Associate Professor Brindha Shivalingam is the Director of Neurosurgery at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse.

She started life in tropical Colombo, Sri Lanka, where the coconut trees swayed in the beach breeze.

Her Tamil and Sinhalese neighbours lived in harmony until a violent outburst forced her family to flee, and she arrived in Australia on the cusp of adolescence.

Brindha says neurosurgery is beautiful, and that there is opportunity for creativity while she is operating on the most important organ in the body.

Brindha had just performed a brain surgery in 2019 when she had the first of three strokes, and learned what it was like to be on the patient's side of the equation.

CREDITS:
Carmel Rooney, Executive Producer
Richard Fidler, Presenter
Alice Moldovan, Producer