The Making of a Heart Surgeon
Growing up, I always wanted to be an engineer. I loved tinkering with wires, cables, batteries and make model planes and cars.
Mathematics and sciences were easy for me. History, geography and languages were foreign; I always struggled with those subjects.
Not sure why, but I always felt at ease solving math problems and learning about chemical interactions and about the speed of things; speed of trains moving from one station to another or the speed of sound or for that matter the speed of light.
Those abstract concepts always seemed to be easier to comprehend and recall than memorizing and reciting a poem or a verse form the scripture. Read More
Growing up, I always wanted to be an engineer. I loved tinkering with wires, cables, batteries and make model planes and cars.
Mathematics and sciences were easy for me. History, geography and languages were foreign; I always struggled with those subjects.
Not sure why, but I always felt at ease solving math problems and learning about chemical interactions and about the speed of things; speed of trains moving from one station to another or the speed of sound or for that matter the speed of light.
Those abstract concepts always seemed to be easier to comprehend and recall than memorizing and reciting a poem or a verse form the scripture. Read More
Goodbye My Little Friend, Goodbye Samir
When she was three years old, my daughter Amal would repeatedly tell me: “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor so that you will work with me”.
Years went-by and Amal graduated as a dentist in May 2015 from Boston University.
As a resident at the prestigious University of Texas Post Graduate Dental Residency Program, one of her tasks was to interview resident-applicants for the General Dentistry Practice Residency.
A question she asked one applicant led to a series of unexpected events. That question and the answer given became the prelude to a life-changing experience for many people, myself included! Read More
When she was three years old, my daughter Amal would repeatedly tell me: “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor so that you will work with me”.
Years went-by and Amal graduated as a dentist in May 2015 from Boston University.
As a resident at the prestigious University of Texas Post Graduate Dental Residency Program, one of her tasks was to interview resident-applicants for the General Dentistry Practice Residency.
A question she asked one applicant led to a series of unexpected events. That question and the answer given became the prelude to a life-changing experience for many people, myself included! Read More
An Open Letter to My Fellow Citizens of the Muslim Tradition
In America, and perhaps across the entire Western World, Islam is at Crossroads.
The challenges facing the entire world in general and the Muslim communities in particular have not been as defining, the stakes are high and the risks are enormous!
One can no longer standby as an observer without speaking up and put forward every possible effort to contribute in a positive fashion; no matter how small our respective sphere of influence is.
In that spirit, I offer considerations to my fellow citizens, those of the Muslim tradition, praying that they are taken in the spirit they are made.
As Muslims, it is my firm belief that we must do the following: Read More
In America, and perhaps across the entire Western World, Islam is at Crossroads.
The challenges facing the entire world in general and the Muslim communities in particular have not been as defining, the stakes are high and the risks are enormous!
One can no longer standby as an observer without speaking up and put forward every possible effort to contribute in a positive fashion; no matter how small our respective sphere of influence is.
In that spirit, I offer considerations to my fellow citizens, those of the Muslim tradition, praying that they are taken in the spirit they are made.
As Muslims, it is my firm belief that we must do the following: Read More
An Open Letter to Mr. Trump
I am Proud to be American and I will defend America from terrorism irrespective of who the terrorists are or claim to be.
I have great investment in America; an investment that spans nearly five decades of hard and productive work.
My investment in America has transformed a young college student who came here in 1970 into a physician with responsibility for the lives of thousands of people whom I have been honored to care for.
My investment in America “awarded” me three beautiful American–born children from my marriage to my wife of thirty-one years.
My investment in America has given me pride and respect and sense of good citizenship. Read More
I am Proud to be American and I will defend America from terrorism irrespective of who the terrorists are or claim to be.
I have great investment in America; an investment that spans nearly five decades of hard and productive work.
My investment in America has transformed a young college student who came here in 1970 into a physician with responsibility for the lives of thousands of people whom I have been honored to care for.
My investment in America “awarded” me three beautiful American–born children from my marriage to my wife of thirty-one years.
My investment in America has given me pride and respect and sense of good citizenship. Read More
Dr. Lattouf: You Better Not Kill this Baby’s Mom
It was one Saturday evening in the spring of 2014 when my wife and I and three other couples were out to dinner. The host was a VIP international patient upon whom I had performed a complex, high-risk heart operation a year earlier. His operation was unplanned, as I was on vacation in my hometown, when he had developed sudden chest pain, was hospitalized, and underwent a heart cath by his able cardiologist confirming two of the previous bypasses of 18 years earlier had blocked causing a heart attack.
My patient was a childhood friend of my older brother. They had gone to school from kindergarten to college together, and since then he had served at very high governmental and diplomatic positions.
He needed the operation. His condition was unstable. He could not possibly fly to the United States where he had had his first operation almost two decades earlier. Read More
It was one Saturday evening in the spring of 2014 when my wife and I and three other couples were out to dinner. The host was a VIP international patient upon whom I had performed a complex, high-risk heart operation a year earlier. His operation was unplanned, as I was on vacation in my hometown, when he had developed sudden chest pain, was hospitalized, and underwent a heart cath by his able cardiologist confirming two of the previous bypasses of 18 years earlier had blocked causing a heart attack.
My patient was a childhood friend of my older brother. They had gone to school from kindergarten to college together, and since then he had served at very high governmental and diplomatic positions.
He needed the operation. His condition was unstable. He could not possibly fly to the United States where he had had his first operation almost two decades earlier. Read More
My Christmas Story
A young boy’s memories of Christmas
A Muslim young boy
As every Christmas Season draws closer, my memories go back one year farther to a time gone-by when I was a little child of five years of age in KG1 at Terra Sancta School, a Catholic school, in my hometown, Amman.
Vividly I still recall, as if it happened only yesterday, the year-end celebration in my class.
I still recall with the most wonderful memories, my teacher Miss. Mary showing my classmates and me the cartoons of "Jack and Jill went up the hill. Jack fell down and broke his crown...."
As the cartoons ended, and I walked out of class heading home for two weeks vacation, “Santa Clause”, standing at the door holding a huge bag full of gifts, would hand each child a bag of candy. Fifty-eight years later, I still see that Santa dressed in red and handing me the bag with the sweet and sour yellow-color lemon drops. The taste of those candy drops has never departed my lips. Read More
A young boy’s memories of Christmas
A Muslim young boy
As every Christmas Season draws closer, my memories go back one year farther to a time gone-by when I was a little child of five years of age in KG1 at Terra Sancta School, a Catholic school, in my hometown, Amman.
Vividly I still recall, as if it happened only yesterday, the year-end celebration in my class.
I still recall with the most wonderful memories, my teacher Miss. Mary showing my classmates and me the cartoons of "Jack and Jill went up the hill. Jack fell down and broke his crown...."
As the cartoons ended, and I walked out of class heading home for two weeks vacation, “Santa Clause”, standing at the door holding a huge bag full of gifts, would hand each child a bag of candy. Fifty-eight years later, I still see that Santa dressed in red and handing me the bag with the sweet and sour yellow-color lemon drops. The taste of those candy drops has never departed my lips. Read More