Dr Anil Joshi is a leading consultant and facial plastic surgeon based in London. He recently hit the papers giving warning of the dangers of cocaine use, after performing serious procedures – lasting up to six hours – on users.
Dr Joshi: “In my practice both in the NHS and private, I get plenty of patients who have had issues. People do make mistakes; they realise this and seek medical help.
“When they come to me, I have a good look at their nose, and even before they tell me I can assess what the status of their nose is.”
He continues: “One such case was a gentleman who had a completely collapsed nose as well as a big hole in his septum, which is a patrician which separates and the left of the nose.
“I had to make sure that was free of drugs for over 18 months, and then I did a lot of tests on him, a CT scan, biopsies from the inside of the nose, examination under anaesthesia and taking photos from inside, and so forth.
“We had to perform six hours of surgery, which entailed opening up the whole nose, and utilising a piece of rib, sculpting it into a sliver of cartilages.”
He also offers a simple yet stark warning to users: “Just don’t go there – it’s as simple as that.”
An expert in the field of facial reconstruction
Dr Joshi is a specialist in facial plastic surgery, having helped many high – profile clients. He has also helped rebuild facial defects following cancer excision and is an expert in scar removal.
He also has a number of advanced medical degrees, and has travelled to Amsterdam, the Netherlands and even South Korea to further his skills and knowledge.
With such a distinguished and high-flying career, he talks about what motivated him to choose medicine: “That’s an interesting question. I come from a family where, on my dad’s side I have a lot of doctors, surgeons, and physicians.
“However, on my Mum’s side, it is more artistic. My mother is a leading classical singer, and also a writer. My grandfather on my mum’s side was a leading writer in one of the oldest Indian languages, called Sanskrit.
“My great-grandfather was also a leading writer in a South Indian language called Kannada, which is originally my mother tongue.
“Although my dad is an electrical engineer, on his side everyone was a doctor. So, I had both of these influences from my family.”
He went on to discuss how this shaped his upbringing. His early life was spent in Bangalore, South India, where he initially studied medicine, before coming to the UK in 2003, to further his career. Anil discusses his early life and interests: “I started to learn classical violin initially, and my brothers learnt various other instruments. In India, we started performing concerts as the Joshi Brothers!”
This musical collaboration proved a success, with popular albums, and even recording music for popular films. However, the influence of the medical side of the family also shone through:
“I was also academically spot on. I was in the top one per cent of the country, and I got into one of the leading medical schools – so I was pursuing medicine as well as music at the same time.”
He went on to describe his decision to choose a medical career: “One thing that I realised over time is that you cannot pursue two different things at the highest level. It’s not possible, it just gets diluted. I then had to pursue a surgical career in medicine.
Detailing why after medical school he went on to be a surgeon: “Coming from a musical background where you have to use your fingers to play instruments, surgery was the next logical step.”
He describes why this path eventually led him to become a plastic surgeon: “There was a deep feeling inside me that said something was lacking still. This is where the art of plastic surgery came into the equation.
“I could use all of my childhood influences, music, photography, art, and also medicine. This is because it is one thing to just get into plastic surgery and medicine, but you have to have an eye for how people’s faces are aesthetics.
“It was very interesting for me to mix all these influences to find my niche.”
Combining medicine with artistry to pursue plastic surgery
This mix of influences that were focused on plastic surgery proved successful:
“This combination of art and medicine gave me solace. It ignited a passion within me to go the extra mile, to work the extra hours. When I must do a six-hour surgery, I don’t mind because I’m doing what I love.”
Even though Dr Joshi went on to great success in medicine, his journey was not without its challenges: “When I first started my career, it was initially difficult for people from outside the UK to break into the profession of surgical specialities. However, I approached it positively – I decided to see it as a challenge that I must overcome.
“A lot of my contemporaries decided to pursue careers as GPs or leave the UK for other countries.
“I said to myself that nothing worth doing is easy. It’s a hurdle to overcome. It’s not impossible, just difficult. So, I put in ten times the effort of everyone else – and in the end, I reap the rewards!”
This dedication to outwork his competitors and make a success of his chosen career also led to him travelling the world: “I left the shores of London.
“I went to Amsterdam for my fellowship in plastic surgery, picked up a lot of skills there, went to South Korea for a Rhinoplasty fellowship, went to Miami for another small fellowship, and then I did exams in America for facial plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery.
“This meant that I have a dual qualification that not many people have. It was financially difficult, but it fed my hunger for what I am passionate about.”
A legacy of changing people’s lives for the better
This dedication and passion are reflected in his long and fruitful career as a plastic surgeon. With such impressive and varied achievements, Anil was asked what he hopes his legacy will be: “I think legacy is a big word! If I have changed a few people’s lives for the better – if I have made someone’s life, to live better, to smile better, that’s legacy for me.”
Anil went on to talk about his views on how to inspire the surgeons of the future:
“You see on social media, newspapers, internet, even here say, people keep crying about long hours, the state of the NHS etc.
“If you pass this negative feeling – it’s not good.
“I run a programme in my NHS hospital for work experience for students interested in medicine. I make sure to only talk in a way that inspires them. They will figure out the negatives later on, but at this stage, it’s important to show them the good things.
“I make sure to inspire them, and not to be negative. After all, they will be the ones looking after us when we grow old!”
Anil plans to keep pushing forward with his career, with possible documentaries and climbing further up the ladder with his medical studies, along with helping with the development of new technologies.
He comments: “It’s both exciting and hard work – but that’s the way it has always been for me!”
