Dr. History

Influenced by medical professionals in his family, plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Hamilton in Adelaide, Australia, showed a keen interest in medicine from a very early age, which he eventually cultivated into his own plastic surgery practice.

Dr. Hamilton: “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor since I was in primary school. My family and I lived at Seacliff, which is a suburb of Adelaide. My older brother is a doctor, and when he was a medical student and I was a primary school student, I used to sneak up to his room and look at his anatomy book, and take out his microscope and look at blood slides and bacteria. And it was intensely fascinating for me, and I never lost that. It carried through to me when I went to secondary school at St. Peter’s college in Adelaide. I was determined to be a doctor from a very early age. There are many doctors in the Hamilton family. My late uncle was one of Adelaide’s very first specialist surgeons. His son is a doctor and his daughter is a doctor. The medical influence in the family has been very strong. I showed aptitude for surgery when I was young and in medical school, and I was determined to pursue a career in surgery. I ended up in plastic surgery, and I’m very happy about that.”