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1209729-RC02-16
February 2016
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Medical marvels By LUKE VOOGT THE nation honoured two Drysdale doctors on Australia Day for decades of volunteer work and contribution to medicine. Remarkably, the two Order of Australia Medal recipients - John Tucker and John Vorrath - already know each other. Dr Vorrath’s father, Travis “Bill” Wilhelm, was a colleague of Dr Tucker. Dr Tucker, 97, relived his time as an army doctor in Papua New Guinea in The Voice last year, during the centenary of Anzac Day. But it was his exploits after World War II which led to his OAM induction. Dr Tucker volunteered as an anaesthetist for two decades in the Sub-Continent and South-East Asia, beginning in 1955. He worked as part of teams performing surgery on facial deformities with Sir Benjamin Rank in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Often Dr Tucker had to make the difficult choice whether or not he could anesthetise patients, whose deformities sometimes prevented them from eating properly. “We were operating on little babes and they were all very undernourished - very bad subjects for anesthetic,” he said. “Often there were no medical facilities in these places at all.” Dr Tucker remembers travelling to the Indian village of Kota in 1963 with Royal Melbourne Hospital chief eye surgeon John Bignell. A wealthy retired man had organised for Mr Bignell and four other surgeons to perform cataract surgery. “He had literally hundreds of people come through his little village,” Dr Tucker said. “He thought if he was going to have a good time in the next world he’d better give something back.” The operating room: a cow shed. “First we had to clear the cows out, then we hosed it out and found it had a cement floor - but you wouldn’t have known,” Dr Tucker said. “It was a huge shed - you could have had a game of tennis in it!” Mr Bignell brought hundreds of sheets of sterile paper with him and soon they were able to operate.
John Tucker and John Vorrath. 149411 “I would have said ‘no I can’t operate’ but Bignell had thought it through,” Dr Tucker said. Dr Tucker said he felt privileged to help others. “It was satisfying but horrifying,” he said. Dr Tucker was recognised for his long-time commitment to the Australian Society of Anaesthetists and Community Aid Abroad (now Oxfam). He was also one of the first commercial blueberry growers in Australia. Fellow doctor John Vorrath, invented a scope
which is now used by almost every ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist in Australia. Dr Vorrath invented the scope from his own backyard in 1971, frustrated with unwieldy equipment at the time. “To start with, I made everything out of plastic bits that came from plumbing shops,” he said. “It’s changed the way doctors do ENT.” Dr Vorrath worked as an ENT specialist at the Geelong Hospital for 35 years and the Royal Children’s Hospital for 45 years. “It was a just a lovely place to work,” he said.
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“Nasty people can’t survive there - because kids won’t be polite.” Dr Vorrath said airway difficulties were the “hairiest” situations to deal with. “One kid had not one but six peanuts in his throat,” he said. “His oxygen levels went to about 30 seconds before death.” The boy survived, much to his parents’ relief. At 75 years old, Dr Vorrath still enjoys surfing with his son and grandson.