Academic Background

M.D., Aleppo University, Aleppo, Syria, 1992.

Postdoctoral Training

King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, Residency in Surgery, 1993-1996
Loyola University Medical Center, Residency in Anesthesiology, 1997-2000
UMass Memorial Medical Center, Fellowship in Critical Care Medicine, 2000-2001
Baystate Medical Center, Fellowship in Pain Management, 2001-2002

From the time I entered medical school, I have been fascinated by the technology of monitors and interventional procedures. I always imagined myself on an airplane or in a remote area being called to help someone having a medical emergency but I didn't know what my response would be until it happened to someone close to me. I didn't know much about medicine at that time and all I did was to shout for help and observe others doing the resuscitation. During my vacation after high school, my cousin and I were swimming in a pool when he suddenly banged his head and lost consciousness. Luckily there was a group of physicians in the pool and they performed CPR on him until he regained consciousness. I asked the doctor who managed his airway what his specialty was and he told me he was an anesthesiologist. I realized then that anesthesiologists are on the front lines of saving lives. Luckily my cousin recovered quickly and he was ready to go into the pool the following day.

It is as much an art as a challenging mission to anesthetize a patient safely for the proposed surgical procedure. For me, the best moment in an anesthetic is emergence when I call the patient's name and he or she opens his or her eyes ready to be extubated without coughing, fighting or complaining of pain. It thrills me to hear the patient say, “Is it over? I didn't feel a thing.” Achieving such outcomes is what I most love to practice and to teach residents.

I also enjoy covering the surgical intensive care unit because it helps me to sharpen my clinical decision making skills and it gives me the opportunity to provide the continuation of care beyond the operating room. Outside of the hospital, my hobbies are swimming, horseback riding, and web surfing.