Alan Kerr (doctor)

Alan Ronald Kerr CNZM (born 1934/1935) is a New Zealand cardiac surgeon who, after his career at Green Lane Hospital, spent almost twenty years volunteering in Palestine where he operated on paediatric heart patients and trained Palestinian surgeons.

Career

Kerr graduated from the University of Otago with a degree in medicine in 1957.[1] After three years at Wellington Hospital he moved to work at Green Lane Hospital in 1961 as a research fellow in the Surgical Development Laboratory where he researched blood flow in the bronchial arteries and in bypass procedures.[1] He then became a registrar working at Green Lane, Auckland and Middlemore Hospitals.[1] In 1967 he went to Alabama to work in the University of Alabama Medical Center under Dr John Kirklin.[1] He returned to a surgical position at Green Lane in 1969.[1] He worked in the cardio-thoracic surgical team with Brian Barratt-Boyes and was one of the surgeons who performed the first heart-lung bypass operation at Green Lane in 1958.[1][2]

Staff from Green Lane hosted and trained doctors from overseas and visited foreign hospitals[1][2] In 1981 Kerr visited hospitals in New Delhi and Madras (now Chennai) doing cardiopulmonary bypass operations and delivering training in cardiac surgery.[1]

A special supplement of the New Zealand Medical Journal, published in 2001, honoured the work of Kerr and five other cardiology and cardiothoracic consultants: Trevor Agnew, Pat Clarkson, John Mercer, John Neutze, and Toby Whitlock.[3]

Work in Palestine

In 2001 Kerr joined the Palestine Children's Relief Fund volunteering his services as a paediatric cardiac surgeon.[4][5] Between 2001 and 2018 he made over 40 trips to the West Bank and Gaza working in Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah and Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza.[4][5][6] He was accompanied by teams from Green Lane and Auckland's Starship Hospital.[7] As well as doing surgery he trained other surgeons and developed the paediatric surgery programme at Makassed.[4][6] The teams saved the lives of 800 children.[7] In 2006 they set up a charity Health Services for Palestinian Children to raise money to send medical teams to Palestine.[7]

In 2007 film maker Paula Whetu Jones commenced filming Kerr and his wife Hazel on their trips to Palestine.[8] While Kerr was working Hazel worked with children in refugee camps and at a school for deaf children teaching art and drama.[5][9][7] The film The Doctor's Wife was released in 2025.[8]

Honours and awards

Kerr was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to cardiothoracic surgery, in the 1997 New Year Honours.[10] He received the Palestine Medal of Honor in 2011 from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.[7] In 2026 Kerr and his wife Hazel received the Senior New Zealanders of the Year award.[7][11]

Selected works

  • Wong, Sharon H.; Finucane, Kirsten; Kerr, Alan R.; O’Donnell, Clare; West, Teena; Gentles, Thomas L. (2008). "Cardiac Outcome up to 15 Years After the Arterial Switch Operation". Heart, Lung and Circulation. 17 (1): 48–53. doi:10.1016/j.hlc.2007.06.523. PMID 17669687.
  • Armishaw J, Gentles TL, Calder AL, Raudkivi PJ, Kerr AR. Transposition of the great arteries: operative outcome in the current era. N Z Med J. 2000 Nov 10;113(1121):456-9. PMID: 11194751.
  • Ruygrok PN, Barratt-Boyes BG, Agnew TM, Coverdale HA, Kerr AR, Whitlock RM. Aortic valve replacement in the elderly. J Heart Valve Dis. 1993 Sep;2(5):550-7. PMID: 8269166.
  • Kerr AR, Roche AH, Rutherford JD, Graham KJ. Coronary artery surgery. N Z Med J. 1984 Apr 25;97(754):274. PMID: 6587217.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Roche, Edward H.; Roche, Anthony H.G. (1983). Green Lane Saga. Auckland: Ray Richards. pp. 116, 176–177, 211. ISBN 0908596189. OCLC 11218575.
  2. ^ a b Yee, Sonia (1 December 2020). ""I was a blue baby" - New Zealand's first open heart surgery". RNZ. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  3. ^ "Green Lane Supplement". New Zealand Medical Journal. 114 (1141): S1–S19. 12 October 2001.
  4. ^ a b c "New Zealand Surgeon Has Saved Nearly 1,000 Palestinian Lives". PCRF. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  5. ^ a b c Marsters, Catherine (15 December 2007). "Alan Kerr: frontline surgeon". New Zealand Herald. ProQuest 430176179. Retrieved 3 October 2025 – via Proquest.
  6. ^ a b Morrah, Michael (16 November 2023). "Retired surgeon Alan Kerr, who operated on children and babies in Gaza, says what young people there are facing is 'outright cruelty'". www.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Manson, Bess (21 March 2026). "The retirement that saved 800 lives: meet the Senior New Zealanders of the Year". www.thepost.co.nz. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b "The heart surgeon, his wife and the film maker: Paula Whetu Jones". RNZ. 9 May 2025. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  9. ^ Hebenton, Rebekah (8 August 2025). "Dr Alan Kerr and his wife Hazel's brave fight for Palestinian children". Now to Love - New Zealand. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  10. ^ "New Year Honours List 1997". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 1996. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  11. ^ "Senior NZers of the Year". RNZ. 21 March 2026. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
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