Dinesh Palipana, the author of Stronger, was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, and the second person to graduate medical school with quadriplegia in Australia. Dinesh earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), prior to completing his Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the Griffith University. He has completed an Advanced Clerkship in Radiology at the Harvard University. Dinesh is currently a resident medical officer at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
Dinesh is a lecturer at the Griffith University and adjunct research fellow at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland. He has research interests in spinal cord injury, particularly with novel rehabilitation techniques. He is the Gold Coast University Hospital’s representative in the Australian Medical Association Queensland’s Council of Doctors in Training. Dinesh is a member of the scientific advisory committee of the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation, disability advisory council at Griffith University, and the Ambassador Council at the Hopkins Centre. He is an ambassador for Physical Disability Australia. He is a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team.
Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi Achievement Award. Dinesh Palipana is the 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year.
TBE: In your book, you describe that fateful drive home from your parents’ place when your accident occurred, mentioning that the last thing you did while standing was hugging your mom. How has that final standing moment shaped your perspective on the seemingly mundane moments we often take for granted?
Dinesh Palipana: I have learned that in life, it is easy to mistake what the ‘big’ things are. We get caught up in materialism, social status, and other trappings of a modern society. But, the ‘big’ things are actually the little things.
It’s the hug, the sand beneath the toes, the snowflake on the face. The simple moments that connect us with the purity of life—they matter the most. They are the big things. A spinal cord injury taught me that. I have no regrets, but have lost some of those things. Yet, I am glad that I made the most of them while I had them.
There have been times when I have been with patients who are at the end of their journey with life. Most often, it is not about the amount of things that they have collected, or their job title. It’s about the desire to play with their grandchild one last time, or to feel the breeze of the ocean, for example.
TBE: You describe your time in Sri Lanka after your injury as transformative, mentioning that it “healed your soul.” What specific aspects of that period do you feel were most crucial to your emotional recovery, beyond the physical rehabilitation?
Dinesh Palipana: In Ryan Holiday’s book, Stillness is the Key, he mentions that we must be thrust into the wilderness sometimes, where we experience solitude, deprivation, reflection, and meditation. Similarly, Robert Greene said, “Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.”
There was a long period of time, where I was alone, reflecting on life. That help me think about a way forward. I also read a lot of books, which allowed me to reinvent myself. The initial time in Sri Lanka was my wilderness, a prison.
But, later, I made friends who have been an important part in helping me come back out into the world. They encouraged me, nurtured me, and pushed me, to then come back out into the world.
TBE: You write about experiencing both depression and physical paralysis, making the striking observation that “depression paralysed me more than the spinal cord injury ever has.” Could you elaborate on how these two different forms of “paralysis” have taught you different lessons?
Dinesh Palipana: This spinal cord injury has been hard. The physical paralysis was incredibly difficult to come to terms with. However, since the injury, I have been fortunate enough to live a good life. I have no regrets. I have had the opportunity to do more than I ever have after the spinal cord injury them before.
When I had depression though, I was so isolated. There were times when I was too afraid to leave the house. I struggled with university, work, and relationships. And I think the depression truly paralysed me.
I realised that as long as we have our soul, we can do anything. We can be happy. We can feel the world. Depression affected the soul. The spinal cord injury has allowed it to stretch and grow.
TBE: Throughout your book, you reference stoic philosophy and thinkers like Marcus Aurelius. How did you discover stoicism, and how has it specifically helped you navigate the challenges you’ve faced?
Dinesh Palipana: I read a lot of books after the injury. Some of the key authors who were transformative included Ryan Holiday and Jonas Salzgeber. I was also taught Buddhist as a kid, which has a lot of parallels with stroicism.
These are philosophies that have helped me make sense of life. I think, as with many things in this world, there is no one size fits all for everyone. We all make sense of the world in different ways. These philosophies made sense to me.
Since then, they have helped me move forward with life.
TBE: You mention adopting an “athlete’s mindset” toward your medical training after your injury. What specific routines or mental frameworks from that approach have been most valuable to your success?
Dinesh Palipana: I have a friend, Dr. Dean McCoombe who suggested that I think of life as an athlete when I came back to medical school. He is a radiologist today and one of the smartest people I know.
I learned to be disciplined, to forgo quick pleasures for the long-term gain. I didn’t party. And I didn’t drink alcohol. I didn’t socialise much, if at all.
I worked on making myself a tiny bit better every day, even one percent. Every single thing in my life was designed to help me succeed. At home, there was a system in place to even take care of the laundry, so I could maximise the time studying. This was especially important, because everything took longer with the spinal cord injury.
That approach helped me work towards success.
TBE: In the chapter about your medical school return, you describe the contrast between supportive mentors and those who actively undermined you. How do you now approach mentoring others who face significant barriers in their professional journeys?
Dinesh Palipana: The emergency physician, Dr. Cliff Reid, once made a definition of heroes. Dr. Reid said, “Heroes do the right thing in difficult circumstances, often weathering personal risk to help others with no expectation of personal gain. They are guided by a strong moral compass and persist despite setbacks, often overcoming fear to achieve a goal, accepting the consequences of their actions.”
I was lucky enough to have people who were heroes, that helped me despite risks to them with no expectation of gain. I’m lucky to have had them in my life. In the people that I come across, I try to honour those who helped me by doing it for others.
I also often share the idea that we only get one shot at life, where we should not live with regrets. We certainly should reduce the chances of dying with regrets. The people who try to stop us will not be there at the end of our life, when we take stock of it. Why should we give them the luxury of giving us regret? So, we must at least try.
TBE: Your BioSpine research represents both personal hope and professional passion. How do you balance the emotional investment of potentially walking again with the scientific rigor required in your research?
Dinesh Palipana: No one has ever asked this question before, so it is an excellent question.
Regardless of the emotional investment, the science will speak for itself. Science is emotionless. It is what it is. It will not bend to our emotion. What’s more, good science is peer-reviewed. If we are not rigorous in what we do, the scientific community will hold us accountable.
We all must dream to shape the world into a better place through science, but those dreams are contingent on doing the science right—there is no choice
TBE: You’ve written beautifully about the changing relationship with your own body after your injury. Now that you’re both a patient and a doctor, how has this dual perspective influenced your approach to patient care in the emergency department?
Dinesh Palipana: I love going to the hospital as a doctor, but I hate going to a hospital as a patient. Being a patient was so disempowering. At times, it was terrifying. At times, it was dehumanising.
The memory of those times being a patient reminds me of what is the person in front of me is going through when I am working as a doctor. And so, I try to make sure that they do an experience the same things I did.
One of the late doctors from our emergency department, Dr. Leo Marneros, is said to have loved the saying that people may not remember what we do for them, but they will always remember how we make them feel. Leading on from that, Plato said that “The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated.”
Lastly, Gandhi said to have noted, “A Customer is not an interruption to our work—he or she is the purpose of it. We are not doing them a favour by serving them—they are doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do it.”
I think that these ideas fit into medicine beautifully. The patient is the purpose of our work, and we must make sure that their soul is taken care of as we heal the body. That is what I learnt in my journey as a patient.
TBE: The butterfly effect is a theme throughout your book – how small moments can create massive change. Looking forward, what butterfly effect do you hope your story and work might create in medicine, disability advocacy, or society more broadly?
Dinesh Palipana: I am the product of the love of many, especially my mother, who helped me get here today. I hope that their legacy continues in me, where I can leave this world a bit better than I found it.
If this entire journey can leave one life better, then I think the whole journey has been worthwhile.
