Daniel Olaiya

Meet the medical man with a thirst for adventure.

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When Dr Daniel Olaiya isn't presenting Operation Ouch! on CBBC he’s working as an NHS doctor. He specialises in anaesthesia (using medicine that stops people from feeling pain during surgery) and helping patients who are very ill. He's also a flight doctor, which means he works on air ambulances (aeroplanes that evacuate sick people to get them the treatment they need). He told The Week Junior Science+Nature that he finds the human body fascinating and is “excited and surprised all the time” when he thinks about what it can do.

Sci-fi heroes

Olaiya’s interest in science didn’t start with school lessons. Instead, it grew from his love of science fiction. He was a big fan of superheroes, in particular the X-Men comics. His favourite character was Havok, who can release powerful blasts of plasma energy from his body. The comics had a “funny scientific explanation” on why Havok has these powers (he absorbs cosmic energy and fires it back out) and Olaiya thought he was really cool.

Another hero of his was the film character Indiana Jones, an archaeologist who goes on lots of adventures. Olaiya loved that Jones could be a professor at a university and also be really adventurous. He used to think to himself, “Imagine if I was Indiana Jones in my own way.”

The adventure begins