AL U MNI | LUMEN
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After a few years , when cochlear implants were approved in Singapore , Dr Heng was one of the first individuals to receive one , but he did not expect what he heard at first . The first sounds were not of voices but instead , static and white noise , much akin to listening to a broken television . It took many months of rehabilitation for him to learn how to hear which meant recognising what he was listening to . During this period , Dr Heng took a keen interest in learning the piano , teaching himself how to play it through the discarded piano books that once belonged to his mother and sister . His interest developed , so he progressed to having formal piano lessons and eventually achieving a Grade 8 in piano .
By the time Dr Joseph Heng studied in SJI , he had learnt how to use the telephone , rendering it much easier for him to make conversation with his friends . “ SJI was really the first school I was in that I was able to form friendships easily without my peers being frustrated about communicating with me .” At a tender age of 13 , he met his best friend in SJI during a Chinese remedial class . Their friendship strengthened when they ended up in the same class in secondary three , and again after graduating from SJI , when they entered National Junior College . His best friend then became his
best man at his wedding in 2015 held in New York . This enduring friendship Dr Heng shares with his best friend is attributed to his school days in SJI .
Upon completing his national service , Dr Heng then applied to NUS medical school but was sadly rejected . Amidst this setback , he was still persistent in achieving his medical dream , as such ; he decided to go abroad , majoring in biomedical engineering with the intent of becoming a cochlear implant engineer . Having benefited from the cochlear implants , he wanted to contribute in improving others ’ lives .
When he was at Johns Hopkins University , his mentor , Dr Charles Limb encouraged him to apply to medical school in USA . However , he was a little skeptical , since he had already been rejected before - why would medical schools in America be any different ? His mentor ’ s reasoning was if he had to pick between a normal abled candidate and Dr Heng with the same credentials , he would have chosen Dr Heng , since Dr Heng had to work harder than the other person to reach the same level of achievement did . He also explained that there is usually an associated stigma with disabilities that medical school admissions committees try to look past in the spirit of
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A lot of my success today has to do with how much my parents have invested into bringing me up well , and I certainly couldn ' t have achieved what I have today without them .
“ improving diversity in medicine . Encouraged , Dr Heng applied for medical school and was accepted by Yale . The environment at Yale was supportive as various faculties were always checking in on him to ensure he was doing fine , and if there was anything they could do to help . “ Do not give up in the face of adversity .” Clearly , Dr Heng lives up to his belief . “ I have to say that being deaf and having cochlear implants certainly never really closed any doors for me . As soon as one closed , there would always be other doors opening up if I looked hard enough . I was very upfront about my deafness the whole time and always found ways to work around any barriers to my hearing loss . A lot of my success today has to do with how much my parents have invested into bringing me up well , and I certainly couldn ' t have achieved what I have today without them .”
Facing page : Dr Joseph Heng This page ( centre ): Outside the White House This page ( bottom left ): Dr Heng ( second row , fourth from left )