00:00 Hospitals can be a scary place for children, especially those undergoing surgical procedures.
00:09 But did you know that surgery for the young was not always available in Malaysia?
00:15 Paediatric surgery, a niche subspecialty that involves operating on infants, children and
00:21 teenagers, was non-existent in Malaya at the time of independence or even the formation
00:26 of Malaysia in 1963.
00:31 Children and adults used to be treated in the same wards and with the same medical equipment
00:37 that weren't specifically designed for smaller bodies.
00:41 So how did paediatric surgery in Malaysia come to be?
00:46 With this year marking the 50th anniversary of paediatric surgery in the country, University
00:51 Science Islam Malaysia Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Dr Mahmood Mohamad Noor, traces
00:57 its history back to the early 1970s.
01:03 There is a need to have children being taken care of by people who are trained to handle
01:13 children.
01:14 So, a surgeon, for example, will handle from a newborn to a paediatric.
01:23 It's because of numbers, alright.
01:25 We didn't have enough people, trained people, so the need was not there.
01:31 It would take many years before it was understood and accepted that children have needs that
01:37 vary from adults, and that young patients would recover more quickly when treated by
01:42 doctors who are trained to care for them.
01:47 Children require instruments, similar instruments but smaller in size.
01:56 We were catering for adults basically, alright.
01:59 So when I started operating, I didn't have the fine scissors, the fine forceps, okay.
02:07 The facilities itself were not, what do you call, tailored towards the needs of children,
02:15 alright.
02:16 By the 1980s, the need for specialised paediatric surgery became clear, especially as doctors
02:23 increasingly gained access to new technologies.
02:27 And this was further cemented in 1988, when conjoined twins were successfully separated
02:33 by a team of surgeons led by Mahmood himself.
02:38 The growing specialty now sees 84 surgeons actively practising in Malaysia as of this
02:44 year, with the priority shifting from ensuring the mere survival of patients to treating
02:50 them with minimally invasive surgical intervention.
02:55 With paediatric surgery in Malaysia celebrating its golden jubilee this year, Mahmood strongly
03:00 advocates for the establishment of regional children's hospitals across the country,
03:06 so that all children can benefit from the work of these good doctors.
03:12 [Music]
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