TV About their achievements, to talk to doctors only too happy, on the other side of the coin rarely. Kniechirurg Johan Bellemans (54), one of nine doctors in a new series of ‘Topdokters’ on FOUR, appears to be the exception. He talks about the according to him, the shameful way he was dismissed and reveals a giant gap in the medical world.
Belgium atletiektrots Nafi Thiam ran recently an injury during her internship in South Africa. Or her spring this soap is, she dares not say yet. Before that she wants to go to a doctor Bellemans in Hospital Oost-Limburg (WILL) to Genk. And Nafi is not the only athlete at the renowned kniechirurg on the floor. As the sports physician of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (COIB) he takes care of all our olympians. So did he operate, Tia Hellebaut on her knee, four years before her triumph in Beijing.
“the gold was a most magical moment for me”, says Johan Bellemans. “When Tia with me it finally came, was still the question of whether they ever have to high jump should do. I knew so very its preliminary stages, the uncertainty, and rehabilitation with which she was faced when they were in the handsome gold picked up on the Play. That is one of the highlights of my career.”
Rebel
Johan Bellemans is in his box, the top of the top. The production company behind ‘Topdokters’ is already to come to him for assistance, but twice he refused. “Just for the sake of those athletes,” said the doctor. “People come to me because I have them in all discretion, treat. Some athlete don’t want to read the newspaper that he has been injured, or need surgery.”
They might want to not that their opponent knows that they are weak.
Not only that. There’s much more to it. Their market value, for example. An athlete with a kruisbandletsel is less interesting for the sponsors. Transfers linger, selections are on the slope, their place in the team comes up for discussion… Not for nothing, I see them frequently after the hours when the waiting room is empty.
twice refused you to join ‘Topdokters’. Now, caught in you.
At the request of the hospital, for them, this is great publicity. And against all my expectations, were as good as all my patients that they filmed. The team even went to the training camp in Lanzarote with our athletes.
You treats, of course, not only athletes, but also the ordinary mortal. They see Gasthuisberg often considered as the reference centre of Flanders, and yet swapped you that bastion five years ago for a regional hospital.
What you say is true, at least for exceptional conditions. People with complex tumor or a rare disease are best off in Leuven or in another university hospital. But this is definitely not for the ordinary diseases and interventions. I think, to be very honest, that when you are at your gallbladder will need to operate, or your groin, you are better off in a smaller hospital in Gasthuisberg.
That you can’t even explain.
Smaller hospitals see such problems much more often. Since they do that kind of operations to speak to the current band. They are in it routinely. While you are in the university hospitals increasingly is going to focus on the complex and exceptional cases, making the routine for many interventions is lost. That is also one of the reasons for my stepping stone. I am of the opinion that the more you operate, the more experience you gain. You should not be selective in your treatments. And that was exactly what Gasthuisberg wanted me to do.
on the one Hand, people regard you as a toparts, the best in your field. But you say that it is ‘just’ something mundane.
I’m sitting on the edge. A lot of what I do, is in the exceptional, such as transplantchirurgie. But the bulk of our patiëntentotaal is the classic knee surgery and it’s not a complicated matter.
Your stepping stone from Leuven, belgium was not without struggle. You resigned, and would have six months notice to do, but after only a week decided to the hospital you still yourself, and to dismiss, with immediate effect. It felt like a knife in the back?
That was much more than a knife in the back, but assured that the inquisition itself was. At the time that I put my resignation gave, I have very much the segregation of our system felt. The catholic pillar is everywhere, believe me. After my first step I started a private consultation in Leuven, but that was opposed by the hospital. Just like my entry in Genk.
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