in 1966 and trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital. In London, he met and married his wife Ann (née Simmons). Chang spent two years in the United States at the Mayo Clinic and became chief resident. In 1972, he returned to St Vincent's Hospital, where he was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and was appointed Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1973 and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1975. Surgical career In St Vincent's Hospital, he worked with surgeon Harry Windsor (who had performed Australia's first heart transplant in 1968) and Mark Shanahan. The advent of anti-rejection drugs in 1980 made heart transplants more feasible, and Chang lobbied politicians and businessmen to raise funds to establish a heart transplant program at St. Vincent's. On 8 April 1984, a team of doctors led by Chang operated on 14-year-old Fiona Coote who became Australia's youngest heart transplant patient. Between 1984 and 1990, Chang's unit performed over 197 heart transplants and 14 heart-lung transplants. The unit had a high rate of success with 90% of those receiving transplants from the unit surviving beyond the first year. In 1986, Victor Chang was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) "in recognition of service to international relations between Australia and China and to medical science". Concerned about a shortage of organ donors, he arranged financing and assembled a team of scientists, engineers along with a marketing specialist to develop an artificial heart and manufacture inexpensive heart valves. Frank Tamru, the heart valve marketing and sales specialist met Dr. Chang in 1980 while working for Shiley the leading US company and based in Singapore. Along with engineers Richard Martin and Brij Gupta the group headquartered in Singapore set up facilities in Guangzhou and Sydney to developed mechanical and tissue heart valves called the St. Vincent's Heart Valves, which were widely implanted throughout Asia. The company, Pacific Biomedical Enterprises Ltd was the first in Asia to produce heart valves for Asian patients made by Asian workers. Chang and his team also made significant progress on the design of an artificial heart. His research projects ended with his death. Death On the morning of 4 July 1991, Chang was shot twice in the head in a failed extortion attempt. His body was found slumped in the gutter next to his Mercedes-Benz 500SL in the Sydney suburb of Mosman.