The doctor I was meant to be — Dr Louis Christie, Emergency come Palliative Care Specialist
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One of the first NSW Rural Doctors Network (RDN) cadets in NSW, Dr Louis Christie only intended staying in Orange in Central NSW for a couple of years, but he found it far too attractive, both personally and professionally, to leave. He’d quickly made friends in the welcoming community and fell for the regional lifestyle.
After identifying the need for an emergency physician in the area, he launched into a speciality that saw him develop a wide clinical competence, as he, among other things, crossed the state in the CareFlight helicopter. Emergency medicine had everything Dr Christie wanted in a career: it was intellectually rigorous and allowed him to follow his ambition to be a rock for patients and their families in times of crisis. But young men can think of themselves as bulletproof and working under high pressure for a service in its then infancy eventually took a personal toll, so he says he needed to find an alternative.
It was while he was working briefly in hospital administration that a wise mentor directed him toward palliative care. Here was another speciality that allowed him challenging clinical decision making at the same time as engaging with people — patients and their families — at what could be the worst time of their lives. He could still make an intolerable situation better. Dr Christie says palliative allowed him to be the doctor he was meant to be.