KAWARTHA LAKES- The Ross Memorial Hospital has recently welcomed Orthopedic Surgeon, Doctor Sebastian Heaven to their team.
Doctor Heaven studied in Wales, UK and moved to Canada in 2012 for surgical residency in Hamilton, Ontario. Once he finished in 2017, he completed an extra year of training in hip and knee replacement surgeries at Western University in London where he also completed his master’s degree.
Following the completion of his extensive education, Doctor Heaven worked in Ontario, British Columbia, Yellowknife and more.
After learning about the available position at The Ross Memorial Hospital and falling in love with the beauty that Kawartha Lakes has to offer, Doctor Heaven decided the position was meant to be.
“I applied and when I got the interview, I decided I would drive up to the Kawartha Lakes to look around the area as I had not been here before,” he said. “I fell in love with it, it’s really beautiful, the suburban ruralness of it sold me on it, that definitely appealed to me and the details of what they were looking for in a surgeon fit me quite well in terms of my skill sets, and as serendipity would have it, I did the interview and here I am.”
Doctor Heaven officially started on June 1 and he couldn’t have asked for a better welcoming, he said.
“It’s been fantastic, nothing but a positive experience, everyone is very welcoming and happy for me to join the team,” added Doctor Heaven.
And while he will be bringing a fresh face and a new perspective to the hospital, he will also be offering anterior hip replacement surgery, which requires a specific technique that allows patients to recover quicker than older techniques.
Doctor Heaven is also thrilled to be in the process of developing a program designed to get patients home on the same day as their joint replacement surgery.
The “same day home program” has to go through various stages and other administrative requirements, but Dr. Heaven is hopeful that the new program will be offered to patients before the end of the year.
Dr. Heaven noted that the number of surgeries performed in a day partially depends on what the ministry of health has allocated funds for, but he personally expects to operate once or more per week. In terms of hip replacements, he is capable of performing between two and 10 a week.
“My favorite part is operating on patients, them doing well and then bumping into them in the community unexpectedly and seeing them live their day-to-day life with much better quality, seeing them doing things they couldn’t do before,” he said. “I get to see it in my clinic, but in clinic, it’s an artificial encounter, it’s engineered for me to assess patients and they feel they have to show me that they’re doing well, but I really love to see, when they think I can’t see them and I accidently bump into them in the community, that’s my favorite part of my job, the chance encounters with my patients in the community.”
For those in need of help with hip or knee replacements, Doctor Heaven wants to help.
“I’m here to help, for any difficulties with hip or knee, my speciality area, I am more than happy to see anyone at any time, I’m here to serve the community and be a part of it,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing and helping as many people as possible.”
For other aspiring medical professionals, Doctor Heaven suggests finding a pathway that you really enjoy, that you’re good at.
“One thing I found, certain aspects of orthopedics just made sense to me and I intuitively understood,” he said. “I think the best thing to do is pick something you enjoy so it doesn’t feel like hard work but find something you inherently understand, it makes life a lot easier.”
