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‘HAVING KINDNESS IN YOUR HEART’ Spirit of caring, compassion has infiltrated physician’s every interaction with patients By Susan L. Peña, Contributing Writer
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r. Wayne Bond Lau, winner of the Philadelphia County Medical Society’s 2021 Practitioner of the Year Award, is quick to credit his parents, HonKay and Meifong, for instilling in him a sense of obligation to care for others, long before he earned his credentials in emergency medicine. It was the reason he and his younger sister Bonnie, also an emergency physician, decided to pursue medicine.
And it also motivated both of them to volunteer at the Chinatown Clinic at Holy Redeemer Church every week.
‘Have to listen’ The key to gaining that trust, Lau said, is “you really have to listen. A lot of physicians talk at people rather than listening to what they’re saying. You have to recognize that at any given time, you could be in that person’s shoes. It gives you a humility and groundedness, and having kindness in your heart.” Lau remembers when he was 13 and his grandmother was in a terrible car accident, and he and his family rushed to be with her.
That spirit of caring and compassion has infiltrated Lau’s every interaction with patients in the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s emergency department.
“My memory is that the physicians never spent time with us to address our concerns and explain what was going on,” Lau said. He promised himself never to let a family go through such an ordeal.
Lau was inspired to go into emergency medicine because “when people come into the ED, they’re scared, and there’s so much happening,” he said. “You have 10 seconds to make people trust you. That’s a big challenge, to make a connection with someone and show them you can be trusted, that you care. The allure of that has never left me.”
Lau, who grew up in Lansdale, was accepted into an accelerated medical program at Penn State, allowing him to finish in two years and immediately enter medical school at Thomas Jefferson University, where he also completed his residency at Jefferson Hospital. His mentor/ residency director, Dr. Sharon Griswold, encouraged him to go into emergency medicine.
A spirit of caring and compassion has infiltrated Dr. Wayne Bond Lau’s every interaction with patients in the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s emergency department. He was inspired to go into emergency medicine because “when people come into the ED, they’re scared, and there’s so much happening,” he said.
24 Philadelphia Medicine : Winter 2022
