These days I do not so often have a gauntlet dispatched in my direction, but when one lands at my feet I have an irresistible urge to pick it up.  By way of explanation, one of my passing pleasures is to engage in debate and discussion in the WAME list serve, a discussion forum for members of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). more…

Whilst reading the 27 February issue of the South China Morning Post, my eye was caught by an article titled “Mother of girl set on fire vows court action.” This was a detailed story of a teenage girl in Anhui province who had kerosene poured over her and was set alight by a man whose advances she had refused. This happened last year and it would appear that the family had decided not to settle out of court with the assailants family to cover the medical costs of treating the girl.  The family was going to pursue legal action and the mother had turned to the internet last week to seek help with her case. It is obvious the case is causing strong feelings to emerge in the Chinese internet community. An additional point of outrage is the dalliance of the police in preparing an injury report. Whether this is justified is not clear as it will certainly take time in the UK to complete the assessment of the prognosis in a burn victim.  What struck me though was the prominence given to this incident, in terms of column inches (two columns of around ten inches each). Contrast this with a  report in the Indian Express (16 January 2012). In just two column inches was a report of a 17 year old girl who was allegedly abducted, raped, and set on fire by four youths in the Khekhreru area of Uttar Pradesh by four youths. The girl had been admitted to hospital where her condition was critical. I read this whilst in Mumbai waiting for a plane back to Hong Kong. Of note I had been at a wonderful conference of Indian Reconstructive Microsurgeon held in Aurangabad.  My Indian friends in Hong Kong responded in a very matter of fact way when I told them of the article and said that the youths would have just been trying to destroy evidence of the rape. more…

There is no doubt that Hong Kong is going through an identity crisis. Those who have had teenage children will appreciate the mood swings and the irrational emotionality of the conflicted child; anxious to grow up but reluctant to face the reality of adulthood. I came to Hong Kong two years after the handover/return of the territory to mainland China. Economically things were not so bright, but politically Hong Kong residents were still delighted with their new freedom from British colonial rule. Now we are in 2012 and the fateful 2047 seems not so distant anymore. As the territory moves inexorably towards full reunification with mainland China, the days of British rule are increasingly being referred to in nostalgic terms. more…

Three months in prison for a kiss on the back. Weeping in the dock with the realisation of the implication. A moment of madness. And that is the point. Madness is not the same as badness. A 45 year old male GP from Wanchai was examining a 25 year old female. She was lying face down on the examination bed and he loosened her bra and kissed her back. The case was reported in the English and Chinese press last week. According to the local radio the girl was complaining of back pain and the GP was examining her.  Sometimes terms are lost in translation, at other times they gain in meaning and implication, and in English the word “massage” has been used in the context of the translation of said examination. Whatever the case the key issue was that the doctor did not have a chaperone. The reason why, has not been elaborated but in many cases it is economic i.e. the saving of another salary. The report describes a middle aged father of two young children who does good works for his local church. more…

A story has just emerged in the local press about a 30 year old woman from Guangdong province (just across the border from Hong Kong) who sustained 85% deep burns in an agricultural accident. The reason this unfortunate burns patient became the focus of publicity is that she is HIV positive and that has led to her being refused treatment in three different hospitals. Details are scanty regarding the original route of infection although there are a significant number of HIV positive patients in China related to blood transfusion contamination. Whatever the case the hospitals concerned raised the issue of risk to health care workers from dealing with an extensive burns patient with a socially stigmatised infectious disease. more…

Karma is a word that has distinct cultural meanings and can relate to spiritual or more secular events. Whatever the context, the general meaning concerns actions and consequences. After the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China in 2008 it was an acknowledged faux pas for Sharon Stone to relate the death and destruction to “bad karma” over the Mainland’s treatment of Tibet. more…

A few weeks ago I took the family on a trip to Wuhan. We went with another family and a family friend, so it was a jolly party that crossed the border and took a domestic flight from Shenzhen to Wuhan on the Friday evening.

Wuhan is a fascinating city, positioned half way between Beijing in the north and Guangzhou in the south, and half way between Shanghai in the east and Chongqing in the west. The Lonely Planet guide says that Wuhan is a place that many visit but only to pass through. This is a shame as it has many historical and cultural sites to visit. It stands on the mighty Yangtze River and the Yellow Crane Tower figures in many classical poetic works. Wuhan features a rather politically sensitive anniversary this year. It was 100 years ago in October of 1911 that the Wuchang Uprising overthrew the Qing Dynasty to bring democracy to China. Dr Sun Yat-sen, the Che Guevara of the Orient, played a prominent role in the process. But I digress somewhat. more…

I see that Edzard Ernst, the first Professor of Complementary Medicine in the UK has branded Prince Charles as a “snake oil salesman.” Snake oil is an interesting term and the derivation illustrates a broad spectrum of human nature ranging from human ingenuity, observation, and tradition, to greed and entrepreneurship. How so?

Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine made from the oil of the Chinese water snake (enhydics chinensis). The oil was used to treat inflammatory conditions and contemporary analysis indicates the Chinese water snake has a very high content of eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) which is an omega-3 fatty acid. The concentration is in the region of 20%. EPA is the starting material to make a range of prostaglandins which have an effect on certain aspects of the inflammatory response.  Indeed they act in a manner similar to aspirin. As EPA can be absorbed topically it is no wonder that the genuine snake oil deserved its true therapeutic status. more…

Each morning in Hong Kong I have a routine to check emails and visit a select number of websites to update myself on the world’s events. Naturally one of these websites is the BBC. And so it was this morning that my attention was drawn to a short video clip, which I predict may well go viral, showing a “senior orthopaedic surgeon” losing his cool with a poor BBC television crew. more…

A few weeks ago I received a parcel in the post. I unwrapped it with care and found it was a book. A very interesting book actually, entitled Oculoplasty – Innovative Simpler Techniques. This book can be found on Amazon. It was written by an internet friend, Hemant Mehta. I have never actually met Hemant in the flesh, so to speak, but we first met, online, when he submitted a paper to a journal I was editing. more…