‘Sometimes people don’t see me as the surgeon’ | Global News Avenue

Growing up in Cyprus, Elena felt like she was different from other girls – she loved math, biology and preferred to wear trousers instead of skirts.

But a family tragedy strengthened her determination to study medicine.

“My parents lost their first child because he had Down syndrome, so he died at the age of four,” she said. “I guess that’s always been in the back of my mind.”

Now a consultant surgeon at one of the UK’s busiest major trauma departments, Elena Theophilidou talks about her successful career and the challenges she faces as a female doctor , including sometimes having to remind patients, “I am the surgeon.”

“I think the first time I carried a carry-on bag was when I was 20 years old, when I was actually in college,” Elena laughs.

“I’m not your typical girl.”

Biology just “makes sense” and math is something she’s good at. But Elena began to wonder, “What do I do with the numbers?”

Although it may sound like a cliche, she said, the thought of being able to help others led her to choose medicine.

“I still don’t think of it as a 9-to-5 job. Because it’s not. As a consultant, I never thought, ‘I can’t be interrupted by work today,'” she said.

She grew up in a Greek family in which her brother’s death was never talked about “extensively.”

“I grew up with it because he died before I was born, so I never met him,” she said. “But it’s always a behind-the-scenes thing.

“It was devastating for my parents. But I think maybe it sparked the idea of ​​medicine.”

Elena’s path to becoming an emergency department surgeon was not an easy one.

As a teenager, she decided to study medicine in England.

“I had to study (A-levels) in my spare time and obviously coming to the UK from abroad you have to get top marks to be considered for medicine,” she said.

“So I had a rough four or five years before I got into medical school.”

At 18, she moved to London and began studying to become a doctor. Eventually, there was an opportunity to specialize in surgery.

“Unfortunately, my surgical internships were all performed by school surgeons who had a different mindset than we have today,” she said.

She said she faced “unprofessional behavior in terms of bullying and a toxic environment”.

“I think we’re very lucky in this day and age, things have changed in terms of professional encounters and the way people behave, especially in treating patients and colleagues,” she said.

“I know I have encountered a lot of difficulties that I would not have encountered if I were not a woman, and I believe many trainees, especially female trainees, would agree with this statement.”

However, Elena has high praise for her colleagues at the Queen’s Medical Center in Nottingham.

“We are very lucky in the East Midlands in that we are one of the deans with a large number of female trainees, particularly female consultant surgeons, who are my role models,” she said.

Elena’s main job is to work with the major trauma team, but is also involved in teams that deal with patients with acute surgical problems.

“When you are a consultant, you are not only responsible for your patients but also for your team,” she said.

Elena says she has never experienced misogyny from a patient, but admits she sometimes has to “remind them that I am a surgeon.”

“Sometimes they don’t see me walking into the room as a surgeon. So that’s something I experienced early on,” she said.

“I think people have a stereotype in their mind of a surgeon. It’s more like an ‘adult’ who walks into the room.

“I’ve never experienced misogyny, but maybe just remind people from time to time that I performed surgery on them.”

But things and times are changing in the medical field, Elena says, and “more education is on the rise.”

“Last year, I had a couple of female medical students come to me and say ‘oh, I didn’t know you could be a female consultant surgeon’,” she said.

But Elena says it’s important for young students to see women undergoing surgery as a profession and to see them as role models.

Elena doesn’t shy away from the fact that being a woman can sometimes feel like a disadvantage.

She said that as a young person in Cyprus she would hear things like: “Oh, you’re a woman, if you become a surgeon or a doctor you won’t have time for your family, you won’t have a family”.

“These thoughts are in your head. But if this is what you want to do, you just do it,” she said.

“Find something that you enjoy doing every day, because your career is a long time and it takes a lot of time – maybe like 20, 30 years of your life. So it’s important to do what you enjoy, Then give it your all.”