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David Nott

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David Nott
OBE OStJ FRCS
Addressing the "Keep Her Safe" conference, November 2013
Born
David Malcolm Nott

1956 (age 67–68)
Carmarthen, Wales
EducationHulme Grammar School, University of St Andrews, University of Manchester
Known forWorking as a volunteer surgeon in war zones
Medical career
ProfessionSurgeon
InstitutionsCharing Cross; Chelsea and Westminster; St Mary's; Royal Marsden
Sub-specialtiesGeneral surgery, vascular surgery
AwardsRobert Burns Humanitarian Award (2016)

David Malcolm Nott OBE OStJ FRCS (born 1956) is a Welsh consultant surgeon who mainly works in London hospitals as a general and vascular surgeon, but also volunteers to work in disaster and war zones. Having recognised that training others could greatly increase his capacity to help, Nott established the David Nott Foundation, along with his wife Elly, to organise training in emergency surgery for others working in war and disaster zones.[1] He has been honoured for this dangerous work and is now often styled the "Indiana Jones of surgery".[2][3]

Education and family

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Nott was born in Carmarthen in 1956 and lived with his grandparents at Trelech, near Carmarthen, until the age of four.[4] He then lived in the Midlands and Rochdale from where he attended Hulme Grammar School.[5][6] His father, Malcolm George Nott, was born in Burma and educated in Madras, India, and was half-Indian and half-Burmese.[7] He was an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, specialising in hip replacement;[5] his mother, born Yvonne Jones, was a nurse from Wales.[5][8] His father encouraged Nott to follow him into a medical career,[8][9] and also inspired his son's later war work by taking him to see the 1984 film The Killing Fields.[9]

Nott was not successful at school initially but, after resitting his A-Levels, he studied medicine at the universities of St Andrews and Manchester, graduating in 1981.[5]

As a child, often left on his own, Nott was fascinated with building model aircraft and later learned to fly, gaining both a private pilot licence and a commercial pilot licence. He became an air transport pilot and flew for Hamlin Jet in Luton, as a side job, for about ten years.[4][10][11]

Surgery

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During his medical training in Manchester and Liverpool, he was attracted to surgery.[5] He took a special interest in vascular surgery after watching a Liverpool surgeon, Peter Harris, save someone by operating on their ruptured aortic aneurysm.[5] He combined this with general surgery, practising at London hospitals including Charing Cross, Chelsea and Westminster, St Mary's and the Royal Marsden.[5] As a vascular surgeon, he specialises in keyhole techniques, especially for repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysms, and distal arterial bypasses.[10][12] In 1999, he was the first surgeon in the world to perform a femoral-popliteal bypass using only laparoscopic techniques.[10] His other work includes appendectomies; hernia repairs; removal of lipomas and haemorrhoids; and treatment of varicose veins using ligation or sclerotherapy.[10]

He began working in disaster and war zones in 1993, when he saw footage of the war in Sarajevo. He has worked in disaster and war zones for several weeks each year since then, working as a volunteer surgeon for agencies such as Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross. He has also served in a similar capacity for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, where he holds the rank of wing commander.[13]

The locations of his work have included Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chad, Darfur, Gaza, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Sierra Leone and opposition-held areas of Syria.[5][9] Between 2013 and 2014 Nott trained and assisted medical students and other doctors to conduct trauma surgeries in opposition-held East Aleppo.[14]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he visited Ukraine to train surgeons, in conjunction with UOSSM International.[15]

David Nott Foundation

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On a mission to Libya, Nott began to realise that many of the medical staff there were not trained for the kinds of traumatic injuries they were encountering. He began running a Definitive Surgical Trauma Skills workshop for his colleagues in the hospital.[16] This experience, in part, led to Nott setting up the David Nott Foundation in 2015, along with his wife Elly, who led the charity as Chief Executive until 2019.[17] The foundation is aimed at assisting with the training of surgeons for areas of conflict.[18][19]

The David Nott Foundation provides surgical training for doctors and nurses who work in war and disaster zones. The training courses focus on life-saving surgical procedures for austere environments, with doctors given the opportunity to practice on real bodies, supported by other resources, including videos and anatomical models.[20] The courses are run with the Royal College of Surgeons for five days every six months and are fully funded by the foundation through a scholarship scheme for surgeons working in hostile conditions.[21]

These courses are also delivered on the front line, where doctors are unable to leave their posts, and have been held in Yemen, Libya and Iraq, among others.[22] The front line Hostile Environment Surgical Training courses (HEST) last for four days. They focus on a wide range of skills, including treating gun shot wounds and carrying out vascular surgery, with the help of a full-body simulator.[23] The simulator is a perfectly accurate model of the human body and can be used to demonstrate various procedures.[24]

In 2022, the foundation provided surgical training for areas of conflict in Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[25][26]

Honours and awards

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Nott was admitted as a fellow to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1989. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours.[27] In 2016 he received the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award and the Pride of Britain Award. He received honorary degrees from the University of Salford in 2015,[28] from the University of St Andrews in 2017,[29] and was given a honorary doctorate by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in July 2017.[30] Nott was shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize for his book War Doctor in 2020.[31]

Personal life

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In 2015 Nott married Eleanor ("Elly"). They have a daughter.[3][32] Elly worked for the Institute of Strategic Studies before taking on her role with the foundation.[3][32]

In 2014 he had lunch with the Queen.[9][13] When he found it difficult to speak about his traumatic experiences, she put him at ease by inviting him to take twenty minutes (and some dog biscuits) to befriend her corgis.[33] In 2016 Nott appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs: his music choices included "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones' and "Fix You" by Coldplay, his favourite being "Good Golly, Miss Molly" by Little Richard. His book choice was Kallimni Arabi Mazboot, and his luxury item was a fishing rod.[4] Also in 2016 he spoke of his Christian faith on BBC1's Victoria Derbyshire.[34][35] In 2020 he appeared in Christmas University Challenge in the Manchester team which was beaten in the final by The Courtauld Institute of Art.[36]

Publications

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  • Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine: A Practical Guide, Springer, 2014, ISBN 9781447129271
  • War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, Picador, 2019, ISBN 9781509837038 In February 2019, War Doctor was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.[37]

References

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  1. ^ O'Kelly, Lisa (24 February 2019). "War doctor David Nott: 'The adrenaline was overpowering'". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  2. ^ Nott, D. (12 March 2014). "David Nott: Drawn to the sound of gunfire". British Medical Journal. 348: 348. doi:10.1136/bmj.g2016. PMID 24622689. S2CID 206901811.
  3. ^ a b c "Surgery's Indiana Jones finally gets the girl", The Times, 28 March 2015
  4. ^ a b c "BBC Radio 4 – Desert Island Discs, David Nott". BBC. 5 June 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Newton, Charlotte (April 2015). "Interview: David Nott". The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 97 (4): 166–169. doi:10.1308/147363515X14134529302902.
  6. ^ "Index entry: Nott, David M." Transcription of Birth and death registration for England and Wales. ONS. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  7. ^ "Nott, Malcome George". Royal College of Surgeons. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  8. ^ a b "Surgeon carries out op by phone". Manchester Evening News. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d Elizabeth Grice (29 January 2015). "'There is a buzz to cheating death', says war zone surgeon David Nott". The Daily Telegraph.
  10. ^ a b c d "Mr David Nott, Consultant General Surgeon". BUPA. 2016.
  11. ^ Nott, David (2019). War Doctor. pp. Flying In chapter. ISBN 9781509837038.
  12. ^ "Mr David M Nott OBE OStJ DMCC BSc MD FRCS". Lister Hospital.
  13. ^ a b "Queen's 2012 Birthday Honours for Service personnel and Defence civilians". Ministry of Defence. 16 June 2012.
  14. ^ Taub, Ben (27 June 2016). "Syria's War on Doctors". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  15. ^ Faulkner, Doug (23 April 2022). "David Nott: The war surgeon helping doctors save lives in Ukraine". BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  16. ^ Beckerman, Hannah (22 February 2019). "War surgeon David Nott: 'To skirt death and survive is euphoric'". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  17. ^ "Elly Nott". David Nott Foundation. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  18. ^ "David Nott Foundation". Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  19. ^ Evans, Jason (18 June 2022). "Welsh war surgeon helping to save lives on the frontline in Ukraine". WalesOnline. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  20. ^ Nott, Elly (10 February 2019). "David Nott Foundation STAE scholarship course". The Hippocratic Post. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  21. ^ Pyke, Chris (14 March 2019). "War surgeon David Nott, the man who won't be cowed by Islamic State or the world's most dangerous places". Wales Online. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  22. ^ "Our Work". David Nott Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 June 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  23. ^ Milligan, Ivar. "Kenya HEST April 2019". David Nott Foundation. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  24. ^ Milligan, Ivar. "February 2019 Newsletter". David Nott Foundation. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  25. ^ David Nott Foundation (10 March 2022). "Frontline online surgical course for Ukraine". The Hippocratic Post. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  26. ^ "The British surgeons training Ukrainian doctors to treat war injuries via Zoom". ITV News. 11 March 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  27. ^ "No. 60173". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 2012. p. 6.
  28. ^ Dobson, Charlotte (15 July 2015). "Courteeners frontman Liam Fray dons cap and gown at Salford University". Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  29. ^ Clark, Leeza (20 June 2017). "Python heads honorary degree list". The Courier. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  30. ^ "Syria war surgeon David Nott gets honorary degree". BBC News. 3 July 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  31. ^ Comerford, Ruth (2 July 2020). "Michele Kirsch wins £10,000 RSL Christopher Bland Prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  32. ^ a b Charlie Cooper (24 January 2016). "David Nott interview: War surgeon reveals how healthcare workers are being 'systematically' targeted in Syria". The Independent.
  33. ^ "Surgeon David Nott recalls how Queen's corgis helped him". BBC News. 5 June 2016.
  34. ^ Victoria Derbyshire Show at 10:05 on 1 November 2016.
  35. ^ Pride of Britain winners 2016 BBC1 Victoria Derbyshire Show, 1 November 2016 – at archive.org
  36. ^ Final University Challenge Christmas 2020 Courtauld Institute of Art v Manchester on YouTube
  37. ^ Reader: David Nott; Abridger: Richard Hamilton; Producer: Elizabeth Allard (25 February 2019). "Book of the Week: War Doctor". Book of the Week. [BBC. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
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