Dr Martie Gray.
A Levin doctor's idea of retirement is joining a Third World African hospital in the middle of a global pandemic.
Dr Martie Gray, 73, boarded a flight earlier this week to take a position at the Mukinge Hospital in Zambia, a country that has just 4 per cent of its population vaccinated against Covid-19, and high incidence of HIV-Aids.
Dr Gray had flirted with retirement for some time, though she conceded there was no "right time" for a health professional to retire in New Zealand.
"It's not morally justifiable, sitting at home knowing all this stuff is going on ... if you can do it, then why not?" she said.
Embarking on the Zambia mission made it a bit easier to leave her role at Horowhenua Medical Centre, and reconcile that at some stage retirement would be inevitable.
"I love mission work and the opportunity is there now to do it," she said.
Mukinge Hospital has 200 beds and three doctors. There is no 111 emergency service. News of illness was often by word of mouth.
Hours away from the main centres, a bike ambulance is often used to push-pedal patients to the hospital from outlying towns.
She had worked in a Zambian hospital before "so it's not altogether new. I sort of know what I am in for", she said.
While she said there was no perfect health system and there were areas of concern in New Zealand, the doctor-to-patient ratio in Zambia was about one to 60.
Incidents of HIV, malaria, leprosy and tuberculosis presented a different set of illnesses to those commonly found in New Zealand. The rise of Covid-19 was posing a heightened risk for those immuno-comprised through HIV, she said.
Her six-month mission was part of Service In Mission and was at considerable personal expense. She was funding the trip herself, including travel, food and lodgings, and would forgo all her New Zealand superannuation entitlements while away.
The mission was a way she could live out her Christian faith in her work.
Dr Gray was not only philanthropic with her role as a doctor, as a Christian she also donated a considerable amount of money to causes she deemed worth, like ADRA, the Heart Foundation and Stroke Foundation, and most recently the Tongan tsunami appeal.
For years she had sponsored children in Uganda, too.
"I think your money is better spent that way than in the bank accruing more money," she said.
"Life is not always about yourself. That is not where joy and happiness lies. I have enough and am living well so can share some of it around."
She had been to Zambia before on a mission, in 2006, and Gwazulu in 2009 alongside her late husband John, and those experiences had never left her.
"It is so rewarding. They don't get a lot so the little they do get, they are so thankful for," she said.
There was one incident with a young mother with four children under 5 who presented to the hospital in the end stages of HIV. The young baby slept with her and the other two children slept under the hospital bed.
They woke in the morning to find their mother had died that night. Within days the children were placed with other families through a social agency.
"People have to cope ... life has to go on. It doesn't take away the sadness of it, but it happens," she said.
With protein in short supply, it would be unthinkable for a patient to complain about hospital food or the flavour of a milkshake.
"It does make you a bit more appreciative of what we have here, in New Zealand," she said.
Dr Gray was born in South Africa and immigrated to New Zealand in 1993 with her two sons - 8 and 10 at the time - to take up a position at Horowhenua Hospital in Liverpool St.
It was a "huge" culture shock working as a single parent in a new country and initially, it took time to find their feet.
"The first year was really difficult but it soon sorted itself out," she said.
There were 15 doctors in Levin at the time and they all knew one another and would all meet once or twice a year. Times had changed, and that camaraderie had been hard to maintain with a high turnover of medical staff in recent years.
Dr Gray had worked as a senior medical officer in geriatrics, treating elderly and young disabled people.
In 2010, she returned to South Africa, but within four months was back in New Zealand after running into problems having her qualifications recognised in her home country on her return.
She was unsure about what the future held after the mission, but she would probably look to resume work again in New Zealand on her return.
"I love my job here and MidCentral Health have been very good to me," she said.
Other than that, she was not looking too far ahead or too anxious about her latest venture.
"Anything can happen to us at any time. You might get hit by a car and have your funeral in three days," she said.
