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Dr. Amulya Saxena, who graduated from the Medical University of Pécs, chose to become a doctor because of his desire to do something for his community, and it was his encounter with the legendary paediatric surgeon in Pécs, Dr. András Pintér, that led him on the path to becoming one of the world’s leading paediatric surgeons. The professor, who works in London but actively cultivates his connections in Pécs, believes that today’s medical students in Pécs have a better chance of making it to the international top than he did thirty years ago, but that nothing can replace the really hard work they have to put in.

Written by Miklós Stemler

Dr. Amulya Saxena is not one of the most easily accessible interviewees. It is not because he is unwilling to talk about his work and life; it is simply that between the constant surgeries that take up his days, it is hard to fit in half an hour to answer questions. When he is not working at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, he is travelling the world to share his knowledge at conferences and perform complex surgeries requiring specialist expertise; in 2023, for example, he and his colleagues saved the life of a little boy in Hódmezővásárhely.

Community spirit

All this is no coincidence. The desire to do something for the community and those in need has motivated Amulya Saxena since childhood and led him to a medical career.

“I am a second-generation Indian, and when I visited my relatives in India as a child, I was confronted with the challenges of health care there, which is not only the case in India but in many parts of the world. My father taught me from an early age the importance of helping my community and my people back home, which led me toward a career in medicine. This is still a major motivating factor for me today, which is why I travel the world and try to help as many children and their families as possible,” says Professor Saxena about the experiences that inspired him.

The Pécs connection

The childhood urge began to develop in Pécs in the second half of the 1980s, which was unusual since neither the professor nor his family had known the country and the city very well before.

“My family and I lived in Kuwait, where my father was a telecommunications engineer. He used to work with a Hungarian company called Budavox, and through them, we were interested in opportunities in Hungary. It was important that Pécs already had an English-language medical training programme (established exactly 40 years ago this year, in 1984 – editor’s note) because English is my first language. In addition, one of the microbiologists at the University of Pécs Medical School, Professor Sándor Pácsa, was working in Kuwait at that time, and he gave us first-hand information about Pécs, which made the integration process easier for us. I arrived in Hungary in 1986, which was then an entirely different, state-socialist country, and in 1992 I left a completely transformed country. It is exciting to think about it.”

Despite the political and cultural differences, the young medical student quickly integrated into the city and university life.

“I was in the third year of the English programme, and I must say that the English student service office was already very organised; they knew what international students needed. They helped us with everything, and the upper-year students were also very helpful; I remember they were very willing to help us with whatever we needed. Pécs was a very friendly city; it did not feel like I was in a country behind the Iron Curtain at all.”

An influential encounter

At the time, Professor Saxena did not know which field of medicine he would choose yet, but a professional encounter and the good personal connection that developed quickly set him on the path to becoming an internationally renowned paediatric surgeon.

“My main professional inspiration was the late Professor András Pintér, a paediatric surgeon, who did a lot for me. We met through a mutual friend who was working as a paediatric surgeon in Kuwait and developed a good relationship with Professor Pintér during a study trip to Pécs. At that time, I became increasingly interested in paediatric surgery, and Professor Pintér paid a lot of attention to my training and also helped me find a place in Germany when I was looking for further training opportunities after graduation.”

András Pintér, who passed away in 2018, was not only a leading figure in paediatric surgery in Pécs, but also an internationally renowned specialist who put a lot of effort into introducing the most modern procedures in Pécs and Hungary, and promoting the methods developed here. Under his leadership, paediatric surgery in Pécs was put on the international map, which had a decisive influence on Professor Saxena’s career.

“Professor Pintér did his utmost to integrate paediatric surgery in Pécs into the international scene, even under the difficult circumstances of the time. This was not an easy task, as the opportunities available to him were hardly comparable to those in the West, but he successfully promoted the work they did here and became a popular figure in the international paediatric surgical community. For my part, I owe a lot to him because he was the one who put me on this career path and helped a lot in the early stages.”

The professional and personal ties carried on after Professor Saxena graduated in 1992, after his career took him first to Germany, then to Austria, the United States, and England.

“I was on friendly terms with Professor Pintér until his death, but I also maintained a good personal and professional relationship with those who succeeded him, and I am still an integral part of the team. I am thrilled to feel that Pécs is my home in a certain sense, not only the Department of Paediatric Surgery but also the whole Medical School since I have a great relationship with the current leadership.”

The personal ties, which go back almost four decades, are also reflected in Professor Saxena's professional relationships and approach. He was the president of the European Paediatric Surgeons’ Association until 2023 and is committed to creating and promoting equal opportunities between the professional opportunities of paediatric surgeons in Eastern and Western Europe.

“Over the past more than one decade, I have paid a lot of attention to the organisation of as many professional training opportunities as possible in Eastern Europe because colleagues in Western Europe have an undoubted advantage in this area. I currently organise laparoscopic training courses in six countries, four of which are in Eastern Europe. Next year, we are planning a large-scale laparoscopic course in Pécs with the Hungarian Association of Paediatric Surgeons.”

The secret to success: travel the world, do research, publish and work, work, work

As part of the joint work, Professor Saxena regularly hosts students from Pécs - and also from Debrecen and Szeged - in London, and he says that to become a good surgeon, it is essential to gain as much experience as possible in different parts of the world. In addition to the practical knowledge thus acquired, theoretical training and research should not be neglected either.

“The most important thing is to see what others do and how they do it. During my career, I have visited many clinics in Europe and the United States, and you can learn tricks from the smallest centres. You also have to take time for research and scientific work. If you fall behind in these areas, it is your professional development and, therefore, your patients who suffer. I learned the research methodology at the Boston Children’s Hospital of the Harvard Medical School and brought this experience back to Europe. It is also important to publish your results because that is a learning opportunity in itself, as is attending conferences and professional meetings. It is all part of development, and I do not see these extra activities as a burden at all.”

All this, of course, requires a great deal of dedication. As Professor Saxena says, a young paediatric surgeon has to dive deep early on in his career to toughen up and thus cope with any problematic, heartbreaking case later on.

“Part of our job is to work with fragile, vulnerable patients. As a paediatric surgeon, we have to perform procedures on babies weighing 500 grams in the 23rd-25th weeks of pregnancy, which requires extremely refined and precise work, but surgery on an older child or adolescent can be equally delicate. In other words, we have to cover a much larger area than the average surgeon, and all of this comes with a lot of pressure. It is important to be aware of this, to know your limitations, and to learn skills such as how to talk to families and young patients, as well as medical knowledge in the strict sense. If you are serious about this career, it is worth, based on my example, getting a taste of working in the bigger centres relatively early on to get used to the pressure because it will be much harder later on. You need to be there in difficult cases to see the interventions from beginning to end or to assist; otherwise, you will get in trouble if you are left with a difficult intervention. It is not a part-time job.”

Equal opportunities

Besides, as Professor Saxena’s example shows, Pécs is just as capable of launching such a career as a better-known and more prosperous Western institution; you “just” have to work very hard.

“Everyone has a chance; you just have to work really, really hard for it; there is no other way. We should not wait for things to happen to us; we have to create the chances. It does not matter if you start your career in Pécs or somewhere in the West. My career was fulfilled in Austria and Germany, and nobody cared where I came from. You will make it if you are a good enough surgeon and pay enough attention to your scientific work. I think that there are no prejudices about where someone did their medical training, and things have become much easier since I left Pécs. At that time, Hungary was not yet a member of the EU, and I had to deal with considerable bureaucratic hurdles to pursue my career in Germany. In addition, there was no internet, and compared to now, we had very little information as students about our options. Talent, dedication, and perseverance are all you need.”

Photos:

Dávid VERÉBI