Dr. Andrew Lam – doctor, surgeon, author and storyteller extraordinaire – spoke to students at Springfield High School Nov. 1, 30 years after graduating from SHS. In the audience were his former guidance counselors, tennis coach and teachers who taught history, Spanish, physics, P.E., English, math and economics. All were delighted to witness his induction into the SHS Hall of Fame. None were surprised. Lam is a renowned retina specialist and surgeon who treats patients with serious eye conditions. He chose this specialty to be on the front lines, “fighting these diseases every day and trying my best to save my patients’ sight.” Lam is also an award-winning author.
On Oct. 31 Lam gave a fascinating talk at Lincoln Library, “The Only Winner in War is Medicine.” This was based on his nonfiction book, Masters of Medicine, which reads like a novel.
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The first cardiac surgery and unusual procedures for skin grafts were the direct result of treating horrific war injuries in ways never dared before. “Necessity became the mother of invention,” says Lam. His books combine his love of history and medicine. His two nonfiction books highlight the mavericks and heroes whose inventions transformed medicine. His two novels are based on real events during WWII.Â
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Lam studied military history and U.S.-East Asian relations at Yale University and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Lam is assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, attending surgeon at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, and senior partner at New England Retina Consultants.Â
Lam’s family moved to Springfield in 1982 when he was six. His father had a long career as a cardiologist with Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants. His mother taught Mandarin at UIS and served on the Lincoln Land Community College Foundation Board. He attended Owen Marsh, Iles, Grant and SHS, where there were few Asian-American students.
An important focus of Lam’s work is macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. As a doctor, he knows that science is the key to understanding and treating diseases. Thanks to science there are now treatments and medicines to address macular degeneration. Lam has always been interested in the humanities. “History is arguably the most important discipline of all,” he says. “History is the key to understanding our world, which is even more important than medicine has ever been.” He argues that “the stakes are even higher than in medicine because history explains, not how a disease came about, but how our world and the society we live in came about.” Lam tells the story of his own family to convey how the simple power of an idea can adversely affect the world more than any disease.
Lam’s maternal grandfather came from an affluent family in southern China and trained to be a civil service leader for the Nationalist government. When the Chinese Communists took over China in 1949, Lam’s grandparents lost everything and, along with other Nationalists, were forced to flee to the British colony of Hong Kong, living as refugees for many years. They had five children and eventually decided to send them to America for a better future. Lam’s mother came to the U.S. in 1966 at the age of 17 where she stayed with a distant relative in Philadelphia. Later Lam’s grandparents also came to the U.S. If not for communism and world events, Lam would likely be living in China.
His study of history and communism, combined with personal reflections, led Lam to the realization that the simple power of an idea adversely affected more human lives across the world than almost any disease ever had. “This revolutionary idea, of how society should be, upended my family’s life and the lives of millions of others around the world who came to the U.S. in the 20th century,” said Lam.
Lam told this story to students at SHS to convey the power of history. “History explains almost everything about our world today,” says Lam. “Who are our enemies and allies? Who lives in affluence and poverty? Who is born free or born oppressed?”
He also reflected on his personal history at SHS. Lam described high school as a period of self-discovery, where teachers are a big part of shaping who you become. He told students, “What you say or do, and how you treat one another, will affect their lives in positive or negative ways that can prove very memorable and impactful. These collective personal histories ultimately shape our lives and provide the relationships that give our lives meaning.”
Lam answered students’ questions about his medical school journey and becoming an accomplished ophthalmologist. There is a huge need and not enough doctors. Each year there are only 400 ophthalmologists and 40 retina surgeons coming out of medical school, while an aging population will need more such specialists.
Lam had other words of wisdom. He cited the importance of being curious and finding something that you are passionate about – whether through work or outside of work. Achieving a goal is not as important as the journey. And he said you are lucky if you come out of high school with one person who will be a lifelong friend. “The richness of your life will come, not from what you accomplished, but from the people in it,” said Lam.
He also pointed out the unique opportunities in the United States. “You can decide to turn it on anytime you want and be successful.” In contrast, if he were in China and got off on the wrong track, he wouldn’t have had another chance. “The U.S. is still a country where hard work is rewarded,” said Lam.
In addition to being a surgeon, scientist, historian and writer, Lam serves his community as an elected member of the village board of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where he resides with his wife and four children. “I tell my kids that in the real world nobody cares what college I went to or where I went to medical school,” said Lam. “They only care how I treat them. And in the end, that is the foundation of everything good we may aspire to achieve for ourselves, our communities, and in the world.”
Karen Ackerman Witter is a 1972 graduate of Springfield High School and a member of the SHS Hall of Fame Committee that selects honorees.
This article appears in Low attendance holds back school performance.
I moved to Woodbridge, Va. in March 2022, and met a woman named Sandy Lam who said she had a very prominent son who was a doctor and wrote several very well received books. She was a neighbor and friend. Unfortunately, she passed away in late 2022 or early 2023. Is she Andrew Lam’s mother?