Wa’el Seifeddin Boustany was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. He was born in Damascus, Syria, into a medical family. He studied medicine in Damascus and then came to England for postgraduate training. After completing several house posts, he went to the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, as an orthopaedic registrar. He then moved to the South Infirmary in Cork, where he worked for many years. In 1978 he returned to Damascus, where he was in private practice. In 1989 he went to work at Al-Noor Hospital, Abu Dhabi, where he remained until he retired in 1998. He died of prostatic cancer on 16 December 2004, leaving a wife, Catherine, and four sons.