Prof. Peter Vernon van Heerden was sworn to secrecy three months ago. The Office of the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia told him he had been awarded the Order of Australia (the equivalent of the British OBE) “for significant service to intensive care medicine, to professional associations and to tertiary education.” But he couldn’t tell anyone until the birthday of King Charles on June 10, when the honor’s list in the UK and the Commonwealth is publicized.
Prof. van Heerden is the first staff member of the Hadassah Medical Organization to receive this honor. He has no idea who proposed his candidacy for the award but does know it was for his work in Melbourne, Australia, at the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which, at the time, was subservient to the discipline of anesthesia. Prof. van Heerden and colleagues succeeded in turning intensive care medicine into a separate area of study. He became the first president of the College of Intensive Care Medicine.
“Part of the reason I made aliyah was because I’d done what I’d wanted to do in Australia,” says Prof. van Heerden, who now directs the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. “I’d worked in intensive care there for 20 years, and I’d always wanted to come here.”
He moved to Israel with his wife, Fiona, in 2012. Naturally, she is very proud of her husband, but he says much of his success is because of her.
“It’s the sort of thing you cannot achieve without a supportive spouse,” he says. “This career is very intense.”
The Governor-General’s office will formally award the honor at an investiture ceremony in Perth, Australia, later this year.
Read More
The "Lucky Ones": Victims Treated at Hadassah Hospital
ICU Docs Coin Term for Elderly’s Multiple Ailments and Urge New Approach
Miraculous Stories of Survival at Hadassah's ICU