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Clive Cameron’s face was the first thing a school’s-worth of children ever saw.
He pumped out chest compressions for stalled hearts. He worried over patients’ mystery symptoms for a nameless disease, later called Aids.
When people fromWaikanae had terminal illnesses, he helped them make sense of their dying.
On Monday, Clive Cameron woke up, finally, with nothing more pressing to do than go for a walk.
Smalltown New Zealand has lost another fulltime general practice doctor, from the generation who did everything, with Cameron’s retirement after 35 years in the Kapiti town, north of Wellington.
Cameron is slightly built and quietly spoken: during this interview, his manner is so calming it screams for a patient. He is the strongest gentle man you could meet.
His transition from fulltime doctor at theWaikanae Health Centre to retiree, including finding his replacement, was several years in the planning.
Some patients had been with him since 1981.
For the first 15 or so years of his GP life his duties included low-risk deliveries at the maternity unit in Paraparaumu.
There’s modesty, then there’s Dr Cameron. How many Kapiti Coast babies did he help deliver over the years?
‘‘The most I delivered in a year was about 35, so not a lot ... not a huge number: Perhaps two or three hundred.’’
Also, when he started, the nearest ambulance was about 40 kilometres away in Porirua so four doctors were on call for Kapiti emergencies.
‘‘A weekend was a pretty big mental hurdle to get through in a way, knowing you were on at night.’’
In an emergency he would get a call from the ambulance, or the patient, or their partner if they had collapsed, then race out to help.