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Munjed Al Muderis | |
---|---|
Born | 25 June 1972 |
Education | 1991: graduated from Baghdad College High School, 1997: graduated from Baghdad University [1] |
Occupation(s) | Orthopaedic surgeon, adjunct clinical professor, clinical lecturer |
Munjed Al Muderis (born 25 June 1972) is an Australian adjunct clinical professor in orthopaedic surgery, author and human rights activist. He has done pioneering work on prosthetics, especially on titanium devices. [2]
Al Muderis was born in Iraq to a wealthy family and became a surgeon under the regime of Saddam Hussein. He was a medical student in Basra at the start of the Gulf War in August 1990. As a junior surgeon, he emigrated from Iraq to Australia. He travelled through Indonesia and Malaysia and reached Australia where he was kept in at an immigration detention centre near Derby, Western Australia. He was released after 10 months and carried on his career in medicine, eventually specialising in osseointegration surgery. [3]
Al Muderis wrote the book Walking Free on his experiences in Iraq, in the Australian immigration detention system, and on his career in Australia.
Al Muderis was born under the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. [4] His father was a former judge of the Supreme Court of Iraq and had authority in the Marine Corps, while his uncle was a descendant of the second royal family and Prime Minister, when Iraq was still a kingdom. [5] His mother was a school principal who had been demoted for refusing to join the Ba'ath Party.
Al Muderis graduated from Baghdad College High School in 1991, where he was a classmate of Qusay Hussein. He went on to study medicine at various universities, including the Baghdad University from 1991 to 1997, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. [6]
At the beginning of the Gulf War, he was a second year medical student in Basra. He fled the city in the early days of the war, returning later to see the aftermath of the Basra uprising.[ citation needed ]
In 1999, he was forced to flee Iraq when he was working as a junior surgeon at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre in Baghdad. [1] A busload of army draft evaders were brought into the hospital for the top of their ears to be amputated under Saddam's orders. The senior surgeon in the operating theatre refused the orders and was immediately interrogated and shot in front of several medical staff. Instead of complying with the orders, Al Muderis decided to flee. [7] He escaped the operating theatre and hid in the female toilets for five hours. Shortly after, he fled to Jordan before the authorities caught up with him and moved on to Kuala Lumpur. From there, he took a people-smuggling route to Christmas Island, where he was sent to the Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. He was detained there until his identity was verified, given the number 982. He was punished with solitary confinement and was repeatedly told to go back where he came from after fellow detainees who caused riots blamed him. Ten months after being sent to the detention centre, he was granted refugee status and freed. [2]
Upon release, he secured a job at Mildura Base Hospital as an emergency unit and orthopaedic resident, after sending out over 100 applications. A year later, he moved to the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and travelled to many different countries, completing specialisation fellowships and attending short-term courses. [1]
Al Muderis developed a new form of implant, osseointegration prosthetic limb, which addressed several issues previously faced by patients. [8] Orthopedics This Week [9] has described Al Muderis as "The Most Incredible Orthopedist You'll Ever Read About". [10] News Corp Australia and The Australian Women's Weekly have ranked Al Muderis as one of the world's top osseointegration surgeons. [11] [12]
Traditional and rigid socket based technology in some cases can be replaced with surgery that inserts a titanium implant into the bone. Osseoperception may occurs as the prosthetic is anchored directly to the bone allowing some patients to recover some amount of feeling. The implant's surface is made of highly porous titanium allowing for ingrowth of bone. An adaptor is designed with a smooth surface to minimise friction and coated with titanium niobium for antibacterial purposes. The adaptor is fixed to a control device and is connected to the exterior of the prosthetic limb. Putting on and taking off the limb can be done in less than ten seconds. [8] Osseointegration surgery aims to provide amputees with greater mobility and reduced discomfort. [13]
Al Muderis was a first year resident [1] at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre [4] in Baghdad before he fled Iraq and his career was disrupted. In Australia, he first worked at Mildura Base Hospital as an emergency unit and orthopaedic resident. [1] He moved to Melbourne four months later and worked at Austin Repatriation Hospital as a surgical registrar, followed by a year at Canberra Hospital. [1]
In 2004, he joined the Australian Orthopaedic Training Program. In 2008, he attained his surgical fellowship, FRACS (Orth). [14] He completed the following post specialisation fellowships:
Al Muderis is a supervisor of the Australian Orthopaedic Trainee Registrar at the above-mentioned medical centres, and is a supervisor of overseas trained orthopaedic surgeons (Fellows) in hip and knee pathology. [6]
In 2010, Al Muderis commenced his private practice. [1] He is an orthopaedic surgeon and treats his patients at Macquarie University, Bella Vista, Drummoyne and Sydney Adventist Hospital clinics. [1] He is also appointed as an adjunct clinical associate professor in the School of Medicine, Sydney Campus at the University of Notre Dame Australia [6] and a clinical lecturer at Macquarie University Hospital and the Australian School of Advanced Medicine. [1] He also has appointments at the Sydney Adventist Hospital and Norwest Private Hospital. [1] He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Australian Orthopaedic Association. [6] He is also the founder of the Osseointegration Group of Australia. [6]
As an Australian orthopaedic surgeon, he specialises in hip, knee, trauma and osseointegration surgery, [1] focusing in hip arthroscopy, resurfacing, arthroplasty, knee arthroplasty and reconstruction of recurrent patellar dislocations. [1]
Al Muderis chaired the 2015 Osseointegration Conference [15] and was a guest speaker at Australian Orthotic Prosthetist Association Meeting. [16]
Al Muderis has been recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for his work with British soldier Michael Swain. [17] He was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to attend the ceremony in which Swain received his MBE medal. [18]
Prince Harry visited Al Muderis on 7 May 2015 [19] [20] to follow up on Al Muderis' work and meet some of the amputees he has helped, including a decorated British soldier who lost his legs in Afghanistan who was undergoing groundbreaking treatment to fit prosthetic legs at Macquarie University Hospital. [21] [22]
Al Muderis has connected prosthetic limbs to dozens of UK soldiers. [19]
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is spending £2m on trials that were to begin in 2016 and involve 20 amputees who were to undergo Al Muderis' osseointegration procedure. [23] Al Muderis has trained five British surgeons and they were to perform the surgeries together, then monitor those 20 cases for two years. A similar project was in the works for Canada and Houston, Texas. [10]
Al Muderis has presented and published numerous research reports on osseointegration surgery for amputees, how to measure growth rate in children, limited incision plating technique in management of clavicle fracture and describing new patterns of distal clavicle fractures dislocation. [24]
He has written two books about his life and experiences, the first in 2014, called Walking Free, and later in 2019 Going Back published by Allen & Unwin. [1]
Al Muderis was nominated for 2020 NSW Australian of the Year award for his humanitarian work and contribution to medicine. [25]
Al Muderis has been the subject of a number of claims. [26]
In 2016, a patient suggested Al Muderis had not appropriately obtained consent from a patient for a procedure to be performed on his behalf by a trainee doctor and robot. A complaint made to the New South Wales Healthcare Complaints Commission was dismissed in March 2018. [27]
In 2017, Justice Stephen Rothman awarded Al Muderis $480,000 for "a most vicious and vituperative series of publications" that "vilified" Al Muderis after an online campaign by a patient who ignored post-operative advice. [28]
In 2022, a joint investigation by The Age , The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes (all divisions of Nine Entertainment) alleged there were serious questions around Al Muderis's approach to patient selection and aftercare. Four patients described experiences ranging from life-changing to life-destroying. It was suggested that risks were minimised when their operations were explained to them, complications ignored and patients left wheelchair-bound or mutilated. [29]
Subsequently, a concerns notice was issued by lawyers for Al Muderis to Nine Publications, 60 Minutes, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, to commence defamation proceedings. Over 60 allegations were detailed in the 41-page notice. Nine and Fairfax failed to respond to the concerns notice, within the 28 days' notice period. [30] On 31 October 2022, Al Muderis issued defamation proceedings against Channel Nine, Fairfax Publications and the Age company in the Federal Court of Australia. [31]
In October 2022 Al Muderis had his ability to gain Medical Insurance suspended and as a consequence was forced to desist from further surgery pending a review. [32]
Al Muderis was involved in a high-level round table on asylum and refugee policy held on 11 July 2014 at Parliament House which led to the asylum and refugee policy report "Beyond The Boats: building an asylum and refugee policy for the long term". [33] He related his own experience as a refugee to discussions about a new approach to asylum seeker policy. [34]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2024) |
Al Muderis has campaigned for Amnesty International [ citation needed ], including leading a human rights lecture called "Human Rights Lecture 2015: Dr Munjed Al Muderis" in Smithfield, Queensland. [35]
Al Muderis in 2015 became an Australian ambassador for the Red Cross. [36] He has spoken out about the misconceptions around seeking asylum in Australia and joined a panel at a live screening for the SBS program Go Back To Where You Came From [37] [38] in the hopes of building a more compassionate and caring community. [39]
According to the Australian of the Year Awards,
Funded out of his own pocket, [Al Muderis] has taken a team to his former homeland of Iraq seven times, to help the victims of the conflict he fled, and has educated other orthopaedic surgeons in the osseointegration technique and in complex limb reconstruction. [40]
In 2023 Al Muderis returned to Iraq and saw over 150 patients. [41]
In February 2023, Al Muderis was made an ambassador to the "Unbroken" project in Ukraine after leading a team of Australian doctors who performed more than 20 extremely complex limb reconstructions and prosthetics operations at the hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv. [42]
He is a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre, a not-for-profit that provides personal and practical support to people seeking asylum in Australia. [43]
Al Muderis visited patients at the Children's Surgical Centre in Cambodia on 20 September 2015 to provide their patients with osseointegration procedures. [44]
Al Muderis has two sons and two daughters from previous relationships. [45]
Walking Free was published in October 2014, [1] written by Al Muderis and contributed to by Patrick Weaver. [46] It was published by Allen & Unwin. [1] In his book, he shared his life and experience in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime, his journey to seek asylum in Australia and how he worked towards being a world leader in osseointegration surgery. [47]
His second memoir, Going Back, was published in 2019 by Allen & Unwin. [48] The book describes his return to Iraq after eighteen years, at the invitation of the Iraqi government, to operate on soldiers, police and civilian amputees wounded in the war against ISIS.
In 2020 as part of a series of children's books – Aussie STEM Stars – about some of Australia's top scientists and inventors chosen on the basis of their pioneering work, a book about Al Muderis was written by Dianne Wolfer. [49]
Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventive surgery for such problems. A special case is that of congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where fetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. In some countries, judicial amputation is currently used to punish people who commit crimes. Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism; it may also occur as a war injury. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. When done by a person, the person executing the amputation is an amputator. The oldest evidence of this practice comes from a skeleton found buried in Liang Tebo cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo dating back to at least 31,000 years ago, where it was done when the amputee was a young child.
In medicine, a prosthesis, or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth. Prostheses are intended to restore the normal functions of the missing body part. Amputee rehabilitation is primarily coordinated by a physiatrist as part of an inter-disciplinary team consisting of physiatrists, prosthetists, nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Prostheses can be created by hand or with computer-aided design (CAD), a software interface that helps creators design and analyze the creation with computer-generated 2-D and 3-D graphics as well as analysis and optimization tools.
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal trauma, spine diseases, sports injuries, degenerative diseases, infections, tumors, and congenital disorders.
Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi/semi(half) replacement. Such joint replacement orthopaedic surgery is generally conducted to relieve arthritis pain or in some hip fractures. A total hip replacement consists of replacing both the acetabulum and the femoral head while hemiarthroplasty generally only replaces the femoral head. Hip replacement is one of the most common orthopaedic operations, though patient satisfaction varies widely. Approximately 58% of total hip replacements are estimated to last 25 years. The average cost of a total hip replacement in 2012 was $40,364 in the United States, and about $7,700 to $12,000 in most European countries.
Osseointegration is the direct structural and functional connection between living bone and the surface of a load-bearing artificial implant. A more recent definition defines osseointegration as "functional ankylosis ", where new bone is laid down directly on the implant surface and the implant exhibits mechanical stability. Osseointegration has enhanced the science of medical bone and joint replacement techniques as well as dental implants and improving prosthetics for amputees.
Knee replacement, also known as knee arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure to replace the weight-bearing surfaces of the knee joint to relieve pain and disability, most commonly offered when joint pain is not diminished by conservative sources. It may also be performed for other knee diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. In patients with severe deformity from advanced rheumatoid arthritis, trauma, or long-standing osteoarthritis, the surgery may be more complicated and carry higher risk. Osteoporosis does not typically cause knee pain, deformity, or inflammation, and is not a reason to perform knee replacement.
Joint replacement is a procedure of orthopedic surgery known also as arthroplasty, in which an arthritic or dysfunctional joint surface is replaced with an orthopedic prosthesis. Joint replacement is considered as a treatment when severe joint pain or dysfunction is not alleviated by less-invasive therapies. Joint replacement surgery is often indicated from various joint diseases, including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Pramod Karan Sethi was an Indian orthopaedic surgeon. With Ram Chandra Sharma, he co-invented the "Jaipur foot", an inexpensive and flexible artificial limb, in 1969.
Shoulder replacement is a surgical procedure in which all or part of the glenohumeral joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. Such joint replacement surgery generally is conducted to relieve arthritis pain or fix severe physical joint damage.
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Limb-sparing techniques, also known as limb-saving or limb-salvage techniques, are performed in order to preserve the look and function of limbs. Limb-sparing techniques are used to preserve limbs affected by trauma, arthritis, cancers such as high-grade bone sarcomas, and vascular conditions such as diabetic foot ulcers. As the techniques for chemotherapy, radiation, and diagnostic modalities improve, there has been a trend toward limb-sparing procedures to avoid amputation, which has been associated with a lower 5-year survival rate and cost-effectiveness compared to limb salvage in the long-run. There are many different types of limb-sparing techniques, including arthrodesis, arthroplasty, endoprosthetic reconstruction, various types of implants, rotationplasty, osseointegration limb replacement, fasciotomy, and revascularization.
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