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Meet the surgeon

by Meg Cole-Adams | 19 Nov 2016

Cosmetic surgeon Dr Malcolm Linsell has spent his career transforming people’s lives and restoring their self-esteem and wellbeing. Here, he shares his story.

 

When reconstructive and cosmetic surgeon Dr Malcolm Linsell first met little Wesley Koni as a patient in 1993, he had no idea how much the toddler would change his life.

Wesley had arrived in Melbourne from the highlands of Papua New Guinea, where he had suffered severe facial burns after he fell into a  re inside the family’s grass hut home.

The right side of Wesley’s face, arms and chest had fused together and the bottom of his mouth was attached to his chest around the level of his armpit, where the skin had melted together.

“When I first saw him I thought, ‘my god, what am I going to do here?’,” Dr Linsell said when he shared the story on television with 60 Minutes years later.

Over the next 20-odd years, Dr Linsell performed numerous reconstructive surgeries on Wesley’s face and saved his life.

Then, in 2015, Dr Linsell travelled with Wesley back to Papua New Guinea, where he was reunited with his family. At the time, they were followed by the crew from 60 Minutes.

Dr Linsell was first inspired to become a surgeon as a young boy, when there was an accident while his mother was boiling lollies in the kitchen.

“I was conscious my hands were unsightly; I would use my left hand when accepting change at the store because it was the less damaged, even though I’m right handed,” he recalls. “I feel empathy with my patients, I know what it is to be disfigured.”

Years later, the idea of becoming a surgeon struck when he was returning to the hospital for further surgery on his injured hands.

“I was waiting for Dad to pick me up at the hospital and I saw my surgeon get into a Jaguar and take off down the street," he says. "I thought, ‘I want to be like him’.”

Strangely, when Dr Linsell did decide to pursue this career path, his surgeon was one of his examiners.

“And he failed me – twice! Unfortunately, he never even got to see me [eventually] pass.”

At this stage of his career, Malcolm is mainly performing cosmetic surgery, most commonly abdominoplasties for women wanting to regain their pre-pregnancy bodies. He believes that education and financial independence has given women much greater choice than 25 years ago.

There is no doubt Dr Linsell continues to find his work rewarding: “At my core, I want to help people.