An Iraqi surgeon who helped dozens of British military amputees to walk again has been operating on the shattered limbs of Ukrainians.
Munjed Al Muderis fled Saddam Hussein ’s brutal regime in 1999 aged 27 after refusing orders to cut off the ears of army deserters.
The young doctor started a new life in Australia and trained as an orthopaedic surgeon.
He became a world expert on osseointegration – a pioneering technique that enables bionic limbs to be drilled into the stump left by an amputation.
Prof Al Muderis went on to perform 1,500 osseointegration ops around the world, including in the UK where he also passed on his skills to NHS surgeons for free.
And just before Christmas, the professor arrived in war-torn Ukraine hoping the technique could transform the lives of people injured by Vladimir Putin ’s bombs.
But he admits what he found was far worse than he imagined, as surgeons struggled to deal with limbs that had been torn apart.
Prof Al Muderis revealed: “I was quite shocked at the extent of their need. We’ve found better medical resources in Syria.”
He and his team spent three days in the city of Lviv, arriving on December 19 just as Putin was ramping up his offensive.
The 50-year-old had been invited by the Ukrainian Health Ministry to work in the country’s largest hospital, where surgeons are dealing with around 80 war victims every week.
The professor and his team carried on operating even as air raid warnings urged locals to head for the bomb shelters.
He said: “I was in Ukraine to help – I wasn’t going to stop just because the sirens go off.
“We had to carry on. It is not possible to move a patient who is intubated and unconscious.
“When you have lived under a monster like Saddam, I am not worried about Putin.”
He and his small team were able to carry out 20 operations and dozens of assessments.
But he was not able to introduce the life-changing technique that he had hoped to share.
More than 5,000 Ukrainians have had limbs amputated since the Russian invasion began on February 24 last year.
But the professor revealed: “The situation was much worse than I expected, I’ve seen some terrible injuries. To give a bionic limb, the wound has to be clean and well healed. If it isn’t, it will fail.
“The Ukrainian surgeons have had no experience of dealing with bodies blasted by war.
“They don’t have the skills to clean up limbs full of shrapnel.
“These surgeons normally spend their days repairing simple fractures of the leg and doing hip and knee replacements.”
Among those he and his team operated on was a 30-year-old dad whose wife was killed in a rocket attack on their home in the Donbas region in August.
The dad survived, along with their five-year-old daughter, but he suffered a horrific injury to his upper leg and knee that has left him confined ever since to his bed or a wheelchair.
Ukrainian surgeons had tried to operate several months ago, but his leg remained full of shrapnel and became heavily infected.
Calling on his expertise in dealing with war-ravaged limbs, Prof Al Muderis managed to save the man’s leg from amputation.
He said: “These are complex injuries. There are probably thousands like him who have not had proper surgery on their wounds due to the inexperience of the Ukrainian doctors.”
Since building his worldwide reputation, Prof Al Muderis has made repeated visits to England over the last seven years to teach osseointegration at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham – giving his services for free. He has also helped out with more than 30 operations here, giving a new lease of life to our servicemen and women who lost limbs in the Gulf Wars and in Afghanistan.
One of his biggest fans is Prince Harry, who asked to meet the surgeon while on a tour of Australia in 2015 because he had operated on one of his best friends and former Army colleagues.
The prince met him while visiting Lt Alistair Spearing at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney, where he had bionic limbs fitted by Prof Al Muderis after losing both his legs in Afghanistan in 2011.
Lt Spearing had been caught in an IED explosion while trying to give first aid to three colleagues injured moments earlier in another blast.
The surgeon himself is no stranger to the risk of death, having come close to being murdered by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen while he was a young doctor at Baghdad University Hospital. When he and his colleagues were ordered to cut off the ears of three busloads of army deserters, his head of department refused – and was shot dead. In order to avoid carrying out the order – or being next to be given the bullet – Prof Al Muderis hid for hours in the ladies’ toilets before escaping and fleeing Iraq.
He has been back to Iraq on eight separate mercy missions to help amputees in the nearly 20 years since the dictator was overthrown.
Professor's comfort for man who lost his wife
Olexandre Panchanko lost his wife Natalia in a missile strike which left him and young daughter Nadia badly injured.
Natalia, 26, died instantly as the bomb hit their kitchen in Krasnogorov, Donetsk. Olexandre’s leg and knee cap were shattered and Nadia suffered burns as the house went up in flames.
Olexandre, 30, had several operations as the leg became infected, eating away a section of bone. Prof Al Muderis – with his patient above – saved the leg by clearing shrapnel and debris.
Olexandre was able to stand for the first time in five months and hopes to walk unaided soon.
Doctor saved my arm after missile-hit horror
Wounded gran Pylypenko Olha had her arm saved by Prof Al Muderis after a Russian missile struck just yards from her home.
Bloodied Pylypenko, 69, was left stricken on the path, her arm hanging by muscle and tendons.
Six neighbours lay injured alongside her in Toretsk, in the Donbass region, in August.
With only poor care available, she was patched up badly and feared she would lose her arm.
Pylypenko, above, was later referred to Prof Al Muderis, who realigned the arm and repaired nerves and tendons. Now she has sensation in the limb and is able to move it gingerly.
Bionic limb gives hope to bomb victim Yuriy
Widower Yuriy Ivanchenko had his right leg amputated after being crippled by shelling.
Yuriy, 72, was in his garden, in a small town in Donetsk, when a missile struck in September. His broken left leg could be repaired but his right was a mess. Prof Al Muderis – seen with Yuriy above – will carry out a bionic limb procedure in April.
A titanium rod will be inserted into the bone and then fixed to the prosthetic.
Yuriy said: “It’s not the same as having your own leg, but better to have a limb that functions than your own that is painful and difficult to use.
“We lived with this shelling for months. You pray every day it won’t happen to you.”
