Trauma and Orthopedic surgeon at National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation
Dhaka, Bangladesh
It was supposed to be a regular trip for Dr Forid Uddin, who was traveling from his native Dhaka to Yangon to teach an AO Alliance course to young surgeons from Myanmar.
As the plane began its descent on Yangon airport on May 8, 2019, it slid off the runway and broke into three pieces. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but most of the 35 passengers suffered spine injuries, including Forid. “The accident happened so fast that we did not have time to be scared. And when the impact happened, I felt such a severe pain that it kept me busy,” he recalls.
An experienced trauma and orthopedic surgeon himself, Forid was aware of the kind of treatment his condition might require and praised the quality of the care provided at Yangon General Hospital.
Forid has been involved with AO Alliance since it’s predecessor, the AO Socio Economic Committee (AO SEC), was operational. At AO SEC he was a member of the Bangladesh Core Group. When AO Alliance took over its activities in 2015, Forid started as faculty for the Alliance, training young surgeons in Bangladesh on improving fracture care. He went on to become national course chair and then regional faculty ”“ a coveted role for faculty to teach abroad. His first destination as regional faculty was Sri Lanka in 2018, Myanmar was to be the next in 2019 ”“ alas, turbulence got in the way.
Not one to let a challenging experience get in the way of his passion for knowledge and surgery though, Forid flew over to Switzerland in December 2019 to attend the AO Davos Courses. We had the immense pleasure of inviting him to share his experiences with AO Alliance at the AO Alliance faculty dinner, which gathered over 40 of our faculty surgeons from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, as well as AO governance, AO Past-Presidents and some of the AO Alliance Founding Fathers.