Long time Victoria emergency physician Dr. Dennis McElgunn passed away earlier this year while still an active emergency medicine physician in his 45th year of providing exemplary emergency medical care. Dr. McElgunn was a loved and respected leader in Canadian emergency medicine. He began his emergency medicine career in 1975 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. At that time emergency shifts were covered by general practitioners. In this way, Dr. McElgunn was one of Canada's first Emergency Medicine specialists.
Having successfully written the Royal College examination in emergency medicine in 1985, Dr. McElgunn had a storied 21-year career of full-time emergency medicine at the “Royal Alex". During his time there he was involved in the 1987 tornado disaster and played a heroic role when an airplane crashed into the hospital tower in 1981. He climbed into the crashed plane to administer care to the trapped pilot! Dennis moved to Victoria with his two sons and wife Linda in 1996 where he would continue his more than full-time career for another 24 years.
To honour Dr. McElgunn and preserve his memory, the Victoria Emergency Physicians Associates and UBC Department of Emergency Medicine have launched the Dennis McElgunn Memorial Fund.
This fund will support residents following in Dr. McElgunn's footsteps. These residents will collect representative examples of interesting and varied cases from the Victoria emergency departments then present them at the “McElgunn Rounds" to highlight the fascinating breadth and humanity of emergency medicine. The residents will receive a monetary award to help them pursue their clinical training.
The goal is to raise $50,000 to make this happen. The Victoria Emergency Physicians Associates have already raised more than $20,000. To donate and learn more about Dr. McElgunn visit the UBC In Memoriam webpage.