In Memory of Dr. Richard Teo (1972 - 2012)
Thanks to Martin Allan for this.
Below is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who is a
40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer
but selflessly came to share with the D1 class his life experience on
19-Jan-2012. He has just passed away few days ago on 18 October 2012.
Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse, so please bear with m
e.
I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I'm a medical
doctor. And I thought I'll just share some thoughts of my life. It's my
pleasure to be invited by prof. Hopefully, it can get you thinking
about how... as you pursue this.. embarking on your training to become
dental surgeons, to think about other things as well.
Since
young, I am a typical product of today's society. Relatively successful
product that society requires.. From young, I came from a below average
family. I was told by the media... and people around me that happiness
is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this
mind-set, I've always be extremely competitive, since I was young.
Not only do I need to go to the top school, I need to have success in
all fields. Uniform groups, track, everything. I needed to get trophies,
needed to be successful, I needed to have colours award, national
colours award, everything. So I was highly competitive since young. I
went on to medical school, graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know
that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly
sought after specialities. So I went after that as well. I was given a
traineeship in ophthalmology, I was also given a research scholarship by
NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.
So in the process, I
was given 2 patents, one for the medical devices, and another for the
lasers. And you know what, all this academic achievements did not bring
me any wealth. So once I completed my bond with MOH, I decided that this
is taking too long, the training in eye surgery is just taking too
long. And there's lots of money to be made in the private sector. If
you're aware, in the last few years, there is this rise in aesthetic
medicine. Tons of money to be made there. So I decided, well, enough of
staying in institution, it's time to leave. So I quit my training
halfway and I went on to set up my aesthetic clinic... in town, together
with a day surgery centre.
You know the irony is that people
do not make heroes out average GP (general practitioner), family
physicians. They don't. They make heroes out of people who are rich and
famous. People who are not happy to pay $20 to see a GP, the same person
have no qualms paying ten thousand dollars for a liposuction, 15
thousand dollars for a breast augmentation, and so on and so forth. So
it's a no brainer isn't? Why do you want to be a gp? Become an aesthetic
physician. So instead of healing the sick and ill, I decided that I'll
become a glorified beautician. So, business was good, very good. It
started off with waiting of one week, then became 3weeks, then one
month, then 2 months, then 3 months. I was overwhelmed; there were just
too many patients. Vanities are fantastic business. I employed one
doctor, the second doctor, the 3rd doctor, the 4th doctor. And within
the 1st year, we're already raking in millions. Just the 1st year. But
never is enough because I was so obsessed with it. I started to expand
into Indonesia to get all the rich Indonesian tai-tais who wouldn't
blink an eye to have a procedure done. So life was really good.
So what do I do with the spare cash. How do I spend my weekends?
Typically, I'll have car club gatherings. I take out my track car, with
spare cash I got myself a track car. We have car club gatherings. We'll
go up to Sepang in Malaysia. We'll go for car racing. And it was my
life. With other spare cash, what do i do? I get myself a Ferrari. At
that time, the 458 wasn't out, it's just a spider convertible, 430. This
is a friend of mine, a schoolmate who is a forex trader, a banker. So
he got a red one, he was wanting all along a red one, I was getting the
silver one.
So what do I do after getting a car? It's time to
buy a house, to build our own bungalows. So we go around looking for a
land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do i
live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and
famous. This is one of the Miss Universe. So we hang around with the
beautiful, rich and famous. This by the way is an internet founder. So
this is how we spend our lives, with dining and all the restaurants and
Michelin Chefs you know.
So I reach a point in life that I got
everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all.
That's me one year ago in the gym and I thought I was like, having
everything under control and reaching the pinnacle.
Well, I was
wrong. I didn't have everything under control. About last year March, I
started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe
it was all the heavy squats I was doing. So I went to SGH, saw my
classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it's not a slipped disc or
anything. And that evening, he called me up and said that we found bone
marrow replacement in your spine. I said, sorry what does that mean? I
mean I know what it means, but I couldn't accept that. I was like “Are
you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But
we had more scans the next day, PET scans - positrons emission scans,
they found that actually I have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like
"Whoa where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain,
the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was
there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking
that I've reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have
just lost it.
This is a CT scan of the lungs itself. If you
look at it, every single dot there is a tumour. We call this miliaries
tumour. And in fact, I have tens of thousands of them in the lungs. So, I
was told that even with chemotherapy, that I'll have about 3-4months at
most. Did my life come crushing on, of course it did, who wouldn't? I
went into depression, of course, severe depression and I thought I had
everything.
See the irony is that all these things that I have,
the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that
brought me happiness. But i was feeling really down, having severe
depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me
no joy. The thought of... You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep,
no... No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort
during my last ten months. And I thought they were, but they were not
true happiness. But it wasn't. What really brought me joy in the last
ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people
who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are
able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through. That
brought joy to me, happiness. None of the things I have, all the
possessions, and I thought those were supposed to bring me happiness.
But it didn't, because if it did, I would have felt happy think about
it, when I was feeling most down..
You know the classical
Chinese New Year that is coming up. In the past, what do I do? Well, I
will usually drive my flashy car to do my rounds, visit my relatives, to
show it off to my friends. And I thought that was joy, you know. I
thought that was really joy. But do you really think that my relatives
and friends, whom some of them have difficulty trying to make ends meet,
that will truly share the joy with me? Seeing me driving my flashy car
and showing off to them? No, no way. They won’t be sharing joy with me.
They were having problems trying to make ends meet, taking public
transport. In fact i think, what I have done is more like you know,
making them envious, jealous of all I have. In fact, sometimes even
hatred.
Those are what we call objects of envy. I have them, I
show them off to them and I feel it can fill my own pride and ego. That
didn't bring any joy to these people, to my friends and relatives, and I
thought they were real joy.
Well, let me just share another
story with you. You know when I was about your age, I stayed in king
Edward VII hall. I had this friend whom I thought was strange. Her name
is Jennifer, we're still good friends. And as I walk along the path, she
would, if she sees a snail, she would actually pick up the snail and
put it along the grass patch. I was like why do you need to do that? Why
dirty your hands? It’s just a snail. The truth is she could feel for
the snail. The thought of being crushed to death is real to her, but to
me it's just a snail. If you can't get out of the pathway of humans then
you deserve to be crushed, it’s part of evolution isn't it? What an
irony isn't it?
There I was being trained as a doctor, to be
compassionate, to be able to empathise; but I couldn't. As a house
officer, I graduated from medical school, posted to the oncology
department at NUH. And, every day, every other day I witness death in
the cancer department. When I see how they suffered, I see all the pain
they went through. I see all the morphine they have to press every few
minutes just to relieve their pain. I see them struggling with their
oxygen breathing their last breath and all. But it was just a job. When I
went to clinic every day, to the wards every day, take blood, give the
medication but was the patient real to me? They weren't real to me. It
was just a job, I do it, I get out of the ward, I can't wait to get
home, I do my own stuff.
Was the pain, was the suffering the
patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms
to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in
truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is
until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I
have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I
can tell you yes I will. Because I truly understand how the patients
feel now. And sometimes, you have to learn it the hard way.
Even as you start just your first year, and you embark this journey to
become dental surgeons, let me just challenge you on two fronts.
Inevitably, all of you here will start to go into private practice. You
will start to accumulate wealth. I can guarantee you. Just doing an
implant can bring you thousands of dollars, it's fantastic money. And
actually there is nothing wrong with being successful, with being rich
or wealthy, absolutely nothing wrong. The only trouble is that a lot of
us like myself couldn't handle it.
Why do I say that? Because
when I start to accumulate, the more I have, the more I want. The more I
wanted, the more obsessed I became. Like what I showed you earlier on,
all I can was basically to get more possessions, to reach the pinnacle
of what society did to us, of what society wants us to be. I became so
obsessed that nothing else really mattered to me. Patients were just a
source of income, and I tried to squeeze every single cent out of these
patients.
A lot of times we forget, whom we are supposed to be
serving. We become so lost that we serve nobody else but just ourselves.
That was what happened to me. Whether it is in the medical, the dental
fraternity, I can tell you, right now in the private practice, sometimes
we just advise patients on treatment that is not indicated. Grey areas.
And even though it is not necessary, we kind of advocate it. Even at
this point, I know who are my friends and who genuinely cared for me and
who are the ones who try to make money out of me by selling me "hope".
We kind of lose our moral compass along the way. Because we just want to
make money.
Worse, I can tell you, over the last few years, we
bad mouth our fellow colleagues, our fellow competitors in the
industry. We have no qualms about it. So if we can put them down to give
ourselves an advantage, we do it. And that's what happening right now,
medical, dental everywhere. My challenge to you is not to lose that
moral compass. I learnt it the hard way, I hope you don't ever have to
do it.
Secondly, a lot of us will start to get numb to our
patients as we start to practise. Whether is it government hospitals,
private practice, I can tell you when I was in the hospital, with stacks
of patient folders, I can't wait to get rid of those folders as soon as
possible; I can't wait to get patients out of my consultation room as
soon as possible because there is just so many, and that's a reality.
Because it becomes a job, a very routine job. And this is just part of
it. Do I truly know how the patient feels back then? No, I don't. The
fears and anxiety and all, do I truly understand what they are going
through? I don't, not until when this happens to me and I think that is
one of the biggest flaws in our system.
We’re being trained to
be healthcare providers, professional, and all and yet we don't know how
exactly they feel. I'm not asking you to get involved emotionally, I
don't think that is professional but do we actually make a real effort
to understand their pain and all? Most of us won’t, alright, I can
assure you. So don't lose it, my challenge to you is to always be able
to put yourself in your patient's shoes.
Because the pain, the
anxiety, the fear are very real even though it's not real to you, it's
real to them. So don't lose it and you know, right now I'm in the midst
of my 5th cycle of my chemotherapy. I can tell you it’s a terrible
feeling. Chemotherapy is one of those things that you don't wish even
your enemies to go through because it's just suffering, lousy feeling,
throwing out, you don't even know if you can retain your meals or not.
Terrible feeling! And even with whatever little energy now I have, I try
to reach out to other cancer patients because I truly understand what
pain and suffering is like. But it's kind of little too late and too
little.
You guys have a bright future ahead of you with all the
resource and energy, so I’m going to challenge you to go beyond your
immediate patients. To understand that there are people out there who
are truly in pain, truly in hardship. Don’t get the idea that only poor
people suffer. It is not true. A lot of these poor people do not have
much in the first place, they are easily contented. for all you know
they are happier than you and me but there are out there, people who are
suffering mentally, physically, hardship, emotionally, financially and
so on and so forth, and they are real. We choose to ignore them or we
just don't want to know that they exist.
So do think about it
alright, even as you go on to become professionals and dental surgeons
and all. That you can reach out to these people who are in need.
Whatever you do can make a large difference to them. I'm now at the
receiving end so I know how it feels, someone who genuinely care for
you, encourage and all. It makes a lot of difference to me. That’s what
happens after treatment. I had a treatment recently, but I’ll leave this
for another day. A lot of things happened along the way, that's why I
am still able to talk to you today.
I'll just end of with this
quote here, it's from this book called Tuesdays with Morris, and some of
you may have read it. Everyone knows that they are going to die; every
one of us knows that. The truth is, none of us believe it because if we
did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I
stripped myself off all stuff totally and I focused only on what is
essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to
die then we learn how to live. I know it sounds very morbid for this
morning but it's the truth, this is what I’m going through.
Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you
what you're supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this
life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that
you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live
your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and
you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are
going to make a difference in somebody else's life. Because true
happiness doesn't come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it
didn't turn out that way.
Also most importantly, I think true
joy comes from knowing God. Not knowing about God – I mean, you can read
the bible and know about God – but knowing God personally; getting a
relationship with God. I think that’s the most important. That’s what
I’ve learnt.
So if I were to sum it up, I’d say that the
earlier we sort out the priorities in our lives, the better it is. Don’t
be like me – I had no other way. I had to learn it through the hard
way. I had to come back to God to thank Him for this opportunity because
I’ve had 3 major accidents in my past – car accidents. You know, these
sports car accidents – I was always speeding , but somehow I always came
out alive, even with the car almost being overturned. And I wouldn’t
have had a chance. Who knows, I don’t know where else I’d be going to!
Even though I was baptised it was just a show, but the fact that this
has happened, it gave me a chance to come back to God.
Few things I’d learnt though:
1. Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart – this is so important.
2. Is to love and serve others, not just ourselves.
There is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy. I think it’s
absolutely alright, cos God has blessed. So many people are blessed with
good wealth, but the trouble is I think a lot of us can’t handle it.
The more we have, the more we want. I’ve gone through it, the deeper the
hole we dig, the more we get sucked into it, so much so that we worship
wealth and lose focus. Instead of worshipping God, we worship wealth.
It’s just a human instinct. It’s just so difficult to get out of it.
We are all professionals, and when we go into private practise, we
start to build up our wealth – inevitably. So my thought are, when you
start to build up wealth and when the opportunity comes, do remember
that all these things don’t belong to us. We don’t really own it nor
have rights to this wealth. It’s actually God’s gift to us. Remember
that it’s more important to further His Kingdom rather than to further
ourselves.
Anyway I think that I’ve gone through it, and I know
that wealth without God is empty. It is more important that you fill up
the wealth, as you build it up subsequently, as professionals and all,
you need to fill it up with the wealth of God.
(Please share his photo and words with others) —Posted By Rich Wong. ♥
