GTA dental surgeon overcomes the odds to continue his craft

A dental surgeon in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has overcome what for many would be an insurmountable challenge to continue doing what he loves and helping people along the way.

Mehmet Danis has worked as a surgeon for over 20 years, performing thousands of intricate procedures during his tenure.

The 51-year-old is also an extreme athlete who has run races in the Gobi Desert, the Atacama, and the Sahara.

However, his life was forever changed when over a year-and-a-half ago, he was struck by a vehicle while doing a 50-kilometre race in Florida, losing part of his arm.

“I was roadkill … A nurse that was driving two cars behind stopped and applied a tourniquet,” shared Danis.

The father of two was airlifted to a hospital where surgeons had to remove his arm below the elbow. Ten days later, he was transferred to Toronto Western Hospital.

He has since had 15 major operations in total and spent two long months in hospital with a lot of time to ponder a grim reality that he may never be able to perform surgery again.

“The career was more than up in the air, almost out the window,” said Danis.

But, one day a nurse said something to him that changed his perspective and sparked his competitive spirit.

“She said to me, ‘Don’t worry, you can always teach.’ I thought that was the biggest slap in the face, but it woke me up … there’s no way that’s going to be the cap on my potential,” Danis shared.

Danis was determined to conquer the seemingly impossible. He was referred to an expert team at Sunnybrook Hospital where he was fitted with a prosthetic.

“The prosthetic is attached to this rubber sleeve around my limb, the friction won’t allow this to come off,” explained Danis. But that’s just the start.

Sunnybrook has designed him a prosthetic that allows him to perform surgery.

“Originally, this base model was made for a violin to play,” he explained.

Fortunately, Danis did not lose his dominant hand, but surgery requires two hands, so he still had to learn how to work with his prosthetic.

He practiced for hundreds of hours on oranges, and then chicken thighs. “I was scared that it wasn’t going to work. Once I started, it was fun.”

Danis perfected the maneuvers and his patients came back. He returned to work a few weeks ago and has now performed seven surgeries that were all a success.

“This is tough for me to say without getting emotional. I had patients say, ‘I”m going to wait for Dr. Danis to come back to have surgery’ … it touches my heart,” shared Danis.

It is a remarkable victory, but these past few months have pushed him to the edge. Danis has had to deal with the complex emotions of losing a limb and discovered phantom pain is real.

“Phantom pain is feeling those fingers that you no longer have dipped in boiling water … there’s nothing you can do about it, it just comes and gets better over time,” he said.

The nerves in his arm are still functional, and they will one day help him move his next prosthetic.

“The new prosthetic will fit on my limb and sense my muscle twitches. I will be able to do about six different gestures and also rotate my wrist,” said Davis. “I’ll be the half-million-dollar man.”

Danis’ next goal is to run another race and get that part of his life back too.

After everything that has happened, he is grateful to be alive and that the accident wasn’t even worse.

“Luckily no spinal, neck, my smile. I still have my smile … Laughter is good medicine.”