FAFRM, CIME, GradCertClinTeach(Hons), MBBS, BA/BSci

Rehabilitation Staff Specialist, Mackay Base Hospital, Queensland

Raised in a rural town in Central Queensland, Jacinta has always been passionate about creative thinking. With an art teacher mother, she grew up in a house that was always adorned with beautiful colours, fabrics and sculptures. During her final year of high school, Jacinta was involved in a serious car crash and was evacuated via air to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Brisbane as a multitrauma, including multiple orthopaedic injuries and a subdural traumatic brain injury. She then spent time in the Rockhampton Base Hospital rehabilitation unit before being discharged home for her final school term. She hadn’t yet been inspired to study medicine, until her first semester at the University of Queensland where she studied a dual Arts/Science degree, majoring in psychology (Arts) with dual minors in physiology and pharmacology (Science). She graduated in 2008 and went on to study medicine at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

Finishing medicine in 2012, Jacinta had a love for neurology and only experienced the wonderful world of rehabilitation medicine in her JHO year, when she met Dr Anand Kumar and Dr Benjamin Chen. Dr Kumar encouraged and inspired her to pursue a career in rehabilitation, and so started a career that would be fulfilling at all levels. She would spend the next few years at various hospitals and community clinics around South East Queensland, where she was fortunate to work with many highly skilled and knowledgeable clinicians who would shape her values and clinical work.

Fellowing in November 2019, it was only through a chance meeting at conference in Brisbane that Jacinta ended up in Mackay; she met senior allied health clinicians from Mackay Base Hospital, who lamented the absence of a rehabilitation physician. As a result of this chance meeting, Jacinta reached out to the executive at MBH. She started work in the Mackay Hospital and Health Service in January 2020, reaching a full-time public load in January 2021. Since her arrival, she has spent most of her time educating her health service on rehabilitation medicine, as well as evolving the rehabilitation unit to offer a high standard regional neurorehabilitation service, as well as offering an enriched environment for staff and patients.