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Oliver Chou

Obituary
Dr Eugene Chu Poh-hwye (1932-2015)
The doctor who tried to revive Hong Kong kung fu icon Bruce Lee as he lay on his death bed has died at age 84.
Dr Eugene Chu Poh-hwye – who never spoke a word about the night of July 20, 1973, when Lee breathed his last – had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. He died on August 10.
Veteran singer and music producer Anders Nelsson,  a long-time patient of Chu’s, remembered the doctor’s exceptional professionalism.
“Dr Chu had been my doctor for the past 45 years, and even if I got a specialist for treatment, I still went to him for a second opinion,” he said, adding that he last saw Chu in November.

Chu first learned his trade at Melbourne University, graduating in medicine and surgery in 1956. He became a fellow at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1959 and then at the London chapter in 1961.
He returned to Hong Kong to practise and became a private doctor to show business celebrities, among them Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. It was at Ting’s Beacon Hill flat in Kowloon Tong where Lee, at age 32, never woke up from his sleep in 1973.

According to testimony Chu gave at an inquest two months after Lee’s death, he arrived at 10.10pm following an emergency call from Ting, who had given Lee a prescription painkiller, Equagesic, for his headache. 
The pill had been prescribed by Chu for Ting, then aged 26. It was stronger than aspirin and could produce side effects  in people who were allergic to it – and Lee was believed to have been one of them.
Lee had taken the pill after discussing a script for The Game of Death with Ting and Raymond Chow Man-wai,  the boss of Golden Harvest film studio, which produced all of Lee’s blockbuster kung fu movies. When Chow left for dinner, Lee went to lie down. When he could not be woken up, Chow returned to Ting’s flat and called Chu.

For 10 minutes, Chu tried to revive Lee but there was no response. An ambulance was summoned and the medics performed another round of resuscitation, but to no avail.
Lee was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, where he was certified dead at 11.30pm.
For the next 42 years after the inquest recorded a verdict of “death by misadventure”, Chu did not break his silence over Lee’s death. He continued to practise at his Tsim Sha Tsui clinic and tended to patients at Baptist Hospital, Kowloon Tong.
Dr Chu is survived by Lily, his wife of 57 years, and the couple’s three children and two grandchildren.



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Bruce Lee

Hong Kong doctor, who tried to revive Bruce Lee, takes secrets of kung fu legend’s 1973 death to the grave

Hong Kong kung fu icon Bruce Lee died despite efforts by Dr Eugene Chu to resuscitate him. Photo: AP

Superstar Bruce Lee Siu-lung with his wife Linda and a friend of theirs head out of a theatre in April 1973. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Mourners pay respects to their idol at his funeral in 1973. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Thousands of fans of movie icon Bruce Lee turned out for his funeral in 1973 in Kowloon. Fans lined the street where his hearse would pass by. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Actress Betty Ting Pei poses next to a portrait of Bruce Lee on the 30th anniversary of his death. Lee died at the actress' apartment in Kowloon and she was later said to have been his mistress. Photo: AFP

News

Hong Kong

Education

Medic trusted by celebrities went to Kowloon Tong flat after kung fu icon failed to wake up


The doctor who tried to revive Hong Kong kung fu icon Bruce Lee as he lay on his death bed has died at age 84.
