North Coast anaesthetist, Chris Lowry, has been awarded the Order of Australia in the recent Australia Day Honours list.
Dr Lowry is a former Director of Anaesthesia at Lismore Base Hospital as well as a past Director of Clinical Training for Junior Medical Officers and a past Anaesthetics Training Supervisor. He has been heavily involved in training LBH residents and registrars over many years and as testament to this work some of his former students have returned to the area as consultant anaesthetists.
Dr Lowry has a long standing interest in underwater medicine which he first developed when he joined the Navy in his medical student days in Sydney. He subsequently served with the Navy for four years full time then subsequently as a reservist. After leaving the navy he trained as an anaesthetist. Her was a VMO at Royal North Shore Hospital before coming to the North Coast in 1992.
Dr Lowry has worked with overseas aid organisations since the mid eighties. He has made multiple trips to South East Asia and the Pacific Islands as part of Interplast, the organisation of Australian plastic surgeons that provides plastic and reconstructive surgery to nations that lack these services.
The marriage of his interests in swimming, diving and anaesthetics has made him an expert on underwater medicine. He is also an author of the widely read book, Diving and Subaquatic Medicine.
In semi retirement you will no longer finding him in the theatres but is still doing some preadmission assessment clinics. If you’re quick you might catch him somewhere between The Pass and Main Beach early on a Sunday morning.
