In 1965 I started working in Adventist Sanitarium-Hospital of Hong Kong, which was officially opened in July of 1964 with Dr. R. O. Heald (赫耀德) as the first medical director. [In the 1970s it was renamed Hong Kong Adventist Hospital Tsuen Wan Branch, and then Adventist Hospital-Tsuen Wan.] In those early days there were also surgeon Dr. Duane A. Brueske (畢斯奇) from the US, and a general practitioner Dr. Marjorie R. Young (楊治), a female physician, from New Zealand also practiced at the hospital. Later Dr. R. F. Dunlop (鄧立普), whose wife is also a physician, joined us. Dr. Dunlop was a general practitioner with surgical experience. He did a lot of surgeries including a hysterectomy for Mr. Chan Shun’s (陳俊) servant, for whom we all prayed before she came through her crisis. Then Canadian surgeon Dr. Arthur A. Moores (雅華摩士) and his wife, a nurse, of Canada came to joined the staff, and his wife was a nurse. She Mrs. Moores later became the director of nursing service for the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital. Following that,Dr. George Sittlinger (薛寧賈) came also from a Canadian as a general practitioner then joined the group.
Miss Opaljean Whiteaker (威狄嘉), the first director of nursing service, was a very loving and hard working nurse, always willing to help and teach the nurses under her. Business manager was Pastor Philip H. Tan (陳炳煌), and his wife was in charge of the food service.
The hospital had 65 beds with a very busy day in the clinic. By 1970 the number of beds increased to 150. We started another clinic near a textile factory where a lot of babies were delivered. Daily the surgeon and general practitioners had to help delivering babies.
We also had a medical launch docked eighteen miles away at Sai Kung fishing village (西貢漁村) near Clear Water Bay (清水灣). Every Sunday some of the physicians, nurses, and volunteers would join forces with students from our college at Clear Water Bay and minister to the local boat people. A branch Sabbath school was conducted by the ministerial students. Among the students who took part in the boat medical-evangelist enterprise, the most active ones were Jonathan Foo Ying Meng (符運明) and Doris Wong Yew Khuan (黃有群). [Later they got married to each other.] They were certainly our best helpers. The medical launch brought in good results as one fisher family [Mr. and Mrs. Cheng Tou Hei] got baptized and joined our church. Later a Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in Sai Kung fishing village [with Pastor Henry H. Luke in charge]. The story of the first convert was written by me and published at in the Youth Instructor (January 4, 1966, pp. 6-8). Miss Lois Kettner (葛濤) from Canada, a totally dedicated Christian educator, was our hospital church school teacher. She devoted herself lovingly to the boat people and helped out every Sunday at the medical launch. She was indeed well loved by everyone in Sai Kung.
I often looked back at the medical launch enterprise and hoped to have more such kind of this type of service. The medical launch work was totally free to the boat people, with free medicine as well. Anyone who required more medical treatment was sent to our hospital in Tsuen Wan. A foundation was set up to support this free medical work, leaving a very good impression with the local people. The first converts of the boat people was were won over by this service.
In 1966 or 67, when Dr. R. O. Heald was transferred to our Youngberg Hospital in Singapore, Dr. Harry Miller began to be in took charge of the hospital, and I became his assistant. I was young and inexperienced, so Dr. Miller became like a father and tutored me. Whenever I was not on duty, I would go to Clear Water Bay to visit the Millers, spending a lot time with him and Mrs. Miller this couple who also treated me like a son. Dr. Miller would spend time going took the time to go over all aspects of the Tsuen Wan Hospital with me, ; sometimes lasting our meetings lasted several hours. He taught me a lot and helped me to understand how a hospital was run.
As Dr. Miller was a very busy man, I, under his supervision, personally took care of the day-to-day operations of the hospital while under his supervision. I treasured those days when Dr. Miller was close to me like a father, keeping me under his wings. I could see that he truly was a faithful servant of God. Although he was already advanced in age, he was sharp, intelligent, loving, always looking for the best in people, and full of wisdom. I was happy to have him as my mentor. One time he said to me: “I am thankful everyday that I am alive and well. I am old, and I feel God wants you to take over my torch and pass it on.” He urged me to dedicate my whole life to God’s wonderful medical work.
Mr. W. W. Runyan (華仁) succeeded Pastor Philip H. Tan as business manager, and Miss Rose Marie Radley (華特妮) from Australia succeeded Miss Whiteaker as director of nursing service. In 1969 I left Tsuen Wan Hospital while and Dr. Kelvin Hon (夏爾雁) from Canada came to join the medical staff.
From 1970 to 1975 I took a residency in pediatrics and settled down in Canada. Then I met and married a Japanese nurse. One time I represented the Tsuen Wan Hospital and participated in a workshop at the Tokyo Sanitarium where I met a Japanese nurse and. That’s where I met who was to become my future life companion. We had a son and a daughter. When We married and had a son and daughter, so by the time I returned to work in Hong Kong in 1976, we were a family of four. As I look back I thank the Lord that although I left Hong Kong as a single man, I came back with the blessing of a beautiful family. At the same time I obtained my Canadian citizenship, and certification of pediatrics in both Canada and the US.
Hong Kong Adventist Hospital (港安醫院)
It was 1976 when I returned to Hong Kong and practiced at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital under the management of Mr. R. W. Burchard (貝察德). Dr. Arthur A. Moores (雅華摩士), a surgeon from Canada, was the medical director. Others on the staff were Dr. Dale L. Morrison (摩理臣), Dr. S. R. Kettner (葛濤), along with dentists Dr. H. E. Butler (畢特勒) and Dr V. V. O. Erlandson (魏年順). Later there were Dr. Perry C. Harold (夏盧特), Dr. W. B. Watts (屈剔士), Dr. B. K. Steen II (斯但), and Dr. Robert Buckley (碧琪尼), etc.
Our hospital sent young people to India’s Velore Christian Medical College (where in l963 I received my medical diploma) to study medicine, so that they could come back to staff our two hospitals in Hong Kong. Our first fruits graduates were Drs. Kenneth Ho (何啓智) and Steven Hu (胡子奇), whose brother is Pastor James Wu (胡子輝), and later 5 others went through the program to be of help to us.
After Mr. Burchard left in 1979, Mr. D. Laurence Dunfield (鄧菲爾) became the administrator of the hospital. Later he became the director for Adventist Health System/Asia, and Mr. Mervyn Leicester became acting president of the hospital from 1984 to 1985. Then in 1985 Virgil P. Morris (摩利士) came to fill in for a period of about 4 years before retiring. Then and in 1988 Mr. Henry P. Friesen (傅懿生) became president. In l979 I became chief of staff; however, in 1983, as the title of administrator was renamed “president,’ my title was renamed “vice-president for medical affairs.” I remained so served in this position until I left Hong Kong in August of l990.
The Hong Kong Adventist Hospital developed into be a first rate medical center in Hong Kong with the following features: the first laser eye surgery center and the first private hospital to do open heart surgery. Dr. D. L. Morrison (摩理臣), who had trained in open heart surgery at with the help of Loma Linda University Medical Center’s ,was sent along with other LLU personnel to assist us. under Dr. D. L. Morrison (摩理臣), who was trained there in that field. Our hospital got earned the reputation of being the World’s Miniature Open Heart Surgery Center functioning in a 100-bed hospital, something one cannot seen elsewhere in the world. It was also the first hospital in Hong Kong to do cardiac imaging procedures, eliminating some of the more invasive surgeries, helping many patients with coronary artery occlusions.
In the 1990s radiologist Dr. Eric Tsao (曹志誠), who had trained in the US, came and opened up a Radiation Therapy Center, doing and performed the latest procedures in radiation oncology. Later he added the equipment for CT scan computerized tomography. Personally, and I know many large hospitals in Canada that still did not have this feature at that time.
In 1976 when we returned to serve at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, workers were still residing in the top floors of the round towers, but later adjacent to the parking lot a 12-story apartment building was built, with three apartments on each floor. The top floor was reserved for a church school.
A little church was set up on the 6th floor of the main hospital building, accommodating about 150 people. At that time the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital Church was the only English speaking church in the Hong Kong-Macao Conference.
The Hong Kong Adventist Hospital’s only goal was to serve the community in Hong Kong and was active in health education which included classes in: 5-day stop smoking, weight control, blood pressure control, nutrition and healthful cooking, maternity classes, etc. All attempts were made to promote preventative medicine, contributing much to the health of the Hong Kong population.
When I first went to Hong Kong in l970, chairman of the board was Pastor L. R. Colburn (葛培恩), then Dr. Samuel Young (楊健生) and Dr. Eugene Hsu King Yi. (徐精一).