ImPossible: The Alfred Foundation Newsletter Spring 2021

NEWS

Critical Care Appeal Celebrating 150 years of human spirit F E AT U R E

Open heart pioneers Brian's historic operation F E AT U R E

An infectious attitude Professor Spicer shares his story

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DIRECTOR’S REPORT

While 2021 has proven to be an unpredictable year as we adjust to the fluctuations of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing has remained steady – my amazement and gratitude for the enduring support shown by you, the community, towards The Alfred and all staff.

The response to such a challenging time has been nothing short of inspirational. Our staff, like many, have had to adapt to changing circumstances to consistently provide the best care possible. It is a constant source of pride to see this in action and witness the results of their efforts.

We continue to commemorate our 150th year, looking back on the remarkable history of The Alfred and celebrate the extraordinary stories of human spirit from over the years.

We are sharing these stories on a special website, alfred150.org.au. I encourage you all to visit the website to not only read about The Alfred’s amazing history but also join in and share your stories of human spirit.

We are, as ever, thankful for your continued support and we look forward to serving the community across Victoria for the next 150 years.

Stay safe and well,

NEWS

Pharmacy excellence heads to regional Victoria The gap between regional and remote patients' access to cancer clinical trials across Victoria is closing, thanks to a new Federally-funded initiative run out of Alfred Health.

The Australian Clinical Trials Coordination Centre, which is known as TrialHub, was established at The Alfred last year to partner with outer metro, regional and rural hospitals to help them establish long-term, sustainable clinical trial units to facilitate equitable access.

Alfred Health has more than 300 open clinical trials across 14 disease disciplines.

Formal training for clinical trial pharmacists was one of the needs identified in partner hospitals, which led to the development of a new, specialised training program by Alfred Health Pharmacy.

Professor Michael Dooley, Director of Pharmacy, said the team had developed an "Australian-first" training program that leverages the team’s education, research, innovation and pharmacy expertise.

Bendigo Health and Latrobe Regional Hospital are well into the program, with Peninsula Health now also on board. More hospitals across Victoria will join TrialHub next year, significantly increasing access to potentially life-saving trials for regional, rural and remote patients.

To learn more, visit alfredhealth.org.au/trialhub

Patrick Baker DIRECTOR – THE ALFRED FOUNDATION

COVER IMAGE Stephanie Browitt is now inspiring others and advocating for organ donation after surviving the White Island volcano eruption.

Photo: Chris Franklin RIGHT Lead clinical pharmacists Adam Cunningham (left) and Steven Walker have been instrumental in developing the pharmacy program.

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NEWS

Critical Care Appeal celebrates 150 years of grit, tenacity and compassion Moments where human spirit has shone through and taken us to great heights were celebrated by The Alfred in its annual Critical Care Appeal this year.

Paying homage to the hospital’s significant 150-year history, this year the appeal reflected on The Alfred’s proud achievements as a pioneer and leader in the field of complex and critical care.

Alfred Health Chief Executive Professor Andrew Way said the one constant through the 150 years has been the spirit of our staff, patients and community.

“Much has changed since our doors opened in 1871, however The Alfred’s spirit of grit, tenacity and compassion has remained a constant,” Professor Way said.

“We have been part of the evolution, indeed revolution, of care that has vastly improved the health and wellbeing of our community.

“There continue to be successes and triumphs as we pioneer in cardiac, transplantation, emergency, trauma, burns, cancer, neuro, rehabilitation and infectious diseases, to name only some of our specialties.”

This year’s Critical Care Appeal focused on six stories of patients and staff whose actions represent the very essence of human spirit.

Stories such as burns patient Stephanie Browitt, a survivor of the White Island volcano eruption who suffered burns to 70 per cent of her body and tragically lost her sister and father as a result of the disaster.

Stephanie is now inspiring others with her positivity and determination and has become a powerful advocate for organ donation.

And the remarkable story of The Alfred’s Director of Trauma Services who, in an incredibly rare situation, jumped in his own car, racing to help save a man

with head trauma on the Calder Freeway. Due to bad weather, paramedics couldn’t get the man to The Alfred in time. Needing holes urgently drilled in his skull to relieve building pressure, Mark Fitzgerald raced to the scene and performed the emergency surgery in the carpark of a McDonald’s, saving the man’s life.

“We hope these stories give the Victorian community a glimpse of the incredible human spirit we see every day at The Alfred and encourage them to support this amazing hospital, which is here for all Victorians,” Professor Way said.

Throughout its history The Alfred has stood firm with the Victorian community during times of challenge: fires, floods, disaster and much more.

We continue to stand with our community today by helping keep people safe through the pandemic, caring for those seriously unwell as well as keeping people safe.

“The Alfred is not just a Victorian hospital, it is the hospital for all Victorians,” Professor Way said.

“The Alfred and the Victorian community are intrinsically linked through history and experience. In a way this hospital and our staff reflect the spirit of our patients and community. Without their support we wouldn’t be here celebrating 150 years.”

We thank all those who supported this year’s appeal.

This includes 3AW who, for more than two decades, has dedicated all programming on the Friday before Father’s Day to promoting the incredible work of the hospital and helping us raise much needed funds.

You can read all six hero stories, and learn more about the history of The Alfred by visiting alfred150.org.au

ABOVE Stephanie Browitt is an example of the human spirit shown every day at The Alfred. Photo: Chris Franklin

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F E AT U R E

Brian looks back on an open life Brian Wharton did not give a second thought to his pending operation when he was aged 14.

He didn’t know that he would be the fifth person in Australia to have open-heart surgery. He didn’t know that only two of the previous four people had survived after the operation.

“I was only a kid. All I knew was that I was going to have an operation and that all would be well,” Brian said.

The year was 1959 and Dr Kenneth Morris, the man who had conducted Australia’s first open-heart surgery two years earlier, was in charge of the operation at The Alfred. Brian recalls Dr Morris as “a big man with big hands, I always wondered how he would ever do it”.

Brian grew up in Carlsruhe, a town halfway between Woodend and Kyneton near Bendigo, on a 10-acre farm which was originally an orchard. His father was a bricklayer and Brian’s two older brothers were also in that trade: “I had a go for 12 months but I wasn’t good enough to keep up with it. We didn’t know at that stage the problem I had with my ticker”.

After his dad died in 1958 and the family moved to Kyneton, Brian finished Fourth Form (the equivalent of Year 10) and had applied for a job with the Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG). PMG was responsible for providing postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia, later to be replaced by what would become Telstra and Australia Post.

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It was only towards the end of his application that he had a medical examination, when a specialist in Albert Park confirmed to Brian’s mother that he had a hole in his heart.

Brian had few indications growing up that something was wrong, remembering that he “could never run at school – I used to run out of breath”.

An intended three-week stay at The Alfred turned into three months.

“I died about seven times... I was hooked up to a machine where if your heart stopped for a quarter of a minute, it set off alarms.

A switch would be pushed and it would shake me back into gear.”

Brian had almost nothing but positives to talk about his care at The Alfred, describing the doctors and nurses as “marvellous”. But the food did not get as good a wrap – “it was terrible”.

“My mother used to come down once a week from Kyneton,” he said. “She would bring a chook and I’d hop into that because that would be about all I would eat for the week.

“You would get these two rissoles on a plate and the smell was terrible. Because it was a single-level building you could open the window and throw them (the food) into the garden. I’m sure that’s not the case with the food now.”

A global pioneer in cardiac care 1903 – The first thoracotomy (chest opening) in Australia was performed by Hamilton Russell at The Alfred to remove a shawl pin from a 12-year-old boy.

1947 – The first closed-heart operation in Australia was performed at The Alfred, when the first shunt operation for Fallot’s Tetralogy (blue baby) was successfully completed on a three-year-old boy.

Attending a health rehabilitation centre in Mornington, Brian followed up his interest in radio and television and to complete a radio tradesman course at RMIT. He then worked in Kyneton before, at age 28, taking over an electrical goods store in St Arnaud, where he still lives today.

But Brian’s experiences with The Alfred weren’t yet over. When he was about 32, he “started carking it”, as his heart would beat extremely fast. Taken to The Alfred, “they told me my heart rate was down to about 25 a minute, which was why I was going head over turkey”.

Fitted with a pacemaker – “quite a bulky thing” – the first one lasted more than 17 years and he has been getting new ones about every decade since.

“I wouldn’t be 77 if it wasn’t for The Alfred,” Brian said. “I’ve lived a full life, worked a full life. The ticker seems to keep going.

“I believe The Alfred leads the way in research and help. I am sure The Alfred is highly thought of in all our communities. The Alfred helped me many years ago and that is the reason I support it now.”

Brian has been married to his wife Glenis for 55 years and has two children, seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

1954 – The pioneers of cardiac surgery at The Alfred, Sir Charles James Officer Brown and Dr Ken Morris, started open-heart surgery, using hypothermia to slow circulation while simple procedures were done on the heart.

1957 – The Alfred’s first heart-lung machine was built, using plastic tubing sourced from the back rooms of Melbourne food and beverage factories.

1957 – The first successful open-heart operation in Australia was carried out at The Alfred by Dr Ken Morris. The patient was a two-year-old boy with a ventricular septal defect (hole in the heart).

1968 – Dr Ken Morris performed the first heart transplant at The Alfred, becoming the second in Australia.

1989 – The Alfred became the home for Victoria’s heart transplant unit and only the second in Australia. The surgical team transplanted a heart into a 32-year-old man.

1990 – A heart-lung transplant was performed on a 24-year-old man with cystic fibrosis.

His heart was then transplanted into a second recipient, becoming Australia’s first ‘domino’ transplant.

1999 – The VentrAssist artificial heart assist device was developed by Ventracor in association with The Alfred. The world’s first human implant was then performed in 2003.

2008 – The Alfred became the first hospital in Victoria to replace a patient’s heart valve without the need for open-heart surgery, using Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

LEFT TO RIGHT Brian Wharton in his late teens, taken while he was attending RMIT; Brian now with his heart still going strong at his home in St Arnaud.

2019 – Cardiologists used a miniature heart pump, Impella, to keep a man alive during a high-risk stent procedure in The Alfred Catheter Laboratory in a Victorian first.

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PROFILE

The Spicer of life A life-changing working experience in Bangladesh sparked what was to become the focus of Professor W John Spicer’s career.

Now 85 years young, Prof. Spicer laid the foundation for The Alfred’s Infectious Diseases Unit in 1975 as the first Physician in Bacteriology in Australia.

He soon became Director of Microbiology and, by progressively developing a number of services and facilities, was named the inaugural Director of Infectious Diseases when the full unit was created in 1989. Prof. Spicer remained in this position at The Alfred before retiring from full-time work in 2000, but still continues to teach every week.

His passion for these twin disciplines was initiated after a five-year stint in the south Asian country of Bangladesh.

Prof. Spicer moved there in 1966 with his wife and two young daughters, having had six years’ experience mainly at The Alfred after graduating. This included time in medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics/ gynaecology and psychiatry.

Supported by the Australian Baptist Missionary Society with the intention of working there for two years, his knowledge and practical experience in infectious diseases was spurred on by the patients he diagnosed and treated, staying on because of the acute medical needs.

Most of the patients he saw had tropical infections like malaria and dysentery or non-tropical infections like pneumonia, TB or meningitis.

When Prof. Spicer returned to Australia with his family in 1970, which now also included two sons – for both of whom he was the obstetrician – he weighed only 44kg due to the effects of various tropical health conditions.

After recovering from his ill-health, he approached Dr Glen Buckle, the Director of Bacteriology/Microbiology at The Alfred. At that time, while there were some infectious diseases physicians in Australia, such as at

Fairfield Hospital, there were none in general hospitals.

Dr Buckle and The Alfred created the first.

“The Alfred was really having to make its reputation even though it was nearly as old as the Royal Melbourne,” Prof. Spicer said. “It (The Alfred) was conscious it had to be as good as the Royal Melbourne, or preferably better. Its standard of medicine in a lot of areas was ahead of its peers, for example in cardiology and cardiac surgery.”

Gary McMahon is just one of the tens of thousands of grateful patients from among Prof. Spicer's 65year storied history at The Alfred who is immensely thankful to him. One of the first people in Australia to have the highly dangerous UK strain of meningococcal meningitis, he was only 23 when he was rushed to The Alfred and treated by Prof. Spicer.

“Professor Spicer at The Alfred saved my life,” Mr McMahon said. “I will be forever grateful.”

Prof. Spicer continues to teach third-year students at The Alfred, Box Hill and Werribee hospitals each week. He said highlights across his career ranged from making patients happier and healthier, to helping bring Fairfield Hospital's HIV/AIDS service, and the Burnet Institute, to The Alfred.

He is pleased to have committed to leaving gifts in his Will to several departments at The Alfred. A grateful patient himself for the past 40 years, it is not just his admiration for and service to The Alfred that has driven his philanthropic intent, for both he and his wife share strong values and contribute regularly to more than 20 organisations for those in need.

For information about including a gift to The Alfred in your Will, phone Feygl or Sue on 9076 3222, email foundation@alfred.org.au or visit our website.

ABOVE

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Professor W John Spicer has been teaching for more than 50 years.

The Infectious Diseases Unit (IDU) was formed in 1975, when Director of Bacteriology Dr Glen Buckle created the position of Physician in Bacteriology for Professor W John Spicer. At the time, there was no Infectious Diseases Physician position existing in any general hospital in Australia.

‘Fever physicians’ had disappeared with the advent of antibiotics.

With the role rapidly growing, Prof. Spicer was appointed Director of Microbiology at The Alfred in 1979.

The Infectious Diseases Unit was established in 1989. Organised differently from most other units, it provided care for complicated patients, which included the increasing number of those who were HIV-positive.

After the closure of the Fairfield Hospital in 1996, about 80 staff came to The Alfred.

The IDU is now a large team which specialises in infectious diseases. Some doctors and nurses are further specialised in specific diseases. It works to prevent and to treat illness, disability and death caused by a wide range of infectious diseases.

The service includes an inpatient unit dealing with a range of infectious issues that require admission to hospital, a hospital-wide consult service for patients with infective issues who are admitted under other units in the hospital and outpatient clinics, specialising in a variety of health conditions.

This includes general infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmissible infections, infections in immunosuppressed individuals, orthopaedic and post-surgical infections, respiratory infections and tuberculosis and viral hepatitis.

COMMUNITY

Sizzling superstars raise $250,000 selling sausages George and Anna Kokkinos are, quite simply, amazing.

In March 2008, George and his wife Anna made their first donation of $47.05 to The Alfred Foundation. They were inspired to do so by the treatment and care received by their son at The Alfred after a life-threatening accident.

George was determined to give back and hit upon the idea of becoming a mobile sausage sizzler. Who would have thought that this simple but inspired idea would culminate in raising a whopping $251,207.05 for The Alfred?

Over the course of more than eight years, George and Anna braved the elements day-in, day-out. Locals recall seeing them throughout the peninsula, south of Melbourne, outside busy supermarkets or in shopping precincts, working hard on a portable barbecue to sell sausages and hot dogs to raise money for The Alfred.

On inclement days, he and Anna would still head out with their tins, collecting money for the hospital. It wasn’t unusual for George and Anna to put in long hours for six days a week – all unpaid and from the goodness of their hearts.

After years of tireless fundraising with incredible results, George and Anna have officially hung up their tongs and tins.

“We were happy to do it,” George said. “The hospital is very good and helps many people.”

We’d like to thank George and Anna, on behalf of everyone at The Alfred Foundation, for your tremendous support. Your fundraising efforts have undoubtedly helped save and improve the lives of many patients at The Alfred.

A Travel Medicine Clinic for people who are planning to travel and wish to discuss their infectious diseases risks and preventative measures is also in place.

The Alfred continues to play a leading role in combatting infectious diseases. More recently, this has been shown in the response to COVID-19 through Professor Allen Cheng, the Director of Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology at The Alfred.

Prof. Cheng was seconded to the role of Deputy Chief Health Officer for Victoria for 12 months during the pandemic.

RIGHT George and Anna Kokkinos have raised more than $250,000 for The Alfred.

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COMMUNITY

Our community making the impossible possible Emily’s Team – Melbourne Marathon Every year there are chances to combine a personal fitness challenge with fundraising for The Alfred.

Opportunities include the Great Ocean Road Running Festival, Run Melbourne and the Melbourne Marathon.

When Emily Dix found out her Mum had cancer and would need treatment at The Alfred, she wanted to do something. Team Emily was formed, with 13 people committed to running the Melbourne Marathon and raising funds for The Alfred. The team has raised more than $5000. The participants are members of Emily’s running group, Bayside Run Crew, and also her gym, Crossfit Project Bayside. This is not only a huge fundraising effort but also a beautiful demonstration of community and support for Emily and her Mum through such a challenging time.

To find out more, visit melbmara2021.grassrootz. com/the-alfred-foundation/emily-s-team

Hair to Help – Thanks to Emma and daughters In December 2018, Emma received the upsetting news that her Mum would need to return to The Alfred for further cancer treatment. Not one to sit around, Emma decided to grow her hair to donate for wigs for cancer patients suffering hair loss due to chemotherapy.

Inspired by their mum and also wanting to support their grandma, Emma’s daughters joined the cause, growing their hair as well. The family also ran a community fundraiser for The Alfred’s Haematology Oncology Department. A huge thanks go to Emma and her daughters, who have raised just less than $7000.

The funds raised will be used to produce a health and wellness information brochure supporting patients through their treatment.

To donate, please visit fundraising.alfredfoundation. org.au/hairtohelp

Dry July 2021 Another year of Dry July is complete. We’d like to thank everyone who participated by giving up alcohol for the month, and all those who supported the cause by donating or spreading the word. We are proud to report that more than $36,000 was raised this year, which is a tremendous effort. All Dry July fundraising goes towards health and wellness projects for people impacted by cancer. In the past, this funding has been used to support the hospital’s Music Therapy Program and Patient Accommodation Program for regional cancer patients who need to travel to the city for their treatment. These programs make the world of difference to those who use them.

To read more, visit dryjuly.com/beneficiaries/ thealfredmelbourne

The Alfred Foundation PO Box 2021, Prahran VIC 3181 T: 1800 888 878 alwaysalfred.org.au

Are you interested in creating your own fundraiser?

Organising your own fundraiser is a great way to take action and support The Alfred.

You could take on your own unique physical challenge or ask your friends and family to give to The Alfred in lieu of gifts. You could also create a tribute page to celebrate the life of a loved one.

Head to fundraising.alfredfoundation.org.au and create your own page today.