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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Wael Al-Husami is originally from Jordan, and even after living in Wellesley for many years, he returns to his home country to give back to those in need. An interventional cardiologist, Al-Husami returns to Jordan around four times per year with missions through the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a nonpolitical, nonprofit medical relief organization that works on the front lines of crisis relief in Syria and neighboring countries to alleviate suffering and save lives. An estimated 1.4 million Syrian refugees have crossed the border to Jordan due to the political turmoil there. The last mission Al-Husami went on was in January, and he will return again in July.
“Every part of the mission is a donation from people, even if it’s just their time. Some people come without medical background, they were from the media to help support, to spread the story,” Al-Husami explained. “Some of our patients have angina, they have pain, but they have no money to do the procedure. They wait for us until they come, and we do the procedure for them, we open their arteries. I think I have had more than 25 patients along the course of these missions who have had open-heart surgery.” Al-Husami is a private physician who works primarily with Lahey Hospital, but also with The Miriam, and serves on the faculty of Brown University.
During the last mission, Al-Husami worked from six in the morning to 11:30 at night. “It’s very emotional. You don’t want to leave any patients behind,” he said. “It’s not just your job. Some people get scared, they say they want to go home, I don’t want to have the procedure. And finally we convince them to have the procedure and it turned out they needed urgent open-heart surgery, so you try not to leave any case behind.” During his last mission, one of Al-Husami’s daughters came along. She helped with data and helping patients with their medications.
“It makes you feel very humble, to help. It gives you a different feel for life, it gives you a feeling that we should all be involved to help as much as we can,” Al-Husami said. “A lot of stories there, a lot of sad stories, a lot of people don’t get out.” While SAMS funds a great portion of these efforts, they need donations to help continue their missions. “We are always looking to find help and we are very much open to the ways that people want to work. Some people donate directly through their organization, some people want to pay directly to the hospital. We don’t care how they do it, just as long as they do.”
