Walking Free - Softcover

In 1999, Munjed Al Muderis was a young surgical resident working in Baghdad when a squad of Military Police marched into the operating theater and ordered the surgical team to mutilate the ears of three busloads of army deserters. When the head of surgery refused, he was executed in front of his staff. Munjed's choices were stark—comply and breach the medical oath "do no harm," refuse and face certain death, or flee. That day, Munjed's life changed forever. He escaped to Indonesia, where he boarded a filthy, overcrowded refugee boat, bound for Australia. Like his fellow passengers, he hoped for a new life, free from fear and oppression, but for 10 months he was incarcerated in what became known as the worst of the refugee camps, Curtin Detention Centre in Western Australia. There he was known only by a number, locked in solitary confinement and repeatedly told to go back to Iraq. On August 26, 2000, Munjed was finally freed. Now, 14 years later, he is one of the world's leading osseointegration surgeons, transforming the lives of amputees with a pioneering technique that allows them to walk again. Walking Free is Munjed's extraordinary account of his journey from the brutality of Saddam Hussein's Iraq to a new life in Australia and a remarkable career at the forefront of medicine.

Associate Professor Munjed Al Muderis is a world leading osseointegration surgeon and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney. He practices as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Norwest Private Hospital, the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital and the Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney's northern suburbs. Patrick Weaver is a highly regarded writer and public relations consultant who runs his own public relations and creative writing business in Sydney. He was previously a senior executive with an international public relations firm and with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.