2026-03-17 – News – www.theguardian.com
From the importance of looking up ailments to the comfort and cleanliness of hospitals, Roland Bull has experienced both sides of the bed as a patient-turned-doctor
My medical history can sound almost unbelievable, even to me. In 2017, I underwent a spinal procedure during which the surgeon operated on the wrong part of my back, leaving me with two herniating intervertebral discs instead of one. During my post-surgical downtime, I began to wonder what I might contribute as a doctor, so applied for medical school.
It was going reasonably well until I woke up one morning with functional loss in my right foot. It turned out a bit of wayward disc had started compressing one of my spinal nerve roots, resulting in permanent neurological damage. A couple of years later, during final exams for medical school, I had a funny turn and discovered a benign but nasty tumour at the base of my brain. After careful consideration, I eventually had surgery to remove it.
