Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Munjed Al Muderis with Patrick Weaver, Allen & Unwin, $32.99.
This is an inspiring story of a former refugee who came to Australia and is now an internationally recognised orthopedic surgeon. What’s even more heartening is that he has gone back to Iraq to help change the lives of injured soldiers and civilians.
This book is once again a journey, but this time Muderis goes across the world on a quest to save others rather than himself.
In his memoir Walking Free, he described his experience as a refugee fleeing Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, his terrifying sea journey to Australia and the brutal mandatory detention he faced in the remote north of Western Australia. The book also detailed his early work as a pioneering orthopedic surgeon at the cutting edge of world medicine.
He is now a world-leading osseointegration surgeon and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney. He practises as an orthopedic surgeon at the Norwest Private Hospital, Sydney Adventist Hospital and Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney’s northern suburbs.
He left Iraq almost two decades ago to escape the brutality of Hussein’s regime. In 2017 he went back after being asked by the Iraqi prime minister to return. Their government had heard about the pioneering work Munjed had been doing in osseointegration – a relatively new type of surgery helping amputees walk again using robotic implants.
He returned to his homeland after being forced to flee in 1999. At first, he had misgivings about going home to Baghdad, but doubts did not linger for long. It was an “unpredictable and surreal experience”.
Munjed’s life-changing new surgical techniques have taken him on an extraordinary journey. He shares that in Going Back. Through his ground-breaking work he is able to implant titanium rods into the human skeleton and attach robotic limbs, allowing patients genuine, effective and permanent ability to move.
This type of surgery may not be for everyone, but for “those who go ahead with the operation are happy with the results and the huge improvement in their mobility and lifestyle”. The validity and necessity of expanding this humanitarian project is a cause that’s dear to Mundir’s heart.
