School Student
What's surgery like?
Ms Helen Witherow
Consultant Surgeon
I became a surgeon via a rather tortuous route. My father was an Orthopaedic surgeon and I had been put off surgery because of the long hours he spent at the hospital. I didn’t feel like doing the same.
My real interest was in art but it was my mother and her conviction that “all women should be financially independent” that persuaded me to do dentistry. This seemed to be a more secure job and it lent itself to part time work. The idea of working part time and doing art the rest of my time was appealing.
However, things didn’t work out that way. I remember whilst I was a dental student watching Mike Wake, a Maxillofacial consultant in Birmingham performing a bimaxillary osteotomy. I was amazed that someone could survive such an operation and how it completely transformed her from an abnormal looking girl to a rather beautiful one. It was the facial osteotomy work that really hooked me; how surgery can completely change people’s confidence and their life.
Once I had decided this was what I wanted to do, I had to get into Medical School. For me the main barrier was getting Primary FDS, which I really struggled with. This is the only exam I ever failed and I managed to fail it quite a few times! I still remember how good it felt to get that exam. I financed my way through medical school at Bristol with a mixture of locums, dental practise and as a gold smith. (This was an interest of mine that I developed at Birmingham’s jewellery quarter whilst studying Dentistry).
I enjoyed all of my surgical posts, in particular plastics at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. I worked for a Consultant in Craniofacial and Reconstructive surgery, Norman Waterhouse. He was inspirational. I admired his ability to motivate others and his capacity to respond to challenges, both surgical and political. It was as a result of this work that I spent 18 months as a Craniofacial Fellow at Great Ormond Street, which has helped me develop the skull base work that I now specialise in.
Work life balance is difficult in many professions. I have a non-medical husband and two children. My experience is that one tends to ossilate between spending too much time with work or family, depending on deadlines or family crises. I did find it particularly helpful to be able to spend 3 years as a Flexible Trainee whilst my children were very young, which enabled me to continue working while also spending time with my family. I’m not sure I would have returned to surgery if this had not been possible. It is also really important is to have good holidays, and lots of them!
I have never regretted choosing Maxillofacial surgery as a career. I love working on the face, thinking of new ways to try to improve facial deformity. We all spend much of our lives at work and it is great to have a job you enjoy!
