Indiana Jones of medical antiques describes his journey to opening museum in Kuwait

Dr Adel Quttainah has developed a hobby of gathering weird devices for his museum in Kuwait

Plastic surgeon Dr Adel Quttainah started collecting old medical equipment as a hobby and the exhibits are now on show in a museum that bears his name in Kuwait. Antonie Robertson / The National

A rare waxwork cadaver used by medical students on display in the Quttainah Medical Museum. All photos from here onwards: Quttainah Medical Museum

Iron tools used for surgery in the 19th century

A nose shaper was used by surgeons in the early 1900s before the development of cosmetic surgery. The device used screws to alter bone structure

A collection of early surgical tools on show at the Quttainah Medical Museum

One of the first stethoscopes used in medicine

Plastic surgeon Dr Adel Quttainah has gathered an impressive collection of weird and wonderful medical devices dredged up from the past.

Many of those items, gathered from antique shops and market stalls around the world, have been on display at the Quttainah Medical Museum in Kuwait since it opened in 2017.

While some are considered priceless, all offer a glimpse into the sometimes gruesome medical practices of years gone by.

From an iron lung to one of the earliest stethoscopes and elaborate surgical tools, about 500 items form a collection that has been acquired across four decades.

Dr Quttainah, who regularly practises medicine in Dubai, first took an interest in historical medical equipment during his training in Cork, Ireland, in the 1990s.

That interest has since grown into an obsession to hunt down the more obscure tools of the trade of some of the earliest physicians on Earth.

'A passion for medical evolution'

“This all started back in my medical school days,” said Dr Quttainah, who has more than a million Instagram followers.

“I came across a device called a scarer – that was a gadget with blades. It was used to scrape against the skin, to make it bleed with an idea to get rid of bad blood so other fluids can get back into balance and return the patient to a healthy state.

“That was a common belief back then. I thought it was really interesting, not just the medicine behind it, but the theory at the time.

“Ever since, I’ve just kind of developed a passion for trying to find out more about how medicine evolved.”

An eye phantom dates from 1890, and was procured from the Medical School Berlin.

As is the case with many devices in the museum, it was used by medical students to learn new skills. In this case, how to perform complex eye surgeries with a donated human eyeball or animal eye inserted into the glass casing of the phantom.

Other surgical tools dating back to the 17th century look more like weapons of war than medical devices, but are a good example of how far surgical treatment has come, Dr Quttainah said.

“Once you know the roots of how medical treatments and procedures were done, you appreciate how medicine has evolved,” he said.

“Each antique has its own story. I have these devices that are like spears. When women went through difficult pregnancies and the baby wouldn't come out, doctors would use these tools to try to deflate the baby's head so it could be removed.

“Of course they killed the baby, but often saved the mother. This was well before the advent of forceps and the other equipment we use today.”

Growing interest

What started out as a hobby has grown into a keen ambition to further develop the museum’s exhibits – whatever the price.

The internet and a lucrative resale market has made it easier for Dr Quttainah to hunt down more rare items for his display, but it can be difficult to encourage owners to part with their own collections, he said.

The museum has a lot of artificial limbs, each with stories behind them about the person who once used them.

The oldest museum piece is a little glass cup found in what is currently Iran, believed to have been used about a thousand years ago to store medicine.

There are also many old medical books, documenting long-since-abandoned procedures and treatments that go back 700 years.

Dental keys made from iron, a $120,000 waxwork of a cadaver used for surgical training in the 19th century and an iron lung recently procured from a film set designer in the UK are some of his most treasured exhibits.

“It can be quite hard to get hold of some of these items, as certain pieces are very rare and sought after,” said Dr Quttainah, who performs cosmetic surgery from his clinic in Al Wasl.

“Museums like the Louvre or the British Museum won't let them go, so it is a very limited market.

“Some basic dental tools may not be as expensive as, say, scalpel handles made out of bone and other elaborate materials that tend to decay.

“Equipment has changed, clearly, but blades are still blades. In the past, especially English surgeons, would use decorative knives and scalpels. The higher ranking the surgeon, the more decorated his blades and saws would be.

“They were very artsy but bacteria lived in all the tool’s crevices so they were probably killing more people than they were saving through infections.

“It's interesting to see how people used to think in the past.”