Munjed Al Muderis

Munjed Al Muderis (born 25 June 1972) is an Australian adjunct clinical professor in orthopaedic surgery, author and human rights activist.

He has done pioneering work on prosthetics, especially on titanium devices.

Al Muderis was born in Iraq to a rich family and became a surgeon under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

He was a medical student in Basra at the start of the Gulf War in August 1990.

As a junior surgeon, he emigrated from Iraq to Australia.

He travelled through Indonesia and Malaysia and reached Australia where he was kept in at an immigration detention centre near Derby, Western Australia.

He was released after 10 months and carried on his career in medicine, eventually specialising in osseointegration surgery.

Al Muderis wrote the book Walking Free on his experiences in Iraq, in the Australian immigration detention system, and on his career in Australia.

Al Muderis was born under the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

His father was a former judge of the Supreme Court of Iraq and had authority in the Marine Corps, while his uncle was a descendant of the second royal family and Prime Minister, when Iraq was still a kingdom.

His mother was a school principal who had been demoted for refusing to join the Ba'ath Party.

Al Muderis graduated from Baghdad College High School in 1991, where he was a classmate of Qusay Hussein.

He went on to study medicine at various universities, including the Baghdad University from 1991 to 1997, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

At the beginning of the Gulf War, he was a second year medical student in Basra.

He fled the city in the early days of the war, returning later to see the aftermath of the Basra uprising.

In 1999, he was forced to flee Iraq when he was working as a junior surgeon at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre in Baghdad.

A busload of army draft evaders were brought into the hospital for the top of their ears to be amputated under Saddam's orders.

The senior surgeon in the operating theatre refused the orders and was immediately interrogated and shot in front of several medical staff.

Instead of complying with the orders, Al Muderis decided to flee.

He escaped the operating theatre and hid in the female toilets for five hours.

Shortly after, he fled to Jordan before the authorities caught up with him and moved on to Kuala Lumpur.

From there, he took a people-smuggling route to Christmas Island, where he was sent to the Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre.

He was detained there until his identity was verified, given the number 982.

He was punished with solitary confinement and was repeatedly told to go back where he came from after fellow detainees who caused riots blamed him.

Ten months after being sent to the detention centre, he was granted refugee status and freed.

Upon release, he only landed a job at Mildura Base Hospital as an emergency unit and orthopaedic resident, after sending out more than 100 resumes.

A year later, he moved to the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and travelled to many different countries, completing specialisation fellowships and attending short-term courses.

Al Muderis developed a new form of implant, osseointegration prosthetic limb, which addressed several issues previously faced by patients.

Orthopedics This Week has described Al Muderis as "The Most Incredible Orthopedist You'll Ever Read About".

News Corp Australia and The Australian Women's Weekly have ranked Al Muderis as one of the world's top osseointegration surgeons.

Traditional and rigid socket based technology in some cases can be replaced with surgery that inserts a titanium implant into the bone.

Osseoperception may occurs as the prosthetic is anchored directly to the bone allowing some patients to recover a certain level of feeling.

The implant's surface is made of highly porous titanium allowing for ingrowth of bone.

An adaptor is designed with a smooth surface to minimise friction and coated with titanium niobium for antibacterial purposes.

The adaptor is fixed to a control device and is connected to the exterior of the prosthetic limb.

Putting on and taking off the limb can be done in less than ten seconds.

Osseointegration surgery aims to provide amputees with greater mobility and reduced discomfort.

Al Muderis was a first year resident at Saddam Hussein Medical Centre in Baghdad before he fled Iraq and his career was disrupted.

In Australia, he first worked at Mildura Base Hospital as an emergency unit and orthopaedic resident.

He moved to Melbourne four months later and worked at Austin Repatriation Hospital as a surgical registrar, followed by a year at Canberra Hospital.