Vale Dr Gus Galea 1926-2022

Dr Gus Galea was a pioneering cardiologist and has left a legacy that should be remembered and cherished. Gus was one of Australia’s first Cardiologists, and the first Cardiologist to establish services in Queensland. In 1956, after training in London at the National Heart Hospital under luminaries such as Paul Wood, Maurice Campbell and Evan Bedford (Churchill’s physician), he returned to Brisbane. Gus began work as a staff physician at the Brisbane General (later the RBWH) and then at the Children’s Hospital. He conducted free clinics during this time at the Children’s and Greenslopes Hospitals. However, it was in 1961 he began his association with the TPCH. Along with his friend Graeme Neilson he established the first Cardiology service at the Chermside Chest Hospital (to become the TPCH). This association would continue right up until his retirement in 2018.

With a special interest in paediatric and congenital heart cardiology, Dr Galea was a forerunner in his field, performing Queensland’s first the first balloon septostomy on a newborn baby in 1968. He also developed cardiac rehabilitation services and in 1961, the year he started at TPCH, co-authored and published an early text book “A Guide to Cardiology”. This went to a second edition in 1966.

Dr Galea was a great mentor, role model, supporter and an incredibly astute clinician, with a wicked sense of humour. His knowledge of adult congenital heart disease was the result of a wealth of lived experiences over 60 years as a clinician. When Dr Galea spoke up to pass comment, the room paused to grasp the clinical pearls he always had time to share. He continued to impart his clinical wisdom as part of TPCH’s cardiology team right into his ninth decade.

Vale Gus Galea – a great Australian, pioneering cardiologist and an outstanding person.

Contributed to by Prof Darren Walters and Dr Dorothy Radford.