Heather is recovering in Melbourne, David is still having scans but had a better offer tonight and Alex, when due to be discharged, had a small relapse....back into recovery mode.
Guest Speaker: Dr Rob Parkyn - Establishing an International Surgical Program....What could possibly go wrong?
David Middleton introduced Rob who graduated from Adelaide Uni in medicine in 1975. He obtained his surgical fellowship in 1984 after post-grad training in the UK. He has been at the QEH since since 1986 and is still there as Director of Endocrine Surgery. ( the endocrine system is those parts of the body which secrete hormones into the blood stream)
In 2009 he became Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide and has been active in research since then. His particular surgical interests are thyroid, para-thyroid, and breast surgery. He is currently the chair of INTEREST, an out-reach program of the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons which sends surgical and teaching groups to developing countries to enable them to perform surgery on the various endocrine organs.
Rob is a keen bike rider; a recent mishap put him out of action for 6 weeks.
Rob explained that he had been on the executive of INTEREST for 20 years and been involved in many team visits to countries in Asia and Africa where there has been a pressing need for more endocrine surgeons. Its base in the US has not been without problems - training Hamas surgeons in Lebanon is in breach of the US Patriot (anti-terrorism) Act and the IRS over there is keen on taxation.
The guidelines of INTEREST are all about capacity building and sustainability:
Teaching is a priority
Use of as much local equipment as possible
Operate primarily to teach
Teams comprise 2 surgeons plus support medical staff
Regular visits to locales
Team participation is voluntary
One of the great accomplishments has been the Memorandum of Understanding with the Malaysian Government which has seen the number of endocrine surgeons grow for 2 to 18. Operating overseas has a number of challenges: medical safety, security, corruption, terrorism and accidents.....each of these has had to be dealt with. Rwanda was particularly difficult with rudimentary crowded hospitals, poor equipment, lighting and electricity problems, 30% of patients with HIV, and external threats such as kidnapping and corruption. Wow.....this takes considerable courage! A photo was shown of local team counterparts - 2 dead due to Covid. But the experience did teach lessons in frugal innovation.........Australia's medical system is very wasteful
Vietnam was very welcoming. Hospitals were overcrowded with 2 patients to a bed and relatives close by. Rob was impressed with the supportive family structure. The process adopted was 2 days of teaching followed by 2 days of operation. And again, frugal innovation to the fore. Of interest was the use of cobra venom to function like botox. The camaraderie and friendships formed were highlights.
Malaysia established a Field Hospital to help the Myanmar Rohingya refugees at a camp in Bangladesh close to the border. 1.5 million people housed in a small shanty town. Rob's team learnt a lot operating in a tent under lights and in with the threat of fusilades from across the border. Some of the thyroids removed were massive. Many occupants of these camps had been brutalised by the Myanmar soldiers and now faced a grim future with their children - no work, no educational prospects and nowhere to call home......,but the kids kept smiling. The Bangladesh Government is trying to relocate large numbers to the island Bashan Char which is susceptible to typhoons.
Rob's experience with colleagues drawn from around the world has been very rewarding. The key to survival in such testing environments is being well prepared, street wise, watch the eyes, utilise local security and local knowledge, expect the unexpected, be adaptive. INTEREST team visits are currently suspended due to Covid. His philosophy is:
While you cannot control what is happening in the world
You can control the way you respond
(A covid variant - epsilon - is emerging for which there is no effective vaccine to date)
Rob was thanked by acclamation for his inspiring address.
Spots
Paul Duke thanked members for their contributions to the ROMAC luncheon wine wall and nudged others who can respond next week.
Finale
Stephen expressed delight, as did almost everyone in the room, for the win of the Blues over Port in the SANFL.
When it came to the marbles we had a very dodgy result at the top table.....Nathan won the cash and wheel turner Paul the fruchocs.
A short Board meeting to follow.
The meeting closed at 7.45pm.
Where to with Covid 19?
Guest Speaker Dr Shiva Prakash to RC Penrith Valley (Graham's former club)
VACCINATION IS STILL THE BEST WAY TO PREVENT SERIOUS ILLNESS AND DEATH
The people who are currently in Hospital, in Intensive Care Units and on Intubation have not been fully vaccinated. Many of these are older Australians for whom the Astra Zeneca Vaccine is readily available.
Pfizer and Moderna have a higher efficacy but have not been fully tested with variants. AstraZeneca has been found to be effective with variants as indicated in the United Kingdom where most of the vaccinations have been Astra Zeneca and their death rate and hospitalisation rates are reducing even though they are no longer under restrictions In the long run all three vaccines have a 90-95% efficacy. The difference here is that AstraZeneca is made here and there is plenty of supply.
All vaccines have side effects. They all have mild side effects like sore arms and mild fluey symptoms which occurs with the first AZ jab and the second jab of the others. AZ causes in very rare cases, Thrombus Thrombocytopaenic Syndrome. Of the more than 27 million AZ jabs in the UK only 168 cases have occurred in mostly under 60 aged people. Very few have died in Western countries. Of the more than 3 million AZ jabs in Australia only 7 cases have occurred with only 2 deaths. .
Pfizer rarely causes anaphylaxis which is why you must wait around after the jab for 30 minutes and again, rarely causes myo/endocarditis which does go away after time and treatment.
Is it better to get Covid or better to have the AZ jab? Take the risk and take the jab.
Like the flu injections boosters will be required as new variants appear. It is suggested every 6—8 months. (We’ll wait and see) We are learning new things as new facts come to light. It is advised that pregnant women get Pfizer vaccines because it not only protects the mother and baby but also builds immune resistance in the newborn. ATAGI gave this instruction some time ago but it does not seem to have got through to the boots on the ground. The upshot of all of this is..... We are going nowhere until we are vaccinated!!!
ROTARY NEWS
Growing Rotary through membership leads
By KR Parthasarathy, assistant governor of Rotary District 3150 (Hyderabad, India)
The Rotaract Club Of Secunderabad Medicos donates oxygen beds to Gandhi Medical Hospital.
Doing something good in the Rotary world has always been my passion. The reach and access that I was afforded as an assistant governor in my district in India made it possible for me to reach my goals.
My endeavor to grow Rotary in my region began with an idea to revive our 52-year-old community based Rotaract Club of Secunderabad. It was chartered in April of 1968 and is one of the oldest Rotaract clubs in the world. Until the last few years, the club was slumbering with not much activity and not a lot of member engagement. We started at the top, revamping the leadership and bringing in passionate and active people. We were then able to induct 30 new members and discover ways to get them involved in voluntarily community services activities that they were proud to participate in.
Pursue membership leads
The membership leads which I received as an assistant governor greatly helped me in connecting with many young prospective members as well as some older ones, and students and entrepreneurs who were keen to learn more about Rotary. Once I followed up (always follow up on membership leads!), they wanted to be part of our great organization. One such extended interaction involved a medical student, Ms. Kaanthi Rama, who was studying to get her degree at Gandhi Medical college in Secunderabad. Getting to know her opened the door to many others she knew, and we were able to form the Rotaract Club of Secunderabad Medicos with about 70 members.
Rama, who became club president, was so inspired and motivated about Rotary, that she and her members decided to form a community based club instead of a university or college-based club so they could continue to serve Rotary even after they graduated.
Although Rama wanted to add more members from other medical colleges, I persuaded her to help form new clubs at other colleges. This resulted in two new Rotaract clubs – Osmania Medical College with 138 members and Apollo Medical College with 130 members. This added an astounding 350 new members to Rotaract for the first time in the history of our district.
Be persistent
I had a similar long and deep conversation with Ms. Bhuvansehwari, an engineering student in Hyderabad, who was looking to join Rotaract. After continuous follow-up discussions (always follow up your initial membership conversations), I was able to motivate her to form a group of like-minded individuals to form the Rotaract Club of Go-Getters with a membership of 25 young women, thus creating the first all-female Rotaract club in our district.
Chartering a Rotary club as a governor’s special representative was a bigger task. But thanks to the great support I received from our membership chair, Srinivas Peddi, I was able to assemble 29 members in various professions, with an emphasis on having at least a third of them be women. It took three months of exhaustive conversations and motivational talks, but the result was the Rotary Club of Secunderabad New Horizon. (I chose that name to symbolize the new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic). It was the first club in nearly 20 years sponsored on behalf of my club.
I leave you with these thoughts. Use your connections in leadership to arrange talks with prospective members. Follow up on leads you receive. Motivate those people to get the people around them excited. And persistently follow through. It can be a fair amount of effort, but the satisfaction of seeing our organization grow and add new members is definitely worth it.
A member of the Rotary Club of Secunderabad New Horizon plants a tree sapling.
Coffee Chat at Impressa, Unley Shopping Centre
10.30 am on the first Friday of the month is good for a chat with Rotary friends and a caffeine fix! Next one is Friday 3 September
Upcoming Meetings
Tuesday 24 August 2021 6 for 6.30pm Damien on Fisher
Guest Speaker: Craig Scott More than a Football Club
Set-up and Welcome.......John Kikkert and Dennis Liddle
Tuesday 31 August 2021 6 for 6.30pm Damien on Fisher
Event: Committees evening
Set-up and Welcome.......Trevor McGuirk and Greg McLeod
Early: David Middleton & Nathan White | Late: Pam Trimmer & Vera Holt
Week 4: 28 August 2021
Early: Stephen Baker & Judi Corcoran | Late: Jason Booth & Vera-Ann Stacy
Week 5:
Early: Bob Mullins & Wendy Andrews | Late: Jerry Casburn & Reno Elms
Rotarians, who are unable to attend as rostered, please arrange a swap or as a very last resort contact: Pam Trimmer (T) 8293 2612; (M) 0415 238 333; e-mail: pamela.trimmer@bigpond.com
Bunnings Mile End and Mitre 10 Barbeques
ALL the Bunnings Mile End Barbeque shifts are from 8am to 5pm
The Mitre 10 BBQs are the first and third Saturdays of each month (commencing 9am).....next one Saturday 21 August
The Tale End.....
Decisive decision making
Youthful thinking
"Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher.
The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant."
The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. "Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child."
A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and whenever we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."
Grandpa (like the editor) is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!
Thought for the week
“My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I’m right.” – Ashleigh Brilliant
David Middleton introduced Rob who graduated from Adelaide Uni in medicine in 1975. He obtained his surgical fellowship in 1984 after post-grad training in the UK. He has been at the QEH since since 1986 and is still there as Director of Endocrine Surgery. ( the endocrine system is those parts of the body which secrete hormones into the blood stream)
Chartering a Rotary club as a governor’s special representative was a bigger task. But thanks to the great support I received from our membership chair, Srinivas Peddi, I was able to assemble 29 members in various professions, with an emphasis on having at least a third of them be women. It took three months of exhaustive conversations and motivational talks, but the result was the Rotary Club of Secunderabad New Horizon. (I chose that name to symbolize the new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic). It was the first club in nearly 20 years sponsored on behalf of my club. 
