Wu Mengchao. [Photo/Xinhua]

Wu Mengchao, founder of hepatobiliary surgery in China and teacher of roughly 80 percent of the experts and doctors specializing in liver surgeries in the country today, died at age 99 in Shanghai on Saturday.

As a world-renowned Chinese scientist, Wu, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former vice-president of the Shanghai-based Second Military Medical University, completed more than 16,000 surgical operations over a 75-year career.

As the first Chinese doctor to establish a theoretical basis for liver surgery, he was responsible for more than 30 major medical achievements using independent innovation.

Wu, who was from East China's Fujian province and would have turned 99 in August, made enormous contributions to China's world-leading position regarding diagnosis accuracy, surgical success, and postoperative survival for liver disease patients. So far the longest length of Chinese patients' survival after undergoing liver surgery is recorded at 45 years.

A China Daily reporter interviewed Wu in an operating room at Shanghai's Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital in November 2018 while he still worked as chief surgeon to help remove a liver tumor from a patient. The operation took Wu about 35 minutes, whereas it would usually take two hours for an average surgeon.

"I'm still working because I'm still capable and hope to guide more young people," said Wu, founder and director of the hospital affiliated with the Second Military Medical University.

"My efforts alone are not enough to help Chinese people get rid of disease," he said. "I hope to train more successors to improve our operating techniques in the remaining years of my life."

In 2005, Wu received the State Pre-eminent Science and Technology Award, the country's highest award in science. He donated his 5-million-yuan ($777,000) award to be used for his students' research.