vale John Grant-Thomson
Vale John Grant-Thomson 18/11/1938 - 13/9/2021
John was born at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in 1938.
Fittingly, it was at the RBWH (and at the same time the Mater Mother's in
South Brisbane) where his innovative self-loading Neocot was first used
over 20 years ago. Previous neonatal life support systems had been large
and heavy; weighing over 200kg and were a manual handling nightmare,
especially for air transport,
John joined the USQ in 1970 (then known as the Queensland Institute of
Technology {Darling Downs}) and rose through the academic ranks as
Professor of Medical Engineering.
In 1993 John and his team at the University of Southern Qld at Toowoomba
had developed the Mobile Intensive Care Facility (MIRF) for use by the
Australian military. It was used during the Rwandan war in 1994 and later
used by mining companies in saving lives in remote mining locations. John
served in the Australian Army Medical Corps and Royal Australian Air
Force and spent 3 decades as a reservist, receiving Military Awards.
He was a member of the NASA team which established the Toowoomba Cooby
Creek tracking station into research satellite communications system;
culminating with the moon landings.
In 1999 a student project was started at the University of Southern
Queensland in Toowoomba to design a better system, using tubular frame
design, an electric loading trolley and an incubator designed to
potentially accommodate two babies at once.
Awarded an AM in the Australian New Year Honour's list in 2018, the
citation read 'For significant service to biomedical engineering, and
to education, as an academic and researcher, to medical equipment design
and as a mentor'
.John was also recognized for his service to newborn baby transport in
the ABC's Australian Story program 'Cradle of Life' in May 2020.
John brought his MIRF and later the NeoCot to several annual conferences
of the Society as an exhibitor and contributor.
BAC Technologies continues to produce the equipment John designed and
developed, employing five full-time USQ graduate engineers on the
project. However, as recently as last week he was personally in contact
with neonatal transport team members, discussing current issues and
requirements.
