When Professor Dr Sharifah Sulaiha Syed Aznal was identified with colon cancer in February final 12 months, it got here as a shock.
“I couldn’t believe the news. My life was turned upside down and all my plans for the future had been disrupted,” says the 53-year-old dean of the School of Medicine on the International Medical University (IMU).
The decided girl persevered and began her chemotherapy. She had to undergo eight cycles of chemotherapy however by July, midway by way of her remedy, she determined to return to work.
She was carrying a brief stoma (surgically made gap in the stomach that allows physique waste elimination from the physique by way of the tip of the bowel into a set bag) at the moment, which was reversed about 4 months in the past, after she accomplished her remedy in September final 12 months.
“When life throws you a challenge, say ‘Yes!” she says, decided to beat the cancer.
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha shares that since she had already anticipated and knew what the unintended effects could be, it was simpler for her to deal with them.
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha (seated, with glasses) is grateful to be blessed with ‘fantastic and supportive relations, pals, employers, colleagues, and college students’.“I had the expert advice of surgeons, oncologists and nurses at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur and friends who had gone through a similar condition. And I wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable and allow my loved ones to take care of me,” she says, adding that she’s “thankful to be blessed with wonderful and supportive family members, friends, employers, colleagues, and students”.
“My husband, children, and other close family members and friends were like my ‘cheerleaders’, always rooting for me and cheering me on. They were there for me during my chemo cycles, which helped to alleviate the pain,” she reveals.
“I additionally needed to be function mannequin to my youngsters, in order that they’d realise even when there are setbacks in life, it isn’t over.”
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha provides that it is vital to “listen to your body”.
“Your body knows what it needs and what it’s capable of.”
“Continuous movement as light exercise to prevent further muscle ache and weakness will help, as will a balanced, high protein diet for regaining strength,” she advises.
She hopes to encourage others who’re going by way of comparable challenges in life to “by no means surrender as a result of there’s mild on the finish of the tunnel”.
Making a difference
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha believes that her expertise with colon cancer has made her extra compassionate.
“When a doctor has gone through it and shares out of their personal experience, it helps usunderstand their patients better and this can sometimes be more impactful than just applying technical knowledge although that’s important too.”
The third of 5 youngsters reveals that regardless that she had initially set her sights on being both an engineer, lawyer or accountant, it was her headmaster-teacher father who influenced her to grow to be a physician along with his phrases: “If you want to make a difference, and help the country and its people, then medicine is where you can make the most impact”.
She took his recommendation, and though she discovered research robust initially, when she obtained into her scientific years (third 12 months onwards when based mostly on the hospital/clinic), she started to perceive what he meant.
“I beloved it!” she says, including that being the grassroots stage made her really feel nearer to the individuals and enabled her to be a caregiver which she enjoys.
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha – pictured in Glasgow in 1991 – studied and labored in Scotland.
Having studied medication and labored in Scotland, Dr Sharifah Sulaiha remembers one memorable incident after returning to Malaysia in the mid-90s. It was an emergency case throughout her first posting on the Kuala Terengganu General Hospital.
“There was this new mother who was experiencing post-partum haemorrhage (heavy bleeding after giving birth) in Kemaman, three hours away from the hospital. As the medical officer on duty, I was assigned to take a flying squad to assess and bring back the patient.
“I promptly got the equipment and waited for a helicopter… which never arrived.”
“It turned out that the flying squad was an ambulance that ‘flew’, making the three-hour journey in one!” she laughs in retrospect.
“Arriving at the location, the ambulance had to park a distance away from the patient’s house and it took the whole village to come and help carry the patient on a stretcher to the ambulance.”
Even although it was encouraging to see the entire group flip up to give their help, it made Dr Sharifah Sulaiha realise a few of the obstacles individuals confronted in accessing healthcare.
That was the turning level for her.
“That expertise ignited in me a ardour to change how issues have been in the healthcare system,” she shares.
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha on her commencement day in the summer time of 1995.
As a younger physician, she was a part of the group of practise that oversaw high quality assurance on the hospital. To contribute in the direction of offering higher providers for sufferers, she researched greatest practices and tried to discover modern methods to enhance processes corresponding to admissions. As a outcome, the hospital was identified on the time as the perfect hospital in phrases of high quality assurance and even obtained awards for it. They have been additionally invited to the First National Convention on Quality Assurance in the nation.
She has additionally advocated for the rights of docs. As secretary of Section Concerning House Officers, Medical Officers and Specialists (SCHOMOS) beneath the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) in Terengganu, she advocated for junior docs to be given on-call allowance, which is an accepted apply in many different international locations. Her efforts have been profitable: the proposal was authorized and ultimately applied nationally.
Bigger challenges have been calling
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha (fourth from proper) with the Terengganu General Hospital group in 1998.
Dr Sharifah Sulaiha then set her sight on larger challenges. She remembers telling a pal jokingly that she needed to be “both head of the federal government service or professor in a global establishment” by the point she was 40.
She joined IMU as a lecturer in 2004 on the age of 33. At 40, she obtained her affiliate professorship, and in Jan 2023, she grew to become dean of the School of Medicine.
Over the years, she has pushed initiatives that assist college students fulfil their potential, together with main a group to push for work placements to grow to be a part of the university’s coverage throughout all programmes, facilitating a taskforce to rework the university’s Clinical Simulation Skills Centre to be an impartial division with the capability to serve the whole university, and evolving the School of Medicine curriculum to guarantee college students had the perfect publicity and studying final result, whereas creating platforms with extra interplay between college students and lecturers.
When requested how she balances work and life, she replies: “It’s all about collaboration. Without a collaborative environment, you’ll struggle because you can’t do it alone.”
“I’m there for them when they need me, and they’re there for me when I need them.”
As a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, Dr Sharifah Sulaiha’s work has at all times saved her shut to girls’s healthcare challenges.
“I would like to remind girls in Malaysia that they’re as succesful as anybody else, even these from extra developed international locations. In our minds, we might imagine that Asian girls are inferior. But that is not true and we’re simply as able to world recognition,” she concludes.
