Random Interview: Alan: Retired surgeon and volunteer at the Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum
By Kaf Blamire Thursday 22 July, 2010 20:03
The Hunterian museum is not for those with a squeamish nature. Inside the packed cabinets are jars full of preserved specimens, including an in-depth study of a human foot, complete with a corn, the skeleton of an “Irish giant”, diseased body parts as well as a range of animals with skin folded back to reveal their delicate insides. The exhibition is a time freeze of John Hunter’s quest to understand the reality of life and how it works. Entering, I was stopped in my tracks by a display of fetuses, preserved over 200 years ago. I felt overwhelmed by the competing sensations of sadness and curiosity but realised there was something undeniably fascinating about them. A few weeks later I spoke with retired surgeon Alan about his experiences as a surgeon and why he thinks the Hunterian museum is so important.
SNIPE: What sort of a surgeon are you and why did you decide to become one?
ALAN: I’m a urologist, that’s water works. ‘Piddlers’, as we used to be called. I’m a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and I retired in 2005. Basically people and medicine fascinate me.
S: But there is a difference between being a people person and wanting to look at people’s insides..
A: Basically if you want to do it you want to do it. I found it fascinating the process of the diagnosis and treatment and satisfaction and joy comes from the patient being better than when they come in.
S: As a surgeon how do you manage your composure and nerves during the most intense operations?
A: You train so that you become used to handling tissue and redesigning parts. People ask me “what was the first incision like”? You never forget that there is a patient there and you do the best for the patient. In emergency situations nothing in the textbook can really prepare you. Yes you can set bones, operate on a kidney, but it’s all about working from basic principles. You decide to take it out, save part of it. You take a deep breath and think back to basics. None of us can say that we have never sweated a bit and thought – this isn’t going right, but you take a grip of yourself, stay calm and don’t panic. Sadly, patients do die on the operating table and that is the worst thing, but it’s part of the experience.
S: Does being a surgeon make you think more about your own body and the fragility of life?
A: No, basically. I am a bit scared of having an operation. I know too much. Although I have had a few myself.
S: What drew you to decide to volunteer at the Hunterian Museum?
A: As a surgeon I am used to talking to people and explaining to patients so they are aware of details. It’s a very useful perspective to be able to now talk to people and help them make sense of the exhibits.
S: The museum is interesting but also a very strange and curious place. Thinking of the fetuses, how do you think this is relevant to people? Why do you think there is a value in the public seeing these exhibits?
A: It’s very powerful to see these images in 3 dimension, much more powerful than pictures. Going back to your example, people ask all kinds of questions, have the babies been killed are they plastic? You can stop them and show people this is how we developed, this is how you became who you are. In the rest of the museum there are displays of diseases we no longer see anymore. People can see how surgery has developed. As horrific as it is, you can see how war has helped improve medical advances in plastic surgery, blood transfusion and fractures. Even in my lifetime there have been tremendous developments. I like saying to the young surgeons, “I know I sound like a boring old man, but in my day we didn’t have keyhole surgery” and they look at me with mouths aghast. I’ve also seen the development of antibiotics, anesthesia techniques, ultra scan, etc.
S: John Hunter seemed to be quite obsessed with looking at the insides of all kinds of animals as well as human parts, do you think he was an eccentric to some degree?
A: No, I think he was a very interesting chap, he was not only a surgeon but was also interested in how things work. There are various animals displayed so you can see how they work as he was interested in all living things, making comparisons. He had a brilliant brain. Things were more deficient then; we have so much more technology and this is how people learnt. Also the embalming techniques are quite advanced for the time.
S: Some may say there is an element of beauty in the exhibition, Do you think there is a blurry line between science and art?
A: Absolutely, Some artists come into the museum to sketch the exhibits. I quite like to watch, not being any sort of an artist myself. As a surgeon though, you can’t leave anything to chance. You can’t think, that’s sewn together reasonably well, I’ll just leave that there, because it will come apart. It is an exact science when you take things out. Some surgeons sketch their operations. Some of the original surgeons were tremendous artists.
S: If I’m honest, when I was walking around the museum I started to feel a little bit sick by the time I got to a video of a heart operation. Do you think there are two types of people, those who can handle it and those who can’t?
A: Well there are but we all have our own particular areas. I used to work with someone who was a brain surgeon. I can’t stand it. It looks horrible. The thought of all the brain and the mind and the soul. You don’t know what you are going to produce at the end with the brain. When you are in the brain it just looks the same.
I decided to keep out of there and avoid that. When you are operating on a kidney you know exactly how to achieve the outcome.
S: But I suppose if you were at a dinner party it would be quite impressive to say “actually I am a brain surgeon.”
A: No not really. Very few of us accept we are surgeons. At cocktail parties you end up getting cornered by people asking about their aches and pains.
For more information about how to visit the Hunterian Museum go to www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums
