Khassan Baiev

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Khassan Baiev

Education Krasnoyarsk Medical Institute
Occupation Surgeon, Author
Spouse Zara Tokaeva[1]
Children Maryam, Islam, Markha, Satsita[1]

Dr. Khassan Baiev (Chechen: Хассан Баев) (born April 4, 1963) is a Chechen-American trauma surgeon who upheld the Hippocratic oath to treat thousands of civilians and combatants on both sides of the Chechen wars, including Russian soldiers and Chechen rebels.[2]

By 2000 Baiev was the single surgeon for nearly 80,000 residents near Grozny, the capital of Chechnya,[3] and at one point during the conflict he performed 67 amputations and eight brain operations in a 48-hour period.[4] His patients included the rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev.[5] Both sides of the conflict saw Baiev's actions of treating the other side as treason, and multiple assassination attempts were made on his life.[3] The human rights organization Physicians for Human Rights sponsored Baiev for political asylum in the United States during the Second Chechen War, and Baiev flew to Washington, DC in April 2000.[6] After his family joined him in the U.S. ten months later, Baiev and his family have been living in Needham, Massachusetts.[1]

Baiev is also a sambo world champion, and holds a black belt in judo.[1] He has also been honored by Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, and Amnesty International for his work.[7] He has authored two memoirs, The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire and Grief of My Heart: Memoirs of a Chechen Surgeon, and has served as Chairman of the International Committee for the Children of Chechnya since 2003.[8]

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[edit] Early life

Baiev was born as a fraternal twin in Alkhan-Kala, a suburb of Grozny, in 1963.[9] His father, a herbalist by profession, served in the Soviet Red Army and was wounded during World War II, but was deported to Kazakhstan as a result of the forced deportations of most Chechens to Central Asia in February 1944. Baiev's parents would return in 1959 after Nikita Khrushchev allowed for the Chechens to return home during the de-Stalinization campaign.[10]

Plagued by frailty and illness growing up, Baiev took up martial arts to overcome his physical weaknesses – by late adolescence he was a black belt judoist who won national competitions and faced a promising career as a coach in the sports-obsessed Soviet Union.[9] However, Baiev desired to become a doctor, as his sisters were nurses and his father a herbalist, and in his words, "I always wanted to do something that would be of service to society."[11] Despite poor academic performance and racial discrimination against Caucasians, Baiev gained provisional acceptance to the Krasnoyarsk Medical Institute in Siberia in 1980 because of his sports achievements.[9]

As a medical student he faced several struggles: he was forced to study and sleep in the waiting room of the local railroad station for the first six months,[9] he had to find a difficult balance between his medical studies and sports competitions, and he had to overcome several Chechen traditions, including one that forbids men from helping in childbirth.[12] Baiev decided to specialize in cosmetic surgery, despite an Islamic belief that man should not change what Allah has give him, because he found that offering a better life to a child with birth defects or to a woman unhappy with her looks was rewarding.[13]

In 1985, Baiev graduated from medical school and started his specialist training. He returned to Chechnya in 1988 and became a successful plastic surgeon, and in the early 1990s he went to Moscow for additional training: "In Moscow 75% of my patients were people who wanted facelifts and tummy tucks, while 25% were accident victims. People came from abroad--Sweden, Germany, Switzerland--for plastic surgery because we were offering such operations at a tenth of the cost in their countries. I could have stayed in Moscow, but by [994 it was clear that war was going to break out, and I decided it was my duty to help my fellow Chechens."[14]

[edit] Chechen Wars

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[edit] Asylum in the United States

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[edit] References

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  1. ^ a b c d Daniloff, Caleb (February 23, 2003)"For Chechens, a fighting chance". Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  2. ^ "Grief of My Heart website". Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "WGBH Forum Network article". Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Peper, Lisa (April 9, 2004)"Chechnian doctor discusses how he risked death to uphold Hippocratic Oath". Vanderbilt University Medical Center – The Reporter. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  5. ^ (January 8, 2005)"Chechnya: A Nation Suffering at the Hands of Scoundrels". Johnson's Russia List. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  6. ^ The Oath website "Q & A with Dr. Khassan Baiev". Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  7. ^ "International Committee for the Children of Chechnya Board of Directors". Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  8. ^ "International Committee for the Children of Chechnya Mission Statement". Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  9. ^ a b c d [1].
  10. ^ Baiev, Khassan (February 24, 2004)"A History Written in Chechen Blood". Washington Post. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  11. ^ “Surgeon under fire”. “student BMJ”. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  12. ^ “Surgeon under fire”. “student BMJ”. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  13. ^ “Surgeon under fire”. “student BMJ”. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  14. ^ “Surgeon under fire”. “student BMJ”. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  15. ^ (November 21, 2006)"Most Wanted Chechen Surgeon Will Give Lectures in Japan". Russian Spy. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  16. ^ Baiev, Khassan (February 25, 2004)"A Bloody History". The Moscow Times. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  17. ^ Boustany, Nora (September 19, 2003)"A Chechen Surgeon's War Stories". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  18. ^ Crawshaw, Steve (October 18, 2001)"Chechnya Doctor Accuses West of Ignoring Brutality". The Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  19. ^ Jacobs, Bel (September 13, 2005)"60 Second Interview – Khassan Baiev". Metro. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  20. ^ (October 7, 2004)"Briefing on Chechnya with Khassan Baiev". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
  21. ^ Rotstein, Natasha (June 28, 2006)"Chechen communities of Boston and Nice". Immigration Here and There. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  22. ^ Rotstein, Natasha (June 6, 2006)"A Chechen copes through Sambo fighting". Immigration Here and There. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  23. ^ Baiev, Khassan (November 10, 2002)"Stop heinous acts by Russians and Chechens". Pakistan Daily Times. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  24. ^ Peper, Lisa (May 27, 2005)"Med students find supply 'Remedy' ". Vanderbilt University Medical Center – The Reporter. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  25. ^ Peper, Lisa (October 21, 2006)"Lighting the world's way". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  26. ^ Healing, Raven "The Chechnya Primer". Eat the State!. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  27. ^ Jaimoukha, Amjad [2]. “The Chechens: a handbook”. Retrieved May 27, 2007.
  28. ^ (May 27, 2005)"Committee for Invitation of Dr. Khassan Baiev". Tokyo Cinema. Retrieved May 27, 2007.

[edit] External links