Professor Awad omer
(1935-)
MB BS, MRC Path
Pioneer
of Haematology
Edited
by Prof. Ahmed El Safi
In
1955, Kitchener School of Medicine was renamed Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum
University. At
the time, almost all students were in the Boarding dwelling of the University,
and this was the Red Sea Boarding Complex (near the later Health College).
That was one of the oldest boarding complexes in the University. The teaching
staff at the time were almost all Britons; among them were Professor Julian
Taylor, Professor of Surgery, Professor Danny and Professor Morgan of Internal
Medicine, and Professor Adams, Professor of Biochemistry. The first appointed
Sudanese teaching staff is Professor Ali Khogali Ismail, who later became Dean
of Medicine and first Sudanese Professor of Physiology. When we were in an internship,
Professor Daoud Mustafa became a teaching staff. My other classmates are Dr. Sadig Abdel-Wahab (later to be the first Sudanese
doctor to get the degree of MRC Path) (1935-), Dr. Ibrahim Attabani, Dr. Abd
Allah Khogali, and Dr. Ali Ba-Aneeb.
Dr. Omer had his medical
training at Khartoum
Civil Hospital.
He continues to narrate. Our salary as house officers was 40 Sudanese Pounds. I
was the house physician of Dr. Abdel-Haleem Mohamed. The medical registrar was Dr.
Abdel Gaffar Abdel Rahim, who became a distinguished physician. After that, I
did my surgical attachment with the great Dr. Abdelhameed Bayoumi, and the Ob/Gyne,
with Dr. Suleiman Mudawi. The registrars were Dr. Abbo Hassan Abbo and the late
Dr. Awad Mohamed Ahmed (Algoon). My last attachment was with Professor Daoud
Mustafa. After that, I worked for a short spell at Malakal Civil
Hospital.
How I was transferred to
Malakal is an exciting story. During my houseman-ship in Ob/Gyne,
I was on call one night, and I happened to have seen a lady, who presented with
excessive bleeding, and my diagnosis (confirmed by my registrar) was excessive
menstrual bleeding rather than anything pathological. Accordingly, we decided
to discharge the patient home. A couple of hours later, I received a phone call
from the Health Secretary, Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Ali, asking me to admit that
patient. The lady was happened to be the wife of a famous poet). However, I replied,
‘Your Excellency, this lady has no serious Gynaecological problem, and she is
not pregnant either; plus, I only had one bed left for acute admissions.’ My
registrar supported me, and agreed with my decision not to admit her. Several
months later, I was notified to work in Malakal. Soon after that, I was called
by the Health Secretary to meet with him. He was very polite and kind during
the short meeting and ended the meeting by saying that you were transferred to
work in Malakal so that you would learn how to treat people well. I discovered that
Dr. Awad Mohamed Ahmed Algoon (my registrar) was also transferred to the same
hospital during that incident.
Dr. Omer worked in Malakal for
just over one year, and towards the end of that year, he contracted infective
hepatitis and became very sick. He was transferred to Khartoum hospital for treatment and was
hospitalized at the Southern Block of the KCH. A few days later, the Health
Secretary visited him in the hospital. Dr. Omer continues narrating: ‘The
Health Secretary was very apologetic and kind to me. That was a very moving and
memorable experience. Also, when the Health Secretary came to the hospital, the
gatekeeper refused to let him in the Block as the visiting time was over. The
Health Secretary did not reveal his identity to the gatekeeper; instead, he ordered
a promotion for him as a reward for doing his job correctly.
Prof Awad Omer recalled why
he decided to take clinical haematology as a career. He commented by saying:
‘It all came by sheer serendipity! When I qualified, I had a special interest in
specializing in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and that stemmed from my great love
and respect for my earlier mentor, the late Dr. Suleiman Mudawi, a
distinguished obstetrician.
However, his destiny changed
after he went to work in Malakal. He recalled that only four doctors were in
the hospital, including him and Dr. Abdel Aziz Nugud (senior medical officer).
He continued. I was the most junior, so I was not involved in the Obs/Gyne
section; instead, there was a small laboratory run by the United States Naval
Medical Research Unit (NAMRU), which was involved in research into Kala-Azar, visceral
leishmaniasis. So, I started spending a good spell of my free time there, which
is how I developed my love and passion for laboratory medicine. Later that
year, a teaching assistant’s post came up in the Department of Pathology, so I
decided to apply for it, and the sequence of events after that set the scene
for my career in Laboratory Medicine.
Prof. Ahmed Mohamed El-Hassan
and Dr. Ahmed Ali El-Tayeb were his predecessors when Dr. Omer joined the Department
of Pathology. However, he recalled that it was Professor Lynch who masterminded
his scholarship to the United
Kingdom. He said: I joined the Royal
Infirmary of Edinburgh for my attachment to obtain MRCP in Haematology, and I
worked for Professor Howard Davis, Professor of Clinical Haematology at the University
of Edinburgh. He also worked and trained
in the Western General
Hospital. Among his
contemporaries in Edinburgh,
he recalled, were Dr. Mohamed Yousif Sukkar (later to become Professor of
Physiology), Dr. Hashim Irwa (later Professor of Microbiology), Dr. Osman Modawi,
and Dr. Osman Abdelkariem.
Dr. Omer obtained MRCP in
July 1964, the same year the Royal College of Pathology (RCPath) was founded
(Prof Ahmed Mohamed Al Hassan was chosen as a co-founding member of the College).
In October 1964, he began his Ph. D. studies in haematology with Professor
Ronald Girdwood, Professor of Therapeutics, who succeeded Prof Derek Dunlop as Chairman
and Head of the Department of Medicine at the RIE. His thesis was on ‘Folic acid
status in health and disease.’
In October 1967, he got his
degree from Edinburgh
University. Prof. Omer recalls.
During my Ph.D. studies, I had Dr. John Stewart, who was also studying for his
degree, and we were both supervised by Prof Howard Davies. When we got our Ph. D.,
he was appointed to Birmingham Hospitals, and it happened that he intended to
go to the US
on a sabbatical for a year. He approached me to do his locum, and I agreed.
However, Professor Howard Davies was distraught with this, and he called me
over and asked me: ’how many haematologists are there in Sudan? I replied by
saying, only one. It was only Dr. Mahmood Ziada whom I consider to be the first
pioneer of clinical hematology in Sudan. Professor Davies quickly asserted, I
have trained you to work in Khartoum, not Birmingham.
After this, I returned immediately to Khartoum’.
When Prof. Awad Omer returned
to Sudan,
the Department of Pathology was relatively small, with Professor James Lynch as
Head of the Department, Dr. Ahmed M. El-Hassan as a senior lecturer, and Dr. Ahmed
Ali El-Tayeb as a lecturer. Early in
1968, Dr. Sadiqq Abdel Wahab joined the Department as a lecturer in Chemical Pathology.
He was the first Sudanese to obtain MRCPath in Chemical Pathology. Dr. Awad
recalls that his work schedule was divided between teaching medical students,
working in Stack Laboratory, and providing consultation on various hematological
disorders in KCH.
The 1960s and 1970s were the
golden eras of Medicine in Sudan. In 1961/62, the new Khartoum Hospital was built, and the era witnessed essential
developments in various aspects of health care, medical education, and the
medical profession. Prof Lynch left the Department of
Pathology and was succeeded by Prof Ahmed Mohamed El-Hassan in 1968.
We expanded further with Dr. Saddiq
Abdelwahab leading the section of Chemical Pathology, myself in the Section of
Clinical Haematology, and Dr. Ali Abdelsattir joining the section of
Histopathology with Professor Ahmed Mohamed El Hassan. Mustafa Dafallah joined
Sadig Abdel Wahab in chemical pathology in the seventies and had remarkable input.
Dr. Awad continued to recall.
At the time, Stack Central Laboratories were under-equipped and poorly
furnished. Nevertheless, I set up an excellent collaboration with the late Dr. Sayyed
Daoud (the Director of the Laboratory at the time), which resulted in
significant development of the Laboratory, which paid dividends in research,
innovation, and high-quality service to the country as a whole. A partnership
between the Laboratory and the faculty of Medicine lasted for years.
In 1971, Dr. Awad Omer was
promoted straight from lecturer to Reader in Pathology (bypassing senior
lecturer) as per his outstanding achievements in research, innovation, and
clinical excellence. He got a second scholarship from July 1970 to July 1971,
where he joined the famous Professor John Dacie at Hammersmith
Hospital in London. During his tenure at Hammersmith, he
obtained the degree of MRCPath in haematology. He recalled that during that
period, his academic mate was the famous Professor Victor Hoffbrand. Three
years later, he was appointed to a personal chair in Clinical Haematology. He
commented that at the time, the PrimA Facie Committee in the University oversaw
all promotion applications via vetting various candidates’ credentials. Several
of his students followed in his footsteps, including his niece Dr. Anwar
Kordofani and Dr. Maria Satti (the daughter of another icon of laboratory
medicine, Dr. Mohamed Hamad Satti). He asserted that Dr. Awad El-seed Mustafa,
who was his classmate since his high school education, also got a scholarship
to be trained in clinical haematology, but from the Ministry of Health, he came
shortly after me, and he joined the MOH, and later he joined the University of
Gezira and became Dean of Medicine there.
Prof Awad Omer became Head of
the Department of Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine from 1971 through 1980,
when he left to work at the Faculty of Medicine, King
Abdul-Aziz University
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He remained within
the academic staff in Jeddah till 1997, after which he joined the Saudi
Ministry of Health at the Oncology Centre in Jeddah. Prof Awad is a founding
member of the Royal College of Pathology, Middle Eastern Region, and also he is
the vice representative of the same College in the Middle East Region. He has
over 67 scientific papers to his name, and currently, he is writing a textbook
on the haematological disorders in the Middle East,
in which he is compiling his lifelong experience in the field. Prof Awad is
married with two sons, four daughters, and several grandchildren.
Comments
بروفسر عوض أحد شيوخ العلم والطبابة في بلادى. ترفع له القبعات وتحفه المهابة والوقار والاجلال. ربنا يمتعه بالصحة والعافية ويلبسه ثوب الكرامة والستر ومحبة الناس.
دكتور عثمان حسن موسى