I take great pleasure and pride in writing about Dr. Roger B.B. Mee, my teacher, mentor, and one of the greatest pediatric cardiac surgeons I have known. I worked under Dr. Mee as an overseas trainee Fellow from January 1989 to January 1990.  We’ve remained connected, and he has continued to be a close guide, mentor,  counselor, and confidant.  

In the vast world of medicine, pediatric cardiac surgery is but a small niche area and generally does not come into the public limelight.  The contributions of people like Dr. Mee often do not get the public recognition they deserve.  Amongst cardiac surgeons, however, Dr. Mee is considered a legendary figure. Allow me to elaborate on why: 

First, he is a surgeon par excellence with a highly refined surgical technique, considered a “fine art” by those of us who worked with him.  Every patient left the operating room with a technically perfect repair.  He has an in-depth knowledge of morphology and, more importantly, the “physiology of congenital heart disease.”  He has the ability to foresee the physiological impact of every surgical maneuver, which translated into almost no learning curve for any surgical technique —particularly the arterial switch operation, even in the 1980s.  His surgical results remain largely unmatched even today.  In his career, Dr. Mee achieved less than a 1% mortality for the neonatal arterial switch operation, definitive surgery for Fallot tetralogy, total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage repair, and many other surgical procedures.  When the rest of the world was struggling with the unique challenges of neonatal cardiac surgery, he published an outstanding experience of neonatal biventricular repair with an under 2% mortality!  In later years, he produced astounding results with the more complex double switch operation for corrected transposition of the great arteries.  Thousands of children in Australia, Asia, and other parts of the world directly or indirectly owe their lives to him.  In summary, Dr. Mee transformed how the world perceives pediatric cardiac surgery, particularly neonatal and infant cardiac surgery.