BIG-hearted Logan Village doctor Subburaj Selvaraj has fulfilled a long-held wish for a patient, taking him for a spin in his hot Porche sports car.
Avid car enthusiast from Logan Village, Allan Canbra, has a medical condition he does not wish to disclose, and has been Mr Selvaraj's patient for the past four years.
Mr Canbra re-called telling his doctor of his passion for cars when Dr Selvaraj suggested they take his high performance car for a drive.
"It was so good of (Dr Selvaraj), he does not know me as anything other than a patient," Mr Canbra said.
"I got talking to him and he says he tries to get involved with the community here so it would be nice if people knew that there is a doctor in our area who likes his patients.
"He will always go out of his way. He is not a doctor who will see you for five minutes and tell you to go away. He gets really involved, listens to you and goes beyond the call of duty to help."
The duo drove the Porsche from Logan Village up to Quinzeh Creek Road and back, most recently on Sunday, February 17.
Dr Selvaraj said he believed it was the role of a general practitioner to form a genuine bond with patients without going beyond the boundaries of an ethical doctor-patient relationship.
"I try to connect with my patients in different ways...some talk about cricket and others talk about cars," he said.
"Allan spoke a lot about cars and expressed his wish to ride in a Porsche one day. So, I said why not? It was going to make him happy."
Dr Selvaraj's hands-on approach has been applied in many cases over the past eight years while he has been based in Logan Village.
When one of his patients was bleeding profusely enough to soak four towels with blood and paramedics were occupied with emergencies, Dr Selvaraj took it upon himself to drive the patient to Logan Hospital, which was 15 minutes away.
"I just thought it was the right thing to do," he said.
'I examined him, he was clinically stable and I knew those 15 minutes would not be a big difference."
Dr Selveraj said he believed in treating patients as if they were members of his family.
"It is my opinion that this is the difference between working in a hospital and being in general practice," he said.
"The patient expects you to be their doctor and friend...someone closer to you than a hospital doctor where the real connection is missing.
"I generally think if it was one of my family members, what would I do?"
Dr Selveraj has been in the medical profession for the past 20 years and started working at the Logan Village clinic located at 131-133 Albert Street in 2011.