Dinesh Palipana on finding his life's purpose

So here’s our second amazing episode in series 3 of Streets of Your Town podcast! I hope you’ll agree with me that Dinesh Palipana, is an absolute gem of a human being, and I hope you get as much out of listening to his story as I did out of putting this interview together.

Dr. Dinesh Palipana’s refusal to accept the loss of his dream is paving the way not only for him, but for people with a disability around the world to also achieve theirs.

Ten years ago, halfway through completing his medical degree, Dinesh’s car crashed on the Gateway Motorway, leaving him a quadriplegic.

Dinesh lost all sensory and motor function below his chest, affecting his fingers and half his arm. It took him seven months of recovering in the Princess Alexandra Hospital, but he emerged still determined to become a doctor.

He went on to complete his medical degree, and now works as a resident at Gold Coast University Hospital in one of the busiest emergency departments in the country.

Dinesh received an Order of Australia medal for service to medicine in 2018, and has just given evidence to the Disability Royal Commission about the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities, something he saw first-hand in his role as an emergency ward doctor.

Dinesh tells me on this episode of Streets of Your Town podcast from his Gold Coast home, how he found his life’s purpose in medicine, and that he’s so relieved he didn’t listen to the naysayers who told him he could no longer become a doctor after his accident.

“To be here 10 years later (after the accident), talking to you and playing a part in the Disability Royal Commission and working as a doctor and doing the research, I’m so damn lucky,” Dinesh says.

“It was hard. It was hard. I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling.

“I spent a lot of time staring into the ocean.

“I spent a lot of time reflecting on life.

“But at one point though, I made a decision that I just wanted this to mean something, and I wanted to come out of it better.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s inclusivity or whatever, but if you believe in it, please stand up and make a change.”

Dinesh was the Gold Coast University Hospital’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018.

In the podcast he reflects on how he found the strength to be able to persist and achieve his dream.

“I think one of the interesting twists of fortune in this whole story is when I was studying law, I went through a significant period of depression and anxiety and panic disorder, and also agoraphobia, where I was afraid to go outside the house for a while. That was actually really, really bad,” he says.

“I always like to say that I was a prisoner of my mind then.

“This point is really important, and it should tell us how debilitating mental health disorders are. Because I felt more debilitated then, and I was more debilitated then, than I ever was after the spinal cord injury.

“But it was actually that journey that led me into medicine in the first place.

“I think the strength I was able to build from there, or at least the experience, helped me paddle through those dark waters after the spinal cord injury as well.”

Through the group he helped found, Doctors with Disabilities Australia, Dinesh supported some of his Indian peers in an Indian high court case last year, challenging the Medical Council of India’s decisions around medical education and disabilities.

Arguing that case was a great use of his legal skills from his QUT law degree which he gained before starting his medical studies.

He also is actively involved in Covid-19 research, and spinal cord research and teaches interns and students at Griffith University.

“There is a really exciting project happening with the emergency department and COVID-19 that I’m an investigator of, and we’ll be looking at some interesting things there more from a medical and physiological perspective,” he says.

“I also have a mentor who is a very well-regarded and renowned spinal cord researcher from the Harvard University, where I was a visiting student for a period of time. So even just having him and everything else, it’s almost like fate.

“Medicine’s obviously something I will always keep doing. Clinical medicine because I love it.

“The big dream stuff is the spinal cord injury research that we’re doing. I am hoping that I will be able to stand again one day. That’s the big, big blue sky stuff that we’re doing at the moment.”

He hopes his story inspires everyone to think about the universe a little differently, and to give people a shot.

“I think medicine is my purpose, because it’s something that just resonates with me. I love what we get to do every day,” he says.

“The other day I was at work and I was roaming around. I was just thinking, ‘I can’t believe that this is what I do for a living.’ It’s amazing.

“You have to look at the opportunities that you have. One of the philosophies that I try to take through in my life is gratitude. Every morning I wake up and before I open my eyes, I try to think about a few things that I’m grateful for. When you look at life in that way, I realise that I’m in a very fortunate position where I can hopefully make a difference and make an impact on something that will help our community.

“The most important thing I want to say is that we all have this amazing power and potential within us. I read this book a while ago, called The Diamond Cutter, and it was talking about how a diamond is actually a pretty ugly rock when you get it out of the ground. It’s full of dirt and it’s not a nice shape and the light doesn’t shine through it, but you can turn it into whatever you want.

“I think, if we all find our passion and if we all start to see the world differently, we have the choice to shape the way we see the world like a diamond.

“If we all spend a lifetime giving back and giving to each other, I think we have the potential to create this amazing, amazing world. I would love to see that.”

Behind the Scenes

This week’s podcast with Dinesh comes to you from his Gold Coast apartment—as you can see in the photo The Wandering Journo can still do face to face interviews with a bit of social distancing! Thanks to all of my paid subscribers for filling up Mildred the cantankerous kombi’s petrol tank and enabling me to bring this great face to face quality interview to you.

You can also listen to this latest podcast episode through your podcast provider if you prefer, by searching for “Streets of Your Town podcast” on iTunes, Spotify, google play or whatever is your podcast player of choice.

Otherwise you can go to the Journo Project Press Freedom Facebook page and share that with your friends after you’ve had a listen to the podcast through the link there.

Other podcasts I’m producing

It’s been a big month for The Wandering Journo!

Thank you to so many of you who have asked how my brother Ashley is going. Well, he’s amazing. He’s had the hip replacement operation and he’s now back home in his “brand new red house” with the brand new red scooter as you can see here in the photo.

And as well as my Disability Royal Commission advocacy work I’ve been producing podcasts for the amazing Gender Equality Research Network!

Here are the two episodes just released for their podcast—called The Gender Card. Fascinating research and insights into how the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting on women around the world, particularly in the realms of increased domestic violence, and job security.

What I’m reading

This forensically researched piece busts open many of the myths about racism and sport in Australia, and is a moving read. Great to see it result in change too—with ripples finally coming decades after the events took place. That’s what great journalism does—it highlights issues that people would rather keep under covers, and brings them out to the light for positive change.

"The Collingwood cheer squad, and a large proportion of the Victoria Park crowd, [were] baiting and abusing in the lowest manner that wayward but undoubtedly talented player Robert Muir. That was maddening: victimisation of the most despicable kind.

"Even when the match was over, the cheer squad did not give up. It stood outside the St Kilda players' race abusing Muir. If only they could have seen themselves, like hyenas round a cornered prey. One wished for a firehose to be turned on them."

The persecution of Robert Muir is the story football doesn't want to hear —ABC News

Upcoming tease

The Journo Project book is progressing well featuring the more than two dozen journos who I interviewed exclusively for series 2 of Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project.

This project features Australia’s leading journos and will put them all into an e-book that can be used for budding and experienced reporters alike for guidance on how to do this country’s best reporting.

Would you like a copy too? Then you can join these fabulous people who I want to give a big THANK YOU shout out to for supporting the work of this Wandering Journo!

Big shout out to more continuing paid sponsors who renewed this month! I couldn’t do this podcast without your support. You’ll be getting a personal thank you in the mail soon too for all your positive vibes!

Rachel Tyson
Jan Nary
Jane Lindsay
Mark Pearson
Tim Noonan
Maureen Mopio-Jane

Keep an eye out for your renewal if you were a paid subscriber to The Journo Project last year, as that will be on it’s way soon. And please let me know by reply email to this newsletter if you’re no longer in a position to be a paid subscriber and I’ll work out all the other details for you. Really appreciate all of your support—for however long that is possible!

In this time of isolation and social distancing, I hope you can help make the world a smaller place as part of The Wandering Journo tribe and share this email and of course my Streets of Your Town podcast featuring Dinesh with your friends.

And if you’re on instagram tag #streetsofyourtownpodcast and #thewanderingjourno to show me where you’re listening to the podcast!

Thanks for making this all possible!

Talk soon! And stay safe my beautiful Wandering Journo tribe!

Nance