He had felt tired as he walked offstage at a conference on financial stability in Canada in May 2016. He thought it was jet lag. It wasn’t.
Less than 12 hours after Philip Lowe received a phone call from the then treasurer Scott Morrison appointing him the next governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, he was unconscious, fighting for his life in a Canadian hospital.
Up to that point, he had taken only one day of sick leave – for an infected tooth – during his 35-year career. “The hospital had world-class doctors who knew what to do and did an operation. It was catastrophic at the time, but I feel so lucky.”Today, Dr Lowe is fit and healthy, with no long-term health ramifications from the freak event. The slender 60-year-old swims 1km to 2km at least three times a week, cycles, and golfs often with his son on weekends.had a chance encounter with Dr Lowe at a Sydney swimming pool in March after he had churned out some lunchtime laps.
The health scare sounded serious, but the information flow back to Australia was limited and tests were being conducted on Dr Lowe.Mr Stevens rang Dr Lowe’s wife, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority official Jocelyn Parker. The RBA helped arrange an urgent flight from Sydney to Canada so she could be at his bedside. Dr Lowe’s three children remained in Sydney.
Initially, the doctors were worried about the possibility of a more serious illness, such as brain damage, or that Dr Lowe may not pull through. He was unconscious for several hours. Dr Lowe was not allowed to immediately fly home to Sydney. He spent an extra week with his wife living at the Ottawa hotel, allowing time for his body to heal from surgery.The freak incident in Canada was not Dr Lowe’s only brush with death in 2016. In Sydney about three weeks later, the deputy governor was recovering at his Randwick home with his wife and children.
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