JCU medical school honours Yi-Jing Zeng after Bruce Highway crash

A promising young doctor, who died in a Bruce Highway crash on her way to work at a rural hospital, is being remembered as a student who always put others first.

The Central Queensland medical community is mourning the death of a promising young doctor who gave as much to her peers as her patients.

Sixth year medical student Yi-Jing Zeng had packed up her Suzuki Swift and set off south along the Bruce Highway to begin her placement at Biloela, the next step toward her dream of becoming a physician.

But tragedy struck when Ms Zeng’s car and a truck collided 10km south of Sarina about 7.40am Sunday in the middle of heavy rain.

Ms Zeng died at the scene, her death sending shockwaves through the James Cook University medical department, her lecturers and peers.

JCU Mackay Clinical School head Dr Elissa Hatherly said Ms Zeng was well-respected across the medical community.

“She was highly regarded by the whole student cohort and the academic staff who remember her incredibly fondly as the most kind and compassionate young woman,” Dr Hatherly said.

“She was not just an outstanding student academically, but also had the patients at the centre of everything she did.”

Dr Hatherly said Ms Zeng was a dedicated and tenacious student who had mastered the art of medical school, its heavy and demanding workload, the skill of taking a patient’s history, and communication.

Ms Zeng was the JCU Medical Students’ Association Mackay community and wellbeing officer, supporting her fellow students both academically and their mental health, and often among the first to speak about opportunities with her peers.

“Medical training is incredibly taxing,” Dr Hatherly said.

“She always put everybody before herself.

Yi-Jing Zeng was highly regarded and earned the respect of senior medicos during her placement at Mackay Base Hospital. Picture: Tony Martin

“She was also a gifted musician. I didn’t have the opportunity to hear her play but she was planning to play with the Australian Medical Student Orchestra in our mid-year break.

“She had time for those sorts of things.”

Ms Zeng had finished her placement at Mackay Base Hospital’s emergency department, earning a reputation as a sixth year student operating at an intern level and praise from senior medicos.

Her lecturers and supervisors had shared moving messages and memories of the promising young medico.

“The number of emails coming through from staff here at the hospital who supervised her during her clinical placements have shared the most beautiful messages,” Dr Hatherly said.

“Doctors in the emergency department saying their hearts are broken for the JCU family.

“She was in medical school, her sixth year – her last year – already working at the level of an intern.

Yi-Jing Zeng had been driving to Biloela for placement at the hospital when, on the Bruce Highway in an intense downpour, her Suzuki Swift and a truck collided 10km south of Sarina.

“She was keen and polite and professional and so sweet.”

She gave her time tutoring younger medical students who, on placement but with fewer patients because of Covid-19, would help them practise taking patient history and other critical skills.

Ms Zeng had been in Mackay for two years, moving from Townsville where she started her student career before getting experience in a more rural area as part of the JCU program.

“She was on her way yesterday to Biloela,” Dr Hatherly said.

“She was a bit nervous about the drive, she hadn’t made a drive that long before.

“But she made plans to make the drive as safe as possible.

“Then that awful downpour. All the planning in the world could not protect her in those circumstances.”

Dr Hatherly said Ms Zeng’s death had shattered the JCU student and academic community, with support offered to those who needed it.

Ms Zeng had planned to do her elective rotation in Canberra, closer to her family, after Biloela.

She wanted to be a physician.

Dr Hatherly said JCU was bringing Ms Zeng’s student peers back to Mackay or their families to support them as they come to terms with their grief.