John Charles Hargrave information

John Hargrave AO MBE was a renowned Australian surgeon whose work resulted in the near elimination of leprosy in the Northern Territory. In 1959, Hargrave was appointed medical superintendent of the East Arm Leprosarium, which replaced the leper colony known as Channel Island in Darwin Harbour.^[1]

During his 45-year medical career, Hargrave was a pioneer in the development of reconstructive surgery and microsurgery in the Northern Territory, Timor and Eastern Indonesia. He predominantly operated on deformities resulting from nerve damage in leprosy patients. He also performed the first successful digital re-implant in the Northern Territory, when he re-attached a young man's thumb, as well as the first free flap procedure to be performed at Darwin Hospital. Hargrave was one of the first surgeons in Australia to perform reconstructive surgery for claw hands.^[2]

When working as a survey medical officer based in Alice Springs in 1956, Hargrave conducted health surveys of all Aboriginal settlements and missions across the Northern Territory. As a result, he was the first to record, at a population level, the burgeoning crisis in Aboriginal health, including a vast number of treatable medical and surgical conditions.^[3]

In March–May 1957, Hargrave undertook a comprehensive survey of the Bathurst Island Mission and fully examined 713 people. He organised for 43 patients to be flown by the Aerial Medical Service into Darwin Hospital for chest X-rays. He achieved their cooperation by promising to do everything he could to ensure they were flown back to the mission on the same day.^[4]

In June–July 1957, Hargrave was medical officer on the historically significant Patrol to Lake Mackay. The government patrol set off in search of the nomadic Pintupi people, who had never before seen white people and whose tribal land was in the midst of a severe drought. When the patrol located the Pintupi people, Hargrave examined them and concluded they were 'in excellent condition, well built, well-nourished and healthy'. It is, therefore, 'a medical responsibility', he wrote in his report, 'that they be left entirely alone' and 'should be protected from further contact with white people, as this inevitably leads to their contracting diseases foreign to them.'^[5]

Leprosy was introduced into the Northern Territory from South-East Asia towards the end of the 19th century, and by the 1950s it had reached epidemic proportions among the Aboriginal population. In 1962, as the medical officer responsible for leprosy control, Hargrave established a reconstructive surgery program. Aboriginal people, who were hiding in the bush for fear of being forcibly isolated, began presenting for medical care and surgical procedures. By 1970, under Hargrave's guidance, leprosy was under control with only sporadic cases appearing.^[6] Hargrave, himself, described his work to eliminate leprosy as 'a concerted case-finding program, active treatment and the abolition of isolation (which was counterproductive since it made people hide)'.^[7]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hargrave led volunteer teams of medical specialists and nurses to Timor where they performed reconstructive surgery on patients with deformities and disabilities arising from leprosy, poliomyelitis, burns and congenital defects. By 1995, his volunteer program had expanded to include interstate doctors and nurses, and Hargrave formalised it into the Australia South-East Asia Rehabilitation Foundation (ASEA Rehab). Today ASEA Rehab is known as the Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia (OSSAA), and it provides specialist surgery to people living in the poorest regions of Timor Leste and Eastern Indonesia.^[8]

Among his colleagues and patients Hargrave was regarded as a surgical pioneer,^[3] a living legend, an icon of surgery, a living saint^[9] and a pioneer to Aboriginal Health Workers.^[10]