Hats off to the women in surgery

The month of March comes to a close with pomp and glamour for the female medical fraternity! Today, the Kenya Association of Women Surgeons (KAWS) celebrates its inaugural Annual Scientific Congress in Mombasa. This is no mean feat! 

The journey to this day has been a long and arduous one. The surgical discipline across the world has always been a male dominated field. This couldn’t be more obvious in Kenya.

Training in surgery is extremely demanding, with maddening calls and long hours in theatre. It is a training that literally cuts one off from society, family and friends for five to six years, in pursuit of the honours.

In the past, after graduating from six years of medical school, the women were expected to settle down in marriage and raise children. It was assumed that they were unable to cope with the time-consuming surgical specialties. These became the preserve of their male counterparts.

Despite these patriarchal assumptions, the profession recognises the women pioneers who defied these odds to level the playing field with dedication, perseverance and patience. 

These women include Dr Prabha Choksey in Ophthalmology, first female chair of Surgery department at the University of Nairobi; Dr Sarla Maroo and Dr Urmila Ramrakha in obstetrics and gynaecology. They contributed immensely to the development of the cohort of women surgeons in Kenya with a lot of enthusiasm. 

As a result of their effort, today we proudly boast the presence of women surgeons in previously male-dominated areas. We celebrate pioneers in neurosurgery, including Dr Sylvia Shitsama and Dr Beverly Cheserem; Dr Neema Mbaruku in orthopaedics; Dr Yvonne Karimi in Urology; Dr Jordana Okoko in ear, nose, and throat surgery; Dr Adeline Vilembwa in oral and maxillofacial surgery and the many many more who have come after them. 

It is also a sombre moment when the society observes a minute of silence, paying tribute to the heroines we have bid farewell to in the profession. Two weeks ago, we bid farewell to Dr Zawadi Wambui Ismael, a cheerful, caring soul who dedicated her life to the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Dr Zawadi had a larger-than-life personality that endeared many to her. The loss is still acutely reverberating throughout the fraternity, and the ripple effect is still sweeping across the community she served. 

It takes five years to train a dentist and then another five years to make them an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. My first encounter with these surgeons in training was when I was doing my internship. I wondered why they had to spend four months rotating in the medical wards yet they were dentists . It took me several years to grasp the full extent of the delicate job they do. 

It is their job to reconstruct the mangled-up faces of trauma victims with multiple injuries. They are the same doctors who spend hours digging up tumours of the face, mouth and facial bones, fixing broken jaws and orbits, repairing cleft lips and palates, you name it! It is a job I wouldn’t wish for in a thousand years. What is even harder is the patience to take the same patient back to theatre multiple times for step-wise repair as they watch in satisfaction as the lost form is restored. 

This is what Dr Zawadi set out to accomplish when she headed off to Turkey to study dentistry. Being a limited community of Kenyan students in Ankarra, Dr Zawadi voluntarily took up the role of “Mother” to all these young adults who had just left home for the first time, to get an education in a strange country. She took all of them under her wing, helping them settle in, cooking amazing dishes that reminded them of home and freely dishing advice to all. They fondly called her Zawadi “Abla”, meaning “big sister”. 

She brought home her degree with pride but she knew she wasn’t done yet. She spiritedly threw herself into the training of oral and maxillofacial surgery, horning her skills and developing a deep interest in research.

She was excited to serve the people of Embu and the larger Upper Eastern with dedication. Just when the rest of the world was beginning to reap off the effort of this amazing lady, death took her. 

As women surgeons, we are grateful for the strides made in our profession, for the recognition that indeed we are wearers of many hats. That we can excel in science, academia and service but still remain true to our desire to travel the world, influence policy, advocate for our patients and raise families, should we choose to. Indeed, we have brought our own chairs to the table and we are here to stay!

Dr Bosire is an obstetrician/gynaecologist