Bill Nelems: thoracic surgeon has made a medical history
Bill Nelems Sarah's daughter liked him recently for planning his final release on his 100th birthday in 22 years. They agreed that going out like Tolkien's hobbit, Bilbo Baggins would not be so bad: from Middle-earth to any new adventure expected.
Things did not happen that way. But, after all, Dr. Nelems would have been pleased that his sudden death of heart failure on March 31 took place in his family's beloved cabin in Coldstream, BC, Which he regularly traveled to his home in Kelowna, 80 kilometers away. A man of much enthusiasm, he had recently developed a passion for bird watching and loved the wild and swampy property.
"What I loved about my father is that he is always reinventing himself," recalls Sarah Nelems, the oldest of the four daughters of Dr. Nelems. "He had so much interest, from his sports efforts to his charity in Zambia to his five grandchildren, of which he was completely devoted. He was so much bigger than life, but what made him Real was the presence that he had in the lives of so many people. "
Dr. Nelems will be remembered by the story as a renowned thoracic surgeon who was part of the" The Transplant Team of the Toronto General Hospital who performed the world 's first successful lung transplant in 1983. But this success was only a very long list, say those who knew him. , Athlete, mentor and citizen of the world, Dr. Nelems was happily preparing for a new career as an end-of-life advisor when his own life ended shortly before his 78th birthday. "The world feels much less Interesting without him, "says his daughter.
Bill Nelems was born on April 26, 1939 in Springs, South Africa, the second child of British Columbia, Harry and Dory Nelems. Harry was a young mining engineer who had found work in Johannesburg at the beginning of the Depression. He returned to the Fraser Valley in the mid-1930s, just long enough to marry Dory and move his return to South Africa.
Dr. Nelems and his elder sister, Beverley Barron, also a doctor, spent much of their childhood caring for nannies and traveling from one side to the other. Dr. Barron remembers the return of the family to Canada in 1956 as one of the first times in her life that she and her brother lived under the same roof.
The family moved to Toronto. Bill, 17 years old at the time, first followed in his father's footsteps and studied at the University of Toronto to be a mining engineer. This career choice did not last long, but helped pay his way through a medical school after he had an epiphany shortly after graduating from engineering in 1962 and s 39 "He realized he preferred to be a doctor," says Dr. Barron. He completed his medical studies in 1966.
"Those early years in Toronto were not so happy for us," recalls Dr. Barron. "My father hated his new job, my mother was very unhappy, I could not enter a medical school because Canada would not accept my credentials from South Africa. Could not go to college because he had an extra year of high school in Ontario, Grade 13. When he finally got to the University of Toronto, I think he Found his camaraderie among the ex-pats who played at the University Rugby Team. "
And what a team it was. Team captain in 1960 and 1961, Dr. Nelems saw two unbeaten seasons during his five years with the team. When the University of Toronto inducted the 1959-63 men's rugby team into its Sports Hall of Fame last year, Dr. Nelems and his former teammates have feasted the audience with a melody that is " They sang when they went to the pub after the practice.
Dr. Nelems and his first wife, Wendy Brown, settled west in the early 1980s, settling in Vancouver and later in Kelowna with their three daughters, 39, school age, Sarah, Martha and Rebeccah. He has been in high demand for the next 30 years, during which time he worked at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine, created a new cancer center in Kelowna and A tele-consultation program to improve access to patients outside the urban core. He and Mrs. Brown divorced in 1990 and Dr. Nelems married Mary Ellen McNaughton; They had a daughter, Rachel.
He leaves his wife; Four girls; sister; In the room, Bev, for whom he was a guardian; Grandchildren Alexander, Kate, Lucy, Willem, Evy; The children of Bev, Amanda and Tess; And first wife, Wendy Brown.
Dr. Nelems' curiosity and compassion have led him to many parallel projects. Her sister reminds her by helping a group of Sudbury miners receive compensation and surgery for lung cancers resulting from exposure to radiation by the workplace. At St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, he led a project involving 10,000 BC miners who piloted the use of a blood test to detect early changes related to cancer Lung, the first mass examination of its kind.
A The trip to Zambia in 2006 brought it back to Africa for the first time in decades, and triggered a new passion. Meanwhile, he met a former classmate from the University of Toronto, Chifumbe Chintu, who had become a renowned pediatrician. Dr. Chintu introduced him to the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zambia, who was deeply concerned about the dismal medical results in the impoverished Western Province of Zambia. (In a twist of fate, Dr. Chintu died no more than a month after Dr. Nelems.)
This meeting allowed Dr. Nelems to excite the idea of " Bring Canadian doctors and nurses and doctors to Africa to mentor and support their Zambian peers. The Okanagan-Zambia Health Initiative (OkaZHI) was born in 2009 and continues to bring health professionals and nursing students in Zambia to teach, mentor and learn .
"What was so great for Bill is that he not only saw nurses as equal physicians but he had this same approach in his work in Zambia" "Says Muriel Kranabetter, former OkaZHI Board Chair and UBC nursing instructor who runs student groups in Zambia." We never Was the Canadians who all knew, coming to Zambia to tell people what to do, we were equal, it was the essential piece that made the initiative so effective. "
Dr. Nelems blogged about Africa being "in his blood", and how he felt driven to help the continent of his birth. "Simply put, I was blessed beyond reason by education, good fortune and career opportunities that I appreciated," he wrote on the website Web of OkaZHI.
"I lived a charming life. It is time for me to give back a little of what has been so abundant."
To raise funds and Raising public awareness of the work in Zambia, Dr. Nelems has joined the annual 2010 African Tour Race for the last 4 500-kilometer stage from Lilongwe, Malawi, to Cape Town, South Africa. He marked his 71st birthday this year by traveling 204 kilometers in one day.
His blog articles from this period are filled with enthusiastic narratives of his daily adventures, such as the time he has traveled In a herd of angry water buffaloes Blocking the road by relying on recalled advice back in British Columbia To "look great" if a grizzly bear attacks. Improvised plastic surgery on another cyclist who suffered serious injuries Ures to the face after hitting another cyclist.
UBC nursing instructor Jessica Barker helped Dr. Nelems launch his non-profit Zambian and talked with him about The African Tour . She was in Zambia with a group of nursing students when Doctor Nelems died and said her Zambian friends and colleagues were deeply saddened by the news. "I also had the pleasure of working with him as a surgeon. He was so good with his patients, "recalls Ms. Barker." He pulled out stories of people and was connected to these stories. "
Dr. Nelems has never lost the will to New challenges and test his abilities, notes his daughter Sarah. At the time of his death he was working at a pain management clinic in Kelowna, with the intention of adding another medical specialty to his list Achievements and Become the Oldest Canadian to Write a Review of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
"There were many milestones in Dad's life," says Nelems. Others, of course, but we are so grateful for a life well lived. "
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