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Singaporean gained international renown for trying to separate Iranian sisters

The Singaporean neurosurgeon who led the team of doctors that tried to separate conjoined twins from Iran in July is to take up a post at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Keith Goh Yu-ching will begin teaching on January 5 as an associate professor of neurosurgery on a two-year contract. He will also treat patients at Prince of Wales Hospital and conduct research, probably on brain tumours in children.

The 42-year-old gained worldwide attention for the operation on the Iranian women.

It was the first attempt by doctors to separate adult twins joined at the head and media around the world followed the sisters before the operation.

Dr Goh led a team of 28 doctors to separate sisters Ladan and Laleh Bijani, 29. But they died of blood loss during the operation.

Two weeks after the surgery, Dr Goh successfully separated two four-month-old sisters from South Korea joined at the lower back. In 2001, he led a team of doctors to separate 18-month-old Nepalese twins who were joined at the head.

Dr Goh told the South China Morning Post yesterday it was possible he might conduct such operations in Hong Kong if the opportunity arose.

'I think if a case comes to me, I don't see why not,' he said, adding that the Prince of Wales Hospital had the facilities and staff to support such an operation. 'There's no reason why it can't be done there too.'

Dr Goh received his medical degree from the National University of Singapore in 1985 and studied neurosurgery at Prince of Wales Hospital during his residency in the mid-1990s.

After leaving Hong Kong, Dr Goh trained at the Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery of the Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York.

He was invited by his former professor, Poon Wai-sang, to return to Chinese University earlier this year and apply for a neurosurgeon post that had opened up.

Dr Poon, chair professor of Chinese University's neurosurgical unit, said Dr Goh not only had expertise in conjoined twins but was an expert in planning research studies and writing 'touching' research papers.

Dr Goh said he was attracted to the post because it provided him with the chance to teach, conduct research and treat patients.

He was formerly a consultant neurosurgeon at Singapore General Hospital and will remain a sessional consultant at Raffles Hospital to check on his patients.

There are already three patients in Hong Kong with brain and spinal cord conditions waiting to see Dr Goh.

He and his wife, who will take up a position as a pathologist at Prince of Wales Hospital, will arrive in Hong Kong on January 3.



Siamese-twins surgeon is joining Chinese University