COURTESY ANDREW LAM
Andrew Lam, heart, along with his former Springfield Excessive College lecturers, steerage counselors and coach.
Dr. Andrew Lam – physician, surgeon, creator and storyteller extraordinaire – spoke to college students at Springfield Excessive College Nov. 1, 30 years after graduating from SHS. Within the viewers had been his former steerage counselors, tennis coach and lecturers who taught historical past, Spanish, physics, P.E., English, math and economics. All had been delighted to witness his induction into the SHS Corridor of Fame. None had been stunned. Lam is a famend retina specialist and surgeon who treats sufferers with severe eye circumstances. He selected this specialty to be on the entrance strains, “preventing these illnesses each day and attempting my greatest to avoid wasting my sufferers’ sight.” Lam can also be an award-winning creator.
On Oct. 31 Lam gave an enchanting speak at Lincoln Library, “The Solely Winner in Battle is Drugs.” This was based mostly on his nonfiction e book, Masters of Drugs, which reads like a novel. (Reviewed in Illinois Occasions, see: www.illinoistimes.com/arts-culture/restoring-faith-in-medical-science-17133604) The primary cardiac surgical procedure and weird procedures for pores and skin grafts had been the direct results of treating horrific warfare accidents in methods by no means dared earlier than. “Necessity grew to become the mom of invention,” says Lam. His books mix his love of historical past and medication. His two nonfiction books spotlight the mavericks and heroes whose innovations remodeled medication. His two novels are based mostly on actual occasions throughout WWII. (See Illinois Occasions www.illinoistimes.com/arts-culture/storyteller-with-springfield-ties-11436866.)
Lam studied navy historical past and U.S.-East Asian relations at Yale College and graduated from the College of Pennsylvania Medical College. Lam is assistant professor of ophthalmology on the College of Massachusetts Medical College, attending surgeon at Baystate Medical Heart in Springfield, Massachusetts, and senior associate at New England Retina Consultants.
Lam’s household moved to Springfield in 1982 when he was six. His father had an extended profession as a heart specialist with Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants. His mom taught Mandarin at UIS and served on the Lincoln Land Group School Basis Board. He attended Owen Marsh, Iles, Grant and SHS, the place there have been few Asian-American college students.
An essential focus of Lam’s work is macular degeneration, the main reason for blindness within the aged. As a physician, he is aware of that science is the important thing to understanding and treating illnesses. Because of science there are actually therapies and medicines to deal with macular degeneration. Lam has all the time been within the humanities. “Historical past is arguably a very powerful self-discipline of all,” he says. “Historical past is the important thing to understanding our world, which is much more essential than medication has ever been.” He argues that “the stakes are even greater than in medication as a result of historical past explains, not how a illness took place, however how our world and the society we dwell in took place.” Lam tells the story of his circle of relatives to convey how the easy energy of an thought can adversely have an effect on the world greater than any illness.
Lam’s maternal grandfather got here from an prosperous household in southern China and educated to be a civil service chief for the Nationalist authorities. When the Chinese language Communists took over China in 1949, Lam’s grandparents misplaced every part and, together with different Nationalists, had been pressured to flee to the British colony of Hong Kong, dwelling as refugees for a few years. That they had 5 kids and finally determined to ship them to America for a greater future. Lam’s mom got here to the U.S. in 1966 on the age of 17 the place she stayed with a distant relative in Philadelphia. Later Lam’s grandparents additionally got here to the U.S. If not for communism and world occasions, Lam would seemingly be dwelling in China.
His examine of historical past and communism, mixed with private reflections, led Lam to the belief that the easy energy of an thought adversely affected extra human lives internationally than virtually any illness ever had. “This revolutionary thought, of how society must be, upended my household’s life and the lives of tens of millions of others world wide who got here to the U.S. within the twentieth century,” mentioned Lam.
Lam informed this story to college students at SHS to convey the ability of historical past. “Historical past explains virtually every part about our world at the moment,” says Lam. “Who’re our enemies and allies? Who lives in affluence and poverty? Who’s born free or born oppressed?”
He additionally mirrored on his private historical past at SHS. Lam described highschool as a interval of self-discovery, the place lecturers are an enormous a part of shaping who you turn into. He informed college students, “What you say or do, and the way you deal with each other, will have an effect on their lives in constructive or damaging methods that may show very memorable and impactful. These collective private histories finally form our lives and supply the relationships that give our lives that means.”
Lam answered college students’ questions on his medical college journey and changing into an achieved ophthalmologist. There’s a large want and never sufficient docs. Annually there are solely 400 ophthalmologists and 40 retina surgeons popping out of medical college, whereas an growing old inhabitants will want extra such specialists.
Lam had different phrases of knowledge. He cited the significance of being curious and discovering one thing that you’re obsessed with – whether or not by way of work or outdoors of labor. Reaching a aim isn’t as essential because the journey. And he mentioned you might be fortunate if you happen to come out of highschool with one one that will likely be a lifelong pal. “The richness of your life will come, not from what you achieved, however from the folks in it,” mentioned Lam.
He additionally identified the distinctive alternatives in the USA. “You possibly can determine to show it on anytime you need and achieve success.” In distinction, if he had been in China and bought off on the improper monitor, he would not have had one other probability. “The U.S. continues to be a rustic the place onerous work is rewarded,” mentioned Lam.
Along with being a surgeon, scientist, historian and author, Lam serves his neighborhood as an elected member of the village board of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, the place he resides along with his spouse and 4 kids. “I inform my children that in the actual world no person cares what school I went to or the place I went to medical college,” mentioned Lam. “They solely care how I deal with them. And ultimately, that’s the basis of every part good we could aspire to attain for ourselves, our communities, and on this planet.”
Karen Ackerman Witter is a 1972 graduate of Springfield Excessive College and a member of the SHS Corridor of Fame Committee that selects honorees.
