Medic's career journey takes him back to hospital where he was born
It has come full circle for Walsall consultant Jamil Aslam who is now practising at the hospital where he was born after life-changing events conspired to bring him ‘home’.
The 36-year-old was born at Walsall Manor Hospital on May 6, 1987.
His two children, son Mohammed Yusuf, aged five, and two-year-old daughter Zoya, were also born there to wife Faseeha, 32, who is a local pharmacist in Walsall where they live.
Now he is an emergency medicine consultant at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Manor Hospital.
Jamil attended Caldmore Primary School and Joseph Leckie Academy in Walsall before moving to Lancaster University, where he graduated.
He first came to work at the Manor in 2013 as a first-year doctor in training in trauma and orthopaedics, general surgery and general medicine for a year before he transferred to New Cross Hospital, in Wolverhampton, for a year.
Returning to Walsall in 2017, Jamil worked in anaesthesia and the intensive care unit and again in 2021 to complete his rotation in emergency medicine.
“I got a real feel for the hospital before I joined permanently,” said Jamil.
“I love the community feel to it, and, having worked in so many different areas, I know lots of people. It’s a great place to be.”
After finishing his training, there was only one place he wanted to work.
“I felt a pull to the area and I wanted to give good quality care back to my community – that’s an amazing feeling,” added Jamil.
“When you have that good feeling behind why you do your job it really drives you to do the best you can do and gives you an intrinsic sense of fulfilment.
“It’s a very forward-thinking organisation – the way it’s developed links in the community, the way the patient flow is handled through the hospital, and the close working relationship between the management and clinical leadership is brilliant.
“Working in a state-of-the-art emergency department is a real pull to return to Walsall too.”
It was a life-changing incident that led him to a career in healthcare.
At the age of seven, Jamil was paralysed from the neck down for six months but remarkably rebuilt his fitness to become a gold medallist and British kickboxing champion at 16.
“I visited Pakistan and after eating some rice at a wedding, I had the worst abdominal pain and became paralysed from the neck down,” he recalled.
“I never got a formal diagnosis. I remember seeing my five-year-old sister playing and I couldn’t feel anything and I could only move my eyes.
“I’d never want anyone to experience that so I decided to embed myself within the healthcare system.
“My father introduced me to kickboxing to regain my muscular strength. My family have been pivotal to my success
“When you’ve gone through something like that, there can’t be a bigger driving force.”
