course after finishing her HKCEE Trinity College, in Shek Kip Mei. Luckily medicine and whose aim is to
in the summer of 2004. While learning for her, there was a small lift at the enhance and restore functional
to tie a bandage she felt an excruciating school which could accommodate ability and quality of life to those
pain in her back. Her first aid coach her wheelchair. She says staff and with physical impairments or
schoolmates were very supportive disabilities. As such, she will
and helped her cope as a normal work with other specialists - such
student. In 2006, Dr Lui - who was as physiotherapists - to map out
then 18 years old - was named one a rehab plan for patients. Having
of the “Ten Outstanding Warriors overcome her own personal
of Regeneration”. The rehab team and physical hardships, she
at Kowloon Hospital nominated her says she wants to help
because of her indomitable spirit. others do the same.
She then started thinking about medical Her advice:
school. “There hadn’t been anyone in a “Never give up!”
wheelchair who had ever done medicine