This song was sung by Doris Day in 1954 and became a hit
11 years later in 1965. I watched two West Australian surgeons repair a hole in the heart.
That heart belonged to five-year-old Singaporean Willie Soo.
Looking back, that was the best news scoop in my short stint as a journalist.
I had always been keen on writing articles and short stories.
While in my final University year reading for a Liberal Arts degree,
I applied and was accepted by a Perth afternoon newspaper, The Daily News,
Where I spent two very happy years reporting news and later on, for the sports desk.
I still remember the morning the News Editor summoned me to his office.
There, he handed me the assignment to cover Willie’s operation.
Willie was a ‘blue baby’, meaning he had a hole in his ventricular wall
That separated the left and right ventricles.
That hole had to be plugged for him to live a long life.
I received Willie at Perth International Airport
Then drove downtown to check him into the Children’s Hospital.
The next morning, I called on the hospital’s Medical Superintendent
To seek permission to witness the operation, and I was promptly rejected.
In my second try, I explained the operation had global news impact-
An arrangement between the governments of West Australia and Singapore.
Permission was eventually grudgingly granted with three conditions:
I was to enter and leave the operation room an hour after it starts,
And leave immediately once the operation was completed,
And no photographers in the operating theater.
It was a two-hour long operation.
Willie’s leaky heart was stopped. Blood circulation taken over by a lung machine.
His heart was cut to expose the hole, which the surgeons patched,
Then his heart was restarted and the operation was over.
A week later, Willie flew home to his mum and siblings.
Today, 54 years later, Willie works as a swimming coach
Teaching young children to swim and be water-safe.
Recently, we were re-united over lunch.
Finally, Willie was able to thank me with his whole heart.
Gary and Willie catch up over lunch
xxxxx
ABOUT GARY
Gary Yeang is a graduate of the University of Western Australia with a BA Economics degree. In Australia, he started out his career as a journalist at the Perth Daily News.
Coming back to his homeland, Malaysia, he worked as a salesman for multinational companies such as Esso and in Muller & Phipps where he learned the ropes on brand distribution.
In 1977, he joined Samsonite Corporation in its headquarters in Colorado, USA. After five years, he decided to start his own business and took the opportunity to handle Samsonite’s distribution in Singapore. Shortly thereafter, their distribution business also covered Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
Gary now lives on the eastern side of Singapore with his two younger kids. He is a voracious reader who believes that “… reading is the best, fastest, proven way to improve one’s spoken and written English.”
He is regarded by the Primer Board of Directors as instrumental to the growth of the Primer Group. Gary will always be the BOD’s forever mentor.