Surgeon on 'new page in life' will help save lives in Port Moresby
The former head of Chinese University's medical faculty, who is heading for Papua New Guinea tonight to 'turn a new page in his life', says he wants to regain the rewarding feeling of being a doctor.
Sydney Chung Sheung-chee, who left his post as the university's dean of medicine in July - a year after the Sars outbreak - said he was tired of administrative work and politics.
He said he had spent too much time on meetings instead of saving lives. 'As a surgeon, the most rewarding moment is after you have saved a patient on the operating table, walked out of the theatre and delivered the good news to the family. There is immediately a wave of warmness in your chest - that's the feeling I want to experience.'
For the next three years, he will be a professor of surgery at the Port Moresby General Hospital, the teaching hospital of the University of Papua New Guinea.
Port Moresby has earned a reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in the world due to its crime gangs. Australia this month deployed more than 200 police officers on a risky law-and-order mission to Papua New Guinea.
Professor Chung visited Papua New Guinea last year as part of a working three-month holiday doing volunteer work. He said it did not take much time for him to make the bold decision. 'I told my friends that I just had to take a few deep breaths and make a jump. Then I jumped,' he said.
