 Dr. Kerry Telford is remembered as a good person and as a good Christian by those who knew her. (PHOTO SUBMITTED) |
A local maternity doctor who died in Sunday’s floatplane crash touched countless lives through her work around the world.
Dr. Kerry Morrissey (nee Telford) was been identified as a victim in the crash, which claimed six lives off Saturna Island and dedicated her life to women’s medicine and helping disadvantaged people.
That dedication led her to Father Maurice Schroeder’s general hospital in the Peruvian Amazon, where she practiced medicine during annual missions between 2000 and 2005.
“She was a good person, a good Christian,” Schroeder told 24 hours from Lima, Peru. “We feel a tremendous sense of loss. She had a compassion for human beings and felt a great debt to society because of her favoured position.”
Morrissey most recently worked at the South Community Birth Program in Vancouver.
She graduated from UBC Medical School and began her practice in Yellowknife, eventually moving on to Newfoundland and then the Vancouver area.
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She was also a clinic instructor for UBC’s family practice department.
Schroeder joked that Morrissey’s self-depreciating career ambitions led her to the Centro de Salud Santa Clotilde mission hospital as a volunteer, instead of pursuing higher paying practices back home.
“She had a wonderful way of looking at the world,” he recalled. “She was an idealistic woman and was an animated presence in the hospital and the community.”
On her last tour in Peru, in 2005, Morrissey introduced Schroeder to her future husband from Vancouver.
The two would marry the same year and Morrissey ceased her annual trips to Peru to start a family, which would include two young daughters.
The youngest, six-month-old Sarah, was also a victim in the crash.
Despite her new family, Morrissey kept in regular contact with Schroeder and Father Jack McCarthy.
She also helped raise money for their work in Canada and helped set up the perumission.ca website.
Morrissey and her daughter were among the six victims who died after a Seair Seaplanes chartered flight crashed into Lyall Harbour shortly after take-off from Saturna Island Sunday.
The pilot and a female passenger survived the crash and were rescued by local boaters.
Victim Catherine White-Holman, 55, also worked for Vancouver Coastal Health for 15 years as an advocate at Raven’s Song Community Health Centre.
“They were two amazing women. We don’t even know if they knew each other,” said Raven’s Song manager Denise Bradshaw.
White-Holman was a trailblazer in her field; being one of the first people in Vancouver to help transgender people access primary health services.
She also worked regularly with street youth.
“She focused on the most marginalized people who can’t access health care,” Bradshaw said. “She was hugely passionate. Even though she often dealt with the most difficult people, her humour would always shine through.”
The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash and have interviewed the pilot.
They hope to examine the salvaged wreckage Tuesday.
There have been reports that conditions were windy at the time but Steve Nunn, of the civilian BC Float Plane Association, cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“That’s important because often down the road the cause can be something entirely different,” Nunn said. “We need to let investigators do their due diligence.”
Nunn said the Richmond-based Seair Seaplanes has a good reputation in the floatplane community.
The chartered airline has suspended all their operations and is cooperating fully with the investigation.