Health News - Nicholas Goddard - Surgeon to the stars helped promote peace in the Middle East

Published: 8 July, 2010
by JOSH LOEB

FROM operating on ballet and tennis stars to passing on advice for David Beckham, Nicholas Goddard has had an exciting career as an orthopaedic surgeon.

Dr Goddard, who is based at Hampstead’s Royal Free Hospital, has held a honorary post at the Royal Ballet School, Covent Garden, where he has “looked after those up-and-coming dance muscles and Billy Elliots”.

At the Royal Free, he pioneered a new way of dealing with scapoid fractures – a type of wrist injury – which has now become an industry standard.

He is considered such an authority in this area that he travels the world demonstrating the technique and “advised an adviser” to David Beckham after the then England football captain injured his wrist.

Other sports personalities Mr Goddard has helped patch up include tennis players and cricketers. “I’ve got five players at Wimbledon this year,” he says.

But Dr Goddard has never undertaken an operation quite so ambitious as the one he entered into two years ago: helping promote peace in the Middle East.

He is involved in Doctors Building Bridges, which brings together young doctors from either side of the Israeli-Palestinian divide, flying them to Hampstead where they live and work together for several months before returning to the troubled region.

A range of charitable foundations meet participants’ travel, accommodation and living costs for the duration.

Dr Goddard’s involvement came about, he says, because he finds it “difficult to say no”, but it has led to some incredible experiences, including a visit to the Middle East.

“When I was asked if I would give guidance to a group of orthopaedic surgeons from the Middle East, I imagined they were talking about Dubai,” he says.

“I didn’t realise they meant Israel and Palestine.”

However, orthopaedics is “a friendly specialism” and those involved in the programme “pull out all the stops”, laying on visits to an orthopaedic implant manufacturing centre as well as a range of training opportunities.

“It’s quite hard for the participants at first,” says Dr Goddard says.

“There are quite entrenched views, but we are making progress.

When I went to Israel I spoke to one of the Israeli doctors who had been involved in the programme and he told me he had visited one of the Palestinian doctors whom he had become friends with. He said it was hard because the only time he had been into the West Bank before was as a soldier.”

War is an analogy often used by surgeons, who speak of cancerous “invasions” and “collateral damage” caused when blood flows into joints.

The Royal Free is a centre for haemophilia and Dr Goddard sees many patients with this problem.

“The enzymes used to clear joints of blood have a happy little meal on the articular cartilage – the shiny stuff on the end of bones – meaning you will see patients in need of knee replacements who are quite young,” he says.

“The youngest knee replacement I have ever done was in a 21-year-old – a patient with haemophilia. Normally 60 is considered young for a knee operation but 37 is the average age for a knee replacement for someone with haemophilia.”

Wrists, feet, legs and knees are, Dr Goddard says, “universal” – they sustain the same types of injury no matter one’s race or religion.

Perhaps then it is not surprising that so many cross-cultural friendships have begun in hospital.