For a man whose job is to care for sick people, Dr. Ahmad Al-Shamssie's journey to work is incredibly fraught with danger. His home is about 25 km from the Baghdad Medical City complex, where he is radiology chair at the teaching hospital. He has to change his vehicle and his route to the hospital every day so that potential terrorists cannot target him easily. He never drives himself, and must change his driver frequently.
Many of Iraq's 500 radiologists fear for their own safety on a daily basis. According to unpublished 2008 data gathered by Al-Shamssie, 2% of the 125 or so radiologists in Baghdad have been killed, 5% have been threatened, 25% have left the country, 30% have left the capital for safer places in the north and south, and 10% have switched jobs.
“Hospital staff must be aware of how to manage anger and difficult situations. Some hospitals in real hot spots have been occupied totally by militant groups,” he said. “If employees suspect something is wrong, they have to change their clothes, get rid of their IDs, and mix with the patients or their relatives.”
Al-Shamssie has received threatening letters. He was injured during an attack on him in June 2007, and his close friend and fellow Baghdad radiologist, Dr. Samir Saleem, was murdered the same month.
He knows that the militants aim to dismantle the healthcare service, cause maximum chaos, and disrupt as many lives as possible but is determined to keep working.
“If we don't continue, then we will end up with another Saddam [Hussein], or a corrupt system that could lead to another dictator. That's the real issue,” he said during an exclusive interview with Diagnostic Imaging Europe at December's RSNA meeting.
Dr. Mustafa Saleh Al-Matar, head of radiology at Basra Teaching Hospital, also perceives that his personal security is constantly under threat. In September 2007, he had to leave Iraq for security reasons and spent two months in the United Arab Emirates. Six months later, his close colleague, Prof. Khaled Naser Al-Miyahi, professor of neurosurgery at Basra Teaching Hospital, was assassinated. Al-Miyahi was kidnapped from his car by a group of armed men, and his tortured body was found the next day in the streets of Basra. There were no ransom demands.
Furthermore, the continuing tragedy for Iraqi radiologists is that they remain largely isolated from the rest of the world. They were isolated before the war because they had no access to the Internet. Now they are isolated due to visa restrictions and because the profession has little or no organizational structure and the training system is in tatters, according to Al-Shamssie.
