It is with great sadness that we advise that the person tragically killed in the shark attack in the Whitsundays earlier this week was one of our widely respected surgical registrars, Dr Daniel Christidis, who had worked at Western Health since February this year.
We are deeply saddened by his tragic loss, and our condolences and thoughts are with his family and friends and work colleagues during this very difficult time.
Western Health’s Director of Surgery and Head of Urology, Professor Helen O’Connell, has expressed her great admiration for Dan.
“Dan was a great person to work with and we are all richer for knowing him, sadly too briefly. He was compassionate with patients, going the extra mile to help them,” Professor O’Connell said.
“The consummate professional, especially for someone so young, he was already encouraging younger doctors to aspire to a surgical career and participate in academic projects.
“At 33 he had a PhD and had started working as a Urology registrar where his skills and capacity to work well with everyone were outstanding. Part of that was his enthusiasm and cheerfulness, but he also had a capacity to find a clear path forward during conflict or a difficult clinical dilemma, such was his rare emotional intelligence.”
Western Health clinicians are grateful to have had the chance to work with Dan and would like his family to know he was extremely well regarded. He had an exceptional character, we valued him highly and in his shortened life, he shone so brightly.
We solemnly share the family’s unimaginable grief.
We are also offering our support to Daniel’s colleagues who may be affected by this devastating news.
