Professor Max Hopp with his wife Julia and grandson Leor. Photo: supplied.
A few months ago, I asked Professor Maxwell Hopp a hypothetical question.
Imagine if you hadn’t moved to Griffith back in 1999. How many times would a sick child have had to travel two hours-plus for treatment?
We quickly did the maths and concluded the answer was at least 5,000.
That explains why the town came to a standstill when news of his tragic death in a cycling accident rapidly spread through phone calls, texts and social media posts on Friday morning.
By midday, everyone knew. I was pinged by his friends, tennis buddies, former patients, locals on holidays overseas and people who’d never met him but knew of his reputation. The feeling of numbness was the same for everyone. Nobody wanted to continue their daily routine, they just wanted the news to not be true.
The last memory much of the town had of the 72-year-old was a fitting one – fronting a huge crowd last week at a rally to fight for better health service as he received rapturous applause.
The Hopp family has helped most people in Griffith, in some way, at some point.
Ironically, I first met Professor Max when he needed assistance. He contacted me concerned about his future in town when I was working for local state MP Helen Dalton in 2019. He feared a funding cut would mean he’d have to shut the allergy clinic he’d set up in 2002.
When news of this was made public, angry parents created an avalanche of letters and calls supporting the brilliant paediatrician.
“We’ve received 6,000 emails, just give him whatever the hell he wants,” Professor Hopp recalled the Health Minister saying, at the recent protest rally.
Soon after that episode, we talked tennis and he challenged me to a match on his backyard court. I figured playing someone pushing the age of 70 would be a nice confidence booster for me, so visited his place on a balmy 40-degree summer afternoon.
After an hour, drenched in sweat and gasping for oxygen, I glanced at the professor smiling at me. He hadn’t even taken a sip of water or reached for his towel. The super fit brick wall ran everything down and took me down in three sets. It wasn’t surprising to learn he’d recently represented Australia at the world masters cycling championship.
We played many tennis matches in the years since then, always followed by a Corona and chat – when he shared details of his extraordinary life story.
Born and raised in apartheid-era South Africa, Professor Hopp treated children in both ‘black’ and ‘white’ hospitals after gaining his medical qualifications.
He moved to Griffith just before the turn of the century, at a time when there wasn’t a single paediatrician in town. This meant parents had to take their sick or injured children on long trips to Wagga, Sydney or Melbourne for care.
After a year in town, his colleagues told him he’d paid his dues in a rural area and could now do what so many other overseas doctors do – move to Sydney or Melbourne.
“There’s no way I was leaving Griffith, it’s home, I’m looking after the sick children here,” he told the recent protest rally.
While paediatrics was his core specialty, he also trained as an endocrinologist. Early on, he noticed the Riverina’s high incidence of allergies and decided to up-skill further, establishing the first-ever allergy clinic in regional NSW, which has successfully run for 23 years.
His schedule was relentless. Most mornings, he arrived at the hospital by 6:30 am, with rounds beginning before 7 am. First, the ICU for critically ill children, then the Neonatal unit for sick or premature newborns, followed by maternity rounds to check on healthy newborns. For much of his tenure, he carried the load all by himself until a second paediatrician arrived in town seven years ago.
He treated about 60 children a week but said he enjoyed the job so much he’d still “tap dance” to work every day.
Australia has benefited not just from Professor Hopp but from his entire family, who all dedicate themselves to professions in short supply. His wife Julia is a school psychologist, his son Josh a pathologist and daughter Dagney an occupational therapist who takes time out of her full-time job in Sydney to fly to Griffith to treat children with behavioural problems.
I once asked Professor Max if Griffith appreciated how lucky it was that he chose to move his family here more than a quarter-century ago.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the lucky one,” he replied.
We beg to differ, mate. RIP Professor Maxwell Hopp.
