Name Munjed Muderis | ||
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Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor University of Notre Dame Australia School of Medicine Sydney and a clinical lecturer at Macquarie University and The Australian School of Advanced Medicine. | ||
From refugee to medical revolutionary munjed al muderis tedxsydney
Dr. Munjed Al Muderis (born 1972) is an Australian Associate Professor in orthopaedic surgery, author and human rights activist. His pioneering work on prosthetics and patents on titanium devices that he designed places Australia at the forefront of osseointegration technology.
Contents
- From refugee to medical revolutionary munjed al muderis tedxsydney
- Dr munjed al muderis and the new robotic leg on the 7pm project
- Early life
- Osseointegration
- Career
- Beyond the Boats
- Amnesty International
- Red Cross
- UNHCR
- Other
- Successful surgeries
- Personal life
- Books
- Publications
- Media
- Public speaking
- Newspapers and publications
- Radio
- TV
- References
Al Muderis was born in Iraq and became a surgeon under the regime of Saddam Hussein. He was a medical student in Basra at the start of the Gulf War. As a junior surgeon, he fled from Iraq following an incident in which he refused to mutilate the ears of army deserters. He traveled through Indonesia and Malaysia and reached Australia where he was kept in at the Curtin Detention Centre. He was released after 10 months and carried on his career in medicine, eventually specialising in osteointegration surgery.
Al Muderis wrote the book Walking Free on his experiences in Iraq and in the Australian immigration detention system, and on his career in Australia.
Dr munjed al muderis and the new robotic leg on the 7pm project
Early life
Munjed Al Muderis was born under the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. His father was a former Supreme Court judge and had authority in the Marine Corps, while his uncle was a descendant of the second royal family and Prime Minister, back when Iraq was still a kingdom. His mother was a school principal who had been demoted for failing to join the Baath 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.
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.
In 1999, he was forced to flee Iraq when he was working as a junior surgeon at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre in Baghdad. A busload of army draft evaders were brought into the hospital for the top of their ears to be amputated under Saddam Hussein'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. 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 Curtin Detention Centre. He was dehumanised there and addressed by his assigned number, 982. He was punished with solitary confinement and was repeatedly told to go back where he came from. In 2000, 10 months after being sent to the detention centre, he was granted refugee status and freed.
Upon release, he only landed a job at Mildura Base Hospital as an emergency unit and orthopaedic resident after sending out more than 100 resumes. 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.
Osseointegration
Al Muderis developed the new generation of implant, osseointegration prosthetic limb (OPL), which addresses several issues previously faced by patients. This led Orthopedics This Week to praise Al Muderis's work as 'The Most Incredible Orthopedics You'll Ever Read About.' The Osseointegration Group of Australia Team (OGAP) is made up of specialists in various fields. Women's Weekly and NEWS rank Al Muderis as one of the world's top osseointegration surgeons.
Traditional and rigid socket based technology is now replaced with a surgery that inserts a titanium implant into the bone. Osseoperception occurs as the prosthetic is anchored directly to the bone which would transmit sensory signals, resulting in patients recovering a certain level of feeling. The implant's surface is also made of highly porous titanium, providing the user with balance and allowing for ingrowth of bone. A dual 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. Osseointegration surgery aims to provide amputees with greater mobility and reduced discomfort.
Al Muderis is spreading the word to make the technology available globally. Patients travel from around the world to see him for this groundbreaking surgery.
Career
Al Muderis was a first year resident at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre 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. He moved to Melbourne four months later and worked at Austin Repatriation Hospital as a surgical registrar, followed by a year at Canberra Hospital.
In 2004, he joined the Australian Orthopaedic Training Program. In 2008, he attained his surgical fellowship, FRACS (Orth). 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.
In 2010, Al Muderis commenced his private practice. He is an orthopaedic surgeon and treats his patients at Macquarie University, Bella Vista, Drummoyne and Sydney Adventist Hospital clinics. He is also appointed as an adjunct clinical associate professor in the School of Medicine, Sydney Campus at the University of Notre Dame Australia and a clinical lecturer at Macquarie University Hospital and the Australian School of Advanced Medicine. He also has appointments at the Sydney Adventist Hospital and Norwest Private Hospital. He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Australian Orthopaedic Association. He is also the founder of the Osseointegration Group of Australia.
As an Australian orthopaedic surgeon, he specialises in hip, knee, trauma and osseointegration surgery, focusing in hip arthroscopy, resurfacing, arthroplasty, knee arthroplasty and reconstruction of recurrent patellar dislocations.
Al Muderis chaired the 2015 Osseointegration Conference and was a guest speaker at Australian Orthotic Prosthetist Association Meeting.
Al Muderis has been recognised by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his work with British soldier Michael Swain. He was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to attend the ceremony in which Swain received his MBE medal.
He also caught the attention of HRH Prince Harry of Wales, who visited Al Muderis on 7 May 2015 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.
Prince Harry was amazed by the work Al Muderis and his team are doing, and believes the life changing surgery is "the way forward for single amputees or double amputees above the knee". Prince Harry is keen to get Al Muderis to the UK for an extended period of time to make the procedure available to British ex-servicemen injured in combat.
Al Muderis is hopeful that the popular royal's profile will give the procedure more exposure, and that as it becomes more well known this technology will become more available to the common day to day person.
Al Muderis has connected prosthetic limbs to dozens of UK soldiers.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is spending £2m on trials that will begin in 2016 and involve 20 amputees who will receive Dr Al Muderis' osseointegration procedure. Al Muderis has trained five British surgeons and together they will perform the surgeries and monitor those 20 cases for two years. A similar project is in the works for Canada and Houston, Texas.
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 fracure and describing new patterns of distal clavicle fractures dislocation.
He has written a book about his life and experiences in 2014, called Walking Free, published by Allen and Unwin.
Beyond the Boats
Al Muderis was involved in a high-level roundtable 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". He related his own experience as a refugee to discussions about a new approach to asylum seeker policy.
Amnesty International
Al Muderis is passionate about campaigning to protect human rights through his work with Amnesty International, including leading the 2015 Human Rights Lecture. He has spoken extensively about the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in various public speaking opportunities and lectures.
Red Cross
Al Muderis in 2015 became the latest Australian ambassador for the Red Cross. The Red Cross recognize Al Muderis as a powerful advocate for their humanitarian work supporting vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees due to his personal experience as a refugee. He has spoken out about the misconceptions around seeking asylum in Australia and joined a panel at a live screening for SBS' "Go Back To Where You Came From" in the hopes of building a more compassionate and caring community.
UNHCR
Al Muderis is helping spread the word about the New Roots app developed by Settlement Services International (SSI) together with Beyond Blue to help refugees with physical and mental health, as well as connecting with people by joining local community and sports organisations and attending cultural activities.
Other
Al Muderis visited patients at the Children's Surgical Centre in Cambodia on 20 September 2015 to provide CSC patients with osseointegration procedures.
Successful surgeries
Al Muderis' clinics at Norwest Private Hospital, Macquarie University and Sydney Adventist Hospital in Sydney are known worldwide as centres of excellence, according to NEWS.
Personal life
Al Muderis has two sons, Adam and Dean, from a previous relationship. He is now married to Irina, a general practitioner. The couple have a daughter, Sophia and a dog, Mozart. Al Muderis has been seen driving a Porsche and wearing Italian designer clothes, and lives in Sydney, Australia.
Books
Walking Free was published in October 2014, written by Al Muderis and contributed to by Patrick Weaver. It was published by Allen and Unwin. 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.
Publications
Media
Both newspaper publications and radio talk shows have shared the story of Al Muderis, from his journey of fleeing Iraq to his job as an osseointegration surgeon in Sydney, Australia.