Philippa Clark
Tributes have flowed for Tweed paediatrician Dr David McMaster after his death in early January, while a petition to name a hospital ward in his honour has over 6,300 signatures.
Dr McMaster worked at the Tweed, Murwillumbah and John Flynn Private Hospitals for 23 years.
Shannon Burns, whose two children were the paediatrician’s patients, started a petition to name the paediatric ward at the new Tweed Valley Hospital after Dr McMaster.
‘I felt like we as a community really needed to do something to cherish his memory,’ said Ms Burns.
She said she was ‘actually quite surprised’ that the petition had received so much support.
‘He obviously stood out as a truly wonderful man and a wonderful paediatrician, so I think that the community should be proud and hopefully if it doesn’t happen at least we can get something in honour of him.’
In response to questions about naming the ward, a spokesperson for the Northern NSW Local Health District said: ‘The Local Health District will consider an appropriate recognition of Dr McMaster’s years of service in the coming months.’
The petition can be found at https://www.change.org/p/nsw-health-name-the-paediatric-ward-at-tth-after-dr-david-mcmaster?redirect=false
Hundreds of tributes shared for book project
‘The impact he had on the region was immeasurable,’ said former co-worker and physiotherapist Dannielle Pickford, whose children also saw Dr McMaster.
Ms Pickford, of Banora Point, set up the Facebook page David’s Angels to collate memories from current and former patients into a book, which she will present to Dr McMaster’s family. She has received over 100 contributions.
‘I just admired him so much, he is just the pinnacle of family centred care. He doesn’t treat a child, he treats the entire family,’ Ms Pickford said.
One of the many grateful tributes came from Alana McKelvey of Tweed Heads, whose 19-year-old son Hayden was diagnosed with ADD and ADHD as a child. ‘David helped us navigate through all the challenges we faced with Hayden and he was just wonderful,’ Ms McKelvey said.
‘I was a young mum with two kids at 18 and he never judged anyone, he was very kind, he bulk billed me… he had such a great bond with Hayden.’
‘The whole family has just loved him and I was sick with cancer just last year and he would often drop into the hospital… he’d come and see me and just check that I was going OK.’
‘He was a beautiful, kind man who was just amazing and he just had this way of talking to the children, they just responded really well to him.’
My 2 boys also were patients of Dr McMaster , the loss of him has impacted our family so much along with so many other families .
Dr McMaster has gone into bat for my boys many times with ndis and the red tape around tests and traveling . Only just recently the powers that be wanted us to travel to Queensland for tests for my youngest boy with a brain cyst causing him pain and confusion , Dr McMaster put his foot down and arranged for those tests to be done locally for us, as I have 2 boys under his care and their father with end stage cancer to care for as well as my own health challenges , so traveling any distance would of been extremely difficult .
He was a friend to my teenage boy , he helped my boy to navigate teenager angst, worries and fears about fitting in with his peers as well as his challenges in life on top of all the typical teenager growing pains . Dr McMaster was compassionate ,careing, kind , funny , engaging, witty, dedicated and amazingly resourceful. His loss will be felt through out the northern rivers for a long time to come. I also like to thank his family for sharing him with all the families that he saw and send them our utmost condolences in losing such a wonderful man, Dr , husband, father, friend and confidant .
I hope the Tweed heads children’s ward will be named in his honour as he was a important part of childrens services on the Northern Rivers and Tweed Heads areas as well as children that traveled from further away to see him .
RIP David McMaster.
Eternal memory Dr David McMaster.
So sad to see he’s passed away. We were so fortunate to have him as a doctor for both our kids. He was absolutely brilliant and will be missed.