Todd Ing, MD
October 24, 2023
Dr. Todd Siu-Toa Ing, 89, of Wilmette, Illinois passed away peacefully at NorthShore Evanston Hospital on October 24, 2023.
Ing, combined the roles of physician, scientist, and professor of medicine with a lifetime of expertise in dialysis, a life-saving treatment for patients whose kidneys have stopped working.
Ing was born in Hong Kong, a British colony at the time, on November 15, 1933. When World War II started, his family fled to Portuguese Macao. Afterwards, Ing returned to Hong Kong and studied at the University of Hong Kong, where he felt a combination of awe and admiration for his strict teachers. He often recounted how a fellow student was kicked out of a lecture hall for forgetting to wear a necktie.
Dr. Ing did his post-graduate training all over the world including Montreal, London, Halifax, and finally Chicago. He loved his year in London so much, under the tutelage of Dr. Oliver Wrong, that his children and grandchildren all bear traditionally British given names. The 1965 Immigration Act allowed more people from Asian and other countries to enter the US, and Ing moved to his new home, Illinois, and became a US citizen.
Grateful for America's role in World War II, Ing was determined to give back – as witnessed by the 25 plus years spent caring for veterans at Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital as Chief of the Renal and Hypertension Section. His faculty appointment was at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Ing dreamed of becoming a chair of medicine one day, but when the offer finally came from a faraway university hospital, his wife said, "I love you, and you can go, but the kids and I are staying, we like it here." He stayed in Chicago for his family.
Ing co-edited 5 editions of the widely used Handbook of Dialysis which was translated into a dozen languages. He published nearly 300 scientific manuscripts during his career and trained countless fellows, residents and medical students.
"Dr. Ing leaves behind a large group of specialists in nephrology and internal medicine whom he inspired and helped train," writes former colleague Dr. John Daugirdas. "He was always very supportive of his patients with kidney disease, and always emphasized the need to focus first on their care in an academic medicine environment."
Ing was awarded the National Torchbearer Award by the American Kidney Fund, the Medal of Excellence by the American Association of Kidney Patients, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hemodialysis at the Annual Dialysis Conference.
Appreciative of his Chinese heritage, Ing was a founding member of the Chinese American Nephrology Association. He co-edited Nobel and Lasker Laureates of Chinese Descent.
Ing is survived by his wife, Mabel; sons, Ian (Xijue) and Brian (Nancy); and grandchildren, Fiona, Rowan, Eliza, and Declan.
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