Last Update: 30/01/2013 17:48
Peter Packer OAM
Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgeon
1926 - 2012
Peter Packer was born in Capetown, South Africa in 1926 the son
of Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, Royal Navy, and Joy nee Petersen, a
widely published author. He was brought up in South Africa, several
Royal Navy Stations and the United Kingdom. He trained in the Fleet
Air Arm from 1944 to 1946. This took him to the UK and the
USA. Like many of his generation the war delayed his tertiary
education. Initially considering engineering he decided on medicine
as a career, subsequently specialising in Ear Nose and Throat
Surgery. He trained in South Africa and the United
Kingdom.
Peter married in 1949; he and his wife Glenda had four sons. He
and his family decided to migrate to Western Australia in 1961, as
he was unsympathetic with the apartheid regime and anticipated
increasing unrest in South Africa. This was a difficult decision as
he had already established a successful surgical practice in
Capetown.
Once settled in Perth he rapidly established his reputation as
an excellent surgeon. One of his early surgical achievements was
the first successful stapedectomy in Western Australia, having also
done so in South Africa. Whilst given a special license to practice
as an ENT surgeon he was required to requalify with an Australian
degree and ironically was attending ward rounds as a medical
student whilst practising as an ENT surgeon at Royal Perth
Hospital. The University of Western Australia awarded him his MB BS
in 1961. Although not obliged to do so he also re-certified with
Australian surgical qualifications as an ENT surgeon. This required
sitting both primary and second part examinations. He was awarded
his FRACS in 1964.
As well as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of
Surgeons, he was a member of the Australian Society Otolaryngology
and Head and Neck Surgery and its otologic sub-section, the Toynbee
Society.
Although initially working as an ENT surgeon he sub-specialised
as an otologist in the late1960s. He was a Western Australian
pioneer in all the major contemporary advances in otology during
the course of his working life. He was a natural leader and
collaborated with other ENT surgeons performing the first
trans-labyrinthine removal of an acoustic neuroma as well as
undertaking the first cochlear implant in Western Australia.
He worked as a consultant surgeon at Royal Perth Hospital for 32
years, much of the time as Head of the ENT Surgery Department. Upon
his retirement in 1994 he was made an emeritus consultant at the
hospital. In recognition for his work in medicine he was honoured
with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2003.
He was active in establishing the Ear Nose and Throat Foundation
of Western Australia; funds from which continue to assist training
ENT surgeons in ear surgery techniques. Although not an academic he
had an extremely enquiring and incisive mind. He collaborated with
other surgeons and published as the senior author on the management
of chronic suppurative otitis media and otosclerosis.
In parallel with his public practice he conducted a highly
successful private practice. By nature forward thinking he, again
in collaboration with another ENT surgeon, established one of the
first private day surgeries in Australia in 1987.
He was highly respected by his peers and juniors alike. He had
many outstanding personal attributes that are perhaps best summed
up in the ideal of 'a gentleman'. He was generous with his time as
a medical teacher and is responsible for training many ENT surgeons
in otology in Western Australia.
Outside of medicine he was a highly competitive yachtsman
winning many of the major offshore yachting races in WA. His
highest and proudest achievement as a sailor was winning the Sydney
Hobart in 1975.
With his wife, Glenda, he was a dedicated family man. His four
sons and many grandchildren survive him.
Stuart Miller FRACS