The Miracle Baby and the Gifted Surgeon
Recently as part of the 2022 Bowel Cancer Awareness Campaign, Channel 10's The Project ran a story lauding the work of a former student.
Dr Jacob McCormick was a student at St Virgil’s 1993-96. He was in the final St Virgil’s Year group to occupy the Barrack Street site. In that year he was captain of the swimming team and also represented SVC in water polo and cricket. He went on to study Medicine at University of Tasmania (1999-2004) and gained Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery – MBBS. He moved to Melbourne and worked in several hospitals where he acquired a specialization in colorectal surgery.
Jacob has been part of the team at Peter MacCallum Clinic since March 2016.
The story detailed an interview of a healthy woman with a healthy one-year-old daughter. But the prospect of that being so was highly unlikely. The woman was five months pregnant, when it was discovered that she had bowel cancer with a tumour the size of a baseball. Worse still – the foetus was pressing up against that part of the bowel where the tumour was located. The challenge was for the surgeon – Dr Jacob McCormick – to endeavour to safely remove the tumour without harming the unborn baby. It was an operation that he had not done before. He was able to move the mother’s womb aside and remove the tumour and then safely reposition the womb. A grateful mother – a skilled surgeon!
