‘Sometimes people don’t see me as the surgeon’
Olimpia Zagnat/BBC
Elena Theophilidou is a surgeon at one of the busiest major trauma units in England
Growing up in Cyprus, Elena felt she was different to other girls – she liked maths, biology, and preferred wearing trousers rather than skirts.
But it was a family tragedy which helped shape her determination to study medicine.
“My parents lost their first child because he had Down’s syndrome, so he died when he was about four years old,” she says. “And I guess that’s always been playing on my mind.”
Now a consultant surgeon at one of the busiest major trauma units in England, Elena Theophilidou has spoken of her successful career, as well as the challenges she has faced as a female doctor – including sometimes having to remind patients that “I am the surgeon”.
‘Tough years’
“I think the first time I carried a bag with me was when I was 20, when I actually came to university,” says Elena with a chuckle.
“I wasn’t your typical girl, as you would imagine them to be.”
Biology just “made sense”, and maths was something she was good at. But Elena started wondering “what am I going to do with numbers?”
She says that, although it sounds like a cliché, the thought of being able to help others led her to choosing medicine.
“I still don’t think of it as a nine-to-five job. Because it isn’t really. As a consultant, I’ve never thought, ‘can’t be bothered with work today’,” she says.
She grew up in a Greek family, in which the death of her brother was something they never talked about “extensively”.
“I sort of grew up with it because he died before I was born, so I never met him,” she says. “But it was always something that was in the background.
“It was quite devastating for my parents. But I think maybe that triggered the idea of medicine.”
Olimpia Zagnat/BBC
Elena’s department treats patients who have been injured in stabbings, crashes or major incidents
Elena’s path to becoming a surgeon in an emergency department was not an easy one.
As a teenager, she set her sights on studying medicine in the UK.
“I had to do [the A-levels] in my own spare time, and obviously coming from a foreign country to the UK, you had to have top marks to even be considered for medicine,” she says.
“So it was a tough four or five years before even coming to medical school.”
Aged 18, she moved to London and began studying to be a doctor. Eventually, came the opportunity to specialise in surgery.
“Unfortunately, my surgical placements were all with, let’s say, school surgeons who would have different mentalities to what we have today,” she says.
She says she faced “unprofessional behaviours, in terms of bullying and toxic environments”.
“I guess we’re quite lucky in this day and age that things have changed in terms of professional contact and how people should be behaving, and especially when it comes to treating patients and colleagues,” she says.
“I know I’ve had a lot of difficulties that probably if I wasn’t a woman I wouldn’t have had, and I’m sure quite a lot of trainees, especially female trainees, would agree with this statement.”
Elena, however, has high praise for her colleagues at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
“We are quite lucky in the East Midlands because we are one of the deaneries that have quite a lot of female trainees, and especially female consultants in surgery, who I’ve had as role models,” she says.
‘Grown-up man’ stereotype
Elena’s main job is working with the major trauma team, but is also involved with the team that deals with patients that have acute surgical issues.
“When you’re a consultant, you have a position of responsibility in terms of not only towards your patient, but also towards the team that you have with you,” she says.
Elena says she has never experienced misogyny from patients – but admits she sometimes has to “remind them that I am the surgeon”.
“Sometimes they don’t see me as a surgeon walking into the room. So that’s something that I’ve experienced quite early on,” she says.
“I think people have a stereotypical image of surgeons in their head. It’s more like a ‘grown-up man’ who walks into the room.
“I’ve never experienced misogyny, but maybe just having to remind people from time to time that I perform their operation.”
But things and times are changing in medicine, says Elena, and “more education is out there”.
“In the last year, I’ve had a couple of female medical students coming to me and say ‘oh, I didn’t know you could be a female consultant surgeon’,” she says.
But Elena says it is important for young students to see women who took surgery on as a career, and look at them as role models.
Olimpia Zagnat/BBC
Elena hopes her story will inspire other young women who want to become doctors or surgeons
Elena does not shy away from the fact that being a woman has sometimes felt like a disadvantage.
As a youngster in Cyprus, she says she would hear phrases 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”.
“Those ideas are at the back of your head. But if this is what you want to do, you just go ahead and do it,” she says.
“Find what you love doing day to day, because your career is a long time, and it takes a lot – probably like 20, 30 years of your life. So it’s important to do what you enjoy and then just go for it.”
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