8 October 7, 2010 Rancho Santa Fe Review

Profile William G. Wang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D.

Quick FactsName: William G. Wang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D.

Distinction: Dr. Wang (pronounced “Wong”) is acardiothoracic surgeon on the medical staff of ScrippsMemorial Hospital in La Jolla. He travels four times ayear to China to teach and perform open heart surgeries.

Born: Shanghai, China

Education: M.D., M.S. in general and thoracic sur-gery, M.D. /Ph.D. cardiac surgery, Shanghai SecondMedical University, China, 1978-1988. Fellowships incardiothoracic surgery, Arizona Heart Institute, 1988-90;St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center, Portland,Oregon, 1991-94. General surgery residency, SwedishMedical Center, University of Washington, Seattle,Wash., 1995-96.

Family: He and his wife, Amy, have been married 23years. They have two children: James, 22, just graduatedfrom UC Berkeley and is attending medical school inCincinnati, Ohio; and Justin, 8, a student at SycamoreRidge Elementary School.

Interests: “Giving back” by making frequent med-ical trips to his native China where he lectures and per-forms thoracic and open-heart surgical operations. Playsbasketball and enjoys customizing and fixing comput-ers. “If you have a computer problem, come to me,” helaughs.

Favorite Vacation Spot: “My home.”

Reading: Medical journals.

Favorite TV: CNN

Physical Regimen: Runs two miles per day

Philosophy: “Working hard, honesty and loyalty.The three things.”

Dr. William Wang (above withDr. Brad Foltz, an anesthesiolo-gist at Scripps La Jolla and atright) in China.

By Arthur LightbournWhen Dr. William Wang

was a young boy growing upin Shanghai, China, two peo-ple especially impacted his life.

First was his cousin, ayoung girl his age, who could-n’t run 10 steps without gasp-ing for air and her lips turningblue.

He was told she was suf-fering from a fatal congenitalheart disease.

“Whoa, I thought, howdo we solve this problem? Ihave to do something.”

The second person whoinfluenced the direction of hislife was somebody he nevermet: a contrarian Canadiandoctor named NormanBethune, who performed bat-tlefield surgical operations andtrained doctors, nurses and

medics while serving as a med-ical advisor with theCommunist Eighth RouteArmy during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1939. Hetreated both woundedChinese and Japanese casual-ties alike.

Years later, Bethunegained international recogni-

tion when Chairman MaoZedong documented the finalmonths of the doctor’s life inChina and praised Bethune’s“spirit of absolute selflessness”in an essay that becamerequired reading in China’selementary schools during theCultural Revolution (1966-76).

The Canadian surgeoncontracted blood poisoningafter he cut his finger whileoperating on a soldier anddied on Nov. 12, 1939.

Wang was one of thoseelementary school studentsinspired by Dr. Bethune, andannounced to his parents thathe wanted to become a physi-cian.

“My dad and mother did-n’t want me to do medicine.They wanted me to go intopolitics. Even right now, poli-tics is the best occupation inChina. They have the privi-lege; they have the power andthe have the money.”

Wang was born inShanghai. His father, now 84,is a retired government officialand former governor of QingHai province.

In 1978, when Wang was16 and had graduated fromhigh school, he began hismedical studies at ShanghaiSecond Medical University,emerging 10 years later withhis medical degree, a master’sdegree in general and thoracicsurgery and a Ph.D. in cardiacsurgery.

In China, only 3 percentof the population attains a col-lege education, compared to22 percent in the U.S.

Coming to the U.S. in1988, Wang completed fellow-ships in cardiothoracic surgeryat the Arizona Heart Institute,St. Vincent Hospital andMedical Center in Portland,Oregon, and UCSF’s CaliforniaPacific Medical Center in SanFrancisco, in addition to a gen-eral surgical residency at theUniversity of Washington’sSwedish Medical Center.

Today, the 48-year-oldWang is a U.S. citizen and car-diothoracic surgeon on themedical staff of ScrippsMemorial Hospital in La Jolla.He joined Scripps in 2000. Hespecializes in open heart andlung surgery; and has beenmaking humanitarian tripsback to China four times a

year for the past 11 years tolecture, exchange medicalinformation and perform sur-geries at his own expense.

“I’m Chinese,” Wangexplained, “and I want to dosomething for the Chinesepeople.”

We interviewed Dr. Wangin the Schaetzel Center med-ical library on the campus ofScripps Memorial Hospital inLa Jolla.

Wang’s most recent tripto China was in June for twoweeks accompanied by a vol-unteer team of three otherScripps physicians: Dr. MarcSedwitz, vascular surgeon andcurrent chief of staff at ScrippsLa Jolla; Dr. Ali Hamzei, cardi-ologist; and Dr. Brad Foltz,anesthesiologist.

The Scripps team lecturedand exchanged informationon the latest open heart surgi-cal procedures with doctors inthe Beijing Hospital; per-formed four congenital heartsurgeries on children at theYodak Hospital in Shanghai;and, at the BethuneInternational Peace Hospitalin Shijiazhuang, performedfour open heart surgeries,eight pacemaker implants andthree defibrillator implants tomonitor and correct life-threatening abnormal heartrhythms, and one gastrectomyon a young woman who wassuffering from stomach can-cer.

While spending a week atthe Peace Hospital in the

remote Hebei Province, theScripps team also deliveredtwo lectures to a packed audi-torium of 3,000 medical stu-dents from all over China.

The 1,300-bed BethunePeace Hospital, dedicated tothe memory of Canadian sur-geon Norman Bethune, islocated on the site whereBethune opened a battlefieldhospital more than 70 yearsago.

The state of medicine inChina, Wang said, is muchworse than it was initiallywhen the ChineseCommunist governmentlaunched a system of universalsocialized medicine, Wangsaid.

“Right now,” he said,“with the gradual introduc-tion of a little bit of capitalisminto the economy patients arerequired to pay some of thecosts. The regulations specifythat the government pays 70percent and the patient pays30 percent. But, the truth is,poor people from remote ruralareas don’t have this kind ofmoney.

“The medical care in

China right now,” he said,“you can’t compare with theUnited States. Medical care inChina is probably 50 to 60years behind the UnitedStates.”

In China, there are anestimated 1,000 to 3,400 car-diothoracic surgeons serving apopulation of 1.3 billion peo-ple. More than 100,000 openheart surgeries are performedyearly in more than 20 hospi-tals throughout the countryand an estimated 8 millionpeople are in need of cardiacsurgery.

In the U.S., the Society ofThoracic Surgeons reportsthere are 3,100 active, practic-ing cardiothoracic surgeonsserving a population of 303million people.

On his trips to China,Wang brings his own surgicalinstruments and supplies. “Idon’t use Chinese instru-ments, because with them youcan’t guarantee the surgicalresults. It really makes a differ-ence. So far, we haven’t killanybody there…No fatalities.”

He plans to return toChina again this winter.

Doctor gives back by sharing his knowledge and skillwith open heart surgeons in his home country of China

Dr. William Wang