Tag Archives: Indian Muslim Doctors

Indian doctor helped a ‘critical’ Rizwan recover in time for semi-final

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Thiruvananthapuram, KERALA / Dubai, UAE :

Dr Saheer Sainalabdeen posing with Mohammad Rizwan’s jersey. (Special Arrangement, Twitter/ShoaibAkhtar)

The attending pulmonologist, Dr Saheer Sainalabdeen, originally from Thiruvananthapuram, said Mohammad Rizwan was critical at the time he was admitted in Dubai’s Medeor Hospital.

It was a race against time. Two days before his team’s T20 World Cup semifinal against Australia, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper opener Mohammad Rizwan, after complaining of severe chest pain, was in the ICU unit of Medeor Hospital near Burjuman in Dubai.

The attending pulmonologist, Dr Saheer Sainalabdeen, originally from Thiruvananthapuram, says Rizwan was critical at the time he was admitted. Under the Indian doctor’s care, Pakistan’s key player recovered in time for the game.

He didn’t just make it to the playing XI, he also made a gritty 67, helping his team post a formidable score in the match that Australia narrowly won. Despite the heartbreaking loss, Rizwan, 29, remembered to acknowledge the efforts put in by the good doctor. As a token of gratitude, he sent across a team shirt, autographed by the Pakistan players.

Speaking to The Sunday Express at his chambers, Dr Saheer credited the quick recovery to Rizwan’s “willpower”.

In ICU for 35 hours

“He was in the ICU for 35 hours. He had a fever for three-four days, but he was Covid negative. Then (two days before the match), he had severe chest pain, enough to make him gasp,” Dr Saheer said.

The 40-year-old doctor said he initially suspected a heart problem, but tests ruled that out. “Actually, due to infection, spasms had blocked Rizwan’s esophagus (food pipe) and trachea (windpipe), resulting in chest pain. His condition was critical.”

Going into the match, Rizwan was not 100%, but managed to score 67 in 52 balls, getting out only in the 18th over of the Pakistan innings. He returned to keep the wickets and took a sharp catch of the in-form Australian opener David Warner, who seemed to be running away with the game.

During a break in the game, Pakistan’s batting coach, former Aussie batsman Mathew Hayden, had revealed to the host broadcaster that Rizwan had been in hospital a day earlier.

“I am a big fan of this batting line-up, they have performed superbly right through with the bat all along, and tonight is no exception. Rizwan was in hospital a night ago, suffering from a bronchitis condition, but this is a warrior… He has great courage, so has Babar (Azam), fantastic to see them combine so well,” Hayden said.

Among those who applauded Rizwan’s drive and commitment was Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin . “Can you imagine this guy played for his country today & gave his best. He was in the hospital last two days. Massive respect @iMRizwanPak. Hero,” posted Pakistan great Shoaib Akhtar.

Dr Saheer recalled Rizwan was desperate to play. “Whenever we spoke, he told me, ‘Play I must, I have to be with the team’. He was given an injection before leaving the hospital (a day before the game) and then, two hours before the start of the match, he took medicines. I allowed him to play only because he was medically fit to play,” the doctor said.

Dr Saheer said, Rizwan and his Pakistani teammates wanted to visit him personally to thank him, but biosecurity protocol didn’t allow them to do so. “He said, ‘Ek shirt bhej rahe hain aapko (Sending you an autographed team shirt)’.”

While happy at the gift, Dr Saheer said he was happier at Rizwan’s recovery. “It was down to his willpower. I have never seen a person with such strong willpower. He was weak but his willpower trumped the illness.”

Recalling the challenge, he added: “An illness that usually takes about a week to heal was taken care of inside two days… He had a big game coming up, so it was my duty to walk the extra mile, leave no stone unturned and then see how it goes. When he was admitted to the ICU, I never thought it would be possible. But he responded very well to the treatment, followed our advice in toto and pulled off something unreal.”

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports> Cricket / by Shamik Chakrabarty, Dubai / November 14th, 2021

Junior doctor takes healthcare to the doorsteps of poor people in West Bengal’s Burdwan

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Mohabbatpur Village (Malda), WEST BENGAL :

The young doctor arranges transport for those living in remote areas, holds regular health camps, reports Pranab Mondal.pix

West Bengal : 

As a junior doctor at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, Dr Golam Ahmed Kibria became overwhelmed by the heart-wrenching ordeals of the underprivileged patients admitted here. “After joining the service, I saw how the poor had to suffer after a nationwide lockdown was announced last year to reach the state-run hospital in Burdwan. Many failed to turn up at the hospital because they couldn’t arrange for vehicles,” said Dr Kibria.

Witnessing these unfortunate circumstances reminded him of a line from the customary oath that medical students take: “I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity.” So Dr Kibria decided to start doorstep healthcare services for the marginalised. After his duty hours, he would organise free health camps in remote pockets of the district and even distribute free medicines.

“In a camp at Memari held on last October 4, I saw a three-and-a-half-year-old child suffering from frequent convulsions and his illiterate parents were helpless. I immediately made all arrangements to get the child admitted to Burdwan Medical College and Hospital where it was detected that he was suffering from Sturge-Weber Syndrome, a rare congenital neurological and skin disorder.” The child was discharged after he recovered.

Dr Golam Ahmed Kibria (in white tee) with underprivileged patients.

In another camp, a woman in her early 60s turned up. “She was not in a position to move because of severe orthopaedic disease. Her family said they had gone door-to-door of rural hospitals but none could cure her. The orthopaedic surgeons at our hospitals identified the exact problem and gave her proper treatment,” he said.

Dr Kibria hails from Mohabbatpur village, Malda, which means a ‘hamlet/town of love’. His act of serving the poor reflects the meaning of his ancestral village’s name. He is the first male in his village to have cracked the medical entrance examination. “Treating patients with different ailments is not possible as a junior doctor. But I ensure their transport to the district hospital with the help of my colleagues, so that needy patients get speedy treatment and necessary pathological tests done,” said Dr Kibria, who organises two free health camps every month.

Realising he needs more man-power to serve the poor, Dr Kibria recently set up a welfare organisation called Prayas. It has 163 members and over 160 doctors. “We also provide rations and financial support to get daughters of poor families married off. Helping every poor person is beyond our capacity. But we try to reach the families who are in deep distress. We have already spent over `11 lakh for this purpose,” he said.

The 26-year-old doctor and his team even reached the areas ravaged by Cyclone Yash in West Bengal. “We held many camps in the affected areas and distributed free medicines. I do it all for the people of my country as my duty,” Dr Kibria signs off.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Pranab Mondal, Express News Service / November 07th, 2021

Indian-origin neurosurgeon helps save Israeli twins conjoined at head

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Jammu & Kashmir, INDIA / London, UNITED KINGDOM (UK):

A Kashmir-born Muslim doctor scrubbed up alongside an Israeli team to help a Jewish family was a reminder of the universal nature of medicine: Dr. Noor Ul Owase Jeelani.

Indian-origin neurosurgeon helps save Israeli twins conjoined at head

Jerusalem: 

A world-renowned Indian-origin pediatric neurosurgeon in the UK has helped a group of Israeli doctors to successfully operate on a pair of twins conjoined at the head, with the babies now likely to lead normal lives, a media report here said.

This is for the first time that Dr. Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, who was born in Kashmir and works at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, agreed to carry out such a surgery outside the UK when contacted by doctors at Israel’s Soroka hospital, according to a report in The Times of Israel (TOI).

He and his colleague, Professor David Dunway, are globally seen as experts on such cases.

Jeelani said, “from a doctor’s point of view, we’re all one” and that medicine transcends all divisions.

“He said that the fact that a Kashmir-born Muslim doctor scrubbed up alongside an Israeli team to help a Jewish family was a reminder of the universal nature of medicine,” the report quoted him as saying.

“It was a fantastic family that we helped,” Jeelani said, adding, as I’ve said all my life, all children are the same, whatever colour or religion”.

“The distinctions are man-made. A child is a child. From a doctor’s point of view, we’re all one,” he emphasised.

The doctor found the family’s delight at the success of the operation “deeply moving”.

“There was this very special moment when the parents were just over the moon. I have never in my life seen a person smile, cry, be happy, and be relieved at the same time. The mother simply couldn’t believe it, we had to pull up a chair to help her to calm down,” Jeelani told the news portal.

Jeelani is said to have also worked for months on the surgery of the Israeli twins.

“We’ve been involved right from the start, talking to the team in Israel and planning it with them over a period of six months,” he said.

“This latest surgery fulfills a key objective of our charity, namely, to empower local teams abroad to undertake this complex work, successfully utilising our experience, knowledge, and skills gained over the past 15 years with our previous four sets of twins,” the neurosurgeon stressed.

It is also a major achievement for the medical team at Israel’s Soroka hospital that managed this complex operation despite having never performed such a surgery.

It involved complicated on-the-spot decisions regarding which blood vessel to give to which twin, and assessing in real-time the impact that immediate decisions were having on the functioning of the brains, the report said.

Jeelani has performed four other such surgeries on twins who were conjoined at the head with fused skulls, intertwined brains, and shared blood vessels.

His involvement with conjoined twins started in 2017 when a neurosurgeon from Peshawar, Pakistan, asked him to operate on identical conjoined twins, Safa and Marwa, born three months earlier to a woman from rural northern Pakistan.

He raised the money for the surgery from a Pakistani oil trader called Murtaza Lakhani and, with Dunaway, successfully performed the operation after hundreds of hours of preparation.

Following the success, he went on to establish Gemini Untwined, a nonprofit organisation, to plan and perform such operations, the report said.

source: http://www.freepressjournal.in / The Free Press Journal / Home> World / by PTI / September 13th, 2021

This UAE doctor served two generations of mothers

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JAMMU & KASHMIR / Abu Dhabi, UAE :

Dr. Saleema Wani – supplied photo

Serving the people of the UAE as a doctor for the last three decades has been a feeling of unconditional love for Dr Saleema Wani.

The greatest treasure for me as a doctor in the UAE, has been to witness babies born at my hands, go on to become mothers and fathers themselves!

During my three-decade’ plus journey in the UAE, I have been at hand to see generation after generation bring in beautiful children into this world.

I remember holding the hands of a young mother giving birth to her daughter. And then years later, holding the hands of her daughter as she gave birth to her two children.

And to think that when I landed here with my husband on April 15, 1989, I thought I would be spending probably a year or two, before returning to my home country.

The second day after landing in the UAE from Kashmir, I began work as a junior doctor at the Corniche Hospital in Abu Dhabi. Interestingly, when I arrived here, I had still not resigned from my previous role. I had planned on staying here for a few years, before returning to my home country. Little did I know then that those ‘few years’ would extend into a ‘few decades’ — thirty-two years to be precise.

In those years, I have walked in and out of the hospital day in and day out. There were times when I was extremely tired and desolate, as life kept marching ahead, but I could not give up. I was on a mission, with little time to spare!

When I think about leaving the UAE, it is hard to imagine. It is hard to leave a country when it feels like home and you are surrounded by family — not only your own blood, but the many who have become my extended family here — thanks to my profession.

I have served two generations of mothers, and today I am helping those women born through my hands, give birth to new babies! Many of them still call me up and ask for my advice, and treat me as if I were their second mother. How could I possibly leave my children behind?

When I look at these mothers, I see that while so many changes have taken place in the UAE over the last three decades — be it socio-economic change or in other aspects, two things have re mained constant — the values and traditions instilled in Emiratis and expats by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan. The second is the weather! And while not much can be said about the weather, it is fair to say that it was these values and traditions of love and patronage showered by families and elders, that made me feel like I was at home — just like a member of each of their families. It gives me comfort knowing my two sons Mohammed and Ammar are never going to be alone.

Raising two sons whilst working as a doctor, being a wife, and earning qualifications all at once was not easy. But how could I not upskill when the path was paved for me through the pragmatic and visionary leadership of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Our Nation’s Mother Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF).

Sheikh Zayed once said: “No matter how many buildings, foundations, schools and hospitals we build, or how many bridges we raise, all these are material entities. The real spirit behind the progress is the human spirit, able man with his intellect and capabilities.”

This particular quote resonates deeply with me. It inspired me to work on my growth in order to remain abreast with the latest technological advancements, as well as give back to the community by assuming several teaching and mentoring roles in the education sector.

Erich Fromm once wrote that: “People who manage to learn to love in a mature and conscious way understand that love isn’t possession nor conditions. Love is a caring and firm desire to promote the growth of all those people we love.”

Simply put, serving the people of this country as a doctor for the last three decades has been a feeling of unconditional love for me. As I reflect on my time in this country, and the years to come, I feel that life is not about us doing what we love; rather, we need to love what we do.

source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> Year of the 50th / by Dr Saleema Wani / July 29th, 2021