Dr Lusanda Bomela – Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon – Trailblazer

This week on Womanity-Women in Unity, Dr. Amaleya Goneos-Malka talks to Dr Lusanda Bomela who is an orthopaedic spine surgeon in private practice. Women are underrepresented in orthopaedics, making up less than 5% of orthopaedic surgeons. Dr Bombela shares how her interest in the spine, coupled to the fact that few women take up this area of specialisation motivated her to pursue her studies in this field. One of her hopes is that she sets an example to encourage other women to take up orthopaedics and specifically spine as a specialisation. Medicine can be a demanding career choice, but this profession does not preclude women from having a family life. Dr Bomela notes how having the right support structure in place enables her to be a spine surgeon, mother, wife, mentor and teacher. She reflects that it is not possible to be everything to everybody all the time but with a team ethos and good communication everything is doable. Dr Bomela is passionate about learning and has a deep desire to share education with others, which is part of her maternal philosophy, she believes that if we have a skill it must be passed on or used to better someone else. We have a responsibility to empower the next generation by imparting what we know to them, both in terms of skills and enlightenment. She tells us how her grandmother used to walk her mother to school 20km away for the sake of education, and years later part of her grandmother’s legacy was establishing a school 500m from her house, so no children in the village had an excuse not to be educated. Dr. Bomela reminds us not to give up on our dreams. The road might be rocky, there may be a few detours along the way, but hold fast to your dreams; and when you make it others will see all things are possible. Tune in for more...