Meet Dr Giselle Kidson-Gerber, a haematologist with a passion for helping patients with blood disorders. With over 20 years of experience, she has a special interest in thalassemia and sickle cell disease, both of which are inherited disorders. Her work at Prince of Wales Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital is both rewarding and challenging, and she is dedicated to providing the best possible care to her patients. In this blog post, she shares some of her favourite memories from her career and explains why she loves her job so much.
What’s your name and your role here at Prince of Wales Hospital?
My name is Giselle Kidson-Gerber and I’m a haematologist. That means I’m a blood specialist and I work here at Prince of Wales Hospital. Also work at the Royal Womens Hospital, and I look after patients with blood disorders.
I have special interests. One of my special interests is caring for patients with haemoglobinopathies. Now, that’s a big word, and that covers patients with thalassemia or sickle cell disease, which are inherited disorders. So these patients are often diagnosed as children.
I usually see them as they leave high school and I look after them for the rest of their lives.
Other interest is obstetric haematology, so that’s blood disorders that occur in pregnancy. It’s a whole range of different things that could be. I really love that.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
There are so many things I love about my role, but it’s hard to know where to start. I mean, I love looking after patients, so I think and I love interesting problems and trying to help people.
I think in haematology, when I started probably 20 or so years ago, all these new things were happening and there were all these new changes that were so amazing – changing people’s lives – that really drew me in. And that’s across a whole range of different blood disorders.
And I think I’m still captivated by the new developments and the way how people’s lives are changing, and I also like caring for people who for a long time, like the thalassemia patients through their whole lives.
I also like caring for people, when it’s really hard sometimes. Some of the cancers are particularly tough.
Do you have a favourite memory at the hospital or with a patient you’d like to share?
I think some of my favourite memories are women who have had really complicated
pregnancies. So whether that was having lymphoma or the cancer, they have had to have chemotherapy during pregnancy and then seeing them afterwards and seeing their babies grow up.
I also love caring for my thalassemia patients who I often meet when they’re 17, 18 years old, and then I’m still caring for them in their late twenties, early thirties. And then I meet their husbands and then they have a child.
And that pregnancy is obviously stressful for them and for me to have to look after them carefully. But it’s just so lovely. And then a few years later they come back to clinic and their little child’s now walking or talking. And that’s really lovely, I think that’s just that sharing life and helping them get through as healthy as possible. I think they’re my favourite memories.
And finally, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Well, there’s so many things I like to do that’s out of work. I love spending time with my family, I like being outside, going on hikes and bike riding, I play netball and tennis every week. I love to read and I love to go to live shows as well, so it’s pretty busy.
Dr Giselle Kidson-Gerber is currently a Haematologist at Prince of Wales Hospital working with several patients who have blood disorders and works at the Royal Women’s Hospital in obstetric haematology.
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