Surgeon Saleh Abbas writes book on journey from war-torn Iraq to the Epworth

A local doctor’s inspiring tale has taken him from war zones and humanitarian crises to a private hospital in Geelong.

Surgeon Saleh Abbas At Epworth Hospital in Waurn Ponds. Picture: Brad Fleet

From the modern Epworth hospital in Waurn Ponds, Associate Professor Saleh Abbas reflects on a time in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, when he and a group of his peers were brought close to front line to treat wounded soldiers.

“Someone came in with a broken femur and there’s no morphine, or any effective painkillers to give them,” Prof Abbas recalls.

“There was no theatre time available, it was heartbreaking.

“There were a lot of supplies, but after a couple of hours, because so many people were badly injured, they ran out.”

This may be an old chapter in the life of Prof Abbas, who can now be found performing surgery in Geelong, but one that sticks with him today.

“Geelong’s been good to me,’ he says.

Surgeon Saleh Abbas At Epworth Hospital in Waurn Ponds. Picture: Brad Fleet

It’s miles and years away from his time at medical school in Baghdad.

“My father suffered from poverty all his life,” he said.

“It was a difficult life and he didn’t think being a farmer was a sustainable thing to do, in semidesert, with no running water.”

“He wanted us to be educated, go to the cities and live better than he did.”

Prof Abbas managed to escape military service through what he described to be “sheer luck.”

“My cousin and brother fought and were killed on the front lines,” he said.

“As one of the top 10 students at medical school, I was exempt from miliary service.”

Prof Saleh Abbas (left) on his first day of medical school in Baghdad

Two years after the war ended, in 1990 another began.

Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, often referred to as The Gulf War, crushed the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq, as a coalition of 42 countries invaded.

“It was full on; there was a lot of action around that period,” Prof Abbas said.

“When Baghdad was bombed, I was in the hospital.

Front page of newspaper the 'Herald Sun'. January 17, 1991.

“I slept in a side room for four years because I didn’t have a place of my own.”

The war ended in 1991, but according to Prof Abbas, the country was left in “shambles”.

“There were 20 million people in what was basically an open air prison, with no job opportunities,” he says.

“When you are young, you look at the future destroyed ahead of you and try to get away.”

Prof Abbas took the end of the war as an opportunity to flee to nearby Yemen where he encountered more poverty, poor healthcare facilities and a mix of different illnesses he hadn’t encountered before.

After four years in Yemen, he emigrated to New Zealand.

Iraqi vehicle damaged in the fighting during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

“It was a huge shift in terms of culture, with beautiful mountains, everything green, up to date facilities, it was a real eye opener,” he said.

“That was where everything changed for me.”

It was in Auckland where he undertook surgical training, a life long goal.

Prof Abbas made the cross over the ditch in 2009, where he began training as a liver surgeon.

“It was a new thing in Australia then, I was in the first group, there was just four of us, to become officially trained as liver and pancreatic surgeons,” he said.

“It was a combination of luck and hard work, luck will not come unless you are prepared at the right moment.”

He’s worked at the Epworth Geelong, where he’s performed countless surgeries specialising in liver and pancreas cancers, since it opened in 2016.

The Epworth Geelong days prior to its opening. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Now calling Newtown home, Prof Abbas lives happily with his wife Reem and three kids, Faisal, Basma and Jumana.

It was upon telling his three kids of his epic tale of escape, that he felt compelled to leave something behind for them.

And so the idea for his recently released book ‘Little Shepherd’ came about.

“It has been emotionally challenging, some of the stories are sad, bitter memories,” Prof Abbas said.

“To some extent, it is humbling but losing my brother was a big trauma, telling that story did give me a sense of pride rather than feeling bitter and betrayed, basically, my brother died for us.”

Although there are now many chapters to his life, Prof Abbas hasn’t forgotten his roots.

He returns to Iraq frequently, to see those who stayed behind, those who helped him write that old chapter, many years ago, and many miles away.

“My brother is a kidney transplant surgeon in Baghdad,” he said.

“I go there and sometimes I just go as a visitor into the operating theatre.”

But what Prof Abbas finds upon his return journeys back to his homeland is a broken nation.

“The Americans tookSaddam (Hussein), they just basically destroyed the whole country, they pushed it back at least a century,” he said.

Surgeon Saleh Abbas At Epworth Hospital in Waurn Ponds. Picture: Brad Fleet

“The Iraqi system is now totally corrupt, it’s just siphoning all the oil money to certain people basically.”

It is his new chapter, however, as a surgeon, father, and husband from Newtown, that still has Prof Abbas excited.

He spends his time away from the operating theatre reading and writing, currently plugging away at another book.

“I’m busy, we are in the process of writing a history of surgery book,” he said.

“We’re looking at the major events that have changed up surgery in its current form.”

Major recent world events in Europe and the Middle East may remind Prof Abbas of his first chapters, the importance of the work he’s done, and the inspirational nature of his epic journey from war-torn Iraq to the Epworth.

Prof Saleh Abbas’ book Little Shepherd can be ordered through Amazon.com.

Originally published as Surgeon Saleh Abbas writes book on journey from war-torn Iraq to the Epworth