Cancer patient Dr Natalie Gordon becomes a doctor after her second chance at life inspired her to pursue a career in medicine
At 42-years-old, Dr Natalie Gordon is one of the newest interns to join the team at Broken Hill Base Hospital after packing up her bags to move 917km to NSW's far west, but she is no stranger to hospital halls.
A cancer diagnosis propelled her on a new path or as she like to call it, 'Life 2.0'.
In 2014 - eighteen years into her teaching career - Dr Gordon was feeling 'exhausted'.
'I noticed I had put on a lot of weight, and I kept getting really breathless,' she told Sky News.
'I worked at a private school so they had a doctor who would come in to see the boarders who I would visit as well but they could figure out what was going on.
'I just kept going back and towards the end I thought I was going crazy.'
On the June long weekend her condition escalated.
'I got really sick to the point I couldn't eat so I took myself to hospital,' she said.
'I ended up having my appendix out, but even then, they still missed the larger part of the story.
'Six weeks later I was teaching again, and I knew something wasn't right.
'I eventually had a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy, and they told me I had cancer.'
She was diagnosed with lynch syndrome, a genetic disorder which increases the risk of developing certain cancers - in Dr Gordon's case it was duodenal cancer.
'In that moment my mum was so wise, she said we don't want to know the prognosis,' Dr Gordon said.
'The surgeon said in my opinion you're 100 per cent alive or you're 100 per cent dead, that's just how it is.
'I had a whipple surgery, it was a very serious surgery, it is over six hours and for most people who get it survivorship is difficult.'
Though Dr Gordon will never say she is cancer free, her health is now back on track.
It's her hospital experience that sticks with her the most.
'I do worry that I was a bit disregarded, not only was I a young woman who should be well but also, I am an Indigenous woman, so I had a few things going against me,' she said.
'I think women aren't listened to in medicine and that's not anyone's fault it's just the way medicine is taught.'
Determined to change that experience for others she sat the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test – and she passed.
'I didn't think I would pass but I though why not give it a go,' she said.
'I had this sense teaching wasn't for me anymore so if I didn't pass I was going to become a pilates instructor.'
By no means did Dr Gordon find her studies at Australian National University easy, she even failed her first year, but she 'thought people in hospital deserve someone who is going to listen and love them despite what is in front of them'.
'When I was in my country hometown (Goulburn) I thought they don't need people blowing in then blowing out,' she said.
'There is not enough consistency in towns that need doctors like that.
'So I would like to become a rural generalist and hopefully give back to my home community.'
Dr Gordon deals with constant reminders of her cancer journey now she is five months into her time at Broken Hill.
'I am deeply grateful mentally to have had the life experience of knowing how hard it is for patients,' she said.
'When I have to work with them every day I understand what it feels like to not be heard by a doctor, to not be clear about your own health, to not have autonomy over your own body.'
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The Advertiser
4 days ago
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There are opportunities to say thank you and anything you regret. "It is common in Pacific Island and Indigenous cultures. It's also a Tibetan Buddhist practice." Two hours after Jennifer died, she was taken home. "We put her body in her own bed on a cold plate. We shrouded her and spent the next four days at home with her," Ms Mason said. "Friends and family decorated her fully biodegradable cardboard casket. We put her in the casket on the day she was going for cremation." Ms Mason said the experience was "profoundly beneficial and beautiful". Paperbark Deathcare doula Bernadette Connolly helped with the care of Jennifer's body. "Newcastle is a conservative place, but people should know there are options," Ms Connolly said. "I call it family-led death care. The Masons opened their arms to me and I prepared Jenny's body, so they could have those days with her." 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As a doula, Ms Connolly sought to bridge the gap between "families saying goodbye to their loved ones and handing them to a funeral director they've probably never met". Newcastle death doula Ruth Boydell said, "Some families want very meaningful ritualised memorials". "They want to feel like they've honoured the person in a spiritual or sacred way," Ms Boydell said. Dr Noonan said washing and dressing a departed loved one, sitting with them and viewing the body "play an important role in the grieving process". "In our fast-paced lives, there is often pressure to move quickly after someone dies. Family-led death care and funerals, however, tend to operate at a different pace. "Research shows that when people have the chance to spend meaningful time with the deceased, it can help support their grief." Jennifer's body was cremated and her ashes scattered in the ocean off Birubi Beach, a place she loved. Ms Mason said her mum had a big heart and a big effect on people. 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There are opportunities to say thank you and anything you regret. "It is common in Pacific Island and Indigenous cultures. It's also a Tibetan Buddhist practice." Two hours after Jennifer died, she was taken home. "We put her body in her own bed on a cold plate. We shrouded her and spent the next four days at home with her," Ms Mason said. "Friends and family decorated her fully biodegradable cardboard casket. We put her in the casket on the day she was going for cremation." Ms Mason said the experience was "profoundly beneficial and beautiful". Paperbark Deathcare doula Bernadette Connolly helped with the care of Jennifer's body. "Newcastle is a conservative place, but people should know there are options," Ms Connolly said. "I call it family-led death care. The Masons opened their arms to me and I prepared Jenny's body, so they could have those days with her." Kerrie Noonan, director of the Death Literacy Institute, said, "There is increasing awareness of the role of death doulas and also home-based death care". "In NSW, we have the option of bringing our dead home," Dr Noonan said. "These are not new practices. Only two generations ago, it was common for people to die at home and be cared for until the funeral and burial." Many people are reclaiming these caring rituals, which are much cheaper than a standard funeral. John Wilson, author of Supporting People Through Loss and Grief, said being with the departed was "an important ritual across Indigenous tribes in the Pacific, including Indonesia and Australasia". He said this enabled people to "share memories and begin to accept the reality of the death". "It's also a time to find meaning in their life and honour them in death, and is likely to bring comfort. "This is something we so easily lose in our Westernised, sanitised modern funeral practices." 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She lived with "love, laughter and light". When Jennifer Mason died at age 70, she had an unusual plan. She wanted to be brought home to Anna Bay for a few days. Jennifer, who died in early May from a massive stroke, had discussed her end-of-life wishes with daughter Katrina Mason. Instead of her body being taken to the morgue and then a funeral home, she wanted to come home. "Most people were like, 'You want to do what? You can't take the body home'," Ms Mason said. "Hospital staff and mainstream funeral providers did not know anything about how to make this happen." Ms Mason found people to help. "I said to Mum, as she was dying, that I've figured out how to do it. "And she literally started that final process of death then. Her breathing started to slow." Ms Mason said bringing the body home was part of "a movement called sacred death care". This involved death doulas who "help prepare you and your family for death". "Family and friends come and go and people share stories. There are opportunities to say thank you and anything you regret. "It is common in Pacific Island and Indigenous cultures. It's also a Tibetan Buddhist practice." Two hours after Jennifer died, she was taken home. "We put her body in her own bed on a cold plate. We shrouded her and spent the next four days at home with her," Ms Mason said. "Friends and family decorated her fully biodegradable cardboard casket. We put her in the casket on the day she was going for cremation." Ms Mason said the experience was "profoundly beneficial and beautiful". Paperbark Deathcare doula Bernadette Connolly helped with the care of Jennifer's body. "Newcastle is a conservative place, but people should know there are options," Ms Connolly said. "I call it family-led death care. The Masons opened their arms to me and I prepared Jenny's body, so they could have those days with her." 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Sky News AU
5 days ago
- Sky News AU
Letters to government calling for ceasefire in Gaza achieve ‘next to nothing'
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin claims any letters written in an attempt for intervention by groups and individuals for the war in Gaza to end are not "worth the paper they're written on". The Australian Medical Association wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the war in Gaza, urging the government to call for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire. 'We're all sick and tired of individuals and groups with no skin in the game, with no ability to actually impact events on the ground, taking these sorts of moral positions and trying to tell the people of Israel how they should fight this war and rescue their people,' Mr Ryvhcin told Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus. 'For all the pontificating that's been going on, and letters and petitions ... at the end of the day, the only thing that's going to rescue the hostages is Israeli minds and sacrifice. 'These doctors and these petitions aren't going to achieve anything. 'If they want to do something productive and constructive, let them stand with people of goodwill and call for an immediate end to the conflict through the defeat of Hamas.'
