Buzzin Motor Sport

The work that surgeons do makes them daily lifesavers, as Jeff Gibson, motocross champion, must know. In September 2009 after a crash that threw him over his machine’s handlebars, the 27-year-old competitor was saved only by rapid surgery, carried out in Columbus, Ohio.

While competing in a motocross competition, Gibson crashed over the racing bars and the front end of the bike fell onto him, damaging his intestines and threatening his life.

Surgery skills are not just directed towards remedying these life-threatening emergencies, but also of course used for many routine life-improving interventions that benefit millions of patients, from appendectomies to heart bypasses. There is a strong case, too, for drawing a parallel between those surgeries and the art involved in cosmetic surgery.

The decision to have cosmetic surgery often has an ethical dimension. Aware that their case is not of the crucial life-or-death variety, the patient considering taking action to put right a perceived defect faces a multi-faceted heart-search. In no particular order, the factors to be considered are: the effect the surgery will have on one’s emotional and mental health; the knock-on effect of this greater mental well-being on romantic prospects, on family, colleagues and future career; the likelihood either of future negative complications, or, conversely, the greater health to be enjoyed into one’s later years by being more physically active as a result of the cosmetic surgery; reservations one might have about the moral rightness of this type of non-essential surgery, and, naturally, cost.

Only the individual facing the decision can respond to each of the issues. All good cosmetic surgeons will counsel the patient fully and will be prepared to help with resolving doubts to arrive at the outcome with which the patient is happy.

Whether making the commitment to a body re-shaping procedure or a facial improvement, ultimately what gives the patient that final spur to go ahead is their faith in the surgeon. The wisest counsel is to research as much as possible to ensure that one is in the competent hands of a practitioner with a good track record, who is up to date with latest procedures and operates out of a well-resourced, reputable clinic backed up by the professional association’s stamp of approval.