Page 10 - YOU Magazine | Issue 2

“Before the injury I hated to be in any sort of vulnerable state...
but my mum did pretty much everything in the early days. We didn’t really have extra assistance until much later. For me, hope
was what kept things going.
When you are staring at the ceiling in a dark room with tubes coming out everywhere in the middle
of the night, you are alone with your thoughts. There is nothing
to keep you going but the hope
of a better tomorrow.”
Dinesh says it was during this time, he stumbled upon the book Ego is the Enemy which introduced him to the concept of “alive time” and “dead time”.
The book details how visionaries throughout time had put their higher goals above their desire for recognition. In particular, how civil rights activist Malcolm X had never felt freer than when in prison, because he used that time to open his mind through books.
“Later, I did the very same thing. I learned a lot during that time, because I saw it as an opportunity to become better in some way,” Dinesh says.
Determined to make a difference, in spite of his injuries and tough rehabilitation, Dinesh spent some
of his recuperation time living
with extended family in Sri Lanka, with his mother, grandmother and much later an external carer taking alternating turns caring for him.
Whilst he was not ready to face the broader world, Dinesh did what he could to raise awareness of spinal cord injuries, as well as fundraising and gifting stocks of medical supplies.
Still determined to complete his studies, he kept in contact with the Dean of the Medical School at Griffith University who promised to do all he could to assist Dinesh to return back to Australia and complete his degree.
But back home he faced another hurdle in his bid to become a
doctor when, in 2015, the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand issued a set of guidelines providing Australian Medical Schools the power to exclude students with a range of disabilities.
He fought hard to be allowed
to continue his training and found adapted ways to be trained as a quadriplegic doctor in partnership with Griffith University and the Gold Coast University Hospital. It is a fight he continues to this day on behalf of others living with disability.
In 2016 he became the first quadriplegic medical graduate in the state of Queensland and just the second in Australia.
Yet while he spent two years
in clinical training as a medical student at the Gold Coast University Hospital, Dinesh initially struggled to secure employment in his home state. At one point, he was the only Queensland medical graduate without an employment offer upon graduating - despite testaments to his ability.
Eventually he was offered employment by the Gold Coast University Hospital, where he became Queensland’s first quadriplegic intern. And it was here Dinesh got his first taste of work in the emergency department after his fellow physicians sacrificed some of their own salaries to
fund his first year of employment. “I have had some interesting experiences that have guided my
efforts to make the world more inclusive for people. One of those experiences was a radiologist at our hospital, who said ‘You can’t work here with a spinal cord injury. If anyone asks, I want you to say that it’s the position of our whole department. You can’t tell anyone that I told you this.’ When I told the Human Resources Director about this experience, they said ‘you should just go to a hospital where you are supported’.”
Today, Dinesh remains
at Gold Coast Hospital where he
is the Senior House Officer of emergency medicine. Whilst some adaption has been necessary,
he is still able to perform a largely independent role.
10 WINTER 2020 You