Mariam Issa arrived in Australia in 1998 with four small children and a fifth on the way. Having escaped a war-torn Somalia she sought out a new life for her and her family. Adapting to a new life and a new culture she moved on from seeing herself as a victim to seeing herself as someone that could make a difference. Now she strives to make life better for refugees through her work with Resilient Aspiring Women and the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. In this powerful talk she shares the story of her life, and how such stories have the power to inspire growth.

Robyn Brady is a Staff Specialist at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, but for the purpose of this talk she is the proud mother of Maeve and Tara. We’ll let Robyn and Tara tell you of their lives together on their own words but if you want to know more about Sprung!! or donate to this amazing not-for profit collaborative then head over to their website.

What else do you want to know about Tim Horeczko? Sub-speciality board certified in Paediatric (or as he likes to call it, Pediatric) Emergency Medicine, polyglot and all round good egg Tim took this opportunity to bring a little calmness to the stressful storm that can be a paediatric resus.

So to prime you for this talk, take a look at this…

Tim is going to talk about four key things you can develop to make things flow more smoothly.

Situational awareness

Clarity of mission

Presence

Respect

That makes it sound so easy, doesn’t it? Just embody those four things and all will be golden. Go ahead and listen to the talk and find out how you can calm the paediatric resuscitation.

 

The theme of DFTB17 was ‘Making a Difference‘ and it was important for us to close with a story of hope, a story of how we can impact on the lives of others. Josh Francis is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist working in the Royal Darwin Hospital. He has been working alongside the peoples of Timor-Leste since 2013 to help combat rheumatic heart disease. This is a talk about children, about hope and about the triumph of the human spirit.

Go ahead and listen to the talk..

Katie is staff specialist in the emergency department at Lady Cilento Hospital in Brisbane.

Every other child that presents to the emergency department at this time of year (winter in the southern hemisphere) has a wheeze of some sort. Call it what you will episodic viral wheeze, multi-trigger wheeze, pre-asthma, we all seem to have a different idea of what causes it and what we can do about it.

Go ahead and listen to the talk…

Kathleen Cooke is an anaesthetist and pain specialist who works predominately with children. She also works for SKiP (Support Kids in Pain), Australia’s only not-for-profit organisation that offers free community-based pain management for children and their families. You’ll find a number of invaluable resources on their website.

Given that 1 in 5 kids will get chronic or persistent pain during their childhood it might be worth watching her talk…

John Lawson is a paediatric neurologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick. He has been Lead Investigator in the NSW Medical Cannabis in Epilepsy trial and is one of Australia’s leading experts on its use in near intractable seizures.

What more can be said about Ross Fisher that hasn’t already been said? Passionate presenter, good (but not perfect*) surgeon and friend to the stars – in this talk Ross delves into the hidden world of paediatric surgery.

Davis, T. Grab life by the…: testicular troubles by Camille Wu, Don't Forget the Bubbles, 2018. Available at:
http://doi.org/10.31440/DFTB.16177

Camille Wu is a paediatric surgeon based out of Sydney. Here she talks about those things that make grown men go weak at the knees.

Craig McBride is a paediatric surgeon at Lady Cilento in Brisbane. Here he talks about how we have moved on from the days of maximally invasive surgery when a barber-surgeon was not judged on the neatness of their sutures but on the sharpness of their blade.