22 March 2019

ALLAN SCOTT AUDITORIUM, HAWKE BUILDING, UNISA CITY WEST CAMPUS

ACCESS VIDEO HERE

Join us for the Going Back book launch - and discover how a former refugee, now an internationally acclaimed surgeon returned to Iraq to change the lives of injured soldiers and civilians.

Dr Munjed Al Muderis is an Australian Associate Professor in orthopaedic surgery, author and human rights activist. Arriving in Australia as a refugee, his name is now internationally recognised as one of the few surgeons in the world performing osseointegration, a remarkable procedure that transforms lives.

In Munjed Al Muderis's bestselling 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 orthopaedic surgeon at the cutting edge of world medicine.

In his new book, Going Back, Munjed shares the extraordinary journey that his life-changing new surgical technique has taken him on. Through osseointegration, he implants titanium rods into the human skeleton and attaches robotic limbs, allowing patients genuine, effective and permanent mobility.

Munjed has performed this operation on hundreds of Australian civilians, wounded British soldiers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a survivor of the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. But nothing has been as extraordinary as his return to Iraq after eighteen years at the invitation of the Iraqi government to operate on soldiers, police and civilian amputees wounded in the horrific war against ISIS. These stories are both heartbreaking and full of hope, and are told from the unique perspective of a refugee returning to the place of his birth as a celebrated international surgeon.

Books will be available for purchase from 6.30pm in the Allan Scott Auditorium foyer.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MUNJED AL MUDERIS

Associate Professor Munjed Al Muderis is a world-leading osseointegration surgeon and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney. He practises as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Norwest Private Hospital, Sydney Adventist Hospital and Macquarie University Hospital.

Munjed worked with Patrick Weaver on his previous bestseller, Walking Free. Patrick is a highly regarded writer and public relations consultant.

More Information

TEDx Talks: From Refugee to Medical Revolutionary
YouTubeChannel: Munjed Al Muderis (note: surgical content)
Website: Munjed Al Muderis
Facebook: @drmunjedalmuderis
Twitter: @drmunjed_
Sydney Morning Herald: The astonishing journey of surgeon Munjed Al Muderis
The New York Times: Iraqi Surgeon Returns Home to Help the Wounded Get Back in the Fight

Tory Shepherd

Tory Shepherd is the State Editor of The Advertiser, and one of the paper’s senior columnists. After finishing Honours in Anthropology and a Masters in Communication, she ended up as a ‘mature-age’ cadet at the paper a decade ago. She covered state politics, police rounds and health before absconding to fill in as the editor of The Punch, a national opinion website. The Advertiser lured her back to cover federal politics. As State Editor she is shifting her focus more towards State issues. Tory is a humanist, a feminist, and a chilli fanatic.

Twitter: @toryshepherd
Tory Shepherd at The Advertiser