I subsequently became much closer because, in the same year, I was appointed intern to John Connell, who Sir Laurence Muir has mentioned. John Connell was one of the elite general surgeons of St Vincent's in that period and he was a great supporter of Bernard. His [Microsurgery] Unit linked with the Plastic [surgery] Unit.[22] Allan MacLeod[23] was the registrar to that unit and I was the first year intern. So I met Allan and I must say I was inspired absolutely by Allan MacLeod because the mentors of residents of any period are the next person up the rank, the registrars. Good or bad, they are a major influence on your subsequent experience.

Allan was like Bernard, and a huge enthusiast. He was extremely supportive of me, as Bernard was. And, of course, he soon dropped the word on Bernard that there was a kid out there who might be sucker enough to be part of this exercise. And so that's how it went on and I then became a resident with the Plastics Unit and with Bernard.

My recollections of Bernard as an individual have already been outlined. He had a great sense of humour, and so did Allan. So it was a fun time and a good experience to be part of this, and everyone was full of enthusiasm. Bernard's optimism and drive was just so charismatic and consuming that you felt that unless you performed to the same standard, you’d be letting the team down. So I really did feel obligated to go the extra mile and I think he appreciated anyone who did that. And people around this table all went through that whole thing, and became mates of Bernard because they were responsive to his beck and call. But he admired in them the talent that he saw and he was very generous to people he thought were talented and who would make the effort.

Figure 6

Wayne Morrison (L) with Institute legal advisor, Barry O’Callaghan. Used with the permission of the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery.

There are many other things you can say about Bernard, and they'll come out today. But they were my early experiences. He was known as 'The Champ’ by everybody – 'champ’ as in champion. I think there are varied descriptions of how that came about. My understanding was that at Newman College when he was doing medicine – he did science first before he did medicine which perhaps many people don’t appreciate, so he did have a scientific background more than any of us of that period in medicine – he was a champion schoolboy athlete, I believe, in running and hurdles in particular. But when it came to the University, I think the inter-varsity sports had the Australian National Championship there. So Bernard, as in all his life, was opportunistic and, needing to win, he sometimes had to go around things rather than through them, although going through didn’t discourage Bernard either. He heard about this relatively new sport called pole-vaulting which had been admitted to the University inter-varsity competition. So Bernard was seen night and day running around the University oval with this great long pole about ten times the length of Bernard. (Laughter) Apparently it was a rather common sight. But inevitably he conquered and became the champ.[24] He got a Uni Blue[25] in athletics for pole-vaulting and, forever after, was known as 'The Champ’, which he didn’t take as an insult. He actually wore the badge with pride. (Laughter)

Ann Westmore: Going back to your comments about hand surgery, Wayne. Does it lend itself particularly to microsurgery?

Wayne Morrison: Hand surgery was very much the birthplace of modern microvascular surgery, the joining of blood vessels. Microsurgery had been well established in ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat surgery. But in our field, reconstruction was microvascular surgery and the kindergarten training program, in a sense, was replantation stitching – putting things back on. That's what Bernard did. He established here as a research core the techniques of joining up small blood vessels. And he, with a chap named Shannon Bailey, I think, published in the very early years of microsurgery the best patency rates of joining up blood vessels in the world. This is invaluable in laboratory research cases.

Microsurgery also had begun in the micro-nerve field, joining up nerves. Again this was part of hand surgery, so it was hand surgery that was the first place [where microsurgery developed]. And Bernard had trained, uniquely in Australia probably, in hand surgery by the time he'd come back here so he was very well placed to take that on. And as Joan [O’Brien] has said, he was with Bill Littler who was the most famous hand surgeon in the world in that period.

Bernard also was opportunistic in his training in that he went to Russia before he came home I believe, Joan. It was a unique thing for an Australian surgeon to do. I'm not sure what he did in Russia but he made many contacts throughout the world. And of course he was a great traveler and a great communicator, so everybody knew Bernard from the field very early on. That’s what attracted people to Australia to come for training.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine