Born: 1929, Australia
Died: NA
Country most active: Australia, International
Also known as: Agnes Grace Warren
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Dr Grace Warren, a surgeon and missionary, challenged conventional wisdom by undertaking research and developing surgical procedures to better understand and treat neuropathic limbs caused by diabetes, leprosy or other nerve-affecting conditions.
Details
Though Warren was drawn to surgery as a student, she was trained in obstetrics, as females were unable to study surgery formally at the time of her medical education in the 1950s. On completion of her three hospital positions, St George, Queen Victoria in Melbourne and Geelong, providing good experience, hands on, in a wide range of medical areas, she completed her Diploma of Tropical Medicine and then took up a position in Korea as locum tenens at a women’s hospital run by the Australian Presbyterian Mission. During her 18 months in Korea she developed a passionate interest in the treatment of sufferers of leprosy. Subsequently, her next locum position was at the Leprosy Hospital in Hong Kong, on the island of Hay Ling Chau. When she commenced there in 1959, the facility lacked a surgeon to staff their newly established reconstructive surgery unit, and so Dr Warren herself was trained in basic surgical procedures by a fellow physician. She was keen to master these skills and so augmented this training by reading all she could in text books. In the same year she hypothesized and then proved that by applying a plaster cast to a neuropathic foot for a prolonged period of time it was possible to heal fractures previously considered treatable only through amputation. Her skills in surgery also soon became apparent, and she rapidly became sought out to instruct doctors and surgeons in surrounding countries.
In 1962 she became a permanent staff member at the Hay Ling Chau Leprosy Hospital where she continued to successfully treat countless cases, all the while documenting her research and development of treatments. In 1972 she submitted this research work to the University of Sydney and was awarded a Master of Surgery. The Hay Ling Chau Leprosy Hospital was closed in 1975, but she continued to teach throughout Asia on behalf of the Leprosy Mission International until early in the 21st centaury. From 1964 this was fulfilled by constant traveling in order to teach all levels of local medical staff to be able to utilise the materials that they had available, to meet the needs of their patients. This proved much more satisfactory in spreading the modern methods of rehabilitation, than the old routine of send the senior medical officer, of the center, to one of the main Leprosy Teaching centers as all staff benefited and we could help them to adapt what they had available to minimise the needs to import materials etc. Hence reduce the financial costs needed to upgrade the leprosy service.
In 1989 she was officially retired from full time overseas service with the Leprosy Mission International, but because of repeat requests to go and help she continued to work overseas for many months each year until 2012, working in a total of 26 countries. In this period of time she acted as consultant and teacher for leprosy clinics in several states of Australia. From 1989 she found that during the intervals when she was in Australia she could share her experiences relevant to any other people with neuropathy, especially diabetic patients and others with foot problems due to loss of sensation or muscle power, eg CMT. This was a period when diabetes was becoming more common and the effects of the neuropathy were just being appreciated.
While still teaching throughout Asia, in order to spread the knowledge of the effective treatment she had pioneered she also took part in seminars, when in Australia, for Australian doctors and surgeons. This work culminated in the publication, with the co-operation of Professor Sydney Nade of The Care of Neuropathic limbs- a Practical Manual in 1999. Dr Warren continued to assist, consult and teach in surgery and Leprosy, in Asia and Australia, into her mid eighties.
Chronology
January 1954
Education – Graduated with MB BS, University of Sydney
1954
Career event – Junior Resident Medical Officer, St George Hospital, Sydney
1955
Career event – Resident medical officer at Queen Victoria Hospital for Women, Melbourne
1956
Career position – Registrar, Geelong Hospital, Victoria
1957
Education – Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, University of Sydney
October 1957 – March 1959
Career position – Locum tenens for the superintendent of the Australian Presbyterian Mission Women’s Hospital, Pusan, South Korea
May 1959 – 1960
Career position – Locum tenens at the Leprosy Hospital on Hay Ling Chau Island, Hong Kong
1960
Career event – Acting Superintendent of Hong Kong Leprosy Hospital
May 1960
Career event – Trip to teach leprosy and rehabilitation surgery in Taiwan
1961
Career position – Medical Superintendent of Hong Kong Leprosarium
1962
Career event – Became a full member of the Leprosy Mission International, working primarily as Superintendent at Hong Kong Leprosarium but also regularly travelling and teaching in other Asian centres.
1972
Education – Master of Surgery for thesis on the healing of neuropathic bones, University of Sydney
1977
Award – Elected Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
1982
Career event – Requested to go to the refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border to advise on case of leprosy patients – resulted in a trip every three months for about nine years to carry out rehabilitation surgery for leprosy and other refugees with deformities and disabilities requiring surgery that was not usually carried out by regular surgeons.
1983
Award – Elected Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of England
1984
Award – Honorary Doctor of Medicine (MD), University of Sydney
1986 – 1987
Career event – Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, with presentation of the professional lecture in early 1987 entitled “The Conservative Management of the Neuropathic Foot”
26 January 1986
Award – Appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
1989
Life event – Official retirement at the end of the year from the Leprosy Mission International, with arrangement to continue to travel as their representative as requested by field institutions.
1999
Publication – Book: The care of neuropathic limbs: a practical manual, written with Professor Sydney Nade
1999
Award – Inaugural Sir Edward Hughes Award of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
2005
Career event – Delivered the Weary Dunlop Memorial Lecture, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
2005
Award – Awarded the Star of Pakistan for Humanitarian Services in Pakistan, namely reaching and carrying out leprosy medicine for a period of over 37 years. Warren received the award in 2006 as she had been unable to travel to Pakistan in 2005.
2006
Publication – Autobiography: Doctor No. 49, written with Leslie Hicks