HUMANS
of Pindara
MATTERS OF THE HEART
We meet Cardiologist Dr Ben Hunt in his office at The
Cardiac Centre in the Pindara Specialist Suites. It’s a
busy practice, even early in the morning, buzzing with
admin staff coordinating comings and goings, and
patients waiting in anxious expectation - all of this
creating a vaguely palpable mist of kinetic energy.
C
ontradicting the nervous hum of the waiting room is Dr Ben
Hunt. A tall, slim man, with thick rimmed glasses who puts
you quickly at ease with a calm and considered demeanour
that precedes a clear penchant for intricacy, pattern and
discovery.
From a quiet rural life on a small hobby farm outside of Murwillumbah, Ben
was always drawn to a vocation of discovery and process; his early career
ambitions of becoming a scientist or inventor like Thomas Edison revealing a
curious and creative mind driven to problem solve.
Excelling through high school Ben moved through a period of indecision
about what vocation to choose after rejecting a scholarship to study
environmental engineering from BHP. After a stint working packing boxes
of fruit and other foods and making a difference working with Kids Helpline,
it was the theory and wonder of medicine and the human body with all its
intricacies, secrets and systems that captured his heart – almost literally.
“I never really intended on medicine, but the theory was fascinating
and it gives you such a sense of wonder and awe as to how the body works,”
muses Dr Hunt.
2017
16 Pindara Magazine 2017