Greater Colchester Area
2nd Medical Student at UCL with interests in neurosurgery and oncology
Events officer for UCL Neurosurgery and Neurology society helping organise Journey in the Encephalon (JTE) series as well as WINS panel and a surgical skills day.
Undertaking a summer research project funded by the Pathology Society at the UCL Cancer Institute under the supervision of Professor Pillay. Aim of the project is to investigate the frequency of TERT mutations in clear cell sarcoma (CCS) -Presented as a poster presentation at the 2025 Winter Meeting for Pathological Society -Presented as an oral presentation at the National Undergraduate Oncology Conference 2026: Awarded 2nd Overall Oral presentation
- Ward Support Volunteer in A&E where I undertake various tasks in the chaotic A&E department
During my 2-day work experience at Ipswich Hospital with Urology Consultant Mr. Tourky, I was able to witness many parts of his day-to-day life including surgeries in theatres, clinics for patients, consent forms with patients, and most importantly how the multidisciplinary team interacts with each other during a surgery. The surgeries included cystolitholapaxy which is a procedure used to remove stones in urethra and kidney using a ureteroscopic laser to break up stones into smaller fragments in order to be suctioned out. Other surgeries included rigid and flexible cystoscopy in order to carry out biopsies of the bladder. The final surgery I observed was an open surgery called a left epididymal excision where a cyst was removed from the scrotum. These surgeries were carried out using either GA ~General Anesthetic or a spinal anesthetic (injection). What really stood out to me is how organized the team was consisting of the anesthetist, the lead surgeon, the trainee registrar, the charge nurse, and the junior doctor. Before the surgeries, the team would huddle before introducing themselves and go through patient by patient in order to be ready and efficient. Another aspect I witnessed was the empathy of the anesthetist and the surgeon during the surgeon in which the patient was awake; how they comforted the patient and reassured him throughout the surgery which is a key attribute to pursuing a career in medicine. From this work experience, I learned how a consultant lives his day-to-day life with surgeries in the morning, post-operation notes, and signing consent forms with patients to clinics with patients - I specifically saw a clinic on prostate cancer to discuss whether patients had high or low risk prostate cancer and whether or not they wanted active surveillance treatment or active treatment including radiotherapy or prostatectomy.
I had the privilege of shadowing Dr. Ramali, a consultant anaesthetist, through two full Robotic-assisted (Da Vinci®) laparoscopic radical prostatectomies. Dr Ramali creatively described the whole procedure as a flight; takeoff was symbolised by him putting the patient to sleep using 3 drugs, propofol, remifentanil and a muscle relaxation drug called rocuronium. The next stage was cruising in which the whole operation occured where the prostate was removed along with the tumor using robotics and equipment such as Maryland bipolar forceps alonside a 3D camera. The final stage was landing in which the patient was made conscious again and Dr.Ramali did this by turning off the space TCI machine in which the drugs were released into the patient's bloodstream. I learned a lot from Dr. Ramali and his team of nurse specialists and surgeons and one thing that stood out was the chemistry and communication between each other, for example, the specialist surgeon indicating when he needed suction of blood or the teamwork when transferring the patient from the surgical table to the hospital bed. Throughout both operations, I truly learned the spirit that health professionals possess and the perseverance they have over such long hours and it is a field I admire to work in one day.
Had the opportunity to visit the Cardio Respiratory department where I had the chance to meet with various consultants and physiologists where I learned vast amounts of information about: -Tape fitting -ECGs -Echocardiography -Pacemakers -Lung Function I had the opportunity to interact with various patients ranging from a pacemaker follow-up to a lung function test to analysing tape fitting graphs.