Rural Clinical School of WA (RCSWA) Senior Lecturer Dr Clyde Jumeaux has been honoured by Rural Health West for his 40 years of compassionate service to communities across the Pilbara and South West.
The University of Western Australia graduate reflects on his distinguished career as a Rural Generalist and his plans for the next decade…
How are you reflecting right now on 40 years of service to medicine?
I guess I am feeling a mix of satisfaction, privilege at the opportunity medicine has given to be engaged with so many patients/people along the journey, and the opportunities to use the skills that I acquired along the way.
Can you describe each decade in four different words?
1986-1996 Hectic
1996-2006 New start
2006-2016 Time poor
2016-2026 Change
Why did you want to become a doctor?
There were several generations of doctors in the family going back to Eurasian relatives, and I had a yearning from a young age that this is what I wanted to be. It seemed to me to be a great profession involved in caring and supporting people from all different walks of life regardless of race, gender, occupation or age.
Why did you choose your current speciality and was there another speciality you considered pursuing?
I fell in love with the Pilbara while doing my final years of schooling in Karratha and always wanted to come back as a Rural Generalist. While I was gaining my skills for this and spending time as a junior anaesthetic registrar at RPH I was encouraged to consider training as a specialist anaesthetist. I enjoyed anaesthetics but the thought of spending all day in theatre from early morning until evening did not thrill me. I also enjoyed obstetrics, GP, paediatrics, ED and mental health so hence the Rural Generalist was a no-brainer.
What have been the highlights of your career so far?
Successfully resuscitating a drowned two-year-old who presented with no signs of life and fixed dilated pupils, which we subsequently learnt had been drowned anywhere between 15-45 minutes in an outdoor swimming pool in Karratha. That was a good day. Learning that six months later she was tested at PMH and found to be above average intelligence with no physical disability was a better day, especially considering at day three when discharged from PMH ICU she still had a dense hemiparesis.
The successful resuscitation of flat babies at birth, including a 28/40 Aboriginal baby on a RFDS plane in about 1992 was another good day, as were being involved in successful resuscitations of MVA, cardiac and a teenager in the 1980s who fell from the top of the sailing ship Leeuwin onto a wooden deck off Dampier. Seeing patients recover from severe depression and mental health issues are also very rewarding times particularly witnessing the restored relationships in partnerships and families.
Image: Dr Clyde Jumeaux teaching medical students ophthalmology in Bunbury 2024.
How do you maintain your passion for practice and teaching? Do you have any wellbeing tips you can share?
Maintaining passion for practice is through putting myself in the shoes of the patient that I am about to see next and thinking about what concerns they might present with and how best I can facilitate a desirable outcome.
With teaching, I find the desire to learn in medical students inspirational. My wife Julie often comments that teaching medical students has kept me young. With regards to wellbeing tips, my faith has played an enormous part in maintaining my sanity. One only must reflect on where the sky ends, and one appreciates how limited our finite intellect is to grasp such infinite concepts. I see us as more than just random products of a primordial soup, but rather part of a greater love story involving an infinite intellect that we can only begin to grasp an understanding of.
Having said that, I recall once how a combination of busyness and sleep deprivation after 72 hours of continuous on-call work had me drive up top of a Karratha hill lookout as dawn was breaking. I considered how easy it would be to accelerate over the cliff edge to get relief from the constant busyness. Not because I wanted to end my life, but just to seek relief from that busyness of mind. Turning those times around to reflect on the beauty of the sunrise and nature all around was the refreshment my mind needed at that time. Meditation is a big part of my faith. Having the awareness of our sensory faculties is often the starting point for me to practice mindfulness.
What are your plans (or intentions) for the next decade?
I am now 68 years old and looking at winding back considerably to a scaled-down working program to retirement. These days I am mostly teaching medical students through RCSWA, doing skin cancer work, maintaining a handful of mental health patients and enjoying the scaling back. I would love to travel around the Australian coastline by boat, especially the Kimberley region, but realise that may be a bridge too far for my wife. So, I am looking forward to spending some time travelling Australia by road and enjoying our grandchildren. I will probably find myself on lots of YouTube medical learning channels as I am still fascinated by the workings of the human body.
Image: Dr Clyde Jumeaux and wife Julie Jumeaux on holiday in Germany 2024, and at a conference 2016.