Vale 2019/2020

Colin held the position of Consultant Emergency Physician at FSH and the same prior position at Fremantle. He also held a position of Director of Simulation for FSH.

Completing his medical degree in the UK, Colin travelled and worked in New Zealand and the east coast of Australia before taking one last job in Fremantle. After a few days here he and his wife felt they had arrived, found their spot in the world and never left. In fact, their love of the port city meant for the last 15 years they have lived within 100m of Freo Hospital and proudly wear purple.

Colin was a gifted clinician and teacher. These qualities forged his interest in simulation, and he undertook a fellowship in simulation in Boston to evolve his interest and bring cutting edge practices in this young area of medicine to FSH. He was a leading light in this field and helped develop and teach the now well established and respected SimStart course.

A cool head in the often-chaotic world of Emergency medicine, it was always a relief and enjoyment to know you were rostered with Colin.

An active supporter of the assisted dying movement his efforts and submissions to Western Australian Parliament would lead to the success in this becoming legislation even though he would not be able to benefit from it. These altruistic ideals were core traits of Colin’s. He was one of the founding members of the Freo Men’s Group to promote wellness and mental health.

– Dr James Cooper

On Saturday the 21st of March this year, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was turning our world as we know it upside down, we lost a trainee, colleague and friend, Kara Gray.

Kara was one of the most dedicated, hardworking and compassionate registrars who has trained in our department. Being a doctor was everything to Kara, being an Emergency doctor even more so. She was passionate about Emergency Medicine and was fiercely determined to finish her FACEM training.

Her insatiable curiosity about the world and her love of learning led her to complete a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in International Relations and Russian studies, and a Bachelor of Biomedical Science before commencing her medical studies at the University of Sydney. She continued her journey with a Postgraduate Diploma of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and was part way through completing her Masters of Paediatric Emergency Medicine. She was always defined by what she loved and what she achieved and never by her illness.

Kara spent the first three years of her medical career as a junior doctor in Dubbo, and brought with her a down to earth, practical and compassionate approach to both her patients and her colleagues. She always took time to talk to people and, more importantly, she took the time to listen. She has left a lasting impression and has inspired us all to make this world, like she did, a better place.

– Dr Carla Morgan

Dr Neil Shankar sadly passed away in Nepean ICU in January 2020 after an accident. He was survived by his wife Dr Hussun Jahan, a GP at Leura and his son Isaac who is four. They had moved to Katoomba in 2018 from Port Macquarie. Neil had been a FACEM only since 2018 and had worked at Blue Mountains, Nepean and Bowral EDs. Prior to that he had worked at Port Macquarie and in Queensland. He was known for remaining calm on a busy shift. He was hard working and well respected by other staff members. Neil and Hussun had met in Fiji where they grew up and studied medicine. Most of their family members are still there. Both Neil and Hussun love their roles as doctors and Hussun finds it helps her through the sad months since Neil died. Neil loved work and his family. Neil is sadly missed by his colleagues at Blue Mountains ED.

– Dr Kate Cush

Throughout his life Yusuf inspired so many of us with his dignity, humility and generosity. Yusuf was one of the world’s true gentlemen. Those of us privileged enough to have worked with Yusuf knew that we could approach him for help at any time, which he would always willingly give and yet never ask anything in return. Yusuf reminds us that the only reason you really need to help others, is because you can.

Yusuf never promoted his own achievements, however, he embodied the ethos of what it meant to be an emergency physician and there is little doubt he is among the most influential emergency physicians of our generation in Australia and we have a great deal to thank him for. He was an active advocate for Emergency Medicine in international and College forums, and Western Australian health services, and held pivotal roles in the College as well as in and around Perth, including the Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Yusuf had a long-standing involvement with and commitment to ACEM and served on a range of committees, most recently as the Chair of the Council of Advocacy, Practice and Partnerships (CAPP), a member of the Governance Committee and a member of the ACEM Board. He was interested particularly in clinical matters and was always happy to commit to the sometimes-lengthy process involved in arriving at a College position on these issues. He was Deputy Lead of the Fellowship Examination SCQ Working Party, a SIMG Assessor and member of the Court of Examiners. Most recently, he was instrumental in establishing the College Research Committee and even in his last weeks was involved in an Expert Advisory Group working on the College’s position on time-based targets. He has touched the lives and influenced the careers of many trainees and Fellows in both New Zealand and Australia.

At the recent awards ceremony at the College 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting, Yusuf was awarded a College Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his service to the College at an exceptional level over a long period of time. Unfortunately, he was too unwell to travel from Perth to receive his award. We were able to fly the award to Yusuf and I had the privilege of having a chat via videoconference with him, surrounded by his family and friends, to formally present his award to him in his hospice bed. Humble and dignified in receipt of his award, Yusuf smiled broadly with pride.

We feel privileged to have worked alongside Yusuf and will miss him enormously, both as a friend and a colleague. Yusuf is survived by his mother, father and two brothers all of whom were by his side during his final illness.

We grieve Yusuf’s loss; we are humbled to have known him and we celebrate the difference he has made to our lives.

– Dr John Bonning, ACEM President

Dr Mark Smith, one of the first generation of FACEMs in Australia / NZ, career long tireless teacher and mentor to countless ACEM trainees passed away in April of this year.
 
In a private Emergency Medicine Clinical Updates email group two of his close and long-term colleagues and friends, Dr. Varna Amarasinghe and Dr. James Hayes gave tribute to Mark.
 
9 May 2019
 
Colleagues, It is with great sadness, we note last week the passing of another of our most respected Colleagues, Dr Mark Smith. 
 
One of Mark’s closest friends was Dr Varna Amarasinghe. Varna sends us his memories of Mark.
 
Dr Mark Smith passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family on 27 April 2019.
 
I first met Mark in mid-1998 at a Fellowship course held at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. At that time, he was the Deputy Director of the Emergency Department. Mark was moving among the participants advising and answering any questions they had. He seemed quite the learned Professor to me. I gathered up the courage to speak with this revered man for the first time that day. I felt his very genuine concern, interest and eagerness in helping the exam candidates. He allayed my anxieties and made me feel comfortable about the whole terrifying fellowship exam process. But it was not only work he was interested in; he was even more interested in family life.
 
Some years later I had the pleasure and honour to work with Mark as my supervising DEMT when I took a job in the ED of Frankston Hospital. He became my teacher, my, mentor, but most of all, my friend. Together with Jeff Wassertheil, Mark coached and guided me for the exams. Without the two of them this would have been a harrowing experience indeed. Because of them, I passed the exams and became a FACEM. No longer, a Registrar, I next had the honour of having them both as my colleagues. I joyfully accepted their offer of a job as a junior staff specialist in the Emergency Department, Frankston Hospital.
 
I don’t wish to bore anyone with the usual “work anecdotes”, but suffice to say, they ranged from the serious in nature to the outright hilarious. Whatever the situation, Marks’ advice was always spot on! As a junior colleague, Mark always supported me in any difficult clinical or administrative matter that arose. It was Mark who encouraged me to join and to contribute to various ACEM committees; he was always so dedicated to the college, and it was one he was very proud to be a part of. Mark was always the first to work and he always made himself available to the night staff giving wise advice regarding difficult clinical issues that had arisen over the night whilst simultaneously arranging pharmacology tutorials. It was a pleasure to work for Mark on the floor as a registrar, and it was even more pleasurable after I became a FACEM, to work with him as his colleague. Most of what I learnt about what it meant to be an Emergency Physician, I learnt from Mark.
 
Mark was an unsurpassed loyal friend to his medical colleagues; however, he extended this friendship not only to medical and nursing staff, but to clerical staff, cleaning staff, orderlies alike. With Mark you always got what you saw. He always meant what he said. When they invented the word “genuine”, it was Mark they were talking about. He was a stickler for precise process, and he never took any “short cuts” be it at work or outside of it. Mark took great pleasure teaching Pharmacology, but his greatest clinical strength and excellence was in toxicology. He had once spent a sabbatical at Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Centre (RMPDC), and he was forever giving his registrars and colleagues the priceless insights he had gained from that experience, in particular how to conduct “proper” research. Right to the end Mark was planning to take his registrars to RMPDC in Denver later this year to give them a first-hand experience with top line researchers.
 
I travelled with Mark to many conferences, he would always be at the presentation hall half an hour before anyone else and he was always the last to leave at the end of the day. Mark made countless friends at conferences. I listened, always enthralled, to many a complex clinical and/or research discussion held in corridors that carried over well into the afternoon or early evenings. Only when he had exhausted all his enquiries, would come our customary three beers and dinner at a pub before retiring early to prepare for the next day’s presentations. Mark was always getting invited to Conference faculty members dinners, and when he got these invites, he invariably extended them to whoever colleague he was travelling with.
 
Mark was my teacher, my mentor, my loyal friend. I will miss our lengthy discussions, his guidance, his generosity.
 
I am forever thankful to have known him. 
 
Mark is survived by his lovely wife Diane and his three beautiful children, James, Tom and Emily.
 
 - Varna

Mark was one of the reasons I chose Emergency Medicine - he was also one of my greatest mentors, well we didn’t actually have “mentors” in those days, but he was to me, we just didn’t have a name for it back then.
 
Mark had three great loves, his family, his hunting (but I tolerated him for this - as I was told he actually spent most of his time having a nap under a tree, rather than actually shooting anything) - and his Teaching.
 
Sadly I never got to know his family well, I never went hunting with him - (he accepted my philosophical objections with good grace always) - what I did have was the privilege of his friendship - and the benefit of his Teaching - as Varna got through his Fellowship Exams off the back of Marks’ guidance, so did I, and so did countless others.
 
Many years ago, Frankston Hospital - far south of Melbourne - had a fearful reputation on account of its woefully inadequate resources, despite great need. You didn’t do a “rotation” at Frankston in those days - you did a “tour of duty”. Our Mid-Eastern colleagues would refer to it as “Fankanistan”      
 
Frankston ED today is well resourced, and the reason for this lies with two greats of the early history of our College - Jeff Wassertheil and Mark Smith - they single handedly created the modern Frankston ED.
 
Mark was a very principled man - I learnt three valuable life lessons from him - (they were lessons my parents also instilled into me) - Respect your parents, Respect your Elders & Respect your Teachers. Mark was a much beloved parent, an Elder of our College, and a great Teacher - but Mark did not simply “deserve” respect - he earned it.
 
We recently had discussions over the merits of the various Civil War generals, both North and South - he favoured William Tecumseh Sherman as the greatest - when I expressed surprise, he immediately launched into a “tute” to bring me up to speed! He never stopped being my Teacher.
 
Right to the very last he was planning his next round of Pharmacology tutes - having just brought all the very latest textbooks.  
 
There are many varied pursuits that FACEMs follow upon graduation - but none are as profoundly influential as Teaching. Teaching creates our future FACEMs but it also creates our future Teachers - and the ripple effect - or butterfly effect if you like - is endlessly fractal.
 
It has been said that something as insignificant as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing in Brazil can ultimately result in a tornado on the other side of the world.
       
I had not intended to have any updates this week, however, knowing Mark, I can hear him admonishing me severely, “Why not James!?” 
 
- Dr. James Hayes

Emergency Medicine lost a leading light with Dr Bottrall's premature death earlier this year. A beloved colleague and passionate teacher at Alfred and Cabrini Health, Tony's illness was a devastating blow.
 
Tony commenced internship at The Alfred in 1992; this started a long and dedicated association with Alfred Health. A colleague recalled "a keen young intern and very savvy with a new thing called the internet. I remember him trying to explain to me on many occasions how the world would be changed by the WWW – and not appreciating his vision".
 
He continued at Alfred Health as an EM trainee, then consultant, teacher and Director of EM Training. His major appointment was at Sandringham Hospital, where as a leading clinician he spearheaded the education program for students and trainees.
 
Tony's passions at work were leading-edge technology and educational engagement. As an early adopter of FOAMed, he established a robust Primary Examination website notable for being freely accessible online, at a time when most campuses jealously guarded their intellectual property.
With this same enthusiasm he embraced his Masters in Education and was a keen advocate of technology, bedside teaching and personal engagement in education. He impressed on junior doctors that caring for patients and learning could be such fun. His workday included many spontaneous tutorials to staff on technological aids in life, clinical medicine and education.
Tony recognised early on that staff wellbeing needs to be on everyone’s agenda and teaching program.
 
As DEMT for over 10 years, Tony engaged with dozens of trainees from Alfred, Sandringham and Cabrini Hospitals who are forever grateful for his caring mentorship and support of their own careers. Tony contributed to the College through the Primary and Fellowship Examination Committees and was a member of the Court of Examiners.
 
"He was always relaxed and brought a sense of fun to his work – even in the worst of times. He clearly loved emergency medicine"
 
Tony leaves behind a loving wife and family: Paula, Toby, Pippa and Luke.

Dr Terri McBride came to New Zealand from the United States in 2014. At that time she had already demonstrated her dedication to providing the best care she could for her patients, having started her career as a nurse, then a midwife, then a nurse practitioner before finally becoming a doctor and specialising in Emergency Medicine. She said before her move that she was at a point that she felt she had either “leave medicine or leave the US.” She relished the chance to work in New Zealand, where she could focus on patient care rather than compliance and billing. Her family commented that her time in New Zealand seemed, from their perspective, the happiest time in her life.
 
Terri settled in Whakatane, New Zealand, where she quickly demonstrated her excellent clinical skills. She was also well regarded by the nurses and junior doctors for her willingness to and clarity of her teaching. Never forgetting her history in nursing, she developed and implemented a training program for Emergency Medicine clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners in Whakatane. Her legacy for that project will live on there. She became a Fellow of ACEM in 2018. She is survived by her four children and two grandchildren. She will be missed.

It is with great sadness that we write to inform you of the passing of Dr Anna Nienaber on the 27^th March 2019. She was surrounded by her family in South Africa and her passing was peaceful. We would like to acknowledge Anna’s contribution to the Waikato Emergency Department. She will be forever remembered by her Waikato Emergency colleagues.
 
Anna joined Waikato ED in May 2004 and spent much of her time training alongside her future colleagues here at Waikato Hospital, until she was elected as fellow of Australasia College of Emergency Medicine in 2011. Having obtained her specialist qualification, Anna spent a year in Australia, working in several different hospitals in several different states. But home is where the heart is, and the following year in 2013 Anna returned to Hamilton, Waikato and took up a consultant job in our department until her diagnosis of cancer in mid-2017.
 
Anna was a valuable member of our ED team; her fiery and yet cheeky nature brought countless unforgettable moments. Her kindness and amicable character touched the life of many friends and colleagues who worked alongside her. She was approachable and supportive; always happy to share her experience and to teach. Her love for travel and food made her a good companion during conferences!  
 
Anna grew up in a quiet University Town, Potchefstroom, in South Africa with three older siblings and her mother. Her father died when she was only three. She was not only exceptional in academics but excelled in athletics, astronomy and music. Anna graduated from Pretoria University and worked in a large rural hospital in Pietersburg for two years before she left South Africa to work in London. 
 
Anna came to New Zealand in 1998, and during her first few years here, she worked in small rural hospitals, Thames and Taupo. In 2004, she became an ED trainee and moved to work at Waikato. In 2007 she spent some time doing jobs outside of ED both in Rotorua and in Hawkes Bay. Then in 2008 she returned to Waikato Hospital, where she completed her FACEM training.
               
We will remember Anna as a clinician colleague, and as a friend. A vibrant, funny, courageous, resilient and adventurous individual who accepted what life gave her and made the most of the time that she had. Her sense of humor and compassion will be missed by all of us.

We remember Dr Clement Teoh who recently passed away.  Clement worked at a number of hospitals in Western Australia as both an ED RMO and then as a Registrar.  He was an advanced trainee with the College for Emergency Medicine.  In 2018, Clement moved to Sydney with his wife.
 
Clement will always be remembered as a quiet achiever and a very hard worker with a mischievous sense of humor. He will be sadly missed by the many friends he made while working in Western Australia.

Colin Page will be remembered as one of the giants of Queensland Emergency Medicine. He graduated from the University of Auckland in 1992 and soon moved to Queensland to progress his medical career. In 1999 he was awarded Fellowship to ACEM. For most of his career, he held a staff specialist position at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
 
In 2007 he began his Toxicology training in Newcastle. He was Director of the Queensland Poisons Centre from 2009 and in 2014 he established the first Toxicology service in Queensland which has gone on to become one of the busiest toxicology units in the country.

He had a strong presence amongst the research community with a total of 41 peer-reviewed publications. His major contributions have been towards ASP, ATOM, RAVE, DORM and SARPO
 
He has been a recipient of the John Gilroy Potts Award on several occasions.

In 2014 he was awarded a fellowship from QEMRF to complete his PhD in Toxicology.

His colleagues will remember him as an inspirational mentor with a dedication and enthusiasm for his work unlike no other. His patients will remember him as a firm but kind clinician- someone who had a unique ability to restore dignity in the disenfranchised and dispossessed.
 
His family will remember him as a loving partner, a devoted father and a truly extraordinary human being.

On Friday, the 31^st of August 2018, at 6.00 am, Dr. Alex Puris, devoted husband to Oksana and loving father to 2 beautiful daughters - Dasha and Anastasia, passed away peacefully at home, after a long and brave battle with cancer.
 
He was an Advanced Trainee with ACEM, a remarkable man, a gifted physician, trusted colleague and he was one of my closest friends. More than a hundred friends and colleagues attended Alex’s funeral held on the 10^th of September at the Seacliff Live Saving Club near his home. He did not have many years in his life, but he put a lot of life into his years.
 
He touched our hearts and inspired many and it was a privilege to have known him. He was reassuring, gentle, accommodating, attentive, open hearted and modest. He was a man of few words but had a great sense of humor. His greatest skill and strength as a clinician was his kindness and empathy towards patients. Alex continued to work despite being in the terminal phase of his illness. His passion for his craft never ceased and he was driven by the desire to care for his family. He never complained and bared his burden with unimaginable strength and bravery. We will miss Alex dearly. He was an inspiration to all that knew him, and he will never be forgotten.

At the very beginning of Emergency Medicine in Australasia, Peter was there. A Registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital when I met and joined him in 1988, we two were the only Registrars at the GCH when David Green took over as Director. They were exciting times.
 
Peter approached every patient with care and humility. He found what mattered to them and if possible, made it happen. People were glad to have him as their doctor.
 
He was a father by the time I met him. Drownings were common back then on the Gold Coast. Regularly we received kids undergoing CPR who had been pulled lifeless from the water; most did not survive despite our best efforts. That upset everyone but none more than Peter. His paediatric resuscitations always went for longer, his grief afterwards always more palpable. He took it personally.
 
We worked together for three years then left the GCH and went our separate ways. As a Fellow, Peter went on to a variety of posts in Emergency Medicine, Urgent Care and Primary Care. He never lost his empathy for people who had lost their way or whose lives had been derailed. He was a beautiful and gentle man. Many are better for having met him; I feel especially privileged for having worked with him. The world is a poorer place for his loss.