Living life to the full

AFRICAN SAFARI: The Alexander family from left Greg, Ana, Sage, Luca and Cameron went on safari at the Sabi Sands game reserve bordering Kruger National Park in South Africa. They stayed at Ulusaba Lodge and saw the protected wildlife on the 13,500 hectare property – lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants, cougars, leopards, steenboks and more. Picture supplied

Greg Alexander's surgical career began aged 13 with a caesarean section on a pug dog while doing vacation work with a friend's Dad, the local vet in Johannesburg.

Orthopaedics was the second operation of the day – a loose bone fragment in a Rottweiler's elbow.

Towards the end of high school his aspirations shifted slightly from veterinary to medical school and he ended as an orthopaedic surgeon with a particular interest in joint replacement.

“Ever since I was a medical student I was keen on orthopaedics – I always had a good rapport with the orthopaedic team. Patients are not sick necessarily, they are broken – when you fix them and they heal, they generally go back to having a good quality of life – that appealed to me.”

Greg grew up in South Africa and studied medicine at the University of Cape Town. He met Ana just after finishing his year as a junior doctor. After spending some time in the emergency units in Cape Town, Ana and Greg moved to the UK. Greg did basic surgical training there before returning to specialise in orthopaedic surgery back in Cape Town in 2003. His son Cameron arrived six weeks before his final exit exam.

His first fellowship was with Dugal James in Bendigo, Australia, a gold rush town an hour out of Melbourne. This covered mostly hip, knee and shoulder problems.

“We arrived in Australia pregnant with Luca and he was born on the hottest day on record – 50 degrees.”

“Once we had lived in Australia for a time, Ana decided that with the kids and South Africa the way things were going, she didn't feel that it was in the kids' best interests to go back.

“It's a tough one not going home, but by now baby number three, Sage, was on the way.”

Sage arrived in Australia in 2011 and was three months old when they departed for a second hip and knee fellowship in Oxford (UK). The Oxford Fellowship was fantastic and he was able to learn from some of the best in the field – Professor Murray and Christopher Dodd who are part of the design team for the Oxford Partial Knee replacement.

“We completed the fellowship and it was decision time again. I've always had a Kiwi passport – my dad's side of the family are all Kiwis. My dad was born in South Africa but my grandfather was born in Lower Hutt. He left when the great depression struck and ended up in Durban, South Africa.”

They came to New Zealand in 2013 after Greg got a job at Whakatane Hospital, where he worked for six months. The next stop was Gisborne and this has been home for seven years.

He said they love the accessibility they have here to all of the kids' activities, and there are many – judo, rugby, piano, football, gymnastics, swimming, speech and drama.

“They couldn't do everything they currently do if in a big city.”

A few years ago he found out he had a strong family connection to Gisborne.

He discovered that his great grandfather used to live five minutes down the road on the corner of Stout Street and MacLean Streets. The same week, by uncanny coincidence, a suitcase with his great grandfather's personal effects was returned after the new owners in Johannesburg found it in the attic 10 years after the house was sold.

Greg has worked full-time at Gisborne Hospital for almost seven years. After a period of disruption orthopaedic capacity is stable again, and Greg has been encouraged to take up private practice at Chelsea Hospital.

A family man who loves the great outdoors, any free time is spent hunting, fishing, woodworking and tinkering. The Alexanders' 1930's house is often filled with a “chaos of animals” including various rescued birds, one being a large harrier hawk named Harrison. Like his dad, Luca is also an animal lover and has quails, snake-necked turtles, lop-eared and Flemish rabbits, fish and a blue-tongued lizard.

Adventure holidays are a favourite with the family – from skiing trips to Whistler to safaris in Africa. They've promised each child one big trip of their choice when they turn 10, with Luca hoping to go to Costa Rica with dad once the borders open again.

With more than 12 years' experience as an orthopaedic surgeon, Chelsea Hospital is excited to have Greg join the team. He starts at the end of August.