Obituary: dedicated doctor and military man

Otago Daily Times

a day ago

BRIGADIER BRIAN MCMAHON
Brigadier Brian McMahon was an impatient man: he did not suffer fools gladly, nor did he appreciate obstacles being placed in the way of his vital work.
His resentment of delay was not born of an inherently grumpy nature: it was driven by a desire to get things done.
Brig McMahon achieved an enormous amount in his 95 years, and the number of people and organisations grateful for his efforts are legion.
A devoted resident of Dunedin, he was always jetting off here, there and everywhere to help people, be it Vietnam, Fiji or all points in between. As a doctor, a military man and as an administrator, Brig McMahon earned the respect and the thanks of many.
Brian Thomas McMahon was born in Dunedin on December 1 1929, the son of Thomas and Dulcie McMahon, and was brought up in Oamaru and Dunedin, attending four different Catholic primary schools.
When he reached secondary school young Brian McMahon began to flourish academically and show great promise for the future. He thrived at Otago Boys' High School — perhaps unsurprisingly, given he had been born just 300m away.
He never forgot what he owed to his school. As well as being a keen old boy, always available for anything the school needed, in later life he served as life governor of the OBHS Old Boys' Society from 2000 to 2017.
"OBHS encouraged us to have ambitions and I am sure that most of us were ambitious," Brig McMahon wrote in 2018.
"Most of the boys survived to acquire an education. They also acquired other less tangible things that were equally important and long-lasting. Making friends, learning to live a community life, retaining individuality, yet moulding it to harmonise with others.
"Somehow we had to learn how to accept success with modesty, and defeat and failure with good grace."
From Otago Boys' Brian McMahon ventured down the hill and enrolled at the University of Otago to study medicine.
In 1955 he graduated MB ChB, having made many life-long friends while at Dunedin Medical School.
It was during his time in placement on the wards he met the rock of his life, nurse Joan Margaret Palmer (known as Margaret).
The couple married at St Bernadettes, Dunedin, the following year, and went on to have five children: Jennifer, Simon, Jeremy, Sean and Marcus.
Margaret McMahon died in 2001: although Brig McMahon still had many productive years ahead of him, some of the light of his life left with his wife's death.
After graduation the McMahons and their growing brood embarked on a peripatetic life as Dr McMahon took up a variety of placements in hospitals around New Zealand.
Dr McMahon specialised in venereology but also trained in public health. His time in various New Zealand hospitals served him well as a military surgeon: he once said that dealing with the aftermath of road accidents when working in Hamilton was good training for many of the injuries he confronted when he served in Vietnam.
The family found a stable base when they moved to Cromwell, where Dr McMahon took up a position as GP Surgeon at Cromwell Hospital. It was a position where he had to be a jack of all trades, ministering to any and all of the district's health needs.
However, after five years Dr McMahon made a momentous decision which shaped the rest of his life. In 1966 Dr McMahon, aged 36, became Major McMahon as he enlisted in the New Zealand Army for an initial four and a-half years.
Maj McMahon began a distinguished career with the New Zealand Defence Force as resident medical officer at Wakari Military Camp, before going to Terendak Camp, Malacca, Malaysia, in 1968. The same year he was asked to run NZDF's sexual health services.
New Zealand had made a military commitment to the conflict in Vietnam, which included a medical unit, and a year later he felt it was time to do his bit.
Serving with the Medical Corp in Vietnam was a formative experience. While proud of his time there, Maj McMahon grew cynical of the motives of those who had sent him and his comrades overseas: his cynicism for politics and politicians stemmed from his year in Vietnam.
Direct combat injuries such as bullet wounds were a rarity: Maj McMahon mostly treated people injured by shrapnel, land mines or booby trap injuries, plus the aforementioned road traffic injuries.
Many of his patients presented with shredded lower limbs, meaning little could be done for them other than amputation. Confronting work, but "you just had to get on with it", he said.
Maj McMahon developed great affection for, and life-long commitment to the Vietnamese who lived near Bong Son. As well as treating locals while stationed there, he returned to the country several times and was at the reopening of the local hospital in 1998 under the auspices of the New Zealand Vietnam Health Trust, which he played a role in establishing and chaired for two years.
Maj McMahon loved army life, and that initial enlistment was regularly renewed: when he left the army after 19 years it was purely because he has reached compulsory retirement age.
As well as his tour of duty in Vietnam (a year which earned him the respect of all the veterans he served with) he also served in the United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia, Fiji and Singapore.
Ultimately he rose to the rank of brigadier, and from 1980-83, he was director-general of Defence Force Medical Services and an honorary surgeon to the Queen.
He was appointed to the honorary role of colonel commandant of the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps in 1992 and held that role until 1995. He reprised the role from 2005-08.
Despite being officially "retired" Brig McMahon kept on working in military hospitals, and in particular forged close links with Fiji, another country he grew to love — he organised a family reunion in the Pacific nation shortly before his death and was determined to play a full part in the event despite suffering poor health.
Notably, Brig McMahon became involved with the Pacific Leprosy Foundation Trust, serving as its chairman for a time and regularly offering his services in its facilities in the islands and South East Asia. The foundation now offers a scholarship in his name.
Brig McMahon's service was well recognised with medals and awards, including being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1983.
St John, which Brig McMahon was closely involved in, recognised him by making him a knight of the order.
Perhaps the most prestigious and satisfying recognition came in 2011 when Brig McMahon was presented the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association Anzac of the Year Award.
He had the rare distinction of receiving two independent nominations for the award, which then Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand said reflected the esteem with which he was held in the community.
In part, his citation read: "He is a dedicated professional whose commitment and compassion shows through in his care to his fellow servicemen and women and their dependants, for those he has touched in his profession as a doctor, and for those he has touched in aid activities in Vietnam and the Pacific Islands."
After retiring from the defence force Brig McMahon returned to Dunedin, to work initially as medical superintendent at Wakari Hospital, before moving to the same role at Dunedin Hospital.
Colleagues said that Brig McMahon's no-nonsense approach and wealth of knowledge was second to none. Being a great advocate for health and a highly respected person, he was perfect to have at the head of a team.
Brig McMahon was also a senior lecturer at the Medical School before retirement from academia — but, again, he remained involved long after as an adviser and mentor to the next generation of doctors. Several academic scholarships have been established in his name.
He was regarded as a superb doctor and clinician with a work ethic to match, as well as being a gifted medical lecturer and a great raconteur. He blended a wealth of knowledge and a faith in basic common sense as tools to get things done.
Health issues everywhere mattered to Brig McMahon, but particularly in the South. He was the inaugural patron of the University of Otago Medical School Brain Health Research Centre, and was the chairman of the campaign which helped raise $3 million to establish a neurosurgery chair at the university — he had been a surgical registrar at the Dunedin Hospital neurosurgery unit in the late 1950s.
Brig McMahon, who had always loved music, was an enthusiastic member of the Dunedin RSA choir. In his final years, as well as being involved in many voluntary organisations, Brig McMahon took great delight from his daily attendance at the Moana Pool gym: he exercised there for 28 years, until he turned 95.
A sharp wit with a wonderful turn of phrase, Brig McMahon touched the lives of all those he came into to contact with.
Brig Brian McMahon died in Dunedin on March 13, aged 95. — Mike Houlahan