A Lifetime Of Care Mackay Nurse Retires After 46 Years

After 46 years of caring for generations of Mackay patients, Mater Private Hospital Mackay nurse Helena Waddell has retired from a career she describes as her “life’s purpose”. Photo supplied

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After almost five decades spent caring for the Mackay community, beloved Mater nurse Helena Waddell is finally hanging up her scrubs.

From beginning her career as a 17-year-old in a starched white uniform to witnessing the arrival of electronic medical records and robotic surgery, Mrs Waddell has watched healthcare transform throughout her remarkable 46-year career.

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But among the changing technology, night shifts and even the occasional celebrity patient, it is the people she cared for who have stayed with her most.

“My career has been my life’s purpose and one I wouldn’t ever change,” Helena said.

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“Nursing is about leaving a good and lasting impression with every patient. You treat every one of them like a queen or a king. That's how we were taught.”

Helena began nursing in 1977, and her connection to Mater Private Hospital Mackay stretches back even further.

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“The brick of the original building was hand-laid by my very grandfather. I spent most of my life walking those very halls until the old building was demolished to make way for the new hospital in 2003.”

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Over the decades, Helena completed 29 years of night shifts and cared for countless patients, including one whose life she helped save following a cardiac arrest.

“One of my patients had a cardiac arrest on me,” she said.

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“It saved his life. I had him as a patient for 15 years after that and he would always thank me for that extra time.”

She also earned the affectionate title of the hospital's “celebrity nurse”, having cared for a Hollywood actor and, on another occasion, a late country music star.

“We had the privilege of nursing a famous country music star for one shift,” Helena said.

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“She was leaving in a black limousine, and all the Mater staff were standing on the open verandah of the original building at the time, all waving her goodbye.”

Her career also connected generations.

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In her early years, Helena conducted rounds alongside the late Dr Alfred Davidson. Decades later, while working in Mater Mackay's modern theatre department, she discovered she was working alongside his son, gastroenterologist Associate Professor Dr James Daveson.

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“I said to him one day in theatre, 'Oh my gosh, you're related to Dr Daveson senior?'” she said.

“I told him a couple of beautiful stories of his dad. It was emotional and beautiful.”

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Helena went on to help establish Mater Mackay's first pre-operative scope clinic and lived through the enormous technological shift from handwritten patient charts to electronic medical records.

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“I threatened to quit,” she joked.

“I was thrown in the deep end with the new systems, but it was the best thing ever.”

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Fittingly, one final encounter brought her career full circle during her retirement dinner last week.

“I was having dinner with my husband, my daughter and my granddaughter when a man called out to me,” Helena said.

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“He put his two hands up in the air and he clapped. He said, 'Thank you for saving my life... it was your voice that was so reassuring when you nursed me.'”

Mater Private Hospital Mackay General Manager Karen Wade said the hospital had been incredibly fortunate to have Helena caring for the community for so many years.

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“Forty-six years is remarkable, and we are deeply thankful for Helena’s dedication, compassion and unwavering commitment to her patients and their families,” Karen said.

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“Helena dedicated her life to improving the health of her patients and has played a crucial role in helping our community.”

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After a career-spanning generations of Mackay families, it is perhaps that chance encounter at her retirement dinner that best captures the legacy Helena leaves behind — in patients who, decades later, still remember the nurse who cared for them.

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