Ageless Medicine
An Air Force surgeon is proving age is no barrier for serving your country or serving humanity.
Squadron Leader David Stoney is a Reserve officer currently serving in Vietnam as a member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) contingent to Pacific Partnership 2012, the US Navy-led annual multinational humanitarian relief taskforce that brings medical, veterinary, engineering and civic aid projects to disadvantaged people in the Asia-Pacific region.
The lively 67 year-old only joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) eight years ago, fulfilling a long-held desire to serve Australia and to help people overseas.
“I have always been interested in doing deployment-type activities,” Squadron Leader Stoney said.
“I spent four months in 1991 working for the Red Cross in Peshawar, Pakistan, but other than that there haven’t been a lot of short-term opportunities for me to serve overseas, and back then I wasn’t aware of the opportunities that Defence offered.”
Back in Australia David is the Surgical Director for Maroondah Hospital (eastern Melbourne) and the Director for Breast and Endocrine Surgery for Eastern Health (Melbourne). The lifting of age restrictions for entry into Defence some ten years ago meant that older Australians like David could bring their valuable knowledge into the ADF.
“I was welcomed into the RAAF and I’ve had the opportunity to serve in Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands,” he said.
“One of the great things about my military service has been its impact on how I approach emergency surgery management back home.
“After managing trauma in Afghanistan it becomes easier to manage it in Australia.
“It helps you to organize your mind, so when you come to deal with severe cases back in Australia the processes become automatic.”
Squadron Leader Stoney is currently performing free surgery for Vietnamese civilians from the Vinh region and he is also mentoring younger surgeons from other armed forces and non-government organisations aboard the US Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy.
He said his experiences with younger surgeons have led him to encourage more people to consider a part-time career in the ADF.
“Now when I look back over my eight years in the RAAF I am a bit disappointed that I didn’t join a lot earlier,” David said.
“The military do things very well, the infrastructure they set up on deployment is very good and they also provide care beyond just medical care.
“You see different kinds of injuries in war zones, and on peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations you deal with local populations where things go untreated and are far more progressed than you would see in Australia.
“As a result you can make a real difference to the lives of people beyond your own community.”