Dr Kirsten Finucane, of Auckland, for services to health, particularly paediatric heart surgery
TO RECEIVE THE INSIGNIA OF A COMPANION OF THE NEW ZEALAND ORDER OF MERIT
Dr Kirsten Finucane, of Auckland, for services to health, particularly paediatric heart surgery
Dr Kirsten Finucane has been Chief Surgeon of the Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Service at Starship Hospital in Auckland for close to 20 years.
This National Service performs around 400 bypasses per year. She helped establish the Hearts 4 Kids Trust, which provides funds for repairs of simple congenital heart defects in Fijian babies and children, allowing them, through a single operation, to live life without the need for long-term medication or follow-up.
She has led medical teams to Fiji to operate on children there who do not otherwise have access to heart surgery.
Dr Finucane is one of 24 doctors and nurses on the Hearts 4 Kids Trust team who have taken annual leave to voluntarily work in the islands for one week on an annual basis.