If Pam Smith or her husband Ray ever need surgery again, they would have no qualms about driving three hours to Brisbane so they could be cared for at the PA Hospital.
Supported by PA Research Foundation donors, the doctors and researchers at the PA Hospital care for Queenslanders from every corner of the state, not only those who live in the city. Pam, who was treated at the PA for a brain aneurysm, and Ray are a reminder of that. For 36 years they have lived on a property an hour north of Toowoomba, in the small town of Cooyar, where they wake to kangaroos crossing the paddock and their neighbour's young foals.
Pam's aneurysm was found entirely by chance. A CT scan for essential tremors found nothing to explain the shaking, but it did reveal the aneurysm.
"In a way I was extremely fortunate," she said.
Because of her age, the head of PA Hospital’s neurosurgical unit rang her personally, and an angiogram was arranged for last November. It was there that Pam met neurosurgeon Dr Kendal Redmond, who talked her through every step of the surgical journey that lay ahead, drawing diagrams so she understood exactly what would happen.
The procedure to treat the aneurysm went ahead in May. Pam had been anxious in the lead-up, but the team at the PA put her at ease right until the moment the anaesthetic mask went on.
"They just made the atmosphere very, very easy to accept," she explained.
She recovered so well she needed only an overnight stay before heading home to Ray and the peace and quiet she says is the perfect place to recuperate.
What has stayed with Pam is that the PA did not forget her once she returned home. She is now being cared for over a melanoma on her nose, and when the timing clashed with the blood thinners protecting her after the aneurysm procedure, she worried about the risk and rang the neurosurgical unit.
"Within 20 minutes I had a phone call from Jacob, one of the young neurosurgical guys," she said. He promised to check with Dr Redmond, who rang her himself that afternoon.
“He (Dr Redmond) said, I understand you've got a bit of mischief on your nose. He said, look, Pam, I'll ring Dr Park when he's finished surgery and I'll let you know the outcome. And sure enough, four o'clock, the phone went and it was Dr Redmond telling me not to worry. Everything had been sorted."
For a couple who live hours from the nearest city, that care they’ve received from Dr Redmond and the wider PA team has changed how they think about the journey to Brisbane.
"My husband's 81, I'm 71, and we don't like driving to the city now," Pam said.
"But we've already said to each other, God forbid we need that sort of treatment, we're going to ask to go to the PA. A three-hour journey to us, and we feel really good about going there."
Asked what she would say to the donors who help support the research and the doctors like Dr Redmond, Pam was clear that the benefit reaches everyone who walks through the doors.
"It's a wonderful gift they're giving, to allow not only Dr Redmond but many other doctors to do research. Any donation the hospital receives, it's for the betterment of any patient who goes in there. We should say a big thank you to the people who can donate."
For everything the team did, Pam keeps coming back to the same words.
"For what Kendall did for me, to me it was life-saving. I just believe I had the best care. I really did."
You can help support the care and research that looks after patients like Pam, wherever in Queensland they call home, by making the Foundation your place to give here.
