The Straits Times (Singapore) - Saturday December 4, 2010 page E4
By Wong Kim Hoh, senior writer
Two Chinese words in bold strokes greet visitors entering retired gynaecologist Tow Siang Hwa's home in a condominium off Stevens Road: 'bo ai', Mandarin for 'great love for all mankind'.
The characters were written by no less than Dr Sun Yat Sen himself.
'But this piece is just a duplicate,' says Dr Tow, 85, who had donated the original to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Balestier Road in 1997.
The framed calligraphy may be a replica but the sentiment it represents is no less real. Dr Tow, a devout Christian and pastor who has spent the last 40 years spreading the gospel, gave away the artwork - estimated to be worth at least $1 million then - to share it with the public.
'It is more blessed to give than to receive,' he says.
It is only fitting, he feels, that such a rare and historically significant artefact is housed in a museum. The revolutionary and founder of modern China dedicated the piece to the doctor's late father in 1909, after Tow Senior - then a 22-year-old medical student and fervent Sun loyalist - successfully carried out a secret mission for him.
Dr Tow's life has turned out to be equally colourful, too.
The fourth of eight children, he was born in 1925 in Guangzhou, China. His father worked for General Chiang Kai-shek, a military leader and close ally of Dr Sun, as the medical superintendent of the Military Hospital of The Whampoa Military Academy.
When Dr Tow was barely one, the family set sail for Malaya and set up home in Senai, Johor, where Tow Senior ran a rubber plantation.
'Because he graduated from China, he didn't have a licence to practise medicine,' Dr Tow explains.
Life was good for a few years when rubber commanded extremely good prices. But the Great Depression of 1929 put paid to the prosperous times.
'The price of rubber fell and father didn't even have money to pay the coolies on his 73 acres,' recalls Dr Tow.
His mother advised her husband to get a medical licence so that the family would not starve. With the help of a family friend, the senior Tow managed to wrangle a meeting with Dr Richard Fitzgerald, the principal chief medical officer of the Straits Settlements in Singapore.
His father could speak neither English nor French, says Dr Tow, but he could prescribe in Latin because that was how he was taught in medical school.
'Dr Fitzgerald asked him to write a prescription, and father did it perfectly.'
Two weeks later, the family received their lifeline - a licence to practise medicine in Johor - in the mail.
In 1932, when he was six years old, Dr Tow was sent, along with his two elder brothers, to study at the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore.
It was during the Japanese Occupation that the seeds of his future career were sown.
One night, he was helping out at his father's clinic in Johor when a man knocked furiously on the door: His daughter in labour at home was in distress. Dr Tow and his sister, who had by then qualified as a doctor, followed the man home.
'The woman could not expel the baby, so my sister had to use forceps. But she couldn't pull the baby out and asked me to do it,' he recalls.
Dr Tow, who was then just 17, remembers being 'scared like hell'.
'I'd never seen a naked woman, let alone a woman in that state,' says the octogenarian, adding that he was extremely relieved when he successfully pulled out the baby girl.
After that, his sister said: 'This is your career. You become an obstetrician. When you deliver a baby, you help the family and they will all know you.'
Sure enough, he was among the 75 best students from all over South-east Asia - one of whom was former Malaysian premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad - who got into the King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1947.
At medical school, he met his wife, Tan Cheng Imm.
'We met over a dead body,' he says with a hearty laugh. 'We were dissecting a cadaver and became friends.'
He joined Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH) upon graduation in 1953. After training at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast, Ireland, and getting certified as a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) of England in 1959, he returned to KKH. There, he worked alongside Dr Benjamin Sheares, who became Singapore's second president in 1971.
Dr Tow was given the crucial task of reorganising KKH for Royal College accreditation, because sending doctors for training in the United Kingdom was expensive and a drain on manpower.
He implemented things he learnt in Belfast, such as a new medical recording system, publishing a Houseman's Handbook, reorganising doctor's training and improving patient care. He succeeded Dr Sheares as the head of the hospital in 1960, when Dr Sheares left for private practice.
In 1963, KKH - then nicknamed Birthquake hospital because it handled more than 100 births a day - received its Royal College accreditation. The historic breakthrough enabled the hospital to train its obstetricians and gynaecologists locally.
The doctor's other historic contribution to medicine in Singapore is his research on molar or grape pregnancy, a condition caused by a proliferation of placental tissue in the uterus.
He describes it as conception running wild with the placenta forming a mass of cysts that look like a bunch of grapes.
'I never saw a single case when I was in Belfast. But in Singapore, I was struck by the fact that I was seeing about four or five cases a week,' says Dr Tow, adding that the cause was poor nutrition.
He spearheaded a Mole Clinic at KKH to research more than 200 cases of molar pregnancy. He presented his groundbreaking findings in 14 American universities, including Harvard and Cornell, in 1964. His research earned him the prestigious William Blair Bell Lectureship award from the Royal College a year later.
'It was a case of striking while the iron is hot. We had such a rich gathering of material,' says Dr Tow, adding that cases of molar pregnancy in Singapore disappeared as the country became affluent.
With such sterling achievements on his resume, the world was his oyster. But he gave it up to answer a higher calling.
Only about 40 years old then, he resigned from KKH in 1969 and set up the Tow Yung Clinic in Tanglin Shopping Centre with a colleague, Richard Yung.
'With that, I could easily do my missionary work,' he explains. 'I could go on my mission trips for a week or two, and still have my patients and income when I returned.'
His missionary work has taken him to the Philippines, Australia, England and Canada. Since 1970, he has set up 20 churches all over the world including Singapore.
He retired from his practice five years ago when he turned 80. Upon his retirement, he set about writing his life story. Foot Prints In The Sands Of Time, published by Reformation Banner Publishers, was released early this year.
He credits his late wife, who was the first to offer pap smear services in Singapore in the late 1960s, for helping him finish the book.
She also hurried him, he remembers, saying: 'You know my health is not very good. You'd better finish it before I die.'
Madam Tan died six months ago from heart-related problems, not long after the book was finished.
'She was my constant companion for 56 years. It's still very painful,' he says with a sigh.
Dr Tow, who has four children and one grandchild, stays busy and active, travelling often for his church work, sometimes delivering as many as three sermons a week at the Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church.
He says: 'There are people who are in distress and trouble, people who are old and have no hope. We go and comfort them.'
In other words, something like love for all mankind.