|
|
Fittingly, it was at the Brilliant Minds evening at the British Library. Dr. Gordon had spent some years at Monash, as a Doctor, at the Alfred Hospital in Victoria. Little did I know I was talking to one of first women to graduate as a transplant surgeon. If you really want to be pedantic, I guess Dr James Barry was the first woman surgeon, found on death to be a woman, who went to those lengths to follow her chosen profession.
But that's another story. Dr Elizabeth Gordon FRCS doesn't trumpet her achievements. She is a precise woman who sees aesthetics, not just in music and art, but in the elegance and simplicity of the instruments which she uses for surgery. She loves the precision and delicacy of the instruments.
|
|
|
When did you decide to be a Doctor, family and/or incident?
I was reading my brother's Eagle comic. There was a description of an appendix operation, and I knew that's what I wanted to do. Never wavered. |
|
Who are your role models?
The first was the surgeon I worked for, Harding Rains. I also admired Harding Rains because of his interest in other things. Beside medicine, I remember him talking about books, music, during operations. He was my mentor, sponsor and role model. He judged you on merit and furthering your career was part of his job. He encouraged me to get the Edward Wilson Fellowship to go and study in Australia, at the Alfred Hospital in Victoria, to do a year's research on liver function. |
|
When were you first aware that women may get different treatment?
About 10. I recognise the difference between priests and nuns. Women weren't allowed out in the street; they didn't have those freedoms. Obviously it was better to be a man. You have power and liberty I suppose. |
Attitudes toward women surgeons/ doctors
There was a very anti-women attitude towards surgeons.
When I went to do a 2 week stint with a surgeon, he asked: "Why do you want to be a surgeon, are you going to be a missionary?"
In Hertfordshire, they would frighten you off, you needed to be fearless. They would try to intimidate you.
|
Which part of your life was most memorable to you, and why?
Going to Australia: growing up and going growing away. Stepped off the plane in the sense that nobody knew me, no background.
Harding Rains had suggested she fill in form and go to the Alfred to do research on livers and write a thesis. The Edward Wilson Scholarship. He went with Scott to the Antarctic.
I knew I had to do it. The idea of travel was interesting. I made good friends, good friends to this day. Jim and Helen Watts of Fox Creek wines. Specifically for a year, later extended to 2 as I had the chance to go to Vietnam. Back to Top |
|
How did you come to visit Vietnam?
It was the Australian govt initiative to provide surgical teams in South Vietnam, 4 teams one at a time. I went because I wanted to find out about the third world.
The one thing which alerted me was when I was working in Vietnam. At the surgery we treated all people who came in regardless as whether they were North or South. I treated a man with gunshot wounds to his legs. I fixed him up and the same day he was removed from the hospital , by the Vietnamese police. This was a proper hospital Bien Hoa You could pick up the Viet Cong by their accent.
I'd belonged to the medical group of British Amnesty, the groups met in a local home In Scotland.
Five of us got together and set up the Medical Group of Amnesty International. Which at that time was independent of Amnesty. It needed to be, since there were too many countries with torture for Amnesty to be able to fund them all.
Previously Amnesty had sent me to East Africa for a week, with a forensic pathologist from Cardiff. Bernard Knight. We were being asked to see people who'd escaped from Uganda, their injuries were the basis of the Amnesty Uganda Report: The British supported Idi Amin, graduate of Sandhurst
Bernard and I both learnt a lot from each other. There was also a meeting witha Dr from Chile about the perversion of the medical profession in Chile and the misuse of psychiatric treatment in USSR. In 1985 the Medical Group became the Medical foundation for Victims of Torture. Get involved by clicking here. |
Which event most surprised you?
Having an anti-female attitude persisting into 1970s in my profession when I was applying for consultants position, after I finished my thesis; I was told in advance that I wouldn't get it.
Not in an unkindly way, this man had sponsored and mentored me, throughout, but warned me that I was a woman, too left wing, and there was a strong masonic element in the profession.
At the interview panel it was all men, not even a female notetaker. There were 8 on the interviewing panel; I was a woman, a left winger and a Catholic.
There was another extraordinary Dean of Medical School, who said "over [his] dead body". |
|
|
|
|
©2009 christina@christrainers.com
Christina
Woman on a Mission
Diversity and Leadership Consultant
Alumnus Women of the Year 2008/2009
www.wwom.org
|
|
|
