Mercy Sadka

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Marie Sadka AO (22 July 1923 – 28 January 2001) was a Singapore-born neurologist who spent most of her career in Western Australia. Better known as Mercy Sadka, she was Australia's first female neurologist.

Early life and education

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Sadka was born in Singapore on 22 July 1923.[1] She was the second daughter of Sassoon Samuel Sadka and his wife, Sarah who were of Jewish heritage.[2] Her older sister Emily Sadka (1920–1968) was an historian. She educated at Raffles Girls School and later Cheltenham Ladies College in England.[2] She graduated from the University of Oxford in 1947 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.[1]

Career

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Sadka moved to Australia in 1948 as resident medical officer at the Royal Perth Hospital (RPH). She worked with ophthalmologist Ida Mann on a study of blindness among Indigenous Australians in the Kimberley.[1]

Postgraduate studies in neurology took her to London and Boston, where she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital with Raymond Adams, Miller Fisher and Robert Schwab.[2]

Returning to Western Australia in 1959, she was appointed consultant neurologist at RPH.[2] In the same year, she introduced the use of electroencephalography (EEG) to Western Australia.[3] She also opened the Stroke Rehabilitation Unit in the Shenton Park Annex of RPH.[1]

Sadka was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 1988 Australia Day Honours for "service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology".[4]

Sadka retired in 1988.[1] She died on 28 January 2001.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Emeritus Consultant biographies (PDF). Vol. 2. Royal Perth Hospital. p. 47.
  2. ^ a b c d Gubbay, S., Sadka, Marie, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, retrieved 5 September 2025
  3. ^ "Above and Beyond – Snapshots of Past Staff of RPH". Collections WA. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  4. ^ "Australia Day Honours List". The Canberra Times. Vol. 62, no. 19, 105. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 26 January 1988. p. 11. Retrieved 5 September 2025 – via National Library of Australia.