Saving Brain, Restoring Function: The Acute Ischaemic Stroke Pathway

Dr Lubaina Bahar

Critical Care Consultant , West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr Bahar is a Critical Care Consultant at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, podcast host for "The Ranting Doctor Podcast" and "Conversations that matter in Healthcare" and author of "The Good Death Project - reflections on death and dying in Intensive Care Unit". Her special interests are in medical education, difficult communication, integrated palliative care, and physician wellbeing. She leads an annual difficult communication workshop, serves on the Intensive Care Society Education Committee, and is Module lead in Critical care for year 5 MBBS students from Brunel Medical school. Through her teaching, writing, and her podcast, she explores how we train doctors not just to be clinically competent, but emotionally intelligent, reflective, and human in high-pressure healthcare systems.

Cathryn Holding

Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist

Cathryn completed her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Following a year of community practice Cathryn travelled to the United Kingdom. Cathryn is a practising Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist (Stroke and neurology) working across the stroke pathway, from admission to early supported discharge within the community, focusing on neurological rehabilitation. She holds a Masters of Science in Advanced Clinical Practice (Adult Acute and Critical care).

Sue McGowan

Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist , National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London

Sue McGowan works as a Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. Her clinical input is mostly with ventilator dependent patients on two neurointensive care units. She co-founded and still co-runs the hospitals’ multi-disciplinary Tracheostomy Team. She is on the committee of the Tracheostomy Clinical Excellence Network and has lectured nationally and internationally on Speech and Language therapy in neurosciences. She is an RCSLT Advisor in Critical Care and has contributed to and co-authored profession-specific and national guidance documents relating to the care of tracheostomy and neuroscience patients. She completed a MSc in Adult Critical Care at Imperial College London in 2005.

Dr Victoria Metaxa

Consultant in Critical Care, King's College Hospital

Dr Victoria Metaxa is a full-time Critical Care and Major Trauma Consultant, at King’s College Hospital in London. She is a King's College London Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, and has a PhD in neurosciences and an MA in Medical Ethics and Palliative Care from Keele University. Her clinical interests include bioethics, end-of-life care, critical care outreach and the management of patients with haematological malignancies. Dr Metaxa is a member of the European Society of Intensive Care (ESICM) Ethics section, and the representative of the section in the e-learning committee. She is the UK National Outreach Forum board Secretary and a member of the Legal and Ethical Advisory Group of the UK Intensive Care Society (ICS).  

Mr Ahmed Toma

Consultant Neurosurgeon , National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH

Mr Ahmed Toma is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH, and an Honorary Associate Professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London. His clinical and research interests focus on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics disorders and  neurovascular surgery. He holds a postgraduate research degree in adult hydrocephalus and did a fellowship in interventional neuroradiology at Queen Square currently serves as Chairman of the CSF Group of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS) and a member of the British neurovascular group (BNVG).

Professor Tonny Veenith

Professor of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care & Acute Care Medicine, University of Wolverhampton

Professor Tonny Veenith MBBS, PhD (Cantab), MRCP, FRCA, EDIC, FFICM is a leading clinician‑scientist in critical care, with a special interest in neurocritical care and acute neurological illness. He serves as Professor of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Acute Care Medicine at the University of Wolverhampton and Royal Wolverhampton Hospital. His internationally recognised research portfolio spans traumatic brain injury, neuroinflammation, critical illness, and acute neurological emergencies, supported by more than £12 million in competitive research funding secured over the past five years. He has a sustained international research profile with impactful outputs in leading medical journals, including JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, and The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Professor Veenith is the lead author of the UK’s national clinical guideline for the acute management of status epilepticus in adult intensive care, published by the Intensive Care Society. It now serves as the national standard for evidence‑based emergency neurological care (https://ics.ac.uk/resource/status-epilepticus.html). The guideline has shaped practice across UK critical care units and is widely recognised for its clarity, clinical relevance, and integration of emerging neurocritical care evidence. He is also a regional and national lead in academic training anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, holding roles including National Training Lead for the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia and Macintosh Professor of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He is a regular speaker at major national and international meetings on subarachnoid haemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, refractory status epilepticus, and neurocritical care pathways.

A committed educator and mentor, Professor Veenith has supervised MSc, MD, and PhD students whose work has been published in high‑impact journals and presented internationally, including at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Intensive Care Society. His leadership in curriculum development, digital innovation, and inclusive academic practice has shaped training programmes across multiple universities nationally in the UK and internationally.

Dr Manni Waraich

Consultant Neurocritical Care & Neuroanaesthesia, The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, London

Dr Manni Waraich is a Consultant Neurointensivist and Neuroanaesthetist at the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and Clinical Lead for Neurosciences Critical Care. Dr Waraich is the national lead for the Intensive Care Society FUSIC® NeuroPOCUS module, leading the development of a UK training and accreditation pathway for NeuroPOCUS. Her clinical and academic interests focus on neurocritical care, non-invasive neuromonitoring, and the integration of point-of-care ultrasound into neurological practice. She has contributed chapters on neurocritical care and brain ultrasound to several major textbooks including the Oxford Handbook of Anaesthetic Emergencies, Neurology: A Queen Square Textbook, and Point of Care Ultrasound in Critical Care. Dr Waraich is currently completing an Executive Masters in Medical Leadership at Bayes Business School, City, University of London, with a focus on improving equity and collaboration across London’s neuroscience critical care services.

: @ManniWaraich

Dr Parjam (PJ) Zolfaghari

Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia, The Royal London Hospital

PJ was born in Iran and moved to the UK when he was 11 years old. He studied medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ (UMDS) and after initially training to be a surgeon, he switched to anaesthesia and critical care medicine training in East London. He did his PhD with Mervyn Singer at UCL on mitochondrial dysfunction in sepsis and multiorgan failure before starting his consultant post at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, London. His interests are metabolic response in critical illness and trauma. His current main focus is his passion for teaching: he runs the Critical Care MSc at Queen Mary University London and is a senior lecturer in the Critical Care and Perioperative Medicine Research Group at QMUL. He is also one of the associate editors of BJA Education. He was Programme Director for three editions of SOA (2023 to 2025) and is very excited to bring education, research and debate to this multi-professional meeting, as well as great social events in the evenings (another one of his passions!). 

: @PJZolfaghari