{"id":7670,"date":"2018-07-05T13:26:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T11:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.austrian-doctors.at\/?p=7670"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:19:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T11:19:42","slug":"a-doctor-who-wants-to-be-a-craftsman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.austrian-doctors.at\/en\/a-doctor-who-wants-to-be-a-craftsman\/","title":{"rendered":"A doctor who wants to be a craftsman"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"7670\" class=\"elementor elementor-7670 elementor-1833\" data-elementor-settings=\"{&quot;ha_cmc_init_switcher&quot;:&quot;no&quot;}\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2c507ad6 elementor-section-full_width elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"2c507ad6\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;_ha_eqh_enable&quot;:false}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-65b439af\" data-id=\"65b439af\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2d76806e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2d76806e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>His stay in Nairobi did not change his attitude towards God. There, the doctor saw people living in &#8220;unimaginable conditions&#8221;. Crammed into small corrugated iron huts measuring just a few square meters. In 2016, Grienberger travelled to the Kenyan capital with five colleagues for the organization &#8220;Austrian Doctors&#8221; to treat 200 to 300 patients a day for six weeks.   <\/p><p>What was his motivation for this trip? On the one hand, there was the medical incentive, but there was also a thirst for adventure and the joy of helping others. During his ambulance work, the pediatrician was confronted with medical cases that he was not familiar with from home. &#8220;Patients came in with fractures that had never been treated,&#8221; says the doctor. One case of a colleague particularly stuck in his memory. A child with a burnt oesophagus came to the clinic and there was nothing more the doctors could do: &#8220;It was clear that the child would starve to death,&#8221; Grienberger recalls. How does the doctor deal with such fates? &#8220;You can&#8217;t think about these things all the time.&#8221; He sees medicine as a craft anyway. If he had done everything medically possible, he would not reproach himself. That&#8217;s why his experiences in Africa didn&#8217;t change his life. &#8220;I can&#8217;t say: don&#8217;t be so stupid, think about Africa.&#8221;           <\/p><p>Heinz Grienberger should actually have studied mechanical engineering, as he comes from a family of technicians. &#8220;But enjoying wrenching on mopeds and studying mechanical engineering are two different things,&#8221; smiles the doctor. He later opted for medicine by process of elimination. Today, the 69-year-old works on two-wheelers in his spare time. In order to be able to use his skilled hands in medicine, Grienberger initially pursued a career as a surgeon. &#8220;But as a trauma surgeon, you have very little contact with people.&#8221; Grienberger changed his mind and became a pediatrician. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot to do on a human level, you need empathy,&#8221; explains the 69-year-old. He also has a hypnotic effect on children. &#8220;When that became obvious to me, I had to take advantage of it,&#8221; smiles the doctor.         <\/p><p>Grienberger, who was also head of pediatric oncology at Salzburg State Hospital for a time, no longer has his medical practice. But he is not retired either. He worked in a private clinic &#8211; and wants to return to Africa. How much longer does he want to practise? &#8220;As long as I&#8217;m physically and mentally able to.&#8221;    <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He should have studied mechanical engineering, but Dr. Heinz Grienberger has now been a paediatrician for 40 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kenya","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A doctor who wants to be a craftsman | Austrian 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