Where are they now?
Dr Shima Ghedia (1987)
Isn’t it a wonderful thing when so many of your childhood dreams come true?! As a young girl growing up in Leeton in south-west NSW, I never imagined that I could achieve so many of my career goals. Much of this I can attribute to the educational grounding and drive to succeed that I gained in my 2 years as a Boarder in Year 11 and 12 at Pymble.
I entered Boarding with a sense of trepidation: the unfamiliarity of being away from home, the experience of meeting so many new people friends from all parts of Australia and overseas was eye-opening to a sheltered country girl. Coming from a small town with few resources, I was excited to now have so many options in music, sport and varied subject choices that weren’t available to me before. I feel that gaining entry to my medical degree could never have been possible for me if I had stayed in Leeton.
In 1994 I started a six year degree in medicine at the University of Sydney. It was a demanding course, but I made many lifelong friends through the Sydney Uni Medical Revue, shared ski holidays at the Sydney Uni ski lodge as well as late night study sessions. I lived on campus at Women’s College which made my social life outside of med school extremely busy! One of the more memorable events involved studying anatomy via rat dissections. We had an exam in anatomy coming up, and our tutor had allowed a group of us to take a dead rat “home” to study. (yep, totally serious!) In our wisdom, the rat had been carefully placed in a freezer to keep it “fresh”. Time came to do the planned study sessions with around 8 students gathered…only to find that the rat was frozen rock-hard. I can’t recall who had the bright idea to defrost the dead frozen rat in a microwave but here we are. I mean, who knows how long you need to set the timer?? There aren’t any guides available, and Google hadn’t been invented! As you can only imagine, at the first incision a steamy putrid smell issued forth from the abdominal cavity, causing all of us to scatter screaming down the corridor. Not sure how we all passed that test to be honest, but the memory still makes me giggle to this day!
I was 23 when I graduated as a doctor and found myself in a whole new world. On my very first day (I was sent as the only female out of a group of 11 new interns) to work in the Emergency Department of the old Nepean Hospital. From the moment I walked in, something settled within me and felt like I had found a home. Truthfully you need to be a certain kind of crazy to be someone who thrives in the controlled chaos that is an Emergency Department! The energy, the pressure, the varied ailments and injuries – gave me an adrenaline fix that still stirs me to this day. There is a huge amount of satisfaction to be gained when you make a difficult diagnosis that is not apparent to others. Not to mention treating people who have come in for help on one of the worst days of their lives. It is a humbling and wonderful sensation all at the same time. I decided within weeks that this kind of crazy was MY kind of crazy, and I was determined to become an Emergency Physician there and then.
At the end of my second year as a doctor, I was offered training posts in Emergency Medicine with both Nepean Hospital and Westmead Hospital. I chose Nepean as there were a large number of new and enthusiastic young ED consultants there, however I ultimately decided to defer my training in Sydney for a year in order to pursue my other love: Travel.
I took up a job in London as a junior doctor in the NHS. The hospital was called Whipps Cross Hospital and was in a rather seedy part of North-east London. Most of my earnings went to pay the rent on my tiny dingy room in the Residence on-site. Naturally I chose to work in the Emergency Department (or ED as it is known) and, boy, was that job an awakening! There were only 12 of us and very few senior staff to guide or teach us what to do. The one permanent consultant locked himself in his office and seemed to spend all his time writing lucrative medico-legal reports. He was highly unapproachable and in fact actively discouraged asking questions. I never ever saw him treat a patient. It was generally the older experienced emergency nurses in the department who became our friends and mentors and taught us the basics of what we know. Our shifts were long and intense. Waiting times were horrendous. I believe I never saw a fresh wound…no doubt healing had already begun! By the time the patient was called, they were usually more than irate. One particularly large lady chased me down a corridor swearing at me and calling me names because I couldn’t get her son in to see an Ear Nose & Throat Specialist “today, right this minute”! We did 7 x 12 hour night shifts in pairs in a terrible roster, and by the time morning rolled around we would be delirious with fatigue.
Back then, NO-ONE wanted to work in the ED. It did not have the improved reputation that it does today, as it was a new and burgeoning specialty. ED doctors were seen in both the UK and Australia to be only staffed by those doctors who couldn’t succeed anywhere else: failed surgeons and the like. I recall an anaesthetics trainee I was working with late one night in an Intensive Care Unit in Sydney, scoffing at me for my training choice. He told me ED doctors were ‘only’ “jacks of all trades, masters of none”. Decades later I learned there was a further stanza to the rhyme: “ …but better by far, than a master of one”. Many a time I had to remind myself to keep my eyes on the end goal: to become a Consultant Emergency Physician.
I had met my husband in London and we moved back to Australia to continue my training at a number of hospitals in Sydney. I passed my Primary exams consisting of Anatomy (sans-rats!), Pathology, Pharmacology and Physiology by dedicating myself to studying 12 hours a day, every day for a solid 4 months. With that done and dusted, I decided to have children earlier rather than later, unlike many of my female colleagues in specialty training at the time. So it was that my ED training took a sum total of 10 years, rather than the customary 5. My job description had expanded to include wife, mother, gardener, cook, cleaner, driver etc. with all the myriad jobs that motherhood entails. My ED training continued side by side with home life. I worked many a long night-shifts, to allow me to spend time at home with my two infant children. Much of my training was done part-time with intervals of full-time to try and progress. In order to become that oft-quoted ‘jack-of-all-trades’, I trained in psychiatry and anaesthetics, intensive care and paediatrics, as well as of course many years as a registrar in the ED.
The final exams to achieve my Fellowship of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine involved hundreds of hours sitting at my desk in study with a mug of cooling coffee and a heater at my feet, surrounded by piles of books. One of the more controversial things I did was to buy a new textbook for $600…and promptly take a knife and cut it into manageable sections that I could slip into my bag. No point in having an expensive 5kg textbook if you never read it right? The day I passed and was handed that oh-so-coveted letter telling me that I had passed, I could not stop crying with relief. I looked like I had been through the wars – with extreme weight-loss and deep bags under my eyes. The playground rumour at the time amongst other parents at my children’s school was that I had cancer and was going through treatment! (Funny the things people can make up…!!)
Life certainly got better once I was on the other side of the fence! Finally I could be the person in charge of the entire ED. Of course this role came with its own measure of stressors and politics, but all in all I thrived and loved my job and the people I worked with. I took the job as a Staff Specialist in a medium-sized teaching hospital in Sydney. It was big enough to allow a large scope of medical and surgical experience, but small enough that I could merrily exchange words with porters, canteen workers and other support staff around the hospital and know them by name. As time went on I became Co-Director of Emergency Medical Training. In remembering the rigours of my own training, I did not wish to repeat them for junior doctors coming up in the future, and strived to improve teaching for future emergency doctors.
Throughout my life I have always travelled extensively – having visited every continent before the age of 50. Some of the more memorable trips I have taken include trekking the Inca Trail and marvelled at the alpine tropical flora, whilst learning the effects of altitude on the human body. I walked hot deserts with the San People of Namibia, and learned about health care deficiencies in austere environments. I travelled to Antarctica and kayaked amongst icebergs whilst learning how extreme cold can affect the human body. I experienced further extremes of temperature when I walked with the Kazak people (also known as the Eagle Hunters) through western Mongolia on their annual spring migration with their herds. I visited Easter Island and traced the outlines of carvings done by a vanished people who left being the enigmatic Moai to guard their lands. Most recently last week, I hired a mustang convertible in Miami and drove on the “wrong” side of the road, down the stretch of sandy islands known as the Florida Keys in the shallow Gulf of Mexico to Key West with its history of Ernest Hemingway and his polydactyl cats, its links to Cuba and its glorious sunsets.
So back to the timeline. It may not surprise you to learn that once my children finished school, I was raring to do something different with my life. My father had had a short stint as a Flying Doctor in Wyndham at the remote northern tip of Western Australia when I was 2 years old. The excitement and romance of his job had fired my imagination from an early age and became one of those childhood goals I referred to earlier. I had always wanted to work in Retrieval Medicine…and was determined to make it happen! The time though, had never been right…up until now.
I had just agreed to go back to being a registrar in training in a helicopter…when Covid-19 arrived and upended everyone’s world. I put that job on-hold, whilst I went to work in a special position supporting healthcare on the Island of Nauru in the Pacific. I did 3 deployments (for 3 months at a time) to this sunny tropical rock in the middle of the equatorial Pacific. With an associated total of 12 weeks of quarantine: I truly learned to like your own company when that happens! Nauru was really not a bad place to work whilst waiting for Covid-19 restrictions to ease.
Upon my return, I moved to Mackay in Queensland to start my training in Retrieval with LifeFlight Helicopter Rescue in Queensland Back to being a registrar…with all the bad hours and the bad pay I thought I had put behind me! One of my proudest moments came when I passed my Helicopter Underwater Escape Training at the age of 51, yay!!! (Younger folk have not passed this crucial test, so I was entirely chuffed!) I worked in the helicopter for 6 months with a fabulous team of paramedic and pilots that again, taught me the ropes. We raced off to car accidents, patients with marine stinging, and the full gamut of emergencies – only this time it was from a pre-hospital perspective. Of course, many years of emergency medicine and travel stood me in good stead, and I loved the job. You won’t be surprised to know that I went back to studying concurrently (will I never stop?!!) and completed a Graduate certificate in Aeromedical Retrieval with James Cook University. Whilst in the helo job, I was tapped on the shoulder and asked if I would like to work for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) next? The answer was pretty much a resounding YES!
So that is my role currently. I work now as an Aeromedical Retrieval and Emergency Consultant with the RFDS. I moved to the Gold Coast permanently a few years ago now. (I mean have you SEEN the beaches, the climate, the hinterland…and there are shops here too!) My job involves flying from Brisbane to Mount Isa in western Queensland once a month, for a 8-day stint. I work with a team consisting of a Flight Nurse (with midwifery skills) and a Pilot. All decision-making is done with our 3-person team in conjunction with Retrieval Services Queensland. We work onboard an KingAir aircraft fitted with aeromedical equipment that can land on short dirt strips on outback stations and still have the grunt to take us to the larger hospitals on the coast with our most critical patients. We carry all our own kit, and bring much needed emergency and intensive care skills to the outback. In addition, I do multiple shifts in Telehealth for RFDS supporting remote area nurse-only clinics, ships offshore and people living in outback stations and remote communities – with medical advice and oft-times co-ordinating retrieval for further care. Whether it be delivering a premature breech baby in Normanton or rescuing patients from motor vehicle accidents in the dark, the work is varied and exciting and really the culmination of all the things I like to do!!
Looking back as I write this, I feel that your life and career can be what you make of it. Hard work and sheer grit is a necessity in achieving high goals, however I feel it’s important to never let go of your childhood aspirations…because they really can come true! The romance of travel married with the excitement and energy of critical care medicine is the perfect combo for me. By incorporating my passions into my daily work invigorates me and has lead me to experience a life well-loved and well-lived.
And now to book my next adventure!!!
Chelsea Cambridge (2017)
Graduating from Pymble in 2017 feels like a long time ago now and so much has changed since then. Like many, my first year out of high school felt uncertain. After deferring a generic business degree and working several odd jobs, I chose to do something radical and live out my lifelong dream of moving to Paris. Working as an Au Pair for a French family, taking French classes and starting a Bachelor of Arts Degree online was an incredible experience. My year and a half in Paris from 2019-2020 was foundational and planted so many new dreams. Despite the complications of the pandemic, it was a time of immense growth and self-discovery.
Upon returning to Sydney, I finished my degree with a major in English Literature and minors in French and Spanish. Although I didn’t have a career path in mind, I knew that I loved reading, culture, fashion and I wanted to move back to France once day. Textiles and Design was my favourite subject at Pymble and in 2021, sewing became a hobby again. It is now one of my biggest sources of joy! I could see myself working in fashion, so it felt like a natural decision to give fashion school a go. I completed a Diploma of Fashion Design and Technology at a local community college and completed internships at Australian labels including Bianca Spender, Bec & Bridge, Manning Cartel and Sarah Lloyd. The most important thing I learnt from my experience in the fashion industry as a student was to build relationships and strengthen your interpersonal skills. No matter how good your technical skills are, you won’t go far without that. I wasn’t expecting sewing and fashion design to become such a big part of my life but now I can’t imagine life without them. Last year, I even got to make a wedding dress for a friend I went to school with which felt like a big accomplishment.
Pymble pushed me to work hard, reach my potential, and discover what I was capable of. It’s amazing to think that life has now lead me to Paris, working in fashion and speaking French. While I am still growing in my career and personal brand, I wish I could tell my younger self to have more fun, explore your passions, surround yourself with supportive people, and remember that the best is yet to come.
If you can take anything away from my story so far it’s to follow your passions and what brings you joy. I really struggled with French in high school. But the reason I’ve managed to become fluent was because I never gave up. Making progress in learning French and sewing has felt fun, not like a chore. That’s why I encourage you to pursue your interests because it is a natural motivator to work hard when you simply love what you do. That doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges, but it means that those obstacles will not deter you.
Also, be bold and meet people. Make friends with those in your industry who you can learn from. My boldness to reach out to my ‘weak ties’ and put myself out there is what’s allowed me to live out my dream. I even wrote in my year book that in 10 years (2027) I will be in Paris! So I think I will be here for a while longer…and there’s still so much I want to do.
Sometimes your trajectory won’t make sense in the moment but in retrospect you can see the bigger picture. No one’s path is linear but it’s just important that you just move in the right direction. As the saying goes, it’s easier to steer a moving car than a parked one. So dream big
and take action. You never know what doors will open.
Mrs Katrina Corcoran (Hum, 1987)
Dr Kate Hadwen
