{{Short description|Singaporean surgeon (born 1943)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Joseph Sheares | other_names = Joseph H. H. Sheares | birth_name = Joseph Henry Hinggian Sheares | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1943}} | birth_place = Syonan (present-day Singapore) | alma_mater = University of Cambridge Medical School | occupation = Surgeon | parents = Benjamin Sheares (father)<br>Yeo Seh Geok Sheares (mother) | relatives = Constance Sheares (sister) }}
'''Joseph Henry Hinggian Sheares''' (born 1943), also known as '''Joseph H. H. Sheares''', is a Singaporean surgeon who specialises in cardiothoracic surgery. Born in Japanese-occupied Singapore to future president and First Lady Benjamin and Yeo Seh Geok Sheares, respectively, he had his education in the United Kingdom. He initially worked at Tan Tock Seng Hospital before joining Mount Elizabeth Hospital to set up a cardiac surgery unit, which would be the second in Singapore.
Throughout his career, Sheares was involved with organisations such as the ASEAN Congress of Cardiology and served as the advisor to the government of Myanmar alongside Leslie Lam from 1993 to 1996. In the 2010s, he would serve on multiple disciplinary tribunals. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Sheffield in 1994.
== Early life and education == Sheares was born in 1943 in Japanese-occupied Singapore to obstetrician Benjamin Sheares and midwife Yeo Seh Geok Sheares, the second of three children; his older sister is curator Constance. His Chinese name, Hinggian, was given to him by his mother and means "most filial". Sheares' parents would later go on to become the president and First Lady of Singapore in 1971.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lim |first=Suan Kooi |date=3 January 1971 |title=The new First Lady has grace and charm to win the hearts of all |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19710103-1.2.36.5? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=10 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>
Sheares had his education overseas in the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge Medical School, further training at The National Heart Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital for three years. In his youth, after he travelled to Houston, Texas, with the elder Sheares and watched Michael DeBakey perform on an aneurysm, he became interested in cardiothoracic surgery and would choose to specialise in it.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=1992 |title=Dr. Joseph Sheares: son of former Singapore President, Dr. Benjamin Sheares |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/613682fce4df0568ae7fc9f3/t/6473d4275b0e395bad371275/1685312551791/Dr.+Shears.pdf |format=PDF |journal=APEX Newsletter |volume=4 |issue=3 |access-date=7 May 2025}}</ref>
== Career == [[File:Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre.JPG|left|thumb|Sheares began working at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital ''(pictured)'' sometime in 1981.]] In 1975, after he returned from the United Kingdom to Singapore, Sheares began working with a team at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.<ref name=":0" /> In 1980, he delivered a talk about the success rate in cardiac surgery at Kallang Community Centre.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 January 1980 |title='Survival rate high in heart cases' |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/newnation19800107-1.2.14? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=New Nation |pages=3 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref> He and his team were later invited to work at the newly opened Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where they opened a cardiac surgery unit; it was the second cardiac surgery unit in Singapore. Despite debate on the practicality of having a cardiac surgery unit in a private hospital such as Mount Elizabeth, they persevered and eventually began an open-heart programme.<ref name=":0" />
Sheares' first case with Mount Elizabeth was in February 1981, where he headed a twelve-member team and treated a four-year-old Malaysian girl with a ventricular septal defect (hole in heart).<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 February 1981 |title=Good-bye to heartaches for Kulai girl |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19810211-1.2.32? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=8 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>{{efn|This ''Straits Times'' article incorrectly identifies him as Robert Sheares.<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 February 1981 |title=Mr Joseph Sheares |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19810212-1.2.33? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=6 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>}} In 1983, he treated a six-year-old Malaysian boy with a hole in his heart.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 November 1983 |title=Five cyclists with hearts of gold |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19831118-1.2.79? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=19 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref> In 1985, after listening in on an interview with William DeVries and Robert Jarvik on artificial hearts, Sheares praised the invention of the artificial heart but stated that "we want to wait for the long-term results" before implementing them in Singapore.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 February 1985 |title=Artificial heart implants won't come here yet |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19850227-1.2.21.20? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=9 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>
In 1988, following the death of a two-year-old Indonesian girl two years prior whom Sheares performed surgery on, a coroner's inquiry was opened to determine the cause of death. Sheares' initial statement was that the girl had died of a hole in her heart due to swelling, but in court amended his statement to death by brain damage following the issues with her heart. This was agreed upon by consultant neurologist Nei I Ping and Ng Peng Hong; the inquiry was launched by the girl's relatives.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 February 1988 |title=Girl, 2, died after 'uneventful' surgery |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19880202-1.2.27.24? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=18 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=5 February 1988 |title=State Coroner records open verdict |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19880205-1.2.30.1? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=17 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>
In 1990, Sheares, as the chairman of the ASEAN Congress of Cardiology, was one of ten surgeons who performed "surgery-free" treatment on fifteen patients at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. The treatment, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, was broadcast live to 200 other surgeons from Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia in Mount Elizabeth's lecture theatre.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 December 1990 |title=Top heart surgeons to show 'surgery free' method |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19901201-1.2.37.9? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=28 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref> In April 1993, Sheares and Leslie Lam were appointed as consultants and advisers to the Myanmar government. He and Lam traveled to Myanmar around three times a year for the following three years.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 April 1993 |title=S'pore doctors picked as consultants to Myanmar hospitals |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19930425-1.2.27.4? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=18 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref> In September, Sheares along with two other surgeons performed the first cardiomyoplasty in Singapore.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pereira |first=Brendan |date=24 September 1993 |title=Cardiomyoplasty gives heart patients new hope |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19930924-1.2.39.1? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=25 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>
In 1994, he received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Sheffield.<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 April 1994 |title=Honorary Sheffield degree for Dr Sheares |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19940416-1.2.38.6? |access-date=7 May 2024 |work=The Straits Times |pages=26 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref> He was also a part of a team of thirty doctors that performed surgery at a symposium in Yangon, Myanmar.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Soh |first=Felix |date=30 November 1994 |title=Top S'pore doctors to perform surgery at Yangon symposium |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19941130-1.2.25.7? |access-date=7 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=15 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref> In 1995, as part of his appointment to Myanmar, Sheares was a member of a delegation who offered free operations and training for a week there.<ref>{{Cite news |date=28 April 1995 |title=Doctors here investing and doing volunteer work in region |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19950428-1.2.83.3.2 |access-date=8 May 2025 |work=The Straits Times |pages=2 |via=NewspaperSG}}</ref>
In 2018, Sheares chaired two disciplinary tribunals. The first saw a doctor who had molested two patients in 2014 bring removed from the register of medical practitioners, while the second had a surgeon suspended for his "bewildering" conduct.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 June 2018 |title=Doctor, 74, who molested patient no longer has licence to practise |url=https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/doctor-74-who-molested-patient-no-longer-has-licence-practise |access-date=8 May 2025 |website=Today |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=26 June 2018 |title=Surgeon’s ‘bewildering’ conduct harmed patient, licence suspended 7 months |url=https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/surgeons-bewildering-conduct-harmed-patient-licence-suspended-7-months |access-date=8 May 2025 |website=Today |language=en}}</ref> In 2019, Sheares chaired another tribunal which resulted in a psychiatrist being fined {{SGD|50000|link=on}} for exposing private information about a patient.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Neo |first=Chai Chin |date=6 March 2019 |title=S$50,000 fine for psychiatrist who failed to protect patient’s confidential info |url=https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/s50000-fine-psychiatrist-who-failed-protect-patients-confidential-info |access-date=8 May 2025 |website=Today |language=en}}</ref>
== References ==
=== Notes === {{notelist}}
=== Citations === {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheares, Joseph}} Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:Singaporean surgeons Category:Singaporean cardiologists Category:Children of presidents Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge