While on his daily bike ride with his cycling group, Geoff suffered a catastrophic brain incident which resulted in his sudden death, aged 76. Geoff had replaced running with cycling later in life after he was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a condition affecting the heart’s ability to pump blood to the lungs.
Having spent his lifetime volunteering, Geoff followed a mantra he had learnt at Melbourne High: “You must return to society the benefit bestowed on you by an excellent education.” It therefore came as no surprise to his friends that Geoff would continue to uphold this value beyond his lifetime.
“St Vincent’s was high on his list, mainly because of my wife’s longtime nursing involvement with St V’s. Geoff was also very grateful to his cardiologist, Associate Professor David Prior, who cared for him when he was diagnosed with his lung condition and wanted to keep him on his bike,” said friend Peter Logan.
Geoff’s gift was used to purchase a new ultrasound simulator, an education tool that helps trainee doctors learn how to conduct ultrasounds. Previously, trainees would learn this skill by conducting scans directly on critically ill patients, which can take considerable time and interfere with patient care. The new Vimedix simulator enables junior doctors to put their theoretical knowledge into practice safely, enabling a smoother learning curve and transition to scanning real patients.
“With this approach we have trained many junior doctors who will take these skills into practice, helping future patients, and assisting these doctors to teach the skills to future learners. It really is an investment in the future for patients and training doctors alike,” said Associate Professor Tim Haydon, Director of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Intensive Care Unit.
With his generous gift, Geoff has gone much further than returning the benefit of his education to society. He is enabling our doctors to pay their knowledge forward too.
You can read the full Heartbeat Newsletter from St Vincent's Foundation Victoria here.
