Dangerous Quests for Excellence

When I joined University Hospital, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. I was advised by the returning Irish faculty members who came back to Dublin, after spending several years at the King Faisal University, Dammam that a non-Muslim expatriate must never mention what to say of discussing matters related both to religion and politics. I myself advised, quite emphatically, during “psychological therapy” to non-Muslim new arrivals from UK and India the same things. I myself stuck to these in day-to-day life, but I became more and more concerned about unnecessary damage to patients of all types, alive or dying or even those who were becoming “patients” due to judicial punishment, such as chopping of right hand at the wrist without any medical help or input.

Another medical matter concerned me a lot was that in Saudi Arabia, even in 1982 and 1983, there was no official directive or law regarding Brain Death certification. Due to such an absence, I found, routinely, that “patients” in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were putrefying, but were still, officially, regarded as alive as their heart was still beating. So, contrary to my own advice to others, I started exploring, very gingerly and cautiously, what was the opinion among the Saudi and Muslim clinical faculty members about such religiously sensitive matters. The stories of my efforts and ultimate success on these two matters are worth documenting. I did, especially in retrospect, and more so after I left King Faisal University, came to realise that I was on dangerous grounds on these subject matters, but by keeping within the sensibilities of the Saudis and keeping to scientific exactitude, I did succeed in these two endeavours.