Son on murder rap after top Hong Kong doctor stabbed to death in Canada
Mystery woman found critically wounded by the side of prominent stomach specialist Andrew Chan
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 December, 2015, 3:16pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 31 December, 2015, 2:26pm
Niall Fraser and Naomi Ng
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Dr. Andrew Chan and manager Natalie Waters give a tour of The Endoscopy Centre during an open house inside the Charlotte Medical Arts Clinic . Photo: QMI Agency
A prominent Hong Kong-born doctor has been stabbed to death in Canada and his 19-year-old son charged with the killing, according to media reports.
The dead body of stomach specialist, Dr Andrew Chan, was found at his home in Peterborough, 128km north of Toronto, in the early hours December 28 after police were called out to a “disturbance”, reported the Toronto Star.
Alongside Chan, 50, was a critically injured but unidentified female, who had also been stabbed and is now fighting for her life.
Thomas Chan, the 19-year-old son of the of the well-known gastroenterologist was arrested at the scene and has been charged with murder and attempted murder.
Chan attended the prestigious St Paul’s College, graduating from Form Five in 1982. The school’s alumni association confirmed that he was a medical doctor in Ontario. St Paul’s College, in Bonham Road, is one of the oldest all boys primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong.
Police, originally called to the scene for a disturbance, were notified on their way there of a stabbing. In a statement , the police said they found Chan dead and the woman critically injured. She was airlifted to a Toronto hospital.
Chan owned the Endoscopy Centre clinic. According to a biography on its website, he was born in Hong Kong and attended Liverpool Medical School in England before coming to Canada in 1991.
He studied medicine at the University of Toronto, moved to Peterborough in 1996 and eventually became chair of the endoscopy unit at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
In 2013, the Endoscopy Centre received approval from the College of Physicians and Surgeons to perform out-of-hospital colonoscopies and other procedures.
Dr. Steven Brien, who recruited Chan to Peterborough, remembered him as a hard worker, well-liked by patients, who enjoyed cars and playing squash.
“He worked very hard. He didn’t give up his scope privileges at the hospital. He was doing the full job at the hospital as well as [at] his office,” Brien said.
Chan was one of just six gastroenterologists in the city, and his clinic provided Peterborough’s only out-of-hospital gastroenterology services. The other specialists plan to discuss in the next few days how to meet the needs of Chan’s patients.
