The Kurdish Surgeon

15/01/2010

The Kurdish Surgeon

During my first quarter in biology at Portland State University I had the pleasure of working with Mina Meman for an evening during lab. Mina mentioned she was going to be going on a trip to film a documentary in Kurdistan during the summer and how excited she was to be able to do that. A few months later I saw a documentary titled The English Surgeon and it reminded me that Mina was going to travel to Kurdistan to do something very similar; bring the attention of the world to the medically disenfranchised of her home country, namely Kurdistan.

As a short aside, The English Surgeon is a wonderful documentary that will likely inspire you to at least think about doing great things, if not moving you to action out right. It follows Dr. Henry Marsh, an English neurosurgeon who travels to and from Ukraine to help Dr. Igor Kurilets on his mission to improve the lot of the medically deprived in Ukraine.

Enter Mina. I had to get back in touch with her and figure out how she got hooked up with the group she was going with. I found her email and messaged her, hoping to find an organization that I could get in contact with to do something similar. I was floored to learn that there was no organization, or school group. It was Mina, by herself. If you go to the United Nations website and look for Kurdistan in the list of countries of the world, you won’t find it. Kurdistan overlays parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia & Turkey. There is no official boundary demarcating the region, and they are represented across five countries. This makes the medical situation for the people who are Kurdistan, even more dire. Below is the interview I was lucky enough to get from Mina, she can tell the story better than I can.

S: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

M: My name is Mina Saad Meman. I am currently 19 years old. I am from Kurdistan, Iraq. I have lived in America for 13 years, on and off. My father has worked for the U.S. government for almost two decades. We were forced to seek refuge in America because my family was being targeted back home. I speak English and Kurdish fluently, as well as basic German. I am working to strengthen my Spanish and French. I have a strong desire for people, cultures, languages, and dance. I have a lot of faith in our world.

S: So why Kurdistan?

M: I have witnessed and taken part in a struggle that has lasted decades beyond my existence. My entire family has been affected by the Kurdish conflict. Given the deaths, constant wars, and government restrictions on the Kurdish people, I have found constant heartbreak. I figured that I could take from this heartbreak either a negative emotion or transfer that into motivation. I realize that I cannot help the entire conflict, but I can affect the current health system. I am very disappointed in the health system in present-day Kurdistan and I believe they are in desperate need of assistance and transformation.

S: What is the day in the life of an average Kurd citizen like?

M: The average Kurdish citizen. This is such a broad question; there are Kurds that live in villages and Kurds that live in the cities. The roles that women play are drastically different from men and children. The standard varies from city to village. Kurdistan is spread out among the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. Due to variable restrictions in each region, no two Kurdish towns can be found to live the same lifestyles.

S: Have you ever been to Kurdistan?

M: I lived in Kurdistan from 1990-1996. I visited again in 1998, as well as in 2004. I was also in Kurdistan recently, up until August 2008.

S: What is your favorite region?

M: My favorite region of Kurdistan is that in which I was born, which is Hawler. All of my family is there and I have many great memories there! My second favorite region of Kurdistan is within the desert land of beautiful Turkey. I had an amazing experience in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on my drive from Dyar Bakr to Hawler; my life can be defined through the food I experience!

S: What specifically do you plan on accomplishing while you are there?

M: My main “short-term” goal is to expose everyone in more developed nations, such as the United States and the UN, to the Kurdish Conflict. I would like to put an emphasis on the lack of medical technology and the poor healthcare system. My goal, again, is to expose…not exploit. I will be filming a documentary to bring back to the United States with me. This documentary will consist of interviews with medical professions, professors, universities, the health board/committee, and the current president of Kurdistan. Meanwhile, I will also be trekking from various hospitals to clinics all throughout the region and volunteering as much as possible.

S: Are there other teams/groups that have done what you are doing? If so what are you doing differently?

M: I am not aware of anyone recording a documentary with this specific focus. Most documentaries on Kurdistan focus on the war-torn victims of the constant genocide that was imposed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. I want to step back from that focus and show a few different angles on the Kurdish struggle; those angles that we can improve today. We can not bring back victims from the attempted genocide, but we can improve the longevity of Kurds, the sanitation in hospitals, the health education systems, and healthcare funding.

S: Who is/are your target audience(s) of your documentary?

M: Anyone and everyone because, as the cliche goes, every single person counts. Everyone’s involvement with this project can make a huge difference. We have power. How we use it is completely up to us.

S: How big is the team you’re taking?

M: This project consists of Me, Myself, and I. I will be attending this region alone for the first time. My father might escort me into the borders. My dear friend Kaity Miller might also accompany me. If she is unable to, she will be assisting me from American University in Washington D.C.

S: Do you anticipate any problems while you’re there?

M: I will prepare for any and every situation. Having the culture and language absorbed naturally, I feel that this will be less difficult than many perceive it to be. However, my biggest concern lies in border-hopping. Again, this is a concern, not a fear. It is worth every bit of the risk.

S: Is this a onetime trip or would you like to make it a repeat trip?

M: This is definitely an ongoing project. I won’t rest until the health systems in Kurdistan have completely transformed.

S: What is the crisis? Specifically, are there especially underprivileged groups? Regions where healthcare is completely unavailable? Out dated technology? Social stigmas surrounding certain diseases?

M: The quality of health education is incredibly weak. We need to introduce updated information through textbooks, e-books, lab work, and progressive technology. The Kurdish people in general are underprivileged. In the smaller villages, healthcare is almost completely absent. The struggle between Kurds and Arabs for Kurdish independence is also a huge factor in this crisis. We need to educate the general public on the basic health and sanitation guidelines that we are so familiar with here. This can prevent a lot of future outbreaks of disease and health crise

S: From a big picture, what other factors are holding the Kurdish healthcare system back?

M: As I mentioned previously, the conflict between the Kurds and Arabs in Iraq and Syria, Kurds and Turks in Turkey, and Kurds and Persians in Iran is a huge factor in this health system crisis.

S: Do you feel, as in other regions, education is a key factor here? In regions of high HIV/AIDS rates, usually education about safe sex practices or needle use are areas that need constant reinforcement.

M: Education is definitely a great factor in this issue. How can we trust doctors if they don’t have efficient information and adequate tools? What kinds of testing can you possibly get if you have such limited technology? As I mentioned before, we need to inform the general Kurdish public on the basics of sanitation within their homes and workplaces that can cause a severe decrease in future outbreaks of disease.

S: Does the Kurdish government have anything in motion to improve the situation such as medical training, nursing training, research?

M: Currently, I have not found any evidence that the government is taking action to improve medical training or research. However, I found many strong proposals made currently by Dr. Goran Zangana in an article published on KurdishAspect.com. He stated that increasing the folic acid levels in the flour that Kurds consume on a daily basis can make a huge difference in encephalopathy, spina bifida and other neural tube defects in labor rooms and maternity hospitals. Furthermore, eliminating lead from the automobile gas is also a huge issue that needs to be addressed. Dr. Zangana states that lead affects the intellectual capacities and cognitive functions of kids and adults. Moreover, the current paper-based data entry system is archaic and won’t sustain the Kurdish population for very long at this rate. Therefore, adopting progressive technology and modern methods in health education and health services would prove to be a huge advantage to the Kurdish people by increasing the speed at which health services are provided, decreasing the incidence of human error, and by providing a platform for research and data analysis.

S: Do you feel like people will be more or less responsive to you being that you are young, traveling from America, and a woman?

M: People will be more responsive. I’m sure some will be very discouraging at the fact that I’m 19 and travelling alone and having ‘unrealistic’ motions. I can respect their opinions but that won’t stop me. As for those who are more responsive because I am a woman…that’s disappointing. Women have been making their mark in history since the beginning of time, and we should be used to it by now. We can not neglect the success and further potential of women’s roles in society any longer. I have no fear of travelling to the Middle East just because I’m a woman or because I’m 19. That mindset would be a complete disadvantage to our society as a whole.

S: How is the healthcare system in Kurdistan run? Is it socialized, pay for service, etc?

M: Pay for service. There is no such thing as health insurance. You need to pay for operations up front, before-hand. If you can’t? The best of luck to you!

S: What’s your favorite food dish there?

M: My favorite food dish is Dorma/Dolma! I also love Kafta and Hummus. Regardless of what the dish is, it always tastes different there! Kurdish food is SO fresh. A plate of rice and salad here vs. a plate of rice and salad in Kurdistan are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum.

S: What made you want to take this trip?

M: I have always been very disappointed in the health system of Kurdistan. What verified my passion-into-action for this trip was Mountains Beyond Mountains, a book by Tracy Kidder on the journey of Doctor Paul J. Farmer. Rather than just putting this book down and feeling intrigued by it all, I decided that I could do it too. Paul Farmer was barely in college when he made his first trek to Haiti. He had practically no money at all. He had a passion and decided to pursue it. I have my passion, and I will pursue it because no one else can do it for me. Also, I cannot neglect the current situation in Haiti and the work of Partners In Health (PIH) to restore medical infrastructure.

S: Why medicine? Why cardiothoracic surgery?

M: I haven’t always wanted to be a doctor, but I have always known that I wanted to heal people. I never knew how I would do this exactly. I love the world of medicine and the power of healing. Believe it or not, my inspiration to become a cardiothoracic surgeon came from a YouTube video. This was in the summer of 2007, right before my senior year in high school. A famous Spanish soccer player, Antonio Puerta, had a cardiac arrest on the field andi n the locker room during a game that was filmed. He seemed so perfectly healthy so I decided to research further into the situation. I found out that he died from arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARVD), which is a heart disease where the fibrous tissue of the right ventricle is replaced by fatty cells, essentially leading to arrhythmias and (perhaps a series) or cardiac arrests. I began to have a never-ending hunger for knowledge about the human heart. I took advantage of every winter and spring break, every book I could get my hands on. I will find the cure for this heart disease once I work with the team at John Hopkins.

S: What else do you do in your life for fun?

M: This is my fun. Isn’t fun considered everything you’re passionate about? I’m truly blessed because my work is my fun. There is never the need to ‘get away’ from work or find an escape; this is my work and my escape. However, I do love to read. What do I love to read? EVERYTHING. My goal in high school used to be to read every book in the library. After doing the math, I was sad to realize it would take me decades of insomnia.

S: Do you think you’ll write a book about your experience?

M: I have written many books. I will write a book documenting this experience as well. I am not sure if I will move forward with publishing.

S: Is there anything you’d like to say?

M: Thank you very much for this interview, it was a pleasure. =)

If you are looking for more information on the Journey to Heal Kurdistan, please feel free to expand your knowledge and ask questions through any of the following sites:

www.myspace.com/minameman

http://twitter.com/minameman

or email her at minameman@gmail.com!

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