 Wendy Lowe. We are coming to you from our studios of Think Tech Hawaii in downtown Honolulu and my home office in Makiki. Today Dr. Christopher K. M. Hui from Hong Kong shall be touching upon your heart. He is the specialist in respiratory medicine and a co-founder of the C-STAR Children's Foundation. Today he'll be sharing with us about having heart to help. Aloha and welcome Dr. Christopher K. M. Hui. Aloha Wendy. Hi. Good morning to your audience from Hong Kong. Yes, and I understand you're in the morning and we're in the afternoon. We're 18 hours behind you, so you're ahead of us by a day and a half. So we'll get started. But before we do, Dr. Hui, can you just share a little bit about yourself? Yes, so I'm a specialist in respiratory medicine. I trained in the UK. I worked previously at the Royal Prompton Hospital and National Heart and Lung Institute for a number of years before I returned to Hong Kong. My area of interest is in looking after people's lung diseases, so things like asthma, something called COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is related to smoking. This all comes under the umbrella of a group of conditions or airways disease. We also look after people with lung cancer and of course, in the last three years, something called COVID as well that you may have heard of. Yeah. And so now that you brought that up, so has the last couple of years with this COVID, has it increased the need for your services and your profession because of what people went through and experience with their respiratory systems? Yes, Wendy. I think it's true to say that our health really is our biggest capital and so it's very important to look after our lung health and our hearts as well, of course. And so really, I think there's been a greater awareness in these few years of doing some checkups or making sure that everything's okay, even if it's after having had a recent infection. So just really quickly, a very layman style. Could you just share with us what would be, how would we take care of our respiratory system? Well, I think we're all aware of the potentially harmful effects of air pollution, for example. We've known for a number of years now that smoking and secondhand smoke can cause different types of tumors, including certain lung cancers. And our information, our knowledge, the research about air pollution now is much more detailed and has been, the body of evidence has been growing in the last 10 to 20 years. We now know that people who are unfortunately living in parts of the world where they are exposed to air pollution for long periods of time, they will suffer in terms of their lung function. So what we can do is two groups of investigations. One group will probably be based around imaging. We have things, methods of investigating, such as x-rays and CT scans now. So we can look into the lungs and see what the actual condition of your lungs are. It is, but we can also do lung function tests so we can objectively measure what the lungs are actually doing as a pair of fellows. So functionally looking at the physiology of the lungs. I think so. Would somebody like me who I don't have any of those side effects or issues or would I be able to come to my doctor's office and ask them, hey, can you just check where my lungs are or how great a shape my lungs are? Could I do that? Or do I have to wait until I have an actual issue pop up? My personal belief is I don't think you have to wait till you have symptoms to go and talk to your doctor. I think it's very reasonable to have a chat and to say, you know, at this stage in my life, I want to know roughly how things are. So it's like we call it an MOT, so an annual check. And we just check in and say hello and see whether or not anything further needs anything further needs doing. Very good. That's good advice because a lot of times people wait until the doctor tells them what's going on. But I'm one that wants to work on prevention and preparedness. So that's why I was asking that and I took it upon myself to ask you that because I have your audience. So Doctor, I was wondering, you know, I have a photo here. And there are a lot of people in lab codes and other fellow doctors, I believe. Are you responsible for all of these people? Yes, indirectly, I was I was fortunate to be working at the university in Hong Kong for a number of years, for almost 10 years in fact. And during this period, we were involved in building out new hospitals and health care systems in not just in Hong Kong, but in the southern part of China. And this is a photo of my team of one of the teams of the Department of Medicine University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen. This is 150 doctors, and they work very hard. And we are working together to build new departments and new services for the local population, including a lot of what we just discussed. So imaging, lung function, the ability to raise the level of awareness in health care, but also to provide a good health care solution. Wow. You know, when I when you told me what your specialty was in in the medical field, I was quite impressed. But then you caught my heart and my attention when we talked about something else. So when I met you, I learned about what you do besides that of an instructor at the hospital, at the university hospital, you shared with me that you are a director and co founder of the C-STAR Foundation. So what does the C-STAR Foundation do? Yes, thank you, Wendy. So C-STAR is a children's foundation that we set up in Hong Kong to raise capital to help underprivileged children in China across the country. And the reason we did this, this was founded in 2012, at a time when I had shortly returned to Hong Kong, and found that there was a need for connecting underprivileged families with health care services. Sometimes it's not just a matter of resources, not just a matter of funding for surgery, but also connecting and understanding what is actually necessary. So in interpreting those scans, in understanding the echocardiogram, in having someone relatively independently look in all these cases and then and then see what can be done to help them achieve the best results. And and since then, I'm pleased to say we've been involved in over 200 cases in the last eight, nine years. The organization has just celebrated its first decade in fact. And we feel very passionately that every child should have the right to access the quality of health care, that surgery, corrective surgery, or congenital heart defects. So things that they are born with should be a right rather than a privilege. Well, and the reason why, Chris, the reason why it struck home for me is because I was, I am one of those cakey in Hawaii, we call children cakey. I am one of those cakey that was underprivileged and that had a congenital heart disease. And yes, we couldn't afford to fly us out to San Francisco because at that time they didn't have the services of a pediatric cardiologist. So what you do for the children in China, the American Heart Association did for me and they flew in a pediatric cardiologist so that they could perform my procedure. And I'm ever so grateful and so that's why when I heard what you do, I knew I just had to give you a shout out and see Star Foundation for saving the lives as they have saved my life here in Hawaii. I'm very grateful for the American Heart Association. So continue doing what you're doing. I'm so grateful to have met you, a live living giver and a helper of these children to have quality of life, not just like the quality of life. So is your main focus, Dr. Hui, on congenital heart disease, CHD with these children? With these children, yes. So we identify cases that we potentially can help through a network of volunteers spread out throughout the country. Everyone in the organization volunteers that time. There are no salaries paid. The reason for this is because we want maximum benefit for our donors. So at the moment, for example, of every 98, 98 and a half dollars coming in, every hundred dollars coming in, 98 and a half dollars goes out to pay for surgeries. This is a slide of the lungs in fact, but it illustrates the 3D modeling and the level of detail with the imaging that I was talking about before. Modern CT scanners are now so good that we can pick up my new test of detail. It's a little bit like our televisions at home, you know, we've gone from very small black and white TVs to now very, very big, very colorful and very high resolution televisions in the last 20, 30 years. And and with that, we have a very powerful tool and we can pick things up before they happen. We know that surgery at the right time in a child's life can be life changing and be life extending and can give you as you know, as you know, a normal life expectancy. So we believe this is what you would call perhaps maximum bang for buck. We think it's hugely valuable. It changes the entire life outlook for a child who's affected. And unfortunately, these are conditions that the child and the family do not choose to have. They are they are born with it. It's it's it's very unfortunate. It's very distressing for young families for young mothers and young fathers. And they are often at a in a position where they are unable and necessarily to have all the knowledge and resources to help them out themselves. And so we do rely, as you said, on organizations such as the American Art Association and others, including now our own to connect all the dots to make things happen and to make things happen in the right way. Wow, I've also read that you take care of a lot of children that have the cleft palate and the and the cleft lip. Could you tell us about that and what is the what are the numbers like? So so this was something that we found to be even more scalable. It's interesting to know the prevalence and the numbers. There was a study done in China in two thousand and nineteen that looked out seventy six seventy seven million live births. And of those there were in that in the in that period over four years, I think it was there were two hundred and one thousand cases of congenital heart disease. What we then found was the numbers for cleft palate, so where children are born with an incomplete palate and what used to be called a hairlip can be surgically corrected. But the numbers were even greater by very many multiples. And so again, cosmetically, these are injuries or of birth defects abnormalities that can affect speech, learning at an early age. It affects eating, even if you can imagine that sometimes an injury or an abnormality like this and can affect the way that you swallow and eat, it affects the the dentition, the teeth, the formation of early teeth. And so we decided to provide surgery for these children as well. And in doing so, we found it extremely scalable. The surgical costs in China are low. So the efficiency of providing these these solutions is in the range of maybe a few thousand RMB or Hong Kong dollars, which is in the range of maybe even just a few hundred US dollars. So so relative to the cost in other parts of the world, the the the provision of solutions is not actually as expensive as you might think. It's just being in the right place and being connected to the right people and the right surgeons and the right technical expert. Exactly. And not just medically you're going to it's beneficial for these children. But even personality and just being accepted by their peers because they look different. So you're giving them a whole new life, a whole new world by performing these procedures. And that that's, you know, I mean, every child wants to be like the other child and perfect in appearance. So you're bringing them closer to that. So that's that's amazing. Dr. I'm just every time I hear these stories, I'm like, wow, keep doing what you are doing. And I know if people out there can't join you in the field and they want to give and donate to C Star Foundation, I know that they can go to your website and help to sponsor these procedures. And the more funding that you all get, the more procedures we can do without having to hold back. So we'll just keep looking for those right donors to have that heart to help. So on the next slide, I see operating room. So walk us through what happened to these children. First of all, how do you find them? You find them, you process them. And then what happens after that? So we work with local partners always at the community level. So we work with local clinics and local primary care doctors. So the local surgeries in the community and the local doctors will refer to our either through our website or our connection of our network of volunteers. When they contact us, we set up a case for them. There's a due diligence process. So we send somebody out to meet the family to understand what's happened and then also to connect them to a local regional center. So in order to achieve the best outcomes, we aim to provide sort of sort of the best surgical outcomes in the world. This is done really at the major cardiac surgery centers across the country. Initially, going back many years ago, there was a thought, well, can we send some of these children abroad for surgery? Can we connect with other centers in Hong Kong and across you know, different our different network of friends? But but in fact, what we found was that the solutions provided locally are really excellent. But the only thing was that internally, things were not all, you know, the dots were not always being connected up in a very fluid way. Now, I'm happy to say this was, you know, over 10 years ago and in the intervening in the interval, 10 years, matter, you know, health, health care provision and the development of the country as a whole has moved forward in in leaps and bounds. And so now we find that more and more of these connections, these pathways are more and more established. So we we have to do less and less of this work. And that's very heartening to see. So so what we're effectively seeing is is the the progress and the stepping forward of a system to to absorb the need and the surgery that these children need. Right. And exactly you you've resolved it in a very humane way. And I think more even cost effective by having a procedure done near to the child's home, the family can be around. And during the recovery process, I think the after part is very critical to have family around and as much normalcy as possible. So by having them do the procedure in the local in the locale, I think that's quite important. Same thing with me, instead of having to ship the Hawaii children off to San Francisco, they could now do it here in Hawaii. So then I could recover faster because I'm in my own environment versus in a whole different world in the mainland or in some other part of the world. So it worked. You guys nailed it. And it didn't take you all that long to figure it out to have such success. I'm so I'm actually I'm so excited to one day go and visit and see what what has been done thus far with these children. Do you follow up with these children as well? Yes, yes, we do. You're absolutely right. So over a period of years, in fact, after surgery, we will drop in. Maybe sometimes it's a telephone consult. We'll just call up the family with their with their permission, of course. And just say hello. How are you? Is everything OK? And do you need anything else? Can we help you in any other way? And I think when you reach out to people in this way, I think inherently in some cultures, people are shy to reach out for help. They are they're afraid in their hearts. They are afraid, but they are also afraid to reach out. They are afraid to ask for help. And so sometimes holding out that olive branch as as Bible teaches us, you know, is is is something that we all have to do. You have to reach out and say, well, you know, are you OK? And can we help? And if we have the knowledge to help, then I think it's it's what the French used to call it no bless oblige, an obligation that we all have to look after one another. And I think in today's world, this is more and more necessary. This is something that we really all have to have to refocus on. Yes. And that to me would be the success of this program is not just finding them and taking care of them, but the after. Because now what, right? And like you said, especially being Asian, they don't want to ask for help. There that's the last thing they're going to do is ask for help. But when you reach out, unless you're already proven, you've already done so much for their child, for that child, he and her or she will feel a little bit more confident to ask for help because you've already given it to them. There's no strings attached. And so that is the key. And what you're doing for them as well as for myself is now you've given me the component to give back. And so you've created one more good. And I know that that's where your story comes from. So I won't share that part yet. But that is exactly you've met the mission of your organization. So we have one more slide or one more x-ray. What is this x-ray? And just tell us what this x-ray tells us. So incidentally, I included this. This shows another side of my work on a day-to-day basis. This is actually what COVID and their viral pneumonia looks like. On a CT scan. So remember, I was talking about imaging and how we can see inside the human body now. So aside from looking at the structure of the heart and of the lungs, we can see the abnormalities. And here you're looking at yourself oneself in mirror image. So the left is the right and the right is on the left. And you're looking at the two lungs in side by side. And you can see the patches of white are really where the virus or the bacteria in the pneumonia is another infection have spread out through the lungs. And so we can see really where when medicine has developed a point where we can do a lot, we can see a lot, but we can also do a lot to help. Wow. I mean, I know that must excite you a lot because it helps you in your field to be even more detailed and to find things even quicker than in the past where you had to do probably the more diagnostic and look for the issues. But now it's quite clear right there that you can see what you need to see to take care of. So getting back to the C-star, I wanted to share it with everyone, but I'm gonna hold back and I want you to share with us. Why and how did you all come up with the name C-star? Well, I think the story came from the beach and I know you have a couple of beaches in Hawaii. Yes. Very nice ones I might add. But a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and throwing it gently back into the ocean. Approaching the boy asked, what are you doing? And the youth replied, I'm throwing C-stars back into the ocean. Surf is up, the tide is out and if I don't throw them back, they'll die. And the child was worried that the C-stars would die on the beach. The man laughed and said to himself, well, don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds and hundreds of C-stars, thousands. His point was that sometimes it's hard to make a difference. But after listening politely, the boy bent down and picked up another C-star and threw it back into the surf and then smiling at the man. He said, well, I made a difference for that one. And so the concept is the same. We really feel that it doesn't matter whether it's one or 100 or 200 or more if we can. If we can raise the funds to help children in need, then one at a time, I think we can make a difference to these B-C-stars. Wow. And I love hearing that story and I can hear it every time I, again and again. And it still has the same impact and I understand truly what that means. And that I am one of those C-stars and I am making a difference by giving back more. And so that's what you're created and in China and in the world, there are so many people. But if we just get one at a time to change your hearts and their minds, then hallelujah, the world will be a better, better place. So you all just keep doing what you're doing. I know that there must be numerous heart-touching stories that you've experienced. Dr. Koeh, can you just share with us maybe just one patient that stands out in your mind that you would like to share their story? I know like there's Tong-Tong and there are many different stories but could you just share with us one story? Oh, I think yours is an amazing story, Wendy, actually. You know, for all those years ago to have had sort of seeing this type of heart surgery in America is a very heart-warming story. And as you described it really changes a lifetime of work. Our first case, Tong-Tong, you mentioned was a case who I came across, this was in 2011. And she was born unfortunately with a very severe cardiac defect in the congenital heart abnormality. And we tried to raise the funds for her first surgery and it was through that process of learning to help others or to help her and her family first that we laid the foundations for C-STAR where we worked out the logistics, the connections, the local surgical teams, in fact, and by communicating with people we really worked out a lot of the solutions that have served us as an organization over the subsequent years. So if there is a heart-warming story in all of this, I think we're all, you know, if we keep an open mind we're all able to learn and we're all able to make connections in our lives that can help others and can make a really meaningful difference to not just one case like Tong-Tong but many others subsequently as well. And I think that's very important is the momentum and the drive to continue to do good work where we know there's a good solution. And once we've worked out where the answers are. Wow. Well, amazing. And I'm so glad that you took the time, you made the time to share your heart and the heart of Tea Star Foundation. As I said, I'm excited about it. I look forward to meeting more of you and going on a trip with you all to China to see the work being done. So unfortunately, Dr. Hui, we've run out of time for now as I knew I would as we talk and we could talk endlessly about all the stories. But I just want to say mahalo to you, Dr. Christopher J. Employee, specialist in respiratory medicine and one of the co-founders of the Tea Star Foundation. Keep on saving lives and having the heart to help. I'm Wendy Lowell and we'll return in two weeks with another edition of Taking Your Health Back. Aloha and mahalo, Dr. Hui. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.