Caricatures of the authors. Photo: Taken from the book Beyond The White Coat
The year 2023 marked a significant milestone for many of us from the Medical Class of 1973/78 at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. As we reached the age of 70, nearly half a century had passed since we first entered Malaysia’s first medical school – founded by the legendary Professor TJ Danaraj, who expected nothing less than excellence.
The five years that followed were intense, filled with rigorous coursework, sleepless nights, and numerous exams, interrupted only by brief pauses for basic needs. Most of us survived this demanding period and graduated as doctors in 1978. We then began our medical careers across the country, with many pursuing subspecialty training that required another four to 10 years of study, exams, and personal sacrifices.
Postgraduate training brought additional challenges. Besides the tougher curriculum, we had to balance precious time with our families, as many of us were married by then. This was especially challenging for the women in our group, who had the additional responsibilities as wives and mothers. Despite these difficulties, we realised we had been blessed with fascinating lives, accumulating a wealth of experiences.
Throughout our careers, we encountered the extremes of human emotions and physical capabilities, witnessing the fragility of life as we treated illness. Our emotions often intertwined with those of our patients, as we endeavoured to save lives. The joy of seeing our efforts make a positive difference in people’s lives was incredibly rewarding.
Our class produced representatives in every medical specialty – from family physicians to cardiac surgeons, paediatricians, neurologists, anaesthesiologists, and more. Some of us embraced academia, helping to build medical schools.
Reflecting on these experiences in late 2022, a few of us decided to write a book documenting our journeys. We discovered that only one other group of medical classmates in the United States had done something similar.
There were multiple reasons to write this book: Our unique experiences in the world of medicine, which we felt would captivate the public, and the desire to leave a legacy for future doctors. We hoped they could learn from and be inspired by our successes and failures.
The book also provided an opportunity for our families, who had supported us emotionally but often knew little about our work, to understand our long hours and the reasons we sometimes got up in the middle of the night to respond to emergency calls.
This latter purpose was confirmed early in the project when one of the author’s grown-up daughters teared up with pride after reading the chapter he had written, exclaiming, "But Dad, I never knew that you did all this..."
We sent emails to classmates and posted requests in our class chat group, asking those who agreed to participate to write about their experiences in medical school, postgraduate training, and work as doctors – particularly their interactions with unforgettable patients.
Some were initially hesitant to write, feeling humble and unworthy of sharing their stories. However, with encouragement, their contributions turned into a rich tapestry of hilarious encounters with patients, harrowing adventures with critically ill individuals in places as far-flung as the villages of Africa, the outback of Sarawak, and even aboard a mercy flight in an airborne plane. These stories exemplified discipline, grit, and human endeavour.
The authors came from diverse backgrounds, with parents who were taxi drivers, teachers, or, in some cases, pioneer doctors. One clear message emerged from the 21 stories: With relentless hard work, there are no limits to what one can achieve.
We were fortunate to have one of our pioneering teachers, Professor Florence Wang, now in her 80s, write the foreword to our book.
Encouraging our classmates to write their stories was just one challenge. We were also dissatisfied with the professional editors who altered the context and message we wanted to convey. Confident in our language skills and aided by online tools, three of us – jokingly named “the three musketeers” – took on the task of editing ourselves. Using WhatsApp as our medium of communication, we spent many hours perfecting the chapters. To keep on schedule, some editing sessions were conducted while one of us was on holiday in Europe, demonstrating the power of modern communication. This effort only strengthened the bonds of friendship forged 45 years ago.
Another significant challenge was improving the quality of photographs, some taken half a century ago. We marvelled at the computer skills of some classmates who used online digital tools to make old photos look new.
Caricatures of the authors. Graphic: Taken from the book Beyond The White Coat
We agonised over the design of our book cover; most of us wanted a picture of our alma mater, the University Hospital Kuala Lumpur, on the front page. To avoid infringing copyright issues, we successfully turned to the National Archives of Malaysia for the photograph. Voting for the final design was done by secret ballot online, and the finish was a close contest. The final hurdle was typesetting and printing, but we were blessed to find dedicated professionals who helped us.
We titled our book Beyond The White Coat and have pledged all sales proceeds to the Utar Hospital in Kampar, Perak.
The book may be purchased at https://bit.ly/3SGL4bb or at Auditorium TJ Danaraj, Level 3, Block H, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, on Sept 8, from 9am-noon.
