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Monday March 22, 2004
AMERICAN DREAM
Today a respected specialist surgeon in America, a health policy lecturer and an author of medical textbooks, Dr Lee Keat Jin was just a naïve, sheltered schoolboy in Penang half a century ago. ZACK YUSOF speaks to the doc about his struggles and journey to self-realisation.
FACT FILE
Name: Lee Keat Jin
Age: 63
Hometown: Penang
Occupation: Ear, nose and throat specialist, health policy lecturer
Education: Methodist Boys School, Penang; Harvard University (BSC in Chemistry), Columbia University (BSC in Medicine), and Harvard Medical School (residency in ear, nose and throat surgery).
Current Base: Cambridge, Massachusetts, the United States
Years Abroad: 46
BACK in 1955, a wide-eyed and impressionable 15-year-old Form Three Methodist Boys School student dreamt about attending an American Ivy League university on a scholarship for his higher education. Although Penang must have seemed a million miles away from the beautiful surrounds of New England in the United States that he had learned about in geography class, Lee Keat Jin was determined to sample its “rolling hills and vivid red-orange-bright-yellow” autumn foliage for himself.
New England and its prestigious Ivy League, he had decided, was going to be his next port of call, come heaven or high water.
But back in the 1950s, this was no easy task for a Malaysian student. The norm for local scholars was to attend the University of Malaya, the newly founded Nanyang University in Singapore or go overseas to Britain, Australia, Hong Kong or India. America was certainly not part of the bigger picture. Furthermore, SATs (Scholastic Aptitude Tests) were all but unheard of in the country and there were no Ivy League recruiters or interviewers to assist and advise potential foreign students. Even getting the addresses of Harvard and Yale proved to be an elusive task as the latest edition of the university guide and catalogue at the Usis (United States Information Service) on Beach Street was five years out of date.
By 1957, Lee was no closer to achieving his dream of an American Ivy League education. Undeterred by his lack of success, he decided one afternoon to follow the American vice consul’s car home – “with its American flag flying in the breeze”- in a bid to get the information on the Ivy League universities that he so desperately sought. His dogged persistence finally paid off as the vice consul turned out to be most understanding and helpful. Lee was also inspired by two events he had read about in the newspapers that occurred that year which spurred him on to chase his dream: The launch of the Russian rocket Sputnik and the two Chinese scientists winning the Nobel Prize for nuclear physics. Lee decided then that he would be the next Chinese to win the Nobel Prize for nuclear physics.
"Well, the food is always excellent in Malaysia but I think that the most important thing is that it is a developed country with free enterprise and democracy. People here seem very happy. In a way, it is a model for the rest of the world."
In late 1958, Lee was enrolled at Harvard University, after an interminable five-week boat trip. However, when he went to Harvard, he found out that nuclear physics was not his strength and duly made the switch to medicine. After graduation, he proceeded to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, completing his formal training in otolaryngology surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Fast forward to the present day, Dr Lee is now a successful and widely respected doctor who practises and teaches at Yale. These days, he can also be found travelling around the world lecturing on heath policy. In practice for over 30 years and widely regarded as something of a pioneer in his field, Dr Lee has authored several articles and many books and has also invented about a dozen medical instruments, including a drill for pituitary surgery. In addition, he has also pioneered new surgical procedures to treat disorders of the ear, nose and throat.
Now residing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr Lee was back in Malaysia for six days last month to conduct a series of lectures on various health-related issues. Generously taking time out from his busy schedule, he took a stroll down memory lane back to his childhood days in idyllic Penang during a recent interview.
A chatty friendly guy armed with a dry, self-effacing sense of humour and a disarming modesty, Lee still remembered his Penang days fondly.
“It was a very comfortable, caring type of community where the people are friendly, scenery beautiful, and weather just right,” reminisced the genial senior citizen, who still looks pretty fit and healthy for someone in his 60s. “I have to say that I had a wonderful time growing up there. In many ways, I had the perfect childhood. But fortunately, or unfortunately, I was always studying back then, so I never learned how to swim. I grew up on an island and I still can’t swim!”
According to Dr Lee, he still keeps in touch with his old headmasters back at his old Penang alma mater. Despite his claims to the contrary, he is probably one of MBS’s more revered alumni – “Well, I don’t know about that,” he said, laughing modestly. “I call them every now and again to help if I can. I got my education there, my scholarship, and you know, you’ve always got to give back to society. From a studies standpoint, I have to say that I had absolutely no trouble competing with the American students at Harvard. In fact, I would say that I scored higher than 2/3 of the American students over there.”
Having spent over a decade in higher education – 12 years to be precise – one has to wonder why Dr Lee did not feel the urge to return to his homeland once his studies had concluded. According to him, it was simply because it was the most sensible option for him.
“I left Malaysia for education purposes. But back in those days, American medical degrees were not recognised in Malaysia,” explained Dr Lee. “So for that reason, I chose to stay in the US. Had the American medical degree been recognised in Malaysia, I may well have come back. But in order to come back and be a doctor, I would have had to start all over again and that just wasn’t practical.”
Growing up in Penang, did it ever cross his mind that he would eventually end up settling down abroad? “No, I only made plans to study abroad and then come back. But when the degrees are not recognised in Malaysia ... but that’s history now. Now every time I come back, I’m amazed to find the country even more developed than before. I really don’t believe that it’s a developing country. I think it’s a first-class developed country. It’s a beautiful country, a free country where people of different cultures intermingle and live in multi-racial harmony and that’s fantastic.”
So after finishing his medical training, Dr Lee opted to stay in America and start his own practice, becoming an American citizen in the process. Despite having spent 46 years away from Malaysia, he still returns regularly to his homeland every two or three years either for work or simply to visit his family. He has a sister who is also a doctor in Seremban and another sister who is a music teacher in Penang. For Dr Lee, Malaysia remains close to his heart, even after such a lengthy period overseas. “Well, the food is always excellent in Malaysia but I think that the most important thing is that it is a developed country with free enterprise and democracy. People here seem very happy. In a way, it is a model for the rest of the world.”
Coming to America
Upon arriving in the US for the first time, severe culture shock played its part in making it difficult for Lee to adapt to his strange new surrounds. The story goes that when Lee’s boat landed in New York, he watched black and white television for the very first time with awe and amazement after the captain of the ship had turned it on for the passengers.
After clearing customs, an American university student met him at the dock to help him catch the train from New York to Boston. Having paced the sun-drenched streets near Times Square with his new pal for hours, Lee was parched and in need of a drink. The American student suggested getting a cola, swiftly adding that the pair should “look for a drugstore”, about which the startled Lee started getting very worried and afraid as he had heard horror stories back in Penang that American students indulged in drugs and alcohol. Little did he know that American pharmacies sold everything from soft drinks to cosmetics to birthday cards.
“I went over to America when I was 17 and I had never even left Penang at the time,” explained Lee about his initial naivety. “I had only been to Alor Star, which was 60 miles (96km) away, because my uncle lived there.
“Being a very sheltered child, it was very difficult at first but, eventually, I got the hang of things. The language was not a problem. As a matter of fact, I used to speak better grammar and English at MBS than I do now because now I am Americanised.
“But, initially, homesickness was a real problem. In fact, I was so homesick that I wrote letters home to my sister telling her never to go abroad to study, to stay at home as it was more comfortable. But I made the effort to assimilate which eventually made things easier. Also, I kept hitting the books because when you are studying hard, you can’t get homesick,” added Dr Lee.
During the course of the interview, Dr Lee revealed that he was a firm believer in “making lemonade out of lemon”, an Americanism that basically means taking the good from the bad. As personal philosophy, it is up there with the best of them and one that certainly helped him get to grips with life in a foreign country initially.
“In the beginning, I was sad and unhappy but what are you going to do? Complain? Quit? If I came home without a degree, I would be ashamed at having wasted my scholarship. It simply would not have done anybody any good. So I just stuck it out and got on with things.”
Away from work, Dr Lee devotes his time to his writing (he has published several articles and 18 textbooks to date including The Essential Otolaryngology, considered as the most widely read text on ear, nose and throat in the world) and his volunteer work, an admirable pastime that Lee jokingly referred to as the thing that kept the oxygen going to his brain and preventing him from becoming senile in his old age.
“I believe in giving back to society. Right now, about 50% of my time is spent working for charities and non-profit organisations. One of them is a deafness research foundation. The other is the American Academy of Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors of which I was past president.”
On writing
As for his textbook writing extra-curricular activities, he felt compelled to try his hand at it when he discovered that there was no set curriculum for ear, nose and throat specialists several years back.
“Don’t forget that I’m historical, a dinosaur,” quipped Dr Lee. “Even in America back in those days, there was no set curriculum for ear, nose and throat specialists so people didn’t know what to study. They just took care of patients. So I read all the textbooks there were in existence and I summarised them. I read 10 years worth of journals and did the same with those. That formed the basis for my first book because it pooled together all the body of knowledge available on the subject in 1973.? My first book that I wrote back in ’73 is now in its eighth edition.”
Dr Lee’s latest book, currently still a work in progress, deals with ethics of medicine, a topic close to his heart. “Medicine in America is becoming more of a business industry. Medical students and doctors are forgetting that it is a calling to heal the sick. Hopefully my book will help them to remember the ethical aspect of medicine, how to deliver medicine more efficiently and effectively. It will also help them to reduce medical errors and improve customer service relations with the patients.”
Another one of his passions is health policy and the doctor was keen to make a point about the rising cost of healthcare in a developing country like Malaysia during the course of the interview. “As a country develops, it is inevitable that the cost of healthcare will rise. As we provide better quality and more accessible healthcare to our citizens, we need to prevent the cost from skyrocketing, like in the US, which consumes 15% of its gross domestic product. Once it is so high, there are multiple stock holders and therefore much harder to control the cost.
“Perhaps Malaysia can start introducing concepts and strategies that help healthcare to be more efficient and reduce cost without rationing or cutting cost. Examples of such strategies include prevention, detection and monitoring of disease like diabetes, heart condition, arthritis and cancer, what is known as disease management in America, as well as the application of user-friendly electronic patient medical records.”
Finally, as a local kampung boy from Penang who has made his mark overseas, what advice would Dr Lee give Malaysians who are planning to relocate overseas? “I would encourage the young people to study hard, have integrity, be industrious and have common sense. I think that these are the basic ingredients for success in any young person.”
