As I closed the door to the hotel room heading toward the hotel
lobby to check out, a strange feeling came to me. I felt a knot in my chest, a
flash back of the past few days with their ups and downs. There were moments of
despair and others of triumph. The Syrian refugees are living a miserable life.
We came to their life for few hours every day and then went back to the comfort
of our hotel rooms and they went back to their daily misery. We will go back to
our usual daily routine that steal us away from their plight but they will be
there in the desert caravans, in the valley tents, and in the little molded
rooms.
When I came here I was seeking three goals, as you know, but I
did not know that one could accomplished way more in one week. I did get an
update and some vision about the dialysis situation in Jordan, I certainly saw
for myself the suffering of my country men and women and I hope that I helped
as much as I can. Never in my life I functioned on this intensity with as
little sleep as I did. In addition to that, I didn't know that I will be
meeting so many great people from all over the world that will open my eyes to
whole different worlds. Also, I didn't know that this week will be a mirror
into my soul.
I met great humanitarians, wonderful attorneys, amazing
pharmacists, and great physicians. They came from all over the world to help
with the Syrian refugees. They came from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom,
Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Palestine and Jordan, and many from the USA.
The newly graduate Jordanian doctors who volunteered with us were also truly
amazing.
I will not deny that there were moments of doubts about the
usefulness of all of this but my friends and colleagues words and
encouragements made a huge uplifting impact to keep us going. There was the day
that I was with Dr. Green in the poorly ventilated caravan in Zaatari camp
seeing patients with such scarce resources. I was seeing cases that were either
too simple to be even seen or too complicated that I don't have the resources
to deal with or the chance to offer any continuity of care. I got frustrated
and told him "I don't know if we are making a difference in these people's
lives or medical issues!" Dr. Green with his reassuring voice answered
without hesitation "Majd, think of us as the psychiatrists assistants!
They are here and they are seeing these complicated PTSD cases and we are here
to listen to these people too, and show them that we care". This simple
conversation redirected my effort that day and kept me going, listening and
helping with a smile and energy.
Mission Medicine is a unique spice of medicine. It intertwines
the use of limited resources, and the scarcity of continuity of care, with
cultural perception of medicine. One treats the patients with what one has at
the time that one has it and within the framework of their cultural
understanding of medicine. It is crucial that native physicians familiar with
the culture and the language be an integral part of any medical mission but
doctors from other nationalities are no less important. They are the ones that
show the patients that the world is truly listening to them and standing by
them.
We have written a healing word in the book of suffering of the
Syrian refugees in Jordan but there are many chapters to write and I am hoping
to be there to help writing them.