{"id":9015,"date":"2021-08-02T12:22:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T02:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=9015"},"modified":"2021-08-02T12:34:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T02:34:56","slug":"associate-professor-bruce-philip-waxmans-second-birthday-anniversary-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/associate-professor-bruce-philip-waxmans-second-birthday-anniversary-celebrations\/","title":{"rendered":"Associate Professor Bruce Philip Waxman’s ‘second birthday’ anniversary celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Bruce Philip Waxman OAM FRACS AFRACMA was one of The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s (RCH) first ever open-heart surgery patients. Today, 60 years later, Bruce has gone on to become a leading surgeon and medical educator. Thanks to the faith that the Waxman family had in the services of the RCH, Bruce has contributed greatly to the development of surgeons and junior doctors across Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 2 August 1961, Dr George Westlake and the surgical team at the RCH performed open-heart surgery with heart\/lung machine bypass on Bruce. He was placed in an oxygen tent during the post-operative period in the intensive care unit and made a successful recovery. Inspired by his experiences at the RCH, Bruce chose a career in medicine and has become a pioneer in his field.<\/p>\n

Bruce completed his secondary schooling at Caulfield Grammar School and went on to become a 1974 honours medical graduate at Monash University. He has since been a consultant colorectal surgeon, including directorships in surgery at Monash Health for 30 years.<\/p>\n

His career has focused on education and training through academic appointments at Monash University, as well as various committees of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). In 2012, Bruce was awarded the RACS medal, reinforcing his passion towards the training of surgeons.<\/p>\n

He has also mentored members of the RCH team including Dr Poranee Buttery.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce taught me that if I want to make a difference then passion, persistence and patience are required,\u201d Poranee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce\u2019s mentoring helped me understand the importance of the administrator\u2019s perspective. This helped the Anaesthetic Department to safely introduce clinical hypnosis and related advanced communication awareness here at the RCH. This initiative provides specific and broader support to children and families in alleviating and preventing procedural distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce received the Order of Australia Medical in the Australia Day Honours in 2014 for his services as a clinician, administrator, and teacher.<\/p>\n

He retired from surgical practice in 2014 and transitioned into medical administration as Chief Medical Officer at Wonthaggi Hospital and is currently the Clinical Dean, Monash Rural Health, Wonthaggi, continuing his involvement in medical education.<\/p>\n

He is married with five children and eight grandchildren with keen interests in growing wildflowers on his farm on the Mornington Peninsula, rowing, aviation, and WWII history \u2013 remembering RAAF aircrew who served in WWII.<\/p>\n

Bruce is also finishing his Master\u2019s in Health Service Management at Monash University, keeping his finger on the pulse in an industry that has touched his heart profoundly.<\/p>\n

The Waxman family have proudly celebrated anniversaries on 2 August over the years, what Bruce and his parents referred to as his \u2018second birthday\u2019. Pictured here alongside the late cardiologist Dr Mostyn Powell, and surgeon Dr George Westlake, with his parents on the 25th anniversary of his surgery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today, we celebrate Bruce\u2019s anniversary and commemorate his incredible story of how the RCH inspired a lifetime of service from one of the first ever RCH open-heart surgery patients, to a top surgeon and medical educator.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a>
Head of the Yarra 2017.<\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/a>
Bruce with his children Tom, Paul, Amelia, Nick and Jane.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Bruce Philip Waxman OAM FRACS AFRACMA was one of The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s first ever open-heart surgery patients. Today, 60 years later, Bruce has gone on to become a leading surgeon and medical educator. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":9017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9015"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9026,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9015\/revisions\/9026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}