Victor Chang

Victor Peter Chang (born Chang Yam Him; 21 November 1936 – 4 July 1991) was a Chinese-born Australian cardiac surgeon and a pioneer of modern heart transplantation in Australia.

Chang was born in 1936 in Shanghai to Australian-born Chinese-British parents.

He grew up in Hong Kong, where he attended primary school in Kowloon Tong and spent two years in St. Paul's College.

On 7 April 1948, Chang's mother died from breast cancer at the age of 33, prompting him to consider a career in medicine at the age of 12.

Chang's father Aubrey sent him and his younger sister to Sydney in 1951 to stay with extended family.

He attended Belmore Boys' High School in Belmore.

He completed his secondary education at Christian Brothers' High School in Lewisham.

He undertook his tertiary education at the University of Sydney, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science with First-Class Honours and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1962.

After completing his medical education, Chang interned at St Vincent's Hospital under the tutelage of cardiac surgeon Mark Shanahan who sent him to London to train with British surgeon Aubrey York Mason.

Chang became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1966 and trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

In London, he met and married his wife Ann (née Simmons).

Chang spent two years in the United States at the Mayo Clinic and became chief resident.

At St. Vincent's Hospital, Chang worked with surgeon Harry Windsor, who had performed Australia's first heart transplant in 1968.

In 1972, he returned to St Vincent's Hospital, where he was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and was appointed Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1973 and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1975.

In 1980, he met Frank Tamru, who acted as a marketing and sales specialist, while he worked for Shiley Laboratories in Singapore.

Together with engineers Richard Martin and Brij Gupta, Chang and Tamru founded Pacific Biomedical Enterprises Ltd., which is headquartered in Singapore and set up facilities to develop mechanical and tissue heart valves, called St. Vincent's Heart Valves, in Guangzhou and Sydney.

The valves were widely used throughout Asia.

The advent of anti-rejection drugs in 1980 made heart transplants more feasible, and Chang lobbied to raise funds in order to establish a heart transplant program at St. Vincent's. On 8 April 1984, a team of doctors, led by Chang, operated on 14-year-old Fiona Coote, who became Australia's youngest heart transplant patient.

Between 1984 and 1990, Chang's unit performed over 197 heart transplants and 14 heart–lung transplants.

The unit had a high rate of success, with 90% of those receiving transplants from the unit surviving beyond the first year.

In 1986, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for his "service to international relations between Australia and China and to medical science".

In 1986, Victor Chang was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) "in recognition of service to international relations between Australia and China and to medical science".

Concerned about a shortage of organ donors, Chang led the assembly of a team of scientists, engineers, and marketing specialists to develop an artificial heart and manufacture inexpensive heart valves.

His murder in 1991 stunned Australia and is considered one of the most notorious in the country's history.

In 1991, Chang was murdered by two young men in a failed extortion attempt.

His legacy includes setting up the Victor Chang Foundation.

Additionally, after his death, the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute was created, and the Dr. Victor Chang Lowy Packer Building at St Vincent's Hospital was established.

On the morning of 4 July 1991, Chang was shot twice in the head in a failed extortion attempt.

His body was found slumped in the gutter next to his Mercedes-Benz 500SL in the Sydney suburb of Mosman.

Two Malaysian men, Chew Seng (Ah Sung) Liew and Choon Tee (Phillip) Lim, picked Chang at random from a magazine featuring Asians who had "made it good" in Australia.

They ran their Toyota Corolla into Chang's vehicle, forcing him to pull over.

After getting into an argument with Chang, who refused to give them money, Liew fired the fatal shots.

The first shot entered near the right cheek and exited below the right ear while the fatal second, fired from point-blank range, entered the right temple and passed through the brain.

Police investigators initially suspected the involvement of Triad syndicates but later concluded the killing was an amateur act.

Liew pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 26 years in prison with a non-parole period of 20 years.

Lim, who pleaded not guilty and claimed he did not know Liew had a firearm, received a sentence of 18 to 24 years.

Chang was given a state funeral, and in 1999, he was voted Australian of the Century at the People's Choice Awards.

After completing his medical studies at the University of Sydney and working in St Vincent's Hospital, he trained in the United Kingdom and the United States as a surgeon before returning to Australia.

At St Vincent's Hospital, he helped establish the National Cardiac Transplant Unit, the country's leading center for heart and lung transplants.

Chang's team had a high success rate in performing heart transplantations, and he pioneered the development of an artificial heart valve.