A doctor has been murdered

in a home invasion in this state. The paediatric community in particular is stunned that someone whose job was to save lives has lost his life in this way.

I did not know this man but I know others who did know him and they told me more than once of how compassionate he was. He was always professional but he was also compassionate. That takes some doing. 

From all accounts he was an outstanding doctor.

And he was one of the people who gave a late friend of mine a role which made her feel wanted and useful. He was one of those who made the decision that M... should not be sent to a nursing home to live with elderly people. No, she was still young enough to need more stimulation than she would ever get there. She could be useful.

M...had many medical issues. She needed full time nursing care but she could be settled into her electric wheelchair each day and then, despite her limited education, she could "zip around" the hospital. She delivered documents from one place to another. She held the hands of young patients who had nobody else there. She listened to parents who were too exhausted to pace the floor as they waited for news. She knitted seemingly endless pairs of socks for the surgeons who liked to wear them in theatre. They were not just any socks either. They had trains running around the tops - and sports cars and  dinosaurs. M... taught some of the long term patients to knit and I have had lasting contact with them. 

When M...finally left us the doctor was one of those who took time off to come to her funeral. He could not stay long but he slipped in quietly. I remember seeing him there but I did not know who he was. We had asked people to take their shoes off and, if they had a pair of her socks, to wear them. He did just that for a young woman he must barely have known. He took time out of one of his incredibly busy days to acknowledge her life. It was the sort of man he obviously was - caring and compassionate.

The police have hopes of quick arrests. Perhaps the community will feel safer but will we feel any better? People will live on through his donated organs but we, as a community, have still lost someone who contributed so much. I never met him but he touched my life too. He gave M... a purpose and, through her, I met some wonderful young people who are contributing so much. They knew this doctor, owe their lives to him and, unlike the perpetrators of this appalling act, they care - can care because of him. I don't think we ever know how far our actions can reach.