LTCOL Andrew Lam says Concord treatment allowed him to return to his usual activities.
 

Attending Concord Hospital’s Remembrance Day service on Monday 11 November was a special moment for Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Lam. 

The senior reservist officer says treatment he underwent at Concord in 2019 ensured he could continue to live a normal life and advance in the Army Reserve and in his working life. 

LTCOL Lam was one of about 80 people who attended the Remembrance Day service that marked the 106^th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. 

Sydney Local Health District Board Chair Karen Crawshaw PSM and District Chief Executive Deb Willcox AM laid wreaths at the hospital’s Tri-Star Badge Memorial during the service, led by Concord chaplains Reverend David Anthonisz and Father Graeme Malone.  

Others to lay wreaths included Concord Hospital Director of Medical Services Dr Stewart Condon, Aged Health, Rehabilitation and Chronic Care Executive Clinical Director Associate Professor John Cullen, National Centre for Veterans’ Health Care Medical Director Dr Cameron Korb-Wells and ANZAC Research Institute Director Professor Victoria Cogger. 

In his welcome to the ceremony, Rev Anthonisz said the hospital’s memorial honoured those who had served Australia in war and was a tangible reminder of Concord Hospital’s proud tradition of caring for veterans and their families.  

That care was key for LTCOL Lam when he was admitted to Concord in 2019 with a severe case of ulcerative colitis. He expected to be in hospital overnight but 10 weeks later he had his bowel removed and had a stoma. 

“The team here identified very early on that I was a veteran, I was a serving member of the Defence Force,” he said. 

“They bent over backwards, they looked after my family, they looked after myself ... I was here during Remembrance Day in 2019, and the nurses did a really good job of hiding all the tubes and all the equipment I had attached to me so I could actually come down here and have the service, with my wife and my three-month-old baby daughter.” 

LTCOL Lam – who had previously been deployed to Timor-Leste and Iraq – would later undergo J-Pouch surgery to replace his bowel with part of his small intestine. He said the care from surgeon Associate Professor Matt Rickard and the Stomal Therapy Department allowed him to return to military service and to his working life as a police officer. 

“It's definitely given me a new lease on life,” LTCOL Lam said. 

“I was able to go back to full duties with the Australian Army but also my full-time job as a serving NSW Police officer. I've been able to be promoted in both organisations … to lieutenant-colonel in the Australian Army and as a detective sergeant in the NSW Police.” 

Since his surgery, LTCOL Lam has been deployed with the Army to help with the 2020 bushfires response and to support NSW Health during the COVID-19 pandemic. And in early 2024 he was part of the Australian Army contingent sent to support the Solomon Islands elections.  

“I was healthy enough and fit enough to deploy with the rest of the force element,” he said. 

“They didn't even realise that I'd had the amount of surgery that I'd had, the amount of treatment that I actually did have … which is a testament to the care that I received here. 

“My new bowel is working so well that I'm actually on the man shakes at the moment to control my weight.”