Dr. Olivia Ong

Olivia Ong is a pain and rehabilitation medicine physician in Australia.

June 27, 2026Jun 27, 2026

"You will never walk again." As a doctor, I had delivered difficult news to patients before. But nothing prepared me for hearing those words myself after I was struck by a car in 2008 and suffered a catastrophic spinal cord…

“You will never walk again.”

As a doctor, I had delivered difficult news to patients before. But nothing prepared me for hearing those words myself after I was struck by a car in 2008 and suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury. In an instant, I went from physician to patient.

Before my injury, medicine was built around certainty for me: diagnoses, treatment plans, measurable outcomes. Then I entered the world of rehabilitation, …

Conditions

The first time I walked again after a spinal cord injury

Dr. Olivia Ong

May 19, 2024May 19, 2024

Once upon a time, I'd imagined myself the Lone Ranger physician, self-sufficient and incapable of weakness, and when I had my spinal cord injury in 2008, I really felt alone, in the negative spiral of a victim mindset, my own…

Once upon a time, I’d imagined myself the Lone Ranger physician, self-sufficient and incapable of weakness, and when I had my spinal cord injury in 2008, I really felt alone, in the negative spiral of a victim mindset, my own worst enemy and in a dark space where my idea of myself felt entirely lost.

Then, one day, in December 2009, I heard about a center for spinal cord injury …

Physicians

My spinal cord injury story from physician to patient, and how I rebuilt my nervous system

Dr. Olivia Ong

January 26, 2024Jan 26, 2024

It took a traumatic spinal cord injury in 2008 to transform my life. The experience was a radical awakening. I was told that I would never walk again. On one fine spring day in 2008, my life changed forever. I…

It took a traumatic spinal cord injury in 2008 to transform my life.

The experience was a radical awakening. I was told that I would never walk again.

On one fine spring day in 2008, my life changed forever. I was walking to work when I was hit by a car at high speed. My body was flung into the sky, and as I hovered, like a slow-motion movie, a few thoughts …

Physicians

The unspoken pandemic in frontline health care workers

Dr. Olivia Ong

June 2, 2021Jun 2, 2021

The pandemic has impacted many of us around the world, especially the frontline health care workers — myself included here in Melbourne, Australia. It is time we address these issues and bring the conversation into the open. Politicians talk about…

Politicians talk about opening the borders for travel and revitalization post-COVID-19. They fail to talk about the emotional pain that the frontline health care workers went through during the pandemic and the lasting effect …