Livingston M.F. Wong
Surgeon a leader
By Shirley Iida
in transplants
Star-BulletinCONSIDERED one of the state's top surgeons, Dr. Livingston M.F. Wong pioneered kidney and bone-marrow transplants in Hawaii.
Wong, chief of transplant service at St. Francis Hospital, performed the island's first kidney transplant 30 years ago. He remembers doing the first three kidney transplants within a week. "It was a very exciting time," he said.
And in 1978, he headed a team of physicians and technicians that performed the first bone-marrow transplant in Hawaii.
From 1971 until 1977, Wong also was the major force behind the development and operation of Hawaii's Emergency Medical Services program. Before 1971, paramedics did what was then called a "scoop and run" procedure, which meant they only transported patients to the hospital and treated them with first aid.
Wong is credited for raising the level of EMS in Hawaii -- by, for instance, bringing in equipment that allowed paramedics to communicate with hospitals -- to become one of the best such programs in the nation.
Wong is a graduate of Maryknoll High School and the University of Hawaii. He received his doctorate from the University of Oregon at Portland and completed his surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is a professor of surgery at the UH's John A. Burns School of Medicine and medical director of the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii.
Today, Wong continues to perform difficult surgeries but leaves the bulk of organ transplants to a group of surgeons at St. Francis Hospital, called Surgical Associates. The group is made up of six transplant surgeons, including him and his daughter, Dr. Linda Wong.
At age 69, Wong said he has "slowed down one step." He said he only assists in organ transplants at Queen's and St. Francis hospitals, attends meetings and meets with patients on a regular basis. "I will stay on as long as I can be of help," he said.
