Hanging up His Stethoscope Dr Julien de Jager set for retirement In an industry that is constantly changing, adapting, introducing new techniques and trialling new pharmaceuticals, 42 years is a long time. However, after talking to Dr Julien de Jager for a short time, it is easy to get the impression that it is not quite long enough for the rheumatologist. Set to retire at the end of 2016, before, as his wife says, “he gets stupid and starts making mistakes”, he describes the last six months on the job as the worst of his life. “I have to stop people from crying,” he says with a sensitive smile. “One woman spent 15 minutes of a half-hour appointment crying last week. It’s terrible. “I would almost stop the retirement and go back to it now except that you have to make a decision and turning 70 is a watershed because otherwise you stick around forever. There are lots of doctors who wait too long.” It seems that this cheeky, no-nonsense charm may be part of the reason de Jager’s patients have such a fondness for him. After all, it is the patients that have continued to drive the Mudgeeraba local. “I did get offered a position to work in the USA but it meant not working with patients for two years and to get a PHD, but what for? It was not what I wanted to do. I want to work with people. That is what I enjoy most and have the most feedback from. The patients have been fantastic. I have got more out of it then I’ve had to give.” Being a doctor is always something that de Jager wanted to do. As a boy, he grew up on a block of land opposite his aunt’s farm in rural South Africa where he spent his time dissecting frogs, playing with Boar War relics, blowing stuff up and riding his bike five miles to and from school each day. He admired his family doctor who made house calls and who once gave him the day off school for an ear infection. Although de Jager describes medicine as ‘a calling’, it wasn’t until after he had completed military service and was nearing the end of university that he found his niche. “I was going to do orthopaedics and my orthopaedic professor said no. We don’t have any rheumatologists in South Africa. You should do that. He arranged for me to work with Barbara Ansell. It changed my life. It was fantastic.” Barbara Answell was renowned as the founder of paediatric rheumatology and for someone who followed in her footsteps to become a distinguished and much admired expert in his field, it is hard to imagine that this life path may never have come to pass for de Jager. “We had three chances at the fellowship exam in those days. The first time I went in half-baked and failed the written exam, the second time I was much more prepared and passed the written exam but failed the physical exam.” He describes this training at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg as tough and practical and also as the place where he met his future wife, Moyra. “We met over the dissecting table. She was studying to be a physiotherapist and we shared a lab. I am very lucky to have her. She is a wonderful woman.” After getting married and spending some time in England, they moved to Australia in 1975 to escape the political situation in South Africa. “They had good training at that stage in Australia. The plan was to live in Australia for a year and then move to the USA, but after six months, we realised we would be crazy to live anywhere else.” De Jager eventually became a Rheumatology Registrar at the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospital Group before moving to St Vincent’s Hospital where he became Chief Medical Register before going into practice with Frank Johnston in 1985. Dr Johnson was a rheumatologist on the Gold Coast seeking someone to look after the hospital 60 Pindara Magazine 2016
Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Nine
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