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Greenslopes Team Is Meteorologist’s Ray Of Sunshine

Jun 03, 2020

Former TV weatherman Ray Wilkie has returned to Greenslopes Private Hospital to personally thank the medical team who cared for him.

Mr Wilkie, who is 95 years old, underwent a series of surgeries to correct a bowel condition.

“I’m singing the praise of those professional specialists and for the hospital staff who put up with me off and on for four months,” Mr Wilkie said. 

After being treated for a painful intestinal condition, Mr Wilkie’s colorectal surgeon, Dr Bradley Morris, could not operate because of the condition the patient’s heart.

“It’s a condition that is prone to recurrence and with the status of Mr Wilkie’s heart, we had to get him in a condition where he was fit for an operation,” Dr Morris said.

“He was as animated as he still is, it was only his heart that was letting him down.”

Cardiologist Dr Karl Poon and cardiac surgeon Dr Christopher Smith replaced Mr Wilkie’s heart valve using breakthrough keyhole surgery called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI).

“The procedure allowed him to recover quickly so that he could have gut surgery,” Dr Poon said.

Internal medicine physician Dr Adam Mair, cardiologist Dr Vincent Deen and anaesthetist Dr Mark Lai were also part of the life-saving team.

Mr Wilkie was a much-loved weather presenter on Channel 10 in the 1980s and 90s and was previously the Queensland Regional Director of the Bureau of Meteorology for more than 10 years in the 1970s and 1980s.

The meteorologist wrote a letter of thanks to the Greenslopes Private Hospital team and returned there to present his specialists with copies of his book, ‘Ray Wilkie’s Australian Weather’.