Knighthood for Birmingham soldiers' trauma surgeon

The consultant responsible for co-ordinating the care of British troops injured in Afghanistan has been knighted.

Professor Sir Keith Porter, from Alvechurch in Worcestershire, received the honour for services to the Armed Forces.

Sir Keith, 61, said he was "very proud to receive it".

He is a senior trauma surgeon at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham.

Sir Keith is the UK's only Professor of Clinical Traumatology and has been developing treatment for injured servicemen and women over the past 10 years.

He said the knighthood marked his work in trauma treatment for troops injured in both Iraq and Afghanistan and that techniques and treatments have had to progress in response to the needs of military patients.

Speaking when the knighthood was announced in the New Year Honours list, he said: "I have a committed interest in trauma but until the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war it was all civilian trauma.

"The magnitude of injuries is usually considerably greater and with that comes the challenges of survivability.

"In civilian practice you may see the odd gunshot wound but we don't normally see the blast injuries you see from IEDs [improvised explosive devices]."

Sir Keith trained at St Thomas' Hospital in London before being jointly appointed at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and Selly Oak Hospital in 1986.

The consultant has a number of other roles, including being medical adviser to the County Air Ambulance and medical director of the West Midlands Central Accident Resuscitation (Care) team.