Lebanon, September 1982. A young woman, with the fear of death and helplessness in her eyes and amongst the rubble and destruction all around her, approached Dr Ang Swee Chai, a volunteer orthopaedic surgeon from London. She was holding a small baby boy in her arms. She held the baby out towards Swee, begging her to take the boy to save its life from the soldiers and militia. Swee found out later that both mother and baby were killed. Sitting in my office, Swee looks up, her eyes filled with sadness and regret as she describes this heart-breaking encounter in her soft voice and in vivid detail. This experience and that of the Sabra Shatila massacre where hundreds of Palestinian refugees were killed that she witnessed have left an indelible mark on her life and given her purpose, passion and desire to help humanity. As a Christian she feels that this has been her calling.
Swee has spent her lifetime using her surgical skills as an orthopaedic surgeon and her commitment for humanity to work in conflict zones, having made visits to Lebanon dozens of times, to Gaza for 6 humanitarian missions, to the aftermath of the Pakistan earthquake, setting up an NGO and being a voice for peace. She went to Jerusalem as a witness to the Israeli Kahan Commission into the massacre of 1982 and gave evidence. During the enquiry she stated “If we are silent in the face of massacres we would not be fit to be doctors and scientists. We have to be witnesses.” Swee has been arrested, deported, marched at gunpoint and yet has always remained strong, calm, brave and defiant. As she approached her seventieth birthday, she was invited to be medic on board a converted Norwegian fishing boat, the Freedom Flotilla al-Awda, heading for blockaded Gaza with life-saving antibiotics and medical supplies. She accepted knowing that she was frail and elderly, prone to seasickness and unable to swim!
She has received countless international awards. In 2016 she was inducted into the Singapore National Women’s Hall of Fame and was also the recipient of the Star of Palestine award by President Arafat, the highest honour for service to the Palestinian people. She has given highly acclaimed TEDx talks and also appeared on HARDTalk on the BBC, a programme renowned for its hard-hitting in-depth interviews of sensitive topics with famous personalities. Following her missions to Lebanon and Gaza she set up the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians in 1984 and now serves as a patron.
Human rights and defending justice have been a common theme in Swee’s life which I am sure has made her the person that she is. Her parents actually met in a Japanese concentration camp as prisoners of war during the latter part of the second world war during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. Her mother was a female leader of the opposition to the occupation and her father a journalist who also opposed the brutal occupation. Her late husband Francis Khoo was a commercial lawyer and a staunch human rights activist wanted for imprisonment for his defence of those persecuted.
Swee was born in Penang, Malaysia, but raised in Singapore. Her grandfather, who, like most Asian men of that era, was traditional and refused to let her mother go to school because he believed educated girls made bad wives. But her mother was defiant then as her daughter Swee is now and went to the school and refused to leave until they admitted her. The eldest of four children, Swee Chai attended Kwong Avenue Primary School, Raffles Girl’s School and then the University of Singapore to study medicine. She was silver medallist for her undergraduate medical degree and gold medallist for her post-graduate degree in Occupational Medicine. It is no surprise that she holds education dear to her heart and is renowned throughout the UK for her exemplary teaching of orthopaedic surgery to her junior colleagues. She tells me why she chose medicine:
Swee worked in Singapore for a number of years building her career but her husband had to flee Singapore in 1977 because of a government crackdown. She was arrested a few weeks later under the Internal Security Act and subjected to solitary confinement and continuous interrogation concerning his whereabouts. Upon her release, they both found refuge in the UK.
It was rare for a woman to train as a surgeon and orthopaedic surgery was very much male dominated even more then than it is today. At 4ft 10” she defies all the physical characteristics associated with orthopaedic surgery. Swee has broken many barriers in surgery as an Asian woman and a refugee. She was the first female orthopaedic consultant surgeon appointed in Bishop Auckland University Hospital, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1992 and at that time, one of only 4 female consultant orthopaedic surgeons in the UK. She highlights her mentor Prof Jack Stevens who supported and defended her appointment. She was appointed as the first woman to the orthopaedic consultant staff at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Royal London Hospital in 1996 where she continues to work. She has a specialist surgical interest in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who suffer with pain, deformity and reduced function of their hands due to this chronic condition.
Swee has published widely but will be remembered for two books. The first book War Surgery: Field Manual she co-authored with Hans Husum and Erik Fosse which is a comprehensive book for the management of trauma in war zones.
The second book From Beirut to Jerusalem describes her journey over the last 40 years. The book also contains many pictures. One of these is of 6 destitute children standing amongst the ruin and rubble. They survived the massacre but lost their parents and homes. They raised their hands and said to Swee “we are not afraid”. Swee returned to the camp many times but never found them again. She says that they live forever in her heart and whenever the situation in her own life becomes unbearable, she visits that picture for strength.
The last 18 months have been a difficult time for Swee as she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer and had to undergo surgery and chemotherapy which thankfully has been successful. She has returned to work a year ago at the age of 73. I hope that picture has given the strength that Swee has needed.
What of her legacy I ask her? As a true professional and compassionate surgeon, Swee cares first and foremost for her patients at the Royal London Hospital. As she approaches retirement, she wants to ensure that she passes her specialist skills of treating patients with complex rheumatoid arthritis to her proteges in order that these patients are not forgotten, and those skills are not lost. She wishes to leave a world full of hope and to hand over the baton of helping the sick, destitute, and vulnerable and the Palestinian struggle to the next generation. She is also worried about the wellbeing of her cats. She has 12 cats, of which 5 share her home throughout her cancer treatment.
Occasionally a surgeon simply transcends the profession and there can be no doubt as to the impact that Swee has had on the world, and we owe her our deepest gratitude. There will never be another like Swee who represents the very best of us. Dr Ang Swee Chai is without doubt the most inspirational person that I have ever met, and it was a real privilege and honour to be able to share her life story for Surgery.
