Dinesh Palipana

One of Dinesh Palipana’s strongest memories of childhood is one of horror. He was on his mother’s lap in the front seat of the family car when they passed through a scene of war on the side of the road, part of the long and bloody conflict between the Tamil and Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. 

When you speak to Dinesh of where he is now, on the Gold Coast, this is where his mind goes — to the contrast. 

“Having come here from a war zone, to contribute to a city with so much promise and willingness to push the limits is like a dream.” 

Pushing the limits is a theme for the Gold Coast, and for one of its most exceptional residents. Like most Gold Coasters, Dinesh grew up elsewhere: Sri Lanka, Sydney, Byron Bay and Brisbane, where he entered law school in 2003.  

The law didn’t seem to suit him, and he fell into a major depression. Luckily, he met good doctors. “I became a functioning human being again,” he writes in his memoir, Stronger. “What’s more, my grey world started to change. I saw colours again. I tasted the food. The music sounded melodic. The sun, oh, the sun – it felt so good on my skin.” 

This transformation so inspired him that he decided to study medicine after his law degree, to help people the way doctors had helped him. It wasn’t easy, without a background in science, but Dinesh studied relentlessly, passed the entrance exams, and moved to the Gold Coast to study medicine at Griffith University in 2008. 

He fell into a typically wonderful student life on the Gold Coast, a mixture of hard work, good food, and fun. One Sunday night, after a relaxing weekend with his family in Brisbane, he hugged his mum and got into his Nissan X-Trail for the drive home. Along the way, he hit an oil slick and lost control of the car.  

“To this day,” Dinesh writes, “I love being able to say that the last thing I did while standing up was hug my mum.” 

The accident caused a catastrophic spinal cord injury and left Dinesh quadriplegic. This is when almost anyone would surrender to limitations. Rehabilitation was slow but as he got stronger, in Australia and back with family in Sri Lanka, Dinesh dreamt of getting back to medical school. 

“Of course, there’s no question that we’ll have you back,” said the Dean of the medical school, Professor Simon Broadley. Was Dinesh ready for the challenge? There were no precedents or protocols to follow. He was ready, and apart from a few sceptics and traditionalists everyone at the Gold Coast University Hospital was ready. “We’ll make it work,” said one of his supervisors, and Dinesh believed her. 

In medical school, he overcame every obstacle and built his reputation. Then, near the end, the time came to apply for a job at institutions across the country. He graduated. He was registered as a doctor. Yet in a country that spoke of equality and a fair go, no one would hire him.  

Until one Friday afternoon, out for a beer with a friend, his phone rang. “I’m calling from the Gold Coast University Hospital,” the voice said. “We would like to offer you a job, starting on Monday.” 

This led to more obstacles to overcome, new ways to do old things, but the Gold Coast was up for it and so was Dinesh — particularly for the emergency department. But perhaps the most life-changing moment was not at work. It was in the lift in his building, where he met and sparked a friendship with another new Gold Coaster, Claudio Pizzolato, a biomedical engineer from Italy. 

They started experimenting with data out of US, where researchers were looking at spinal cord rehabilitation. Dinesh and Claudio put their own twist on it, played around with virtual reality, thought-controlled electrical stimulation, and drug therapy. They arrived at an invention called BioSpine, which could one day reverse what happened to him on that Sunday night long ago. 

Dinesh’s work as a doctor, an inventor, a writer, and a leader has inspired other institutions to try to lure him away. But he would have to give up too much.  

“There is something about the Gold Coast, an energy, an ambition, a frontier spirit,” he says. “I wonder if there is anywhere else, anywhere in the world where my story could have been possible. I’ve been able to reinvent myself here, twice. The chance to be a doctor, when no other place would take that chance. To do spinal cord research in this way.” 

His philosophy, like the ethos of the Gold Coast, is to say yes.

“Every day, when I think of things to be grateful for, I am thankful for where we live.”