Dr Bruce Powell was Australia’s longest-serving State Director of Organ and Tissue Donation, a highly experienced Anaesthetist, and Head of Department in Intensive Care Unit at Rockingham Hospital, Western Australia.
In 2018, Bruce’s medical career was ended by a terrible cycling accident. Luck was with him that day and despite his multiple injuries, he survived. Major brain trauma, along with shattered chest, hands, spine and jaw, has ended his working life and remains a daily challenge.
“Despite everything, the daily struggles to find a new normal, I still feel that I’m lucky, because I survived to have another go at living.”
Bruce feels that he has been gifted precious time to explore a broad range of exciting, stimulating topics. Nothing is ever easy after a brain injury. Each article you might enjoy or be inspired by, may have taken days or weeks to complete. Each episode of the upcoming podcast, that you might enjoy on your way to work, or perhaps dog-walking, is a day-ending mental effort for him.
It is never easy, not for any of us, but that’s the point isn’t it? Each of us has our own battles and it’s good to hear that others understand and are winning too.
Bruce offers insight and inspiration, #startingaconversation around topics including leadership, resilience and uncertainty. Through his experiences leading Health Services, Departments and in the military, Bruce shares ideas about how to endure and excel.
Bruce remains committed to advocating for the life-saving gift of organ donation, and now fulfils ambassadorial roles for mental health and brain injuries.
Thanks to the dramatic, untimely ending of his medical career, he has a unique opportunity to rediscover himself, and commit to a new challenge, striving to better understand the world we all live in.
“Through knowledge we each gain control of our lives, empowering us to explore and prosper.“
Dr Bruce Powell 