Chinese-Australian heart surgeon, murder victim. He died on 7/04/1991, c. 8:00 AM AEST, Mosman, Sydney, Australia from two gunshots to the head. Dr. Chang’s shocking murder by assailants in a Sydney street has robbed medicine and Australia of a great figure. He made an outstanding contribution to medicine, heart surgery, the Australian community and Australian-Asian relations.
Chang left Shanghai as a youth in 1953 to complete
his secondary schooling at Christian Brothers College, Lewisham. Graduating from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1962, he became an intern and later a registrar in cardio thoracic surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital. After obtaining Fellowship in Surgery from the English and American College of Surgeons he returned to St Vincent’s Hospital in 1972 to join the elite St Vincent’s cardio thoracic team.
A pioneer of the modern era of heart transplantation, Victor Chang was responsible for the establishment of the National Heart Transplant Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital in 1984, lobbying politicians and raising funds for its ongoing work. During the 1980’s he also traveled and lectured
extensively in Asia and formed the Australian Chinese Foundation which sponsored South-East Asian doctors, nurses and students improving the quality of patient care in their own countries. Dr Chang was an original thinker and saw the need for research and development of various cardio thoracic devices. These included the development of an artificial heart valve and more recently the development of an artificial heart.
In 1986 he was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia and the University of New South Wales awarded its highest degree of M.D. Honoris Causa for “scholarly achievement and humanitarian endeavor”.
Victor was a quiet, charming person who was loved by his patients and his friends and especially by his wife Ann and his children Vanessa, Matthew and Marcus. He was a man of vision; as a surgeon, as a researcher and as an ambassador for Australia and the people of Southeast Asia. Well traveled, he had a his passion for cars, vintage and modern, and loved motor racing
Link to Wikipedia biography