Last month, Dr. Mohamed Eisa, a gastroenterologist who practices in Jefferson Hills, traveled to Sudan after receiving news that his father had died.
Dr. Eisa arrived in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, on April 12.
By April 15, armed conflict had broken out between two competing groups, Rapid Support Forces — a paramilitary force that was part of the transitional government in Sudan — and Sudanese armed forces, composed of the country’s military. There had been earlier rumors that fighting would begin, Dr. Eisa said, but many people didn’t expect it to occur so soon or that they would be trapped in the eastern African country.
“On Saturday at around 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning, we were woken up by sounds of missiles, and heavy machinery, guns and bullets … we were told it was going to go away in a couple of hours, and that didn’t happen,” Dr. Eisa said, speaking from a secure location in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“It was completely scary and frightening.”
Dr. Eisa’s father, Eisa Ahmed, had been suffering from complications from a 2021 brain bleed.
After being trapped in the country during the early days of fighting, Dr. Eisa said he arrived in Saudi Arabia within the past week and hopes to return to the Pittsburgh region soon. Since he had traveled on a work permit, he had an interview with the U.S. Embassy over the weekend. He is waiting to be approved to return to the United States.
As a gastroenterologist, Dr. Eisa said his schedule quickly filled once he started working with the Allegheny Health Network last August.
Dr. Simran Kochhar, director of gastroenterology for AHN, said that when he and others interviewed Dr. Eisa for the position, they were immediately impressed with his compassion and generosity.
Because gastroenterology touches on so many different types of medicine — colon disease, Crohn’s disease and liver transplants — it’s important that patients have a good relationship with that doctor, Dr. Kochhar said.
“He’s very important to our division because he provides some care to hospital patients in the south of Pittsburgh ... his patients can suffer because he has to cancel his procedure days and clinic days throughout the [region],” Dr. Kochhar said.
“We have a very good group of physicians who have stepped up, [but] when a patient has a personal relationship with their physician, they want to continue that relationship.”
Dr. Eisa said countries like Sudan are in great need of additional medical support and infrastructure. He said that was one of the concerns of Dr. Bushra Ibnauf Sulieman, a fellow gastroenterologist who was stabbed to death last month as fighting in Sudan began.
Dr. Sulieman always told Dr. Eisa and others that places like Sudan needed greater assistance when it comes to general health care, he said.
In his role as secretary general of the Sudanese American Physicians Association, Dr. Eisa said he has been focused on delivering medical supplies and providing other assistance to Dr. Sulieman, as the latter spent much of his time in Sudan providing medical care.
While patients who need to receive dialysis regularly can have sessions two or three times a week in the United States, Sudanese citizens often wait up to two to three weeks to get a treatment.
Rehabilitating hospitals and providing those core medical supplies and services is vital, said Dr. Eisa, who now sees it as a way of honoring Dr. Sulieman.
“We all could do something to make sure his legacy and what he really wanted to do is happening.”
Steve Bohnel: sbohnel@post-gazette.com
First Published: May 8, 2023, 6:19 p.m.
Updated: May 9, 2023, 11:03 a.m.