WALLS GOING L/P—Taken from the medical center library, this photograph shows
progress on construction of the new hospital, Duke North, scheduled for completion
in 1979. At right is the first level of the ancillary building. The lowest level will contain
service functions. On the main floor level will be the Emergency Room, radiology,
nuclear medicine, pediatric cardiology and pediatric pulmonary and the stat lab.
Above that, will be the surgical and recovery suite and offices for anesthesiology and
surgery. The next level will house the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units and
offices for pediatrics. The top level contains the cardiac care center and offices for
the Department of Medicine. At left is the lowest level of the central bed tower,
which will house the convenience food kitchen. The main floor level of the central
and south towers will house dining facilities. The levels above will house the acute
and intensive care beds for surgery and medicine and acute beds for pediatrics.
(Photo by David Williamson)
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VOLUME 23, NUMBER 31
AUGUST 6,1976
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Becoming ^Battle-Wise^ in Beirut
Pediatrician Returns to Lebanon
By Ina Fried
Working in a hospital on Beirut's
"Green Line" can be a harrowing
experience.
The Green Line separates the two
warring factions in Beirut, and the
150-bed private hospital has been
under bombardment since
November 1975. Since January, 80
per cent of the admissions have been
war casualties.
Yet Dr. Amal Shamma, a native of
Lebanon who just received her
American citizenship, is going back.
When Needed Most
“You don't train 15 years to be a
d(Ktor and then leave when you're
needed most," said Dr. Shamma
/
CHECKING THE NEWS FROM THE WAR—Dr. Arnal Shamma, hopes to arrange tor
medical aid to Lebanon while she is in the United States. Although the new American
citizen has been urged by her family and friends to remain in this country, she plans
to return to Barbir Hospital in Beirut, where she is chief of pediatrics. (Photo by ina
Fried)
during a visit to the medical center.
She was seeing friends from the three
years she spent here as a fellow in
metabolic diseases.
A graduate of the American
University School of Medicine in
Beirut, Dr. Shamma first came to the
United States in 1970 for her third
year of residency at Johns Hopkins
University. In November 1974 she
was appointed chief of pediatrics at
Barbir Hospital in Beirut.
if somebody from Durham were
to go to Beirut right now, 1 don't
think they could take it more than a
couple of days. They wouldn’t be able
to survive the sounds of war, much
less the danger and inconvenience,"
Dr. Shamma said.
Becoming Battle-Wise
But she and others like her, who
have seen the war from its beginning
Ml April 1975, have become
"battle-wise," she said. "You develop
a certain resourcefulness and manage
to survive with a certain amount of
sanity and g(X)d humor.
"You also become very fatalistic,"
she remarked. The shelling is so
random, you say, if it's not my time
to go, 1 might as well sleep in my bed
under the window instead of the
corridor.' People go everyday from
one dangerous place to another
dangerous place to work or to buy
food."
The hospital has been tUider
bombardment since November and
has been hit several times. "It's a
wonder that no one has been hit," she
said. “You stand in one place and two
seconds after you move, that place is
(Continued on page 3)
Former Patient
Instrumental in
$7,000 Grant
In the six months before he came
to Duke, George Brown's heart had
to be shocked 12 times to restore a
normal heartbeat.
Now he is up and around telling
his friends in Kansas City, Mo., about
the treatment he received and the
cardiology research going m in the
Clinical Electrophysiology Lab.
Brown's story stirred the interest of
the Order of the Eastern Star, to
which his wife belongs, and brought
the medical center a $7,000 grant for
research in electrophysiology.
Brown, 62, was director of
education and public relations for an
airline personnel school until he
became disabled in 1974. He was
listed in the 1969 issue of International
Biography Dictionary and 2000 Men of
Achievement.
I hat was the year that his medical
problems began. In 1969 he had a
heart attack which damaged an area
in his heart, explained Dr. John J.
Gallagher, Brown's physician here
.and director of the Clinical
Electrophysiology Lab.
‘in 1972 Mr. Brown began to have
episodes of rapid heartbeat arising
from the old scar," Gallagher said.
“This recurred, requiring multiple
electric shocks to restore normal
heart rhythm. This was unresponsive
to all conventional medications plus
implantation of a pacemaker."
Brown came here in July 1975 and
was placed on a new drug being
evaluated her*-. The drug stopped
the paipitaiion:^, Gallagher said. A
new pacemaker was implanted, and
now Brown returns every three
months for checkups.
The grant initiated by Brown’s
interest in Duke came to Gallagher
from Sister Viola Lowry, Worthy
Grand Matron of the Grand Chapter
of Missouri. Gallagher said most of
the funds would be used for
construction of an electronic
Stimulator for the lab.
■‘This kind of grant is really
helpful," he commented, “because it
allows us to get some badly needed
equipment we couldn’t afford with
our present resources.’’