One of our graduates from the post graduate diploma in Aeromedical Retrieval and Transport at UOW featured recently in a story on Otago alumni. Dr Hamish Wright was the medical physician at the South Pole this winter and he assisted in a world-first medical evacuation of two patients in extreme conditions in the middle of winter this year.
Read more about the medical evacuation.
Dr Wright studied medicine at Otago (2004 to 2009), and spent clinical years at the University's Christchurch campus. He also gained a Diploma of Paediatrics (Auckland), a Postgraduate Diploma in Aeromedical Retrieval (PGDipAeroRT – Otago) and a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).
“The experience gained through the Postgraduate Diploma in Aeromedical Retrieval and Transport, and my work as an Intensive Care Registrar in the Wellington Life Flight and Otago Rescue Helicopter retrieval services were instrumental in helping plan the logistic and in-flight considerations needed for such an austere medevac,” he says.
Dr Wright is also a keen photographer; his timelapse images of the aurora australis or “Southern Lights” won the 2016 New Zealand Geographic timelapse photographer of the year category.
View the award winning images.