Saqib Noor's Blog, page 2

The Final Frontier of Surgery

Dearest Readers,

Medical and surgical research is breaking boundaries at an astounding pace. From genetic modification and stem cell therapy to robotic and 3D printing technology, scientific advancement is finding novel, unique and unprecedented solutions to complex, challenging diseases. Indeed, such is the rate of change that I am certain the last eight years of my surgical training in the UK will likely be rendered obsolete within the next twenty years of amazing, exciting, ground breaking...

BBC Asian Network Interview – 09.08.17

I am departing for Cambodia. Yesterday, in a day of manic activity, I was very fortunate to be interviewed by Nomia Iqbal from the BBC Asian Network on my last day in the country. My mind was on packing and the mountain of administration that was awaiting me, but it was great to once again discuss the challenges facing billions of people across the world struggling to access safe surgery.

My heartfelt gratitude to all those at the BBC who invited me and put the interview together.

My apologi...

Global Surgery, Faith and Beyond: BBC Local Radio Interviews – 06.08.2017

At 6.30am on Sunday morning, I sleepily made my way into the BBC studios, at the Mailbox in Birmingham. It was for a series of interviews discussing the book, “Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants”, and the spiritual enlightenment I had found by working abroad, discovering a concept of God within the heart of all people.

In the book, I wrote from South Africa:

I have been enlightened. I feel God in all His people and in their goodness and kindness. And that we are all equal. And that we all hav...

Talk Radio Europe interview – 03.08.17

Wonderful interview with Selina Mackenzie, discussing some of the difficulties of global surgery and the World Health Organisation goals to improve care. Many thanks to the Talk Radio Europe team for supporting the book and more importantly, here’s hoping for better access to surgery across the world.

And a post interview thank you tweet:

Fingers and toes crossed. I enjoyed our chat thank you

— Selina MacKenzie (@MacKenzieSelina) August 3, 2017

Talk Radio Europe interview: Selina Mackenzie: 3rd August 2017

Wonderful interview with Selina Mackenzie, discussing some of the difficulties of global surgery and the World Health Organisation goals to improve care. Many thanks to the Talk Radio Europe team for supporting the book and more importantly, here’s hoping for better access to surgery across the world.

The Universal Drug of Hope

Note: Permission to use photograph obtained

In February 2010, I completed my final ward round and said goodbye to my patients in Haiti just six weeks after a tragic earthquake. This earthquake was a natural disaster so devastating that within a momentary blink, a minute’s tremor and a rumbling collapse, an estimated one-hundred-thousand people lost their lives.

Amidst the wreckage, hundreds of thousands more were left severely injured, shocked, traumatized and homeless. Haiti, an already impo...

In my dementia and in my delirium

Dedicated to my beautiful wife, who cares for me so much and whom I will always love as I grow older, even when there are moments of my past I will no longer be able to remember.

IN MY DEMENTIA

I do not understand love. I do not remember it. I am not a professor of it. I do not use the term lightly. For any term I do not remember or understand I cannot use.

I can only look back into the history of my fading memories to try to salvage some ideas, some meanings, some clarity.

Somewhere in the p...

MXCAREYES Book Review – 22.07.2017

Global surgery truly is global, as the book travelled all the way to the Philippines, making its way to Mica -an ambitious premed student hoping to embark on a career in medicine. She is a very talented writer and book blogger. I thank her very much for the review and in particular the very humbling comment:

There are so many more beautiful insights to expect in this book. You will find words of reassurance, of finding hope and meaning in everything. This book has shown the importance of hope...

My Clever Night-Night Shoes – A Book Review

Clubfoot is one of the most common orthopaedic congenital defects, affecting approximately one in a thousand births and there are an estimated 150,000 babies born per year with the condition in the world. Although there is a genetic component, the exact cause remains unknown and the condition is prevalent in every population group worldwide.

In the distant past, club foot was often treated (and rather unsuccessfully) with extensive surgical procedures. However, more recently, a management alg...

Interview: Bookbag Talks To Saqib Noor – 10.07.2017

Following the review of Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants from theBookbag.co.uk (click here for review), I was asked for an interview by the website for a more personal insight into the book, with some very probing and powerful questions.

I have copied one of the questions and answers here, but please follow the link below to read the entire interview, discussing my views on global surgery, wishes for the future and dealing with corruption.

BB: Do you feel that we in the ‘first’ world are ge...