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As a member of the general public, I generally assume that medical practitioners all meet our ideal of professional medical people. This is particularly the case when we are informed that we have to undergo ‘the knife’, as surgery may be the only option to cure our particular ailment.
Professor Doug Tracy is the kind of surgeon everyone would love to have looking after them, I believe. His humour, warm thoughts and words would have gone a long way to reassure patients that he was a caring and skilled medical practitioner.
From humble beginnings, Doug Tracy moved with his father and brother, after the death of his beloved mother, from Sydney to Port Lincoln in South Australia, to Maitland and then Taree, in New South Wales. After finalising his secondary education in Armidale, New South Wales, in 1943, he was successful in gaining a scholarship in Sydney to study medicine where he lived with his beloved Aunty Kit in Ashfield.
While in Sydney, he met his wonderful wife Nola, with whom he has seven children. Not only did he become a skilled and caring surgeon, he has a multitude of experience in serving on various medical boards as an elected councilor and Chairman.
He also served as surgical team lead in South Vietnam in 1968, and in 1979, lectured around the world in countries including South Africa, Ireland and Great Britain.
Doug and Nola now reside in Port Macquarie and this book grew from an idea he had while celebrating his 80th birthday. Despite his many accolades within the medical field, Doug Tracy comes across as a warm, humane, caring and loving man who, when he was a five year boy, cringed when his mother introduced him by saying “he is going to be a famous surgeon one day”.
How prophetic her prediction was and how lucky Australia has been to have had his knowledge and experience, as I am sure his patients will agree.
“A warm, humorous and humane story from a man who has held the fate of many lives in his skilled hands.”
Humour outweighs dignity in this autobiography by a leading Australian surgeon, foundation Professor of Surgery at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, and past President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Read more about “Inside the Ropes”