Paging Dr Halsall
HE’S fondly called ‘Trapper’, for the old television series, Trapper John MD, which featured the likeable and compassionate surgeon and mentor at San Francisco Memorial Hospital.
Dr Ryan Halsall, 33, says he wouldn’t trade his job for anything, and he chose his obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN) specialty based on a love he developed while doing the academic side of the practice, which later blossomed during internship.
“It was during my internship at Kingston Public Hospital and Victoria Jubilee that I first realised that was what I wanted to do. I had an interest in it, but when I started working in the area, I said to myself, ‘I can definitely see myself doing this’,” he told All Woman.
“I fell in love with the obstetrics part first, then the gynaecology part later,” he said while recounting the ‘out of this world’ experience of seeing a baby being delivered for the first time.
“I was in awe, I always knew how it happened, but I stood there in amazement. To see it happen was amazing and if someone could see it and appreciate life, they wouldn’t be so quick to take it. I just wanted to see another one.”
And so he took an interest in caring for women and their children, in the management of gynaecological health, pregnancy, labour, and the time period directly following childbirth.
A father of two girls, Dr Halsall’s charm is usually enough to break the ice and help his often-nervous patients relax.
“My concern is that women know what we [OBGYNs] do,” Dr Halsall said, explaining the need for every woman to have regular check-ups.
He explained that he’s responsible for women’s health (gynaecology) — including screening for diseases, sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer, routine breast examinations and looking at things like irregular periods and infertility. The other half is obstetrics — regular and high-risk pregnancies.
“Women also come to us to talk. They will come and say they are having pelvic pains and at the end of the interview you realise they’re depressed. We play the role of counsellors as well and when I sit and talk to girls and older women on a daily basis they get comfortable and form attachments, because they realise ‘this doctor will listen, this doctor understands’,” Dr Halsall said.
As such, Dr Halsall values his family life and ensures that he does not forget to be the anchor for his household, comprising wife Yinka and kids Siyana and Milan.
He said being a responsible man is his point of duty because a lot of the issues women have are linked to the absence of males in their homes.
“Being at home, as a father and husband, I’m playing my role in society. If you’re going to be the head, you must bring in the bread; you must protect your wife, you must discipline your children — that’s all part of being the head.”
He added: “I grew up in a stable home and my parents were there for me. So technically I want to be there for my children and my wife. To do this requires that I structure my office time, go home, watch cartoons with the girls, and find time for my wife. I learned from my father that men are the centre of families,” he said.
Back at work, he’s often helping women surmount the impossible — one of which he says has been, one time, assisting a woman to carry her pregnancy full-term after she had been through roughly eight miscarriages.
“She had a weak cervix and infections associated with it, but she wasn’t being screened for them. After I screened her I was able to treat her, keep her on antibiotics, and monitor her until she delivered a healthy baby,” he said.
When he’s not in the theatre, clinic or his office, Dr Halsall, who has been practising medicine for 10 years, can be found playing football, tennis, basketball, finger-painting with his girls, or taking random road trips with them.
“They enjoy going out on the road with me and I’m not at home a lot during the day, so when they get to leave the house with me, they enjoy that,” he said.
