[1][2] He received training in plastic surgery at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, led by superintendent Samuel Noordhoff [zh], who suggested that Wei "go abroad to bring home something new.
[3] Four years later, Wei helped establish the Microsurgical Intensive Care Unit at Chang Gung.
[6] Wei's team worked without fully detailed medical records, and the surgery itself took more than ten hours.
[6][7] The Discovery Channel filmed the operation,[8] and aired footage as a portion of a three-part documentary series titled Taiwan Revealed,[9][10] which was scheduled to premiere on 5 June 2014 in Taiwan, before being aired in 35 other regions across Asia during June and July 2014.
[19] In 2019, Wei, Yuan-Pern Lee, and Yuan-Tsong Chen were awarded Taiwan's Presidential Science Prize [zh].