The good doctors

This posting is dedicated to Middle Eastern doctors.

No, not those doctors, the ones who allegedly decided to renege on the Hippocratic Oath in the vilest of ways in London and Glasgow.

I mean the ones who toil silently and diligently in some of the most dangerous, forgotten places on earth. Thanks to the physicians accused in the botched attacks last week, other talented Arab, Iranian and South Asian doctors who seek training and travel opportunities may no longer be welcome in the West.

These are some of the doctors who come to mind:

Dr. Mohamed, a Chicago-trained neurosurgeon who once took me on a tour of the state-of-the-art Cairo hospital where he works. There was a framed certificate on the wall from a U.S. military officer, thanking the Egyptian doctors for healing American troops from the international peacekeeping force in the Sinai.

Another physician friend named Mohamed, who is doing his residency in Belgium and must be stunned to find out that his innermost religious beliefs are now a matter of European security. Back in Egypt, he used to spend his weekends passing out food and medical supplies at local orphanages.

Dr. Lourance Kamle, a Syrian prosthetics expert, whose workshop in Damascus builds about 24 artificial limbs a month, mostly for Iraqi victims of insurgents bombs and U.S. air strikes. He appeared close to tears as he displayed the casts for a 5-month-old Iraqi girl’s new “feet.”

Dr. Arash Alaei, of Tehran, and his brother, Dr. Kamiar Alaei, from Harvard. Together, the brothers built a cutting-edge HIV/AIDS prevention program for Iran over the objections of powerful mullahs. The World Health Organization named their clinics the best-practice model for the Middle East and North Africa.

The volunteer doctors from the Lebanese Red Crescent whose ambulances took direct Israeli hits during the war in southern Lebanon last summer. Still, they continued making the perilous trips to reach stranded villagers and retrieve corpses. I watched them pull slimy, decomposing bodies from the rubble and give them the most decent burials they could under the circumstances.

Dr. Hassan Suleiman, a cardiologist, and Dr. Ahmad Khaled el Hajj, an obstetrician – both Palestinian doctors from the hospital in the Baddawi refugee camp in northern Lebanon. They worked round-the-clock and, quite literally, under the gun to rescue civilians during recent fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants at the nearby Nahr el Bared camp.

Dr. Pari Beyzavi, an Iranian-born therapist who fled to the United States after leaders of the Islamic Revolution accused her of spying for the West. Last time I checked, in 2003, she lived in Minnesota, where she was the lifeline and caregiver for more than 100 Iraqi torture victims and refugees.

Dr. Ali Mualem Mohamed at Madina Hospital in Mogadishu. On any given day, he told me last year, his 65-bed hospital is flooded with 170 patients, mostly civilian victims of the gunfire that punctuates daily life in Somalia.

And, above all, my dear friend and colleague Dr. Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi physician who was shot dead by an American sniper in Baghdad in 2005. He worked with us as a correspondent, but found himself unable to just report at bombing scenes. After one blast, Yasser told us, he was, “doing sutures, taking notes, doing sutures, taking notes.”

Just before his death, Yasser had applied for a training course in London. At the time, he appeared a shoo-in, with his medical and journalistic track record, his piles of recommendation letters and a smile that could charm the coldest of European fellowship administrators. And now? An Iraqi doctor applying for a training course in London? Fat chance, after this guy.

If they’re guilty as accused, the doctors who plotted the European attacks didn’t only scare the bejesus out of counterterrorism officials and airline passengers the world over.

They also ushered in a new wave of red tape and racial profiling for the Yassers of the world – the brave and compassionate Middle Eastern doctors who not only save lives, but are willing to risk their own in the process.

Comments

[jimmy]

Public Consultant Group inc. is spying on us for the Government.

[Raymond McInnis]

Hannah, is there a way to have your blog emailed? I'd like to sign up.

Ray McInnis

[Hannah Allam]

Hi there, Ray. Thanks for the interest! I'll check on the email possibilities. I know you can sign up for RSS on the top righthand side of the page, BUT I just tried it and the link appeared broken so I'll ask our systems folks and get back to you, ok? Thanks for your patience. This is still pretty new and a work in progress...

[Mytwords]

Thanks for the post Ms. Allam. Good medicine in these poisonous times.

[veiledsentiments]

Thank you for posting what had been my thoughts on hearing the news from the UK. So many pay for the actions of such a tiny number of men... so it goes..

VS

[Paul]

In these perilous times the good people get painted with the same brush as the bad ones.

[hollister uk]

I read this article, I really wish I could have spoken with the author directly.

[abercrombie uk]

But what about the powers that crossed the high seas to liberate us?? They poured out their billions; they sacrificed their sons … to "liberate" us … but what we, the women of Iraq got, is article 41.

[ed hardy uk]

But what about the powers that crossed the high seas to liberate us?? They poured out their billions; they sacrificed their sons … to "liberate" us … but what we, the women of Iraq got, is article 41.

[Abercrombie outlet]

As you stated, it's clear that many people were misleading some people, and from the very beginning.

[hollister]

Well said, such a person should be a good sentence, or the future will be more rampant.

[ed hardy outlet]

Well said, such a person should be a good sentence, or the future will be more rampant.

[Abercrombie fitch outlet]

Iraqi government leaders, deserve my tax dollars, about as much as the US leaders, who gave it to them.The citizens of America don't need thei r money to be spent here ? Replace those in charge, here in the US,who made the decision to give our tax dollars to anyone but our Bankers,we all know how much they need our tax dollars, don't we.SAD,SAD USA facts Again.Get your passport in order.

[CallahanJuliette20]

Various people in all countries take the personal loans in different creditors, because this is simple and comfortable.