(Trinidad Guardian) The University of the West Indies (UWI) has received a donation of US$120,000 from one of its first medical graduates.
In a statement yesterday, UWI said that the months of August and September marked its annual Global Giving campaign and as the 2021 edition of the crowdfunding campaign drew to a close, it received the generous gift from alumnus and Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr Michael Woo-Ming.
“A member of the first class of medical students enrolled in 1948 (at what was then the University College of the West Indies) Dr Woo-Ming went on to become the first Professor and Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The UWI, Mona Campus. During his training years, he was himself the beneficiary of philanthropic financial assistance,” the UWI statement said.
It added that today, the member of the 1948 medical class had become the benefactor of an endowment fund that will stimulate research in Cardiothoracic Surgery in Jamaica.
After graduating in 1954 with his MBBS degree, Dr Woo-Ming spent four more years at the Mona Campus, rotating through different specialties which helped his decision to become a surgeon. He needed financial assistance to further his studies in the UK and a Leverhulme Fellowship enabled him to stay for four additional years in London to be trained in the newly-developing procedure of open heart surgery before returning to Mona.
“Then began the challenging task of financing this very expensive, complex surgical procedure and training a large team of doctors, nurses and technicians to save the life of the first open heart surgery patient. With committed team effort and annual donations arranged by organisations such as the Lions Club and the Heart Foundation, Dr Woo-Ming and his team would go on to provide world-class open heart surgical services to Jamaica for a decade from 1967 to 1977 after which he migrated from Jamaica for the United States,” UWI noted.
Dr Woo-Ming said, “The entire period from 1948 to 1977, including my studies at The UWI and pioneering open heart surgery at Mona is an indelible part my life’s history. This endowment fund to stimulate research activity in Cardiothoracic Surgery is one way of memorialising my experience and contributing to the continued improvement of the open heart surgical services offered to the people of Jamaica and the rest of the world.”