Jason Huang, MD: An American Tale

Dr. David Guzick, M.D., Ph.D.

July 22, 2008

When Jason Huang (born Haitao Huang) was growing up in Shanghai, China, he dreamed of attending the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the "MIT" of China. He worked diligently in school and achieved his dream, entering USTC in 1988. He concentrated his studies on physics and mechanical engineering; he was fascinated by these subjects, and intended to be a scientist living and working in China.

The political winds in China, however, led to a very different path. While contemporary China is currently a leading force (perhaps the leading force) in driving the world's economy, with market forces becoming increasingly important against the backdrop of a communist government that is loosening State control of economic resources, progress in human rights and democracy has been much slower. Indeed, as readers of this newsletter will no doubt recall, at the time that Dr. Huang was a student at USTC in the late '80s, the Chinese government was extremely repressive of individual rights. During this time, students and other reformers in China were increasingly vocal in opposing the authoritarianism and economic policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and called for democratic reform within the structure of the government. Dr. Huang was active in this movement, which included increasing demonstrations across major cities in China during the Spring of 1989. He was present in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 when several hundred students and others were killed as part of a military crackdown.

Following the Tiananmen Square massacre, the People's Republic of China government conducted widespread arrests to suppress protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest and its aftermath generated widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.

This time period in general, and the event of Tiananmen Square in particular, left an indelible mark on Dr. Huang's life. Dr. Huang was taken to a special facility for brainwashing in an effort to convince him that the massacre at Tiananmen Square never happened. He was also blacklisted by the PRC government, leading to academic probation despite being an excellent student. Dr. Huang was not permitted to continue his studies at USTC, but, in a catch-22 situation, he could not leave the University either because the government thought he would "spread rumors" about Tiananmen Square. He therefore had himself declared mentally ill as a means of leaving what amounted to a "house arrest" situation at the University.

Gone were the dreams of becoming a scientist in China. He was blacklisted from attending any major university. He sought an alternative and found a six-month course in acupuncture, which, amazingly enough, became his introduction to the world of medicine. Dr. Huang observed that some patients who underwent acupuncture had an improvement in their pain, and as someone with a scientific perspective on the world around him, he wondered about the biological mechanism. This led him to an interest in neuroscience, which ultimately led him to neurosurgery.

Dr. Huang and his family realized that the only route to his education as a neuroscientist and physician would be to go abroad. His father, a former naval officer, had some connections in the Chinese government, which resulted in a special passport that allowed him to leave China and fly to the United States. So, in 1992 at age 21, Haitao Huang became Jason Huang when he arrived in Los Angeles and stayed with his mother's cousin, who was a chef at a Chinese restaurant. Although he had learned written English in China, he had some trouble understanding American English when it was spoken, since a British accent was common among his English teachers in China. He stayed with these relatives for 3 months, working as a busboy, and learning what he could about the American language and culture.

Jason had done very well in his course work in engineering and physics at USTC and hoped that this would help him gain admission to an American college. Not knowing anything about higher education in the United States, Dr. Huang had reviewed listings of U.S. colleges and Universities at a library in China before leaving for Los Angeles. As he tells it, he "started with the ‘A's." From what he heard about Amherst, it sounded like a college he would like to attend. He sent in his application to Amherst from Shanghai and sure enough, was not only admitted but was offered an academic scholarship. There were only 5 Chinese students in the entire college at the time, and Jason was the only transfer student. At the time, he did not fully appreciate the excellence of the college he was about to enter, but was greatly appreciative of the opportunity. Amherst gave him credit for much of his coursework at USTC and he graduated two years later. While at Amherst, Jason enjoyed the atmosphere of liberal arts education and became an interdisciplinary major in Neuroscience. In his senior year, he did his honor thesis on a computational model of sodium channel activation.

A bird's eye view of the Air Force Theater Hospital,
located within the Balad airbase, is part of the vast,
15-square mile complex known as Logistics
Support Area (LSA) Anaconda.

After graduating magna cum laude from Amherst in 1994, Dr. Huang spent one year doing research in the Department of Anesthesia at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Under the guidance of Dr. Gary Strichartz, Jason studied the effect of lidocaine on the activity-dependent changes of impulse conduction in rat sciatic nerve, resulting in two publications (first author on one.) In 1995, Dr. Huang gained admission to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. As a medical student at Hopkins, Jason continued his research in Neuroscience and worked in the laboratory of Dr. James Campbell in the Department of Neurosurgery. His research in neural models of secondary hyperalgesia resulted in another first-authored publication. During this time, his interest in neuroscience and neurosurgery became solidified, and he pursued a residency in neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, Dr. Huang won numerous awards for his clinical and research efforts as a resident. He received the Codman award for Neurotrauma and Critical Care, a NIH NRSA award for his research in traumatic brain injury, and a David Kline Award for his research in peripheral nerve injury and repair. He also developed special expertise in complex spine surgery during a fellowship at Hopkins.

Dr. Huang's love for the U.S. and the opportunities that this country provided to him led to his enlisting in the U.S. Army reserves after the 9/11 attacks. He states that "to me, the need to defend our democracy is vivid and real. I never forgot how fortunate I am to live in this great country, getting an education from Amherst and Hopkins. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my adopted country and pay back some of what I have been given."

Trauma bay at Balad Theater Hospital.

At that time, the tension between U.S. and Iraq was growing and the prospect of a war imminent. In February of 2003, Jason was commissioned as a Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. On March 19 of 2003, the U.S. started Operation Iraqi Freedom. Needless to say, the ongoing war and its demand for both US combat troops and medical personnel have put a significant strain on the US military. Jason went to Officer Basic Training in Fort Sam Houston for two weeks in June of 2004. He subsequently participated actively in annual Army training and was promoted to Major in 2005.

Dr. Huang finished his neurosurgery training at Penn in May of 2006 and was persuaded by Dr. Web Pilcher to come to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry to join the faculty in the Department of Neurosurgery. According to Dr. Pilcher, he recruited Jason to Rochester because of his superb clinical skills in general neurosurgery with expertise in complex spine and peripheral nerve surgery, as well as Jason's significant research interest in traumatic brain injury and nervous system injury and repair.

Major Huang & Major Clatterbuck operating together
at Balad Theater Hospital.

Although Dr. Huang was always prepared to serve this country when called upon, when the order came for him to go to Iraq, it was a bit of surprise. According to Dr. Huang, almost all reserve neurosurgeons are expected to backfill active duty positions in stateside or Germany when the active duty surgeons are deployed to the theater of operation. Nonetheless, Jason states that, once the shock had passed, "I realized that this was an excellent opportunity for me to serve this country in combat and treat and impact the lives of soldiers directly."

When the news that Dr. Huang was activated to be deployed to Iraq in January of 2008 spread, the entire Neurosurgery department mobilized to make the transition as smooth as possible. Dr. Huang then reported for one week at Fort Benning, and subsequently spent three days in Kuwait before arriving at the newly built Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad Airbase, Iraq, part of the vast, 15- square mile complex known as Logistics Support Area (LSA) Anaconda. Together with Richard Clatterbuck, MD, PhD, Dr. Huang helped to provide neurosurgical care to all U.S. soldiers within the entire operational theater in Iraq. They also cared for American contractors, local civilians, and even insurgents.

As Dr. Huang puts it, "it was a weighty responsibility to be the only two neurosurgeons on call in the entire country, responsible in a very concrete way for the brains of our 160,000 troops!" Head trauma comes in waves, and on Dr. Huang's first night at Balad, an American contractor was shot in the head by a group of insurgents while driving in a car. His colleague died at the scene, but the contractor was extremely lucky in that the bullet traveled tangentially to his skull and only caused non-penetrating injury with some subarachnoid hemorrhage and brain contusions. Dr. Huang took him to the OR to debride and close the scalp wound, and when the surgery was done he gave the contractor the bullet as a souvenir before the U.S. contractor was flown to Germany the next day. Not all patients were that lucky; large craniectomies, ventriculostomies and intracranial pressure monitors were all too common. The injuries treated by Dr. Huang were extraordinary - especially from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which he describes as particularly "ferocious" - and Dr. Huang learned to be extremely expert in aggressively pursuing their surgical treatment.

A Medivac helicopter carrying injured U.S. soldiers
arrives at Balad Theater Hospital.

In the United States, there is much political debate about the war in Iraq. However, in Iraq, Dr. Huang did not observe heated debate or argument. What he did experience was the "120-degree desert heat with young soldiers trying to stay away from IEDs and rocket attacks everyday. In most soldiers' minds, the primary goal is to protect their buddies next to them and to go home safely at the end of the deployment. As a physician, I had very little time to think and I just focused on doing everything I could to save whoever came into the trauma bay at Balad Theater Hospital: coalition soldiers, civilians or insurgents. There were no boundaries for which I differentiated treatment."

In addition to treating hundreds of US soldiers (with a 98% survival rate!), Dr. Huang relates that among his most memorable experiences were "saving the lives of a few severely injured Iraqi children. There were a couple of kids who came in with bad head injuries and looked like they were going to die who walked out of the hospital a couple weeks later." For Dr. Huang's exceptional effort and contribution during his deployment in Iraq, he received the Army Commendation Medal.

Dr. Huang is married to Kate Zhou. He met Kate at USTC, but reconnected when, by amazing coincidence, she was a graduate student at Hopkins, receiving a Masters in Chemistry, followed by an MBA from the University of Maryland. Both Jason and Kate appreciate the quality of life that Rochester offers.

Back in the States, Dr. Huang is excited to continue his clinical work in Neurosurgery and basic science research in traumatic brain injury and in peripheral nerve injury and repair. Recently, Jason received a joint faculty appointment at the Center of Neural Disease and Development (CNDD) and has an independent research lab at the Center. Dr. Huang credits the mentoring and support of Handy Gelbard, MD, PhD, Director of the CNDD. Since 2006, Dr. Huang has successfully secured three Foundation grants to fund his research. Jason also collaborates with Drs. Jeff Bazarian and Brian Blythe, faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the CNDD, to study traumatic brain injury. Their long-term goal is to define serum markers and develop novel therapies for traumatic brain injury and open a blast injury clinic to treat returning soldiers injured at the War.

It has been my great pleasure to get to know and recount to you the amazing stories of some of our faculty across the years. The powerful concatenation of luck, timing, opportunity, fierce determination and discipline among so many members of our faculty can only awe and inspire. The story of Dr. Jason Haitao Huang, a resilient and plucky physics/mechanical engineering student and political refugee from China, whose academic achievements earned him the opportunity to be educated and trained in some of America's finest institutions, whose desire to give back led him to the battlefields of Iraq caring for our soldiers, and whose commitment to research will undoubtedly lead to improved treatments for head trauma and other battlefield injuries, has to be very high on that list.

Meliora,

David S. Guzick, MD, PhD
Dean, School of Medicine and Dentistry
University of Rochester

Dean's Newsletter

Posted May 28, 2009:
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