DR Asha Malan
Johannesburg - The first woman vascular surgeon to head an academic unit in South Africa and one of just seven qualified female vascular surgeons in the country, Dr Asha Malan, said more women are needed in surgery.
Malan is the head of the division for vascular surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State, and is the the youngest head of a vascular surgery unit yet.
The 36-year-old said she was honoured to represent women in the field of vascular surgery, an historically male-dominated field, and one of her main objectives now is to attract more women to this field.
“To be very honest – I had not previously thought about this (being the first woman to head a unit for vascular surgery). I have always been of the opinion that if I achieve something in life, it should be because I worked hard enough for it and was blessed with God-given opportunities,” she said.
Malan added that it is a privilege to be in this position at such a young age.
“I have been in the fortunate position where hard work indeed paid off and to a large extent, I was incredibly lucky. I believe my age counts in my favour – I am keen to learn (which is a daily exercise) and take on new opportunities. I am still ‘naïve’ enough to dream big and market my dream of offering state-of-the-art vascular surgical care for all,” she said.
Malan decided to become a medical doctor at school when her biology teacher, Mrs Em Volschenk, triggered in her an appreciation for the workings of the human body. It was the surgeon's obsessive and perfectionist personality that attracted her to vascular surgery.
“Vascular surgery is one of the most beautiful types of surgery. It is neat and clean, but at the same time challenging. It provides the opportunity to perform surgery on any part of the body and develop your surgical skills,” she said.
“In addition, it makes you calm and comfortable in high-stress situations. The most tiring part of vascular surgery is, however, not the physical strain nor the hours, but the intense planning it requires – it is in some aspects like the engineering of surgery; you sometimes have to come up with solutions to problems that no textbook will contain.”
According to Malan, surgery historically has a bad name among prospective candidates due to the hours and demands of the job, as surgeons need to be available almost all the time, a schedule that fails to conform to the traditional expectations of women. However, she believes that most women possess the ability to multi-task efficiently.
“Not only can we do a number of things at once, but we can also do them well. Females have mastered the art of balancing the demands of both their work and personal lives more and more, and society is generally more receptive to this as well. This provides a definite advantage to not only function, but flourish in the field of surgery and vascular surgery,” Malan said.
She added that the first step to get more women involved in this field is to show it can be done.
The Star
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