WAGGA clinician of more than 45 years Doctor Ian Stewart received a Medal of the Order (OAM) at the Australia Day Service Awards 2022 for his service to medicine.
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Having been someone who has dedicated, and continues to dedicate, a lot of his time to his community and to medicine, Doctor Stewart said to have such recognition is nice.
"The nomination came as something of a surprise," he said.
"My clinical practice ceased some time ago as a result of retirement, but I'm still very involved locally with the educational side of medicine, being, I have an academic attachment to the clinical school at the Notre Dame University and I also have a connection with the UNSW Rural Clinical School as well.
"I supervise some of the students as they go through their obstetrical gynaecological rotation and I do student interviews at the end of each year."
Doctor Stewart has played pivotal roles from being a senior lecturer at the UNSW Rural Clinical School in Wagga to being a lecturer for the Midwifery Program with Charles Sturt University.
He has been medical services director and is a former chair of the Medical Staff Council and the Credentials Committee.
Doctor Stewart remains a member of the NSW Board, Medical Board of Australia and is was a Medico-legal Assessor from 1994 to 2006.
He was chair of the Greater Southern Area Health Service, a Panel Member on the Medical Council of NSW, a member of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and remains a member of the Medical History Society.
"I started my medical course in the early 1960s," Dr Stewart said.
"I came to Wagga in 1974 and I've been working here ever since."
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Intrigued by medicine from a young age, Dr Stewart entered the medical field with passion which has never subsided.
"Medical science interested me as a high school student and my mother who was a trained nurse was encouraging," he said.
"My father wished he could have done medicine but it was during the depression so his family were unable to support him. So, [my parents] sewed the seed and I thought it sounded pretty good."
Dr Stewart attended Sydney's School of Medicine along with 16 other boys.
"It was interesting to get onto the clinical side of things in hospitals, their certain aspects that infatuated me, but I found the pleasure women got out of having babies successfully were something I was really interested in and I took that line," he said.
Dr Stewart first came to Wagga after he saw the opportunity to work here alongside the late Dr Richard Lewis who was Wagga's first specialist obstetrician.
Throughout his years, Dr Stewart experienced many moments which will remain etched in his mind for the rest of his life, but there was one patient who stands out.
"There was one particular lady I remember very well who was living in Tumut," he said.
"She was a Danish countess and she had severe toxaemia, (high blood pressure during pregnancy) and had an eclamptic fit.
"They had sent her to us to look after.
"We managed to get her controlled and deliver the baby successfully and she went on to have a couple more children with my oversight.
"One doesn't often get the opportunity to look after a countess," he said.
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