Saleh Baeesa

My interest in Neurosurgery dates back to my years in medical school at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), where I excelled in neuroanatomy complexity.

When I was graduated, I took my internship (1988) outside KAU hospital to have more exposure, particularly for neurosurgery; this specialty did not exist at KAU. I planned direction as an intern taking my electives at two different significant hospitals of the ministry of health (King Fahad and King Abdulaziz General Hospitals), the primary referral center for neurosurgery in the western region of Saudi Arabia. It seemed logical and challenging to pursue a career in neurosurgery to establish it at KAU Hospital.

When I began my postgraduate career at KAU hospital as a demonstrator (1989) and prepared myself for a scholarship, I had the opportunity to be exposed to the full range of general surgery and other specialties again in more depth with very talented university staff returned from Canada, which reinforce and solidify my intense interest to peruse neurosurgery training in Canada which was during 1991-1998.

In the realm of 6-year training in neurosurgery, I have spent one additional year in the field of pediatric and epilepsy neurosurgery, where most over the community is young. During my 3rd year of residency, I published my first paper, “Baeesa SS, Higgins MJ, and Ventureyra EC: Dorsal Brain Stem Lipomas. Neurosurgery, 1996; 38 (5): 1031-1035,” which I was the first resident ever in our program history (Ottawa University, Neurosurgery) to achieve this award.

I have returned home (KAU, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) in July 1998 and started my career and establishing neurosurgery. Without my department staffs' excellent vision and trust in me and my persistence and patience, this dream came true. Individual achievement of founding and establishing Neurosurgery division of surgery at KAU was officially launched by His Royal Highness Prince Abdulmajeed bin Abdulaziz AL-Saud, the Governor of Makkah region in 2004. I joined King Faisal specialist hospital and research center (KFSHRC) in May 2000-now, and I am proud to be one of the neurosciences department's founders and see how it evolved, particularly in epilepsy surgery.

Now, with a high caliber of Canadian trained colleagues’ neurosurgeon, we represent a state-of-the-art center and one of the best referral neurosurgery centers in the western region.

As an academic individual, I am highly aware of the current challenges and development of our health care system in the importance of training students and residents, producing basic and clinical research, and providing state of the art patient-centered care, which are one of my principal tasks.