John Wright - Doctors: Triumphs, Trials and Tragedies

John Wright graduated with high medical honours from the University of Sydney in 1955. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1959. He spent six years at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he was surgical tutor to three students colleges, senior surgical registrar and surgical superintendent before departing for overseas studies of chest and heart surgery in England and the USA.

He was appointed senior cardiothoracic surgical registrar in the Liverpool region of England and later took up cardiac surgical Fellowships of the distinguished universities at Stanford, California and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

His special cardiothoracic interest was open-heart surgery, particularly for the correction of childhood defects.

As an Australian with unique awards of Fellowships of the American Colleges of Surgeons, the American College of Chest Physicians and Senior Membership of the American Society of Thoracic Surgeons, he was invited to a specialist cardiothoracic surgical post at the Teaching Hospitals of the University of New South Wales in Sydney in the early 1960s. He was appointed to the first Australian professorial post in cardiothoracic surgery in 1969. He headed his department, tutored and examined all student levels, wrote two textbooks and more than 200 peer-reviewed articles on childrens heart surgery and consulted at nine major Sydney hospitals.

In 1985, he was invited to fill the Foundation Chair of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Prince of Wales (Sydney) Childrens Hospital. After establishing that department, he rejected further public hospital appointments and took up senior consulting posts in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Darwin. He is the author of three textbooks.

AAP, Edelsten tries to re-enter the ranks of doctors, Fairfax Digital, 25 November 2003

ABC News, McBride cleared to return to work, Sydney, 09 November 1998

ABC News, Sydney, 04 November 2003

ABC News, Edelsten appeals to NSW Medical Tribunal, 24 November 2003

ABC News, Australian doctor acquitted of murder in Uganda, 12 December, 2006

ABC News, British Police investigate hospital terrorist cell, 03 July 2007

ABC News, Second doctor detained in Brisbane terrorist raids (Mohamed Haneef), 03 July 2007

ABC News, Dont pick on overseas doctors: Overseas Doctors Association, ABC, 03 July 2007

ABC News, Medical Board to discipline chief over Patel affair, Bundaberg, 20 November 2007

ABC News, Retrial over Doctors Killing, News Ltd, 15 May 2008

ABC News, Fed Govt never considered Haneef innocent, 1 July 2008

ABC News, Stillborn baby comes back to life in hospital fridge, 19 August 2008

ABC News, Organs removed before Donors are Dead, 20 October 2008

ABC News, Retrial convicts Gassy of mental health chiefs murder, 06 May 2009

ABC News, Jury considers Gassy retrial verdict, Sydney, 06 May 2009

ABC News, Patel to face manslaughter trial in March, 14 August 2009

Ackland, R, How the Haneef affair became Carry on Coppers, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 2008

Addict doctors 10-year ban, Sydney Morning Herald, 05 November 2003

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Archives in Brief 72 Records of the NSW Medical Board, 1986

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Crow, S, A Prescription for the Rogue Doctor, University of New Orleans, 2003

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Deacon, G, Letter concerning anaesthetic deaths, The Australian, November 2007

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Douglas, F, Letter to author, 14 August 1986

Dyer, C, Better systems needed to curb rogue doctors, London: BMJ, 18 September 2004

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Editorial: Patients put down, The Daily Telegraph, 12 September 2005

Editorial: The patient must have faith in the systems, The Age, 13 March 2008

Editorial: Whipping the Doctors, London, The Spectator, 17 June 2000

Executive, NSW Medical Board, Reporting Statistics, 09 May 2008

Faunce, K, Hipbones and hip pockets, The Age, 13 March 2008

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