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Zhong-Wei Chen
The British Association of Plastic Surgeons (2004) 57, 698–699
OBITUARY
Zhong-Wei Chen
In the afternoon of March 23rd, 2004, I received a telephone call from my colleague at Zhong Shan hospital. It was to inform me about the sudden and tragic death of Dr Zhong-Wei Chen which happened that same morning. This was something impossible for me to accept. Just a few days ago, I still visited him at his home and invited him to attend the National Hand Surgery Congress in May here in Shanghai. I could not calm myself down that day. His face, his voice and his smile…everything about him still seemed so vivid in my mind. Since the formation of the Chinese Association of Hand Surgery in 1984, many changes have taken place in the past two decades but these achievements S0007-1226/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/j.bjps.2004.06.025
would never have been completed without Dr Chen’s great contributions. It was Dr Chen who did the world’s first successful replantation of an amputated hand at the level of the wrist (1963) thus introducing the field of microsurgery and hand surgery in China. It was also Dr Chen who initiated the development and refinement of microsurgical techniques in China. Under his encouragement and guidance, the world saw toe-to-thumb free transplantation (Dong-Yue Yang, 1966), flap transfer (Dong-Yue Yang, 1973), the famous Chinese flap (Guo-Fan Yang, 1979), the Chinese hand (Zhong-Jia Yu, 1980) and a series of novel brachial plexus
Chen Zhong-Wei
operations (Yu-Dong Gu, 1970 and 1986) as well as other cutting-edge surgical procedures. With his passing, hand surgery in China has lost one of its most distinguished members whose name was a byword for integrity in this specialty at international level. When I gave him my invitation for the hand surgery meeting in May, I asked him if he would give a presentation on the history of hand surgery in China, describe the current situation and illustrate
699
plans for the future. He promised me he would come. He promised, but left us all of a sudden. Perhaps he is saying: history belongs to the past, future is left for us to paint. Yes, no one could forget the history that Dr Chen had created, and the future he had expected will be our responsibility to realize. Yu-Dong Gu
OBITUARY
Zhong-Wei Chen
In the afternoon of March 23rd, 2004, I received a telephone call from my colleague at Zhong Shan hospital. It was to inform me about the sudden and tragic death of Dr Zhong-Wei Chen which happened that same morning. This was something impossible for me to accept. Just a few days ago, I still visited him at his home and invited him to attend the National Hand Surgery Congress in May here in Shanghai. I could not calm myself down that day. His face, his voice and his smile…everything about him still seemed so vivid in my mind. Since the formation of the Chinese Association of Hand Surgery in 1984, many changes have taken place in the past two decades but these achievements S0007-1226/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/j.bjps.2004.06.025
would never have been completed without Dr Chen’s great contributions. It was Dr Chen who did the world’s first successful replantation of an amputated hand at the level of the wrist (1963) thus introducing the field of microsurgery and hand surgery in China. It was also Dr Chen who initiated the development and refinement of microsurgical techniques in China. Under his encouragement and guidance, the world saw toe-to-thumb free transplantation (Dong-Yue Yang, 1966), flap transfer (Dong-Yue Yang, 1973), the famous Chinese flap (Guo-Fan Yang, 1979), the Chinese hand (Zhong-Jia Yu, 1980) and a series of novel brachial plexus
Chen Zhong-Wei
operations (Yu-Dong Gu, 1970 and 1986) as well as other cutting-edge surgical procedures. With his passing, hand surgery in China has lost one of its most distinguished members whose name was a byword for integrity in this specialty at international level. When I gave him my invitation for the hand surgery meeting in May, I asked him if he would give a presentation on the history of hand surgery in China, describe the current situation and illustrate
699
plans for the future. He promised me he would come. He promised, but left us all of a sudden. Perhaps he is saying: history belongs to the past, future is left for us to paint. Yes, no one could forget the history that Dr Chen had created, and the future he had expected will be our responsibility to realize. Yu-Dong Gu