HSIANG LAI WEN

1923 - 2017

WEN, Hsiang Lai Father of Neurosurgery in Hong Kong Age 93 passed away peacefully on April 10, 2017. Known to his family and friends as "Boone' he was born in the town of Muntok, on Bangka Island, Indonesia. He attended West China Union University in Chendu from 1942 to 1943 but his studies were interrupted by World War II. He joined the Chinese National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) in 1944 and flew transport planes over the Himalayas to resupply the Chinese troops fighting the Japanese. The missions were extremely dangerous and many of his fellow pilots were lost. From 1945 to 1949 he underwent medical training at the Medical College of Cheeloo University in Chengdu, the oldest medical school in China. He completed his internship at Toronto General Hospital at the University of Toronto, and his neurosurgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and became the first Chinese to become a diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Following residency he worked at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and at the Neurological Institute of the University of Amsterdam. In 1956 he became the first neurosurgeon in Hong Kong, working at Queen Mary Hospital. He was considered the "father of neurosurgery" in Hong Kong and trained two generation of neurosurgeons there. He built a large neurosurgical unit at Kwong Wah Hospital to provide free neurosurgical care to those who could not pay. He also helped establish the Research Institute of Neuroscience at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College. He introduced the ventriculosuperior sagittal sinus shunt for treatment of hydrocephalus, and helped pioneer the use of acupuncture for neuroanesthesia and for the treatment of drug addiction. He was President of the Asian Australasian Congress of Neurological Surgeons and Vice President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. A devoted golfer, he captained the Hong Kong team to the Asian PUTRA Cup (Southeast Asian Amateur Golf Team Championship). He is survived by his beloved wife of 65 years Cecelia Grace Fung Wen, his three sons Patrick Y. Wen, M.D., and his wife Siew Koon Teoh, M.D. of Lexington, MA, Stephen Y. Wen, M.D. and his wife Tracie Wen of San Francisco, CA and Dennis Y. Wen, M.D. and his wife Ailee Wen, M.D. of Barrington, IL, and his grandchildren Katherine, Jessica, Julia, Matthew, Michael, Victoria, Emma and James. A private service was held. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF) of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), 7661 Eagle Way, Chicago, IL 60678-1076 (http://www.nref.org/).

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