Jul 17, 2011
'Man, pay more attention to women'
Retired gynaecologist wants more done for women and puts her money where her mouth is
Women's woman
'In this society, everything is men, men, men. So I come along and say, 'Pay more attention to women.' I'm a woman, I would like to have more done for women. It's as simple as that.'
Dr Oon Chiew Seng
Dr Oon has pledged a generous gift to NUS, which used it to set up a medical fellowship in her name to fund research in women's health and ageing science. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
Dr Oon Chiew Seng is 95, has a brisk gait and reads without glasses.
She is also sharp as a tack, and does not shy from calling a spade a spade. Then again, one would not have expected anything less of a gutsy trailblazer.
She was the first gynaecologist to go into private practice, in 1959. She founded and ran Singapore's first nursing home for dementia patients, the Apex Harmony Lodge, in 1995.
And earlier this year, she pledged a generous gift to the National University of Singapore which used it to set up a medical fellowship in her name at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. The Oon Chiew Seng Fellowship will fund research in women's health and ageing science.
'In this society, everything is men, men, men. So I come along and say, 'Pay more attention to women',' says the straight-talking nonagenarian in an interview at NUS.
'I'm a woman, I would like to have more done for women. It's as simple as that.'
The way she sees it, 'with medicine, plenty more can and needs to be done'.
'There's plenty that we do not know, so resources should be constantly channelled towards that,' says the retired gynaecologist who hopes the fellowship will not only yield new research, but also train medical professionals whose work will have a positive influence on the environment.
The fellowship is especially significant in the light of Singapore's ageing population. By 2030, 19 per cent of the little red dot's population will be aged 65 and above, up from around 9 per cent last year.
The elderly are also more susceptible to dementia, which currently afflicts around 20,000 Singaporeans, a number which is predicted to grow to 45,000 a decade from now.
The first Oon fellow is Dr Reshma Merchant, NUS' Head of Division of General Medicine, who is researching the relationship between dementia and diabetes.
The fellowship is not Dr Oon's first gift to NUS. Over the years, she has - in keeping with her belief in the importance of medical research and education - made regular contributions to the institution.
The youngest of 10 children of a Penang-born rice and pepper trader, she studied medicine at her elder brother's insistence.
'I was already doing nursing then but he wouldn't have it. He wanted me to be a doctor because it had better prospects,' says Dr Oon whose father died when she was only 13.
'But I think it was because he also wanted to be a doctor himself too. But my father had cabinets of books on Chinese medicine and he wouldn't have any of his children studying Western medicine.'
She adds humorously: 'My brother also couldn't be a lawyer because lawyers tell lies, you see. So he studied engineering; he was a Queen's scholar.'
So Dr Oon redid her Senior Cambridge examinations and studied Latin - 'very stupid, you know, because there are very few Latin words in medicine' - to qualify for a place at the Medical College of Singapore.
World War II, however, broke out soon after, and in 1941, her brother packed her off to India where her tenacity steered her through a lack of money and other obstacles to complete her medical studies. She returned to Singapore in 1946, and two years later, graduated with a Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery from the Medical College.
She cut her teeth as a houseman in Kandang Kerbau Hospital, and soon made her mark as an outstanding gynaecologist, sometimes doing as many as 10 caesarean sections in a day.
She recalls an occasion when she did not sleep for 48 hours when a patient developed complications.
'She started bleeding after delivery, and the blood would not clot. Luckily I remembered her husband worked in the Royal Malayan Navy.'
Dr Oon told him to round up scores of his colleagues to donate blood. They did.
'The woman walked out of the hospital alive. It's simple things like saving a life which make what you do worthwhile.'
Feisty and confident, the independent spirit - who used to raise eyebrows by keeping racehorses in the 1960s and 1970s - has never let her gender get in the way of what she wants to do.
As a young doctor, she never 'allowed any male doctors to bully me'.
'If I'm capable, why should I let them bully me? I believe in fighting for my rights,' she says simply.
'I don't make it a point to remember, but I've gone against the system many times.'
This includes becoming the first gynaecologist to go into private practice when she could not see eye to eye with her boss at the hospital.
She ran it for more than 30 years and retired in 1991, when she was already 75.
But not one to rest on her laurels, the good doctor - who was the chairman of the building fund and a member of the medical committee at the Sree Narayana Mission Home for the Aged - decided to focus her energies on helping the elderly.
She went on a fact-finding mission in Australia after a talk with the Ministry of Health informed her that there was a need for a home for elderly dementia patients.
She opened the Apex Harmony Lodge in Pasir Ris in 1995, and was actively involved in its operations until she stepped down as chairman earlier this year.
The outspoken woman speaks fondly of the patients at the home but is less enamoured of their families.
'Sometimes you have to beg them to visit the patients. The trouble is people don't care about the elderly. They are too engrossed in themselves. If they cared more about the elderly and spent more time with them, they won't end up in Apex.'
Asked if she worries about falling victim to dementia herself, Dr Oon - who had boyfriends in her youth but never got married - scoffs and replies: 'Fortunately for me, I never worry about the future. I don't think about miserable things. Why think about things which may not happen?
'And if they happen, just deal with them lah. What else do you do, sit down and cry?'
She would rather spend her time on more worthwhile pursuits.
Like organising an annual gathering for members of the Oon clan who are scattered all over the globe, taking daily walks at the Botanic Gardens and playing mahjong with friends a few times a week.
'I think it's good to gamble, you know,' she pronounces.
'Nobody likes to lose when they gamble. You want to win and that creates a positive attitude.'
Dr Oon's sterling work ethic and unwavering commitment to community service have won her a slew of accolades, including the Public Service Medal, the NUS Distinguished Alumni Service Award, as well as this year's Her World Woman Of the Year special award.
Her nephew, Dr Oon Chong Hau, 64, and an internal medicine specialist, says: 'Her belief in ethical values, in conducting one's life correctly and in helping people is an example to others.'
At the Her World Woman Of the Year dinner earlier this year, Dr Oon told the audience when she accepted her award: 'People have asked me whether I have arrived and am satisfied with my achievements.
'I asked them, 'Arrive where?' Life is not a race, to me there is no finishing line. It is a journey which I will complete in my own time, and at my own pace.'
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