Emirati surgeon traces her pioneering journey in the UAE

Gulf News

Dr Sara Al Bastaki is the UAE’s first Emirati surgeon for colorectal cancer. “It is such a great pleasure to be able to share my knowledge and expertise with the people of UAE,” said Dr Al Bastaki, whose family and ancestors, as the name suggests, are from the historic Bastakiya district of Dubai.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/watch-emirati-surgeon-traces-her-pioneering-journey-in-the-uae-1.92331806  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Emirati #surgeon

Transcript

00:00The passion of surgery started since I was a child actually. I loved helping people.

00:09My name is Dr. Sara Elbestaki, consultant colorectal surgeon in Sheikh Khalifa Medical

00:14City, Abu Dhabi. I'm also the division head of general surgery. In addition to that,

00:19I am actually president of Emirates Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery.

00:24Tell us about your journey and how you've reached where you are today.

00:29The passion of surgery started since I was a child actually. I loved helping people. When we

00:36were children, we liked to play around with the kits of medical tools and all this, so I knew

00:42that I liked to work with my hands. What motivated me when my sister, Dr. Sara Elbestaki, actually

00:48she traveled to Ireland to pursue her medical career. This was really a highlight for me

00:54and my mother, who always supported all of her children to be one of the pioneers to serve this

01:02country. So she invested in all of us. When I finished my high school, I went to Royal College

01:08of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, and I stayed there for eight years and I even worked there. Then I

01:16came back to pursue more in a surgical career. So the thing is, we didn't have as much residency

01:24program established, so my country supported us to travel abroad to get the experience from

01:32expertise abroad. So I went to Germany. I did my surgical residency program there. I had to learn

01:38German language. It was tough, but it was beautiful. I finished that, then I did a fellowship in UK,

01:44United Kingdom in colorectal surgery. Then I came back in 2018 and I started my job in one of my

01:52very well-known hospitals, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi. It's one of the largest hospitals

01:57in Abu Dhabi. Can you tell us about the awareness that is building on rectal cancer? For example,

02:04not much is said about that. The awareness, as you're aware, that Abu Dhabi is the first city

02:11who started to do colorectal screening program at the age of 40. Usually other countries, they start

02:18from 45, 50. So Abu Dhabi is the first in the world because we have high prevalence of colorectal

02:25cancers among people in Abu Dhabi and UAE. So we said prevention is better than cure, so we needed

02:32to go a bit younger to do the screening. And the screening program is really simple. It's either

02:39you do a fit test, which is a tool sample to be given and you can detect it in laboratory,

02:46or you do a colonoscopy. The second thing, what my part came, like I wanted to build up a society.

02:53I'm a founder of Emirates Colorectal Surgery Society and this is under the umbrella of

03:02Emirates Medical Association. Why I started this society? It's because I needed to enhance

03:08our surgeons to know more about how to implement the updated management for patients who have

03:16colorectal diseases. So if you have a society, you can connect with other expertise around

03:23the world. You can connect with pioneers. You can bring them. For example, I'm going to

03:29have a congress in March, which will be the first Emirates International Colorectal Surgery

03:34Congress. And I'm going to bring people from Gulf, from the regional and from international,

03:41who are actually established colorectal surgeons, so we can exchange our experiences together.

03:49So to build a better colorectal system among the hospitals. It's the 51st UAE National Day.

03:56Do you have a message? One of the messages that really inspired, I was inspired is the biggest,

04:03the bigger your dreams, the bigger your achievements, as Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid

04:07Al Maktoum said. The greatest achievement in UAE is to live in harmony and to provide a very

04:14peaceful environment. In addition to that, I think all nationals and residents of UAE,

04:21they are aware that UAE is providing a very peaceful environment, such as laws for expats

04:29to actually to protect their rights. So we are one community and we are brothers, sisters.

04:37So happy National Day, everyone.

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