Fellowship for intensive care specialist after hard yards

A Hawke's Bay-born medical specialist has been recognised as top of his field in Australasia.

Gerard Fennessy, 39, was last week made a fellow of the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand; the peak body for intensive care medicine specialist training in Australasia.

The fellowship, which required five years of hands-on experience and published research, signifies Mr Fennessy has reached the pinnacle as an intensive care specialist.

During his training, he took six months off to be a house husband while his wife - a budding obstetrician - worked fulltime to fulfil her own training commitments.

"It was probably a harder job than being in charge of the ICU."

Mr Fennessy's fellowship, like much of his career, wasn't planned.

While he has lived in Melbourne for the past eight years, his academic career began in Hastings.

A St John's College old boy, Mr Fennessy was the school's dux in 1992.

"And I had short hair. It was out of my eyes and off my collar."

Mr Fennessy later moved to Auckland to study medicine at the University of Auckland.

He paid his way through his seven years of medical tuition with part time work as a waiter and courier driver.

"It was hard, being away from Hawke's Bay for the first time in my life."

Graduating from medical school, Mr Fennessy worked a series of "odd jobs," including a stint as a doctor on Mt Ruapehu's ski fields.

"It was brilliant," said the keen skier, who came to be known on the slopes as "the flying death wedge".

"I used to go down the hills with my skis in a point like an amateur."

He also worked on a cruise ship travelling between the United States and Mexico.

"I sort of dithered around a little bit.

"In about 2009 I'd had a lot of odd jobs around the place, I was married and I thought I better get a proper career out of my medical degree."

Mr Fennessy looks back on his varied career, which often involved gruelling nightshifts and 13-hour days, with undimmed enthusiasm.

He recalls resuscitating a baby after a woman gave birth 12 weeks early in a carpark outside a non-pediatric hospital.

Now, he has a 2-year-old of his own and another child due in two months with his Australian wife, Kristy.

Next month, he'll return to the region to teach young doctors how to deal with critically ill patients at Hawke's Bay Hospital.