Members of Excellence
a humble doctor Motivated by the desire to help others, Dr Purssell knew he wanted to be a doctor at a young age, pursuing Emergency Medicine followed by Toxicology in order to better treat patients, and advocate for serious change
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n Arbutus Club member of 39 years, Dr Purssell is an Emergency Physician at VGH, a Professor at UBC with the Department of Emergency Medicine, and the Medical Lead of BC Drug and Poison Information Centre. "Being able to help people and understand what I needed to know in order to do that is how I became interested in pursuing medicine,"explained Purssell. After completing his Medical Degree at UBC, Dr Purssell completed his fellowship training in Emergency Medicine at McGill University, followed by a Toxicology Fellowship with the American College of Medical Toxicology. Training in toxicology, the treatment of poisoning and drug overdose, naturally followed emergency medicine. Dr Purssell said it was a simple decision, "because drug use is a common issue, there are many people who have overdoses for a variety of reasons. With a greater understanding of the mechanisms of how the drugs are causing toxicity, there is a greater understanding of what sort of treatment needs to be provided." Since first stepping foot into the ER Purssell said, "I recognized that every patient in the Emergency Department is having a difficult time, some are having the most difficult time they will ever have in their life," Purssell considers it a privilege to help.
To be able to help out in these situations is something I still find very rewarding. From 1987 to 1993 Dr Purssell co-founded and was a Director at the Royal College Residency in Emergency Medicine at UBC. He later became the Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Surgery, taking a central role in the creation of the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine, officially formed in 2008. In addition to his achievements in medicine at UBC, Dr Purssell played a major role in supporting Mandatory Alcohol Screening, more commonly known as random breath testing by police. "It started off by looking at situations when patients would be involved in terrible car crashes and end up in the Emergency
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The Bark s p r i n g 2022
