Some professions are more than just a job, they are a vocation. Medicine is one such calling, according to Musa Sharkawi, one of the 226 future doctors who graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) earlier this month. The 23-year-old Jordanian believes it takes a strong character to be a good doctor.
“You have to be 100 per cent sure [about becoming a doctor], you have to love it before you even get into the field because it’s more of a lifestyle than a job . . . you get immersed in it, so if you have to work long hours, you have to enjoy it in order to be good at it. It’s probably the most honourable profession I can think of.”
Musa moved to Dublin five years ago to fulfill his almost lifelong ambition of becoming a doctor. He has Palestinian origins but was born in Amman in Jordan and grew up in Dubai.
At the age of five he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of kidney cancer. The disease spread to his liver and lungs. Doctors in both Amman and Dubai gave him a zero per cent survival rate. His parents were advised to bring him on a holiday and enjoy what time they had left with their son.
Survival rate
The family was distraught, but refused to give up. Following a suggestion by friends, they flew to Germany for a third opinion. At Berlin's Charité University Hospital he was diagnosed with stage 4 nephroblastoma, a disease with a 50:50 survival rate.
“There was hope all of a sudden,” Musa recalls. He and his mother moved to Berlin for over a year while he received treatment – kidney removal surgery and several courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
“We lived with these doctors for almost a year and a half, they became like family.” Musa is still in contact with Prof Guenter Henze, the man who led the team of doctors taking care of him.
“After my nephrectomy operation, I was so amused by the large cancerous mass in my kidney that I was allowed to aid the pathologist in dissecting it. That hooked me into medicine.”
Musa is very aware of the impact his illness had on his family, especially his mother, Maram. He plans to dedicate his career to them as a sign of gratitude.
He hopes to specialise in cardiology and will soon begin a placement in the Lahey Clinic at Tufts University College of Medicine in Burlington, Massachusetts.
The college's proximity to Boston was a factor in Musa's decision to apply there due to the city's large Irish community. "I call it Boston Ireland because it's full of Irish people." He has felt connected to the country from a young age as the "vast majority" of his secondary school teachers were Irish.
Musa is happy to continue his studies abroad, but says some of his classmates wish to stay in Ireland and are struggling to get a placement here due to the level of competition they face.
Musa plans to permanently settle down in either Dubai or Amman, but not for another 15 or 20 years. Due to the cancer misdiagnoses he received as a child, he wants to help improve the healthcare system in the Middle East.
“If I just trained for five or six years, I don’t think I’d make a big difference when I go back . . . that’s very important to me because I was misdiagnosed twice. Mistakes do happen where I come from. Generally doctors are excellent but there are things to be fixed. Sometimes mistakes can lead to death. My rule is: treat every patient as a family member. You don’t compromise their treatment at all and you have to be very vigilant.”
Selling points
Musa views the international element of RCSI's student body as one of the college's greatest selling points.
“You come here and you feel like you’re at home. No matter what community you’re from, you find someone with a similar background, but you also mingle with people from different backgrounds . . . You don’t just learn medicine – you learn culture and you learn history.”
His fellow international students Ahmad Najdat Bazarbashi (23) and Bader Alhamdan (24) hold the same opinion.
Ahmad says RCSI has “an excellent international student body and that makes a big difference when you’re coming here from a foreign country”.
He and Bader are best friends and both hail from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. They were born on the same day (although Bader is a year older) and have been through all levels of education together.
They moved to Ireland six years ago to attend RCSI. The pair joke that their classmates worry when they see one without the other as they are rarely apart.
“It definitely gives you a sense of comfort and security, knowing that you have someone who is a close friend of yours, especially when we first came here. It’s a completely different environment . . . a friend actually makes a huge difference. So we had ups and downs, but I think we always stuck together,” Ahmad notes.
He has been offered a joint placement in Cork and Kerry. Bader also hopes to remain in Ireland, before pursuing work abroad.
