8
| Vol 13 | 2016
In the 2013 edition of the Greyhound
News we featured
Dr Halley Stott
(Old
Kearsney 1927) who founded The Valley
Trust more than 60 years ago. A remarkable
socio-medical project for the promotion of
health, it combined practical approaches
to nutrition and medical care. Also in that
edition, renowned neuroscientist
Professor
Henry Markram
(Gillingham 1980) spoke
about the billion euro Human Brain Project
which he heads at the Swiss Federal Institute
for Technology in Lausanne.
Across these pages we celebrate some
younger medical brains; as well as others
reaching out to help ensure the survival of
communities and wildlife, from assisting with
education in a rural village deep into Africa,
to helping fight the plight of the world’s
dwindling rhino population.
Developing human
potential
Dr Rowan Duys
(Gillingham 1997), a
specialist Anaesthetist at Groote Schuur
Hospital in Cape Town, says he is passionate
about investing in the future of this country
by developing its human potential.
“Part of my role is developing the
educational output of the UCT Department
of Anaesthesia. This is a new area for me,
and working towards programmes and
solutions that we hope will train-up large
numbers of healthcare workers, across
a large area of the country and perhaps
beyond, is challenging me creatively in a very
exciting way,” Rowan says.
“Yet I still get real enjoyment and satisfaction
from helping individual people who are sick
and in pain to get through an operation that
has the potential to drastically improve their
lives.”
He said the choice to specialise inAnaesthesia
resulted from a journey through several
different specialties. He liked the concept
that he provided care to one patient at a
time and could focus completely on that
patient.
“Many other specialties require doctors to
look after patients in a clinic, theatre, ward
and home environment simultaneously...
this is very difficult. The operating theatre
is also one of the best-resourced areas
of any hospital in terms of personnel and
equipment. In our current healthcare
environment it’s important for me to feel
like I’m working in an area where we don’t
compromise on care because of a failing
system. Anaesthesia allows me to throw
extensive resources at improving the quality
of care of one patient at a time.”
NOTABLE ALUMNI
All specialists at Groote Schuur, these Kearsney Old Boys happened to walk down the same theatre corridor at the same time.
From left: specialist anaesthetists
Guy Picken
(Pembroke 1996),
Brendan Currin
(Gillingham 1996),
Rowan Duys
(Gillingham 1997)
and general surgeon
Ant Sander
(Pembroke 1996).
MEDICAL
Throughout the decades
many Kearsney boys
have pursued careers in
medicine, be it traditional
general practice,
community medicine,
specialisations or in
medical research.
