Today’s speaker was our own member, Omar Mamoun, who gave us a talk entitled “My journey with Plastic Surgery”.
His medical career began in his beloved Syria in 1968, well before the latest conflict, and he moved to the UK in 1970, a land of cold and snow! His training began at St.Lukes in Bradford where, with an exchange of telephone numbers, he met his wife Annabelle, a nurse, to whom he has been married for 43 years. He was offered and accepted a post at Addenbrooke’s, Cambridge, learning the skills of a plastic surgeon over the next 3 years, when, fully qualified, they returned overland, by motor car, to Damascus, where they stayed for the next 38 years.
His work dealt mainly with two areas of surgery, serious reconstruction and cosmetic surgery. He showed us graphic images of patients with congenital conditions, especially children with facial disfiguration such as cleft lips and bat ears, and other patient victims of serious burns conditions. There were many examples of patients requiring treatment following cancer surgery and weight loss reconstruction, together with pictures of patients who, on the face of it, had nothing seriously wrong with their image, except in their own mind. If not treated, however, such patients, under serious self-imposed psychological pressure, could come to an untimely end, possibly at their own hand!
He felt compelled to leave the country when the current war began, being under severe financial threat from both government and rebel forces, and came to Meltham where they have established a new life, though subject to conditions that we residents would consider unthinkable, such as financial requirements and travel restrictions.
He obviously has a great love for his motherland, which is of great significance, due to the influence over thousands of years of Greek, Roman, and Islamic habitation. He showed us pictures of Aleppo Citadel, built around 3000BC, inside which can be seen artefacts of these three civilizations; Palmyra, built around 2000BC, partially destroyed recently by Isis but believed now to have been restored, and Aphamea, where a 2km long avenue still exists, built by Alexander the Great, edged by hundreds of stone columns on both sides and ending in a huge amphitheatre capable of seating 20,000 spectators.
Perhaps the most significant fact we learned was that Omar was the first plastic surgeon to practice in Damascus, and that there are now 236, such is the demand. It was also very encouraging to hear that he has passed on his skill within the family, where his son is a surgeon in Birmingham, though practicing much more delicate procedures via micro-surgery.