Google celebrates Chinese Australian surgeon Dr. Victor Chang with a Doodle

Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating Chinese Australian surgeon Dr. Victor Chang with a Doodle on what would've been his 87th birthday.

Chang is a pioneer of cardiac and transplant surgery and is most known for the creating the St. Vincent's artificial heart valve.

Born in Shanghai, his interest in medicine began when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. He went to school at the University of Sydney and trained at St. Vincent Hospital and worked at several hospitals all over the world.

In 1972, he returned to St. Vincent Hospital to work as a cardiothoracic surgeon.

In addition to the St. Vincent's artificial heart valve, Chang performed a heart transplant on 14-year-old patient Fiona Coote in 1984, the youngest patient in Australia to receive the surgery and the longest surviving heart transplant beneficiary there.

Also in 1984, he created the Victor Chang Foundation to award grants to teach South East Asian surgeons to bring them to St. Vincent Hospital to be trained in heart transplantation.

Chang was named Australian of the Year in 1986.

In 1991, he was shot dead on a suburban Sydney street on the way to work.

In 1999, Chang was named Australian of the Century at the People's Choice Awards.