TUH's hyperbaric medicine unit director dives into retirement

Dr Christopher Jelliffe is used to working under high pressure.

The anaesthetist and Townsville University Hospital hyperbaric medicine unit director has retired after spending the past 30 years of his career mastering the art of diving medicine.

The purpose-built hyperbaric chamber uses oxygen and increased air pressure to treat patients.  

The technique is used to treat divers with the bends (decompression sickness) or people with bubbles of air in their blood vessels and can also be used to treat radiation injuries, chronic diabetes wounds, hypoxic wounds, and even sudden sensory neural hearing loss.

Dr Jelliffe trained at the Royal Free Hospital in London and spent more than a decade working in general practice before finding his passion for anaesthetic and hyperbaric medicine.

He said making the decision to change career paths was challenging but that, once he started, he knew he was on the right path.

“General practice was just not for me, so I went bac to square one as a junior doctor,” he said.

“When I was training in anaesthetics in the UK most of the doctors more senior to me were the same age as my daughter.

“It literally just clicked as soon as I started my anaesthetist training; I found it engaging, I passed all my exams, and I didn’t even mind the on-call hours.” 

Dr Jelliffe visited Australia for a working holiday in 1999 and fell in love with the lifestyle, diving, and eventually his wife - a hyperbaric nurse he met while working in Tasmania.

“I’ve done a lot of driving here, but I had always had an interest in diving medicine, even in the IK where I had done diving medicine courses and was a diving medical examiner,” he said.

“I had not had any opportunities to actually practice n hyperbaric medicine in the UK so I jumped at the opportunity when I got here.”

Looking back on his career, Dr Jelliffe said he was most proud of the young doctors whose he helped train.

“One of my proudest achievements is that I’ve trained a lot of registrars, he said.

“I need a high replacement surgery about three years ago and one of the registrars I trained was the anaesthetist on the list that day.

“She asked me if I minded that she was assigned to my surgery and I said, ‘of course not’ because I knew she had the skills and experience to look after me.”

During his retirement Dr Jelliffe said he would not slow down and would instead use his time to travel, see family and friends, spend time with his grandchildren and continue his hobbies, like clay shooting.