When John and Jacqueline Andrews arrived in Australia last November, their plan was to spend time with relatives at Goobarragandra and be back in the UK for Christmas.
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But less than two days after their flight landed, Mr Andrews suffered major heart problems and he has been hospitalised ever since.
“It was really touch and go for a while,” Mr Andrews said.
The 86-year-old retired British servicemen is recovering in Wagga Base Hospital after a stint at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.
The staff’s goal is to get Mr Andrews well enough to return to his home in Lincoln.
I genuinely think I work with the most complicated and interesting patients in the hospital
Having been a patient for some weeks, Mr Andrews has been a fixture at Wagga Base longer than geriatrician Matthew Thompson.
Dr Thompson, who is also from the UK, began working at the hospital just last week.
“I genuinely think I work with the most complicated and interesting patients in the hospital,” he said.
“They are a very elderly, frail complicated group of patients. Very, very complicated. Lots of medical problems and lots of medications all interacting, which makes it very interesting and very challenging, which is what I like most about the job.
“I’ve always been kind of drawn more towards the medicine side of things than towards surgery, and rather than just dealing with one medical problem like cardiology or gastroenterology, I really like the variety that we get with geriatric medicine.
“And the patients we deal with? I absolutely love working with those patients.
“It’s really interesting how just practicing good general medicine and doing simple things well can have such a dramatic effect on these patients and have a real impact on their quality of life.”
With Australia recognised as having an ageing population, Dr Thompson has some advice on what younger people can do to help maintain good health as they age.
“When you’re younger, I think the main thing is trying to set up those good habits. So I think the important thing is trying to maintain a healthy body weight, healthy diet with lots of fresh food and vegetables, trying to minimise how much red meat and processed foods we have.
“It’s important we avoid bad habits like smoking and try to consume alcohol as sensibly as we can. Getting into a habit where physical exercise is common is vitally important too.
“As we get older, it is also important to take advantage of regular health screenings.”
