In Memory of My Best Friend Colonel (Dr) Yee Chia Shao 9th September 1966 ~ 16th April 2008

I was devastated when I received the bad news from my friend Suresh, about the tragedy that killed our best mate, Yee. I never thought that he would die at this very young age and at the very peak of his career.

Down here is his orbituary as written by Dr Suresh in Bulletin Anaesthesiologi June 2008.

It was with much sadness that the news came of the passing away of Colonel (Dr) Yee Chia Shao, who died suddenly in a motor vehicle accident on 16th April 2008.
Colonel (Dr) Yee Chia Shao was born on 9th September 1966, the eldest of three children. He was a top all round student in his younger days. He did medicine at the University Science Malaysia where he graduated as a doctor in 1991.

He was commissioned into the Armed Forces on 1st September 1992 and his first tour of duty was as a medical officer in the 10 Royal Ranger Regiment, Sarawak from 1992 to 1993. He went on from there to serve as a medical officer at the 94 Armed Forces Hospital in Terendak, Melaka from 1993 to 1994. He subsequently joined University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur in 1994 to do his Masters in Anaesthesiology there on the Armed Forces scholarship. After qualifying as an anaesthesiologist he was sent to the 96 Armed Forces Hospital in Lumut, Perak where he served as the Head of Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care from 1999 until 2004. He was then sent to head the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the 94 Armed Forces Hospital in Terendak from 2004 until his untimely demise.

Colonel Dr Yee was a very dedicated and hardworking anaesthesiologist. He was instrumental in the successful credentialing and accreditation of anaesthetic and intensive care services of the Armed Forces Hospital in Lumut when he worked there. In fact he was invited to be part of and was an essential member of the assessing team visiting hospitals throughout the country and assessing hospitals for accreditation. Colonel Dr Yee was also responsible for the modernisation and bringing of state-of-the-art equipment to intensive care units at Armed Forces hospitals in the country.

Colonel Dr Yee was also very involved in continuing professional development activities. He was the brainwave and the organizing chairman for the 1st Military Operating Theatre and Critical Care Services Conference held at Melaka in the year 2004 and the 2nd Military Medical Conference "A Rendezvous with Military Medicine", also held in Melaka in 2005. He was very involved in teaching his staff, organising courses for them and even authored a handbook on basic anaesthesia for the use of anaesthetic technicians in the Armed Forces Hospitals. He was more than once offered a place in the private sector but he always declined these offers because he always felt that he needed to contribute more for the improvement of the Armed Forces medical services. For all his positive contributions, he received the Pingat Pahlawan Angkatan Tentera (PAT) in March 2008.

On a personal note, I knew Colonel Dr Yee since the time we did our Masters training together in University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur and we had always kept in touch since. He was the one who showed me where to get the best Hokkien mee at Jalan Loke Yew in KL, the best Yong Tau Foo in Ampang and even good Dim Sum in Seri Petaling. He always made it a point to come back to Kuala Lumpur during weekends to be with his parents, brother and sister and spend time with them.

On 16th April 2008, the Malaysian Armed Forces mourned the loss of a true and disciplined leader, the medical and anaesthetic community, a brilliant and upcoming anaesthesiologist and I, a good friend.

It has been a year now since we (Suresh and I) mourned for the great loss of our very special and best friend.