SURGIA Newsletter: General Surgery Edition Volume II Issue 1 | Page 36

UNIVERESITY
OF
CAMBRIDGE

United Kingdom

LIVINGSTONE
CENTRAL
HOSPITAL
Zambia

by David Flynn

I

n early 2016 I had the incredible opportunity to
undertake a medical elective overseas in two very
different parts of the world. As a keen traveller,
I had looked forward to my elective since the
beginning of medical school and had struggled
to decided whether I wanted to undertake an
elective in the western world or immerse myself
in the medical system of a developing nation.
Knowing that this opportunity will seldom
present itself again, I decided to do both.

Addenbrooks is a center of excellence for
neurology and neurosurgery and also has a
large surgical transplant team, which presented
me the opportunity to scrub in for these
specialties as well. I was able to spend some
time in neurosurgery watching brain biopsies
take place as well as scrub in and watch a kidney
transplant. The staff were all so accommodating
and helpful, and encouraged me to scrub in for
all the procedures.

In late December 2015 I left the sunny shores of
Australia for the freezing cold climate of England,
undertaking a 4-week elective at Addenbrooks
Hospital (through the University of Cambridge)
in General Surgery.
I was assigned to the upper GI surgical team and
shadowed a doctor called Mr Sujendran (in the
UK, when you become a sur
geon you revert back to being called Mr). The
whole of the general surgical team were warm
and welcoming and encouraged me to get
involved in all that Addenbrooks had to offer.

However, as any medical student will tell you,
there is more to a medical elective than just the
medicine, and weekends in Cambridge provided
me the opportunity to explore the beautiful
sandstone town (by bike no less).

I had the opportunity to assist in esophagectomies,
gastrostomies and number of other surgeries.
However, what stood out was how happy the
team was for me to get involved in other surgical
specialties as well.

After my time at Cambridge had come to an
end, I swapped the cold climate of the UK for the
summer heat of sub-Saharan Africa- travelling to
a town in southern Zambia called Livingstone.
Livingstone is on the boarder of Zambia and
Zimbabwe and is a major site for those wishing to
witness the majesty of Victoria Falls (considered
one of the great natural wonders of the world).

33 | SURGIA Newsletter The General Surgery Edition

Trips to London to catch up with friends
were an added bonus to a placement in the UK
as well as a weekend in Oxford to catch-up with
friends and celebrate Burns night (in honour of
the Scottish poet Robert Burns) with a formal
dinner at Balliol College.