Vascular Surgeon Graduates with LLM in Medical Law

Vascular Surgeon Graduates with LLM in Medical Law

Dr Jahangirul Islam’s observation of the significant burden of medical litigation on South Africa’s health sector motivated him to pursue a Master’s in Medical Law.

‘As a practicing vascular surgeon, this qualification will allow me to apply Medical Law in my practice and assist my colleagues,’ said Islam.

He added that the qualification will not only benefit him and those around him professionally, but will also be valuable for his family.

‘My wife, Ferdousi, and our two sons, Fahmidul and Navidul are also medical doctors. Working full-time made it challenging to balance work and study and I had to sacrifice a significant amount of personal and family time. Fortunately, they are accustomed to my busy life and made many sacrifices to support me in obtaining my degree.’

Post-mortem Examinations: Overcoming the Failure by Healthcare Practitioners to Classify Natural and Unnatural Deaths Correctly was the title of Islam’s study that was supervised by Professor David McQuoid-Mason and Mr Matthew Kimble.

It explored the different methods of post-mortem examination in order to determine whether it is justifiable to send dead bodies for post-mortem examination instead of releasing them to loved ones for timeous funeral processes.

‘I also evaluated alternatives to sending a body for post-mortem examination. My rationale is not to avoid a post-mortem examination but to increase awareness among healthcare workers about the law and statutes regarding it so that they do not send bodies for unnecessary post-mortem examinations in our resource constricted healthcare system.’

Words: Thandiwe Jumo

Photograph: Supplied