When Wu Mengchao, president of East Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, was honored with the nation's top science award in Beijing yesterday, his family members, colleagues and students in the city expressed happiness, saying Wu was a worthy winner.

Wu is the father of Chinese liver and gall surgery. He performed the nation's first liver surgery in the 1960s and has since conducted some 13,600 liver and gall operations.

In addition, Wu has also nurtured 78 students for master's degree and 56 for doctorates or post-doctor research. All of them are key talents in domestic hepatobiliary major. Wu Peiyu, Wu's wife, said she was very happy that her husband had won such a great honor.

"We haven't planned any celebration for him. In any case he loves to keep a low profile," said the wife, herself an able gynecologist.

The couple has three daughters but none is in the medical field. "Maybe they think being a doctor is too busy and tiring."

Wu's students and colleagues, however, have more to say about his work and his attitude towards patients.

Despite his 84 years, Wu still conducts about 200 surgeries a year.

According to Wu, one third of his time is spent on meeting and business trips, one third is used up for hospital operation, eating and sleeping and the rest is spent in wards and operation theaters. His colleagues said Wu's hands shake while writing but they are rock steady while doing surgery.

He becomes very energetic, whenever he enters the surgery room. Under his leadership, the entire medical team at the hospital, especially his students, focuses on providing better service to patients.

"I won't forget my first day of following my teacher on his rounds of in-patient wards," said Shen Feng, Wu's student and a doctor at East Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital. "It was winter. He didn't touch the patients until he had made his hands warm by rubbing them strongly. It was the first lesson I learned from him. I was really touched and started doing the same with my teacher." Always thinking about the patient's welfare, seems to be Wu's mantra.

"Whenever he receives a patient, he talks with the person for at least 30 minutes," Shen said. "He always orders us to work out a most appropriate and economic treatment plan for patients, in order to control costs and also cure the disease."

(Shanghai Daily January 10, 2006)