The shock death of well-known Canberra obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Peter Scott has left many in the community reeling, not least the women he had helped bring new life into the world, delivering their precious babies.
Our own chief-of-staff at The Canberra Times had one of her sons delivered by Dr Scott and the news of his passing deeply saddened her.
Dr Scott, 64, died suddenly in Canberra on May 26; his colleagues this week paying tribute publicly to his work in obstetric care both in Australia and overseas.
A public memorial will be held for him on Sunday at 1pm at Llewellyn Hall at the Australian National University, his family encouraging people, especially the women Dr Scott treated and cared for, to come along. To share their grief at the loss of such a generous and empathetic man.
Everyone has their own war stories about the birth of their children and no mother will ever forget the people who helped them during that tremendous, life-altering, world-shuddering moment.
During the birth of my daughter at the Canberra Hospital, she wasn't budging. At all. After many hours, I remember a much older obstetrician wandering into the room and telling the junior doctor: "This baby needs to come out now".
He took over and my daughter was delivered naturally with the umbilical cord wrapped five times around her neck. My pushing had only tightened the cord. That doctor, I believe, saved her life. I still feel teary thinking about him.
My son was delivered four years later with the help of midwives. Lots of blood loss. The midwives and nurses were wonderful caring for me in the aftermath. In the end, I received multiple blood transfusions. My baby was healthy. I was healthy.
We had our own sun-lit room in the then new Centenary Hospital Women and Children. We were fortunate. So lucky to have the luxury of giving birth in a hospital with the best of care available to us.
Dr Scott, by all accounts, was acutely aware of the disparity between the developed and developing worlds in terms of the obstetric care available to women.
"I think perhaps the greatest challenge in women's health in the world today is addressing the travesty of maternal mortality in the developing world, where every minute a woman dies as a result of pregnancy and childbirth," he wrote in 2013.
And Dr Scott acted on those concerns, as did his friend and fellow Canberra obstetrician Dr David O'Rourke, who has remarkably funded a maternity hospital in a poverty-stricken town in West Timor, with the help of the Flinders Overseas Health Group, a collection of volunteer health professionals.
Dr Scott, and his wife Ann Maree Parker, helped to train the staff at the hospital. He also made multiple trips to other countries to help improve maternal care. He wanted the communities to be self-sufficient.
"The skills that are taught are simple and readily transferable and we hope that eventually we will become redundant, as our local clinical leaders take on the task of providing this teaching to surrounding areas," he said back in 2013.
Send Hope Not Flowers is another local initiative to help mothers survive childbirth in the developing world.
Run on a volunteer basis by local obstetrician Professor Steve Robson, journalist Emma Macdonald and entrepreneur Alex Fahey, Send Hope Not Flowers allows people to send a birth card to a new mother which is a donation towards maternal health projects it supports in places such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Laos, Timor Leste, Vanuatu, Ethiopia, Northern Uganda and the Solomon Islands.
Canberra can feel so remote from the reality of a woman giving birth overseas in a rudimentary health centre where even electricity supply is not assured. Where giving birth can lead to death, too often from very preventable causes such as bleeding and infection.
People such as Dr Peter Scott worked hard to change that reality.
Dr Scott's stepdaughter Elise Parker has started a GoFundMe page to raise money in his honour for the Muder Ignacio Hospital in West Timor. It has already raised close to $90,000. You can donate here
The John James Foundation has pledged to match every dollar that is raised through the campaign.
The Canberra-based is also aiming to raise $1.2 million by the end of 2023 to build a new wing to the hospital in West Timor, including outpatient and inpatient rooms, a medical record room, emergency room, operating theatre, laboratory and pharmacy.
Donations can also be made to the Flinders Overseas Health Group at www.flindersfoundation.org.au/ and to Send Help Not Flowers at www.sendhope.org
