Had he chosen a different path, Dan Fagan could, perhaps, have been an oil magnate – but he forsook the lure of the oil fields and chose medicine for his career. He tells Heather Barron about his choices in life and his career.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dan Fagan is a driven man. He is a leading spinal surgeon, a local councillor, and a loving family man. He is also an enthusiastic sportsman, playing tennis regularly, and enjoying track days with a classic Porsche racecar.

When he was 19, his adventurous streak took him to Atlanta, Georgia, where he attained his private pilot’s license, and he’s now working towards his full RYA skippers license in yachting.

His interest in medicine stems from his father, David, Chief Paediatric Pathologist at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, who was involved in reviewing the autopsies of the babies murdered by nurse Beverley Allitt, in 1991. He discovered that their deaths were caused by insulin, and that Allitt had a condition called Munchausen syndrome by Proxy.

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Dan says of his father: “I admired his dedication and humble approach to clinical excellence, and pursuit of the truth in some very challenging cases. My dad always had the patient and their family at heart, and this is still something I very firmly believe in in my own practice today.”

He was always interested in how the human body works, and the science behind it, but “briefly flirted” with the idea of going into the oil industry.

“I often wonder how different my life would have been if I’d gone into the oil industry,” he says. “Although drilling for oil and gold in Columbia sounds quite exotic, I figured that what’s exotic and exciting in your 20s and early 30s is maybe not quite so exciting, perhaps, when you want to have a family.”

Dan was born in 1971, in Scotland, but the family – mum, Joan, a radiographer, and younger siblings, Toby and Emily – moved to Toronto, Canada with his dad’s work.  However, the death of David’s mother, Dorothy, in the late 70s brought the family back to the UK –– and they settled in Nottingham where his father got the job at Queen’s.

Dan was already thinking about a career in medicine when he passed his A Levels in biology, chemistry, physics and geology. His dad warned him that it would be a really interesting career, but he would have to be prepared to work hard.

He enrolled at Bristol University, where he met his wife, Vassiliki, who also later trained as a surgeon. During this time, he spent a year living and working in Strasbourg, France, as part of an exchange programme.

He learned to speak good French, and worked at Hautepierre trauma unit. Some years ago, one of the Professors that he worked for invented the femoral nail – used for fixing fractures of the femur – which, to this day, is routinely used for trauma, by surgeons around the world.

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He then spent the next three years’ actual clinical training at a variety of hospitals around the city: the Bristol Royal Infirmary; Southmead Hospital; and the General Hospital.

Dan’s interest in surgery started when he was doing his internship and, during a six-month surgical rotation, he thought “this is for me”.

He got a senior house officer position in Gloucester, in the in Trauma and Orthopaedics department, and that’s what really sparked his love of surgery.

He also remembers being the only one in charge in A&E all night, when he was just out of medical school.

“As the SHO, you’d be leading the major trauma, resuscitations and that sort of thing, which was quite exciting.

“We saw some incredible things,” he recalls. “Severed fingers, ears bitten off, noses bitten off.”

Fortunately, he had his Advanced Trauma Life Support, which, he says in an understatement, was very helpful.

He then worked as an SHO in Southmead Hospital, Bristol, with some inspirational surgeons.

“I had a fellowship with Gordon Bannister, a well-known hip surgeon, and Jonathan Webb, a specialist knee surgeon and famous England rugby player. I also had a position as an SHO in neurosurgery, and was able to do some brain surgery.”

Dan then went on to take up his Orthopaedic Registrar training post at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

“During that time I did nearly two years of spinal surgery, and was inspired to take on the challenge of spinal surgery as a career after seeing the amazing good we could do for children with scoliosis, who recovered very quickly from our surgery and were so happy.”

He was also senior registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, in Oswestry, which is recognised as the premier place to train orthopaedic surgeons. Again, he worked with some of the best and most inspirational surgeons, and says that he learnt “a massive amount”.

This acted as a springboard to his Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons qualification in Trauma and Orthopaedics.

Dan then did his Spinal Fellowship at Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham – where his father had worked – and which is a centre of excellence of spinal surgery in the UK. There, he perfected his surgical techniques with some very famous spinal surgeons, including John Webb, Mike Grevitt, and Hossein Mehdian, and he carried out research.

Dan is an extremely experienced surgeon who has carried out an amazing amount of spine work, choosing to do all his training in the UK, rather than go abroad.

He has been trained to operate on the spine from top to toe, and to carry out some extraordinary, cutting edge procedures, such as open anterior approaches – accessing the spine by opening the chest, removing a rib, deflating the lung and then inserting instrumentation in through the chest to correct the scoliosis, without a big scar.

He now uses the percutaneous approach, with minimal access surgery from the back, which is revolutionary in its own right, and produces better outcomes and quicker recovery times for patients. It is one of his favourite operations, and he is the only surgeon in the region to offer this.

Dan became a consultant in 2007, and moved up to the North East, with his family, to take up the position of consultant spinal surgeon in the spinal unit at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough. Along with his colleagues, he was involved with advanced surgery, such as paediatric scoliosis; correcting spinal deformities in children; major adult reconstructions; tumour and trauma; all the while building up his own expertise based upon his extensive training.

Since becoming a consultant, he was one of the first surgeons in the UK to travel to Boston, USA, to learn minimal access surgery and bring those techniques to the region.

“My motto of ‘The right operation, for the right patient, at the right time’, was not always possible in the NHS, so I set up my own practice where I could concentrate on delivering my own top-notch care.”

Eventually, however, working full-time in the NHS, and having his own part-time private practice was taking its toll, so, in 2012, he decided to go full-time with his private work.

“I wanted to take control of my own life; spend more time with my family, and have the things that many people take for granted,” he explains. “I was totally dedicated – working long hours and never seeing my family. Seven years had gone by with me not seeing much of my kids.”

His son, Max, who is autistic with learning difficulties, is now 18, and his daughter, Christina, is 16, and has just taken her GCSE exams.

Dan developed a working relationship with private hospitals; primarily with the Woodlands, in Darlington, part of the Circle Health Group – the UK’s largest private hospital group – and the Nuffield, Stockton, and the Duchy in Harrogate.

He Chairs the Spinal Steering Group for Circle Health; is Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee at the Woodlands; where he is also Chair of Clinical Governance.

“I am really pleased to be involved in a more senior role within Circle Health Group, and using some of my skills in that way to develop my career,” Dan says.

Introducing Open Evenings at Woodlands Hospital have proved very popular for potential patients who want more information before committing to self-pay treatment by Dan and his team.

He says: “My goal, at the moment, is to offer prompt, expert treatment; for people to be able to access an expert who knows how to treat them effectively, in order to to get them back to work and back to sports.

“A lot of the issues I deal with affect people between the ages of 35 and 55, so while these people are waiting for treatment, they often can’t work. My focus now is to help those people of working age, who are economically active to the country as well.”

The quiet of lockdown resulted in Dan standing – and being elected – as a Conservative councillor on Stockton Borough Council, which includes sitting on the Medical Board that has oversight and strategy input to the healthcare delivered by the NHS in the wider region.

He says: “This has been a very interesting experience which allows me to help people, and the community, in a different way from my surgery. It also involves a different skill set!”

And, as if he isn’t busy enough, he is being sponsored by Circle Health Group to study for a Business and Executive MBA.

He laughs as he admits: “Full time education wasn’t something I envisaged when I became a consultant. I actually vowed that I was never going to take another exam ever again, but once you get into it, it’s fun learning something new. I’m due to finish in March 2024 and it can’t come soon enough!”

More information is available at: spineart.org or circlehealthgroup.co.uk/hospitals/woodlands-hospital