malaysia day exclusive
OCTOBER, 2018 | The HEALTH
27
5
Photos 4 - 5: The Paediatric
and Neonatal surgeon (in
the spotted surgical cap)
performing a keyhole
surgery at Sultanah
Bahiyah Hospital Alor Setar
Kedah, recently.
6
Photo 6: A talk that was
presented to paediatricians
and general practitioners
on the minimally invasive
surgery at Pantai Hospital
Kuala Lumpur with the aim
of creating awareness.
4
Stint in Australia
In 2016, Nada moved to Gold Coast,
Australia where he set up the mini-
mally invasive surgery service for the
children’s unit, Gold Coast University
Hospital as a Consultant Paediatric
surgeon. He was there till 2017 before he
again returned to Malaysia.
“So, that was a great success and I’d
found that I’ll come back to do further
training in Malaysia. Nevertheless, when
I arrived – I noticed that there wasn’t
much progress.”
“Now, I’m here doing complex lapa-
roscopic keyhole surgery for children
and my intention is to spread the news
and make sure that every public hospital
in Malaysia has the opportunity to give
keyhole surgery to patients.”
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MALAYSIA DAY EXCLUSIVE
Paediatric
laparoscopic
surgery
IRON MEN
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When one or both sides
are affected
p18
Dr Nada Sudhakaran aims
to make keyhole surgery
accessible for all children
in public hospitals
FULL STORY ON PAGE 26-27
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The bothersome
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p22
Insufficient paediatric
laparoscopic surgeons in
Malaysia
Among 45 paediatric surgeons in Malay-
sia, less than five do keyhole surgery and
they are mostly concentrated in Kuala
Lumpur.
“For a population of 31 million – we
need 120 to 150 paediatric surgeons. At
the moment, we are training at a rate
about three to five per year. This means
it would take 20 years to get there.”
“There should be more, where
government hospitals recommend
keyhole surgery in the first instance in
the best interest of the patient,” laments
Nada.
“We are 20 years behind, compared
to the UK. This is something that we
need to acknowledge – that we are not
doing as much in keyhole surgery. That
is what people in the Western world are
giving their patients – why not patients
in Malaysia?
Nada pointed out that it is not a
matter of being ill equipped as all
major government hospitals have a
universal stack system which can be con-
nected to the laparoscopic instrument.
“Malaysia has a lot of opportunities,
only the mentality of its people need to
change. For progress to happen, we need
to get the best people back, work with
the best.”
“Steve Jobs said: Don’t hire intelligent
people to tell them what to do. You hire
intelligent people for them to tell you
what to do. Exactly that.”
“You got people who are skilled and
you bring them back, and should say
how do I learn from you and progress.
So everyone learn as a team and improve
the quality and advancement of care for
children in Malaysia. As not many skilled
surgeons return, it’s an opportunity to
spread technology and skills from what’s
available locally. This will spread across
the country in no time that we have up
to date technology and surgical service
that’s available for all kids in Malaysia.
Having operated on hundreds of
babies and children to date, Nada con-
tinues to perform reconstructive surgery
on infants and minors with testicular
problems, hernias, reconstruction of
the penis, anorectal malformations
and Hirschsprung’s disease apart from
training.