Having seen families traveling over to New Zealand for treatment, brain surgeon Dr. Neal Kerr has traveled to Samoa to see and help out where he can with his skills as a doctor.

He traveled all the way from Invercargill to see how he could be of service in providing brain treatment to patients who are not able to fly to New Zealand for specialist treatment.

Dr. Kerr is part Samoan on his mother Arieta's side, who is from the villages of Fatooia and Vaimoso, while his father John is from Invercargill, Australia. Thirty-eight years of age and married with two children, he is a doctor in New Zealand and is currently training in neurosurgery.

He has four more years of training before he becomes a consultant which would qualify him to work anywhere in the region as a neurosurgeon.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Dr. Kerr said he is trying to determine if there are opportunities to work with surgeons in Samoa and provide and expand the availability of neurosurgical services in  Samoa. 

My understanding is that there are over 200,000 people in Samoa and at the moment the funding for patients to come to New Zealand for brain Surgery," said the doctor. 

"It doesn't seem very fair for a lot of Samoan people who can't get the treatment they need. If you don't get treatment in the brain fast enough then often patients have disabilities or die." 

Across Australia and New Zealand each year about 70 doctors apply for neurosurgery training but only a select few are chosen. The selection requirements depend on your medical achievements and as well as experience in the medical field and after a long and rigorous selection process, only about 12 qualified for the training.

Dr. Kerr is the only person from New Zealand who made it through to the end of the selection process to be part of the neurosurgery training with the rest of his cohort from Australia.

"I want to find a way to train and support the surgeons that are already here to be more comfortable with brain surgery and to carry out the operation well. If the surgeons here are able to get proper equipment and regular training can make a big difference for a lot of these patients."

According to an online article published in July last year by Stuff in New Zealand, Dr. Kerr had worked for seven years in neurosurgery, performing brain and spinal surgeries under supervision at Dunedin, Sydney, and Waikato hospitals, prior to being selected by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to do specialist brain and spinal surgery training. The training would take between five and nine years to complete.