OBITUARY

Zhong-Wei Chen

Dr Chen Zhong-Wei died at the age of 74 on Tuesday23rd March 2004. He fell accidentally from thebalcony of his seventh floor apartment in Shanghai.

Dr Chen was respected throughout the world asone of the great pioneers of reconstructive micro-surgery. He was born in Ningbo, China in 1929 andgraduated at Shanghai in 1954. He trained inorthopaedics and was appointed to the SixthPeoples’ Hospital, Shanghai, and became head ofdepartment then deputy director of the hospital. Inthe early 60’s, he started to develop microsurgicaltechniques, and in January 1963, he successfullyreattached the hand of a 27-year-old worker. Thiswas the first such case reported in the literature,although Malt in the USA had reattached a child’sarm in 1962 and reported it subsequently.

Dr Chen remained innovative in microsurgicalreconstruction throughout his life, introducingsegmental reconstruction with replantation for atumour in 1966, free functioning muscle transfer in1975 and free fibular transfer for pseudarthrosis in1977. He developed thumb reconstruction by thewraparound technique at about the same time asWayne Morrison in Melbourne, and he introducedvascularised nerve grafting in 1981.

In 1982, the British Microsurgical travelling clubvisited Shanghai and Beijing, and the highlight ofthe trip was time spent with Dr Chen. He was acharming host and went to great trouble to arrangea meeting at which free exchange of ideas in this

developing field was possible, with simultaneoustranslation (which usually seemed to take threetimes as long as the original sentence beingtranslated!) We were privileged to watch a wrap-around thumb reconstruction, mostly under localanaesthetic, beautifully executed in simple con-ditions; the operating light looked like a carheadlamp. Chen wanted to entertain us in his verysimple apartment, but was forbidden to do so by theauthorities. In characteristic fashion he defiantlysent a minibus to collect us and we spent a pleasantevening with him, paid for by some rather aggres-sive questioning the following day.

The same refusal to accept the status quo nodoubt inspired Dr Chen’s huge surgical contri-butions, but also sadly may have been responsiblefor his early death. He was accidentally locked outof his apartment and having forgotten his keys,attempted to climb in through a window via abalcony. Unable to open the window, he lost hisbalance and fell seven floors.

Dr Chen was active, fit and working to the end ofhis life. He will be remembered not only as a greatsurgeon and innovator, but also as a charming,warm and much loved man, sadly missed by hiswife, Dr Hui Zhu Yin, daughter Dr Lilly Chen inManhattan, and a son and three grandchildren.

David EvansThe Hand Clinic, Oakley Green,

Windsor SL4 4LH, UK

The British Association of Plastic Surgeons (2004) 57, 700

S0007-1226/$ - see front matterdoi:10.1016/j.bjps.2004.06.026