DR. Majdi Habib Yacoub is one of the most renowned heart surgeons in the world. He was born in Egypt in 1935 and medicine has been his passion since childhood. He went to Cairo University, pursued higher education in the United States and moved to live in the United Kingdom in 1962. He has mastered heart transplant operations and his skills and academic status are recognized all over the world. He has performed over 2,000 surgeries, the majority of which were free of charge and were performed in underdeveloped countries. Despite the global status and importance Dr. Yacoub enjoys and the fact that he is a British national with a knighthood, he has never forgotten that he was originally from Egypt. He went back to his birthplace and built a hospital and a research center offering free medical treatment and healthcare services to the poor. I ran into him in Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, and enjoyed talking to him for a short time. I found him to be humble and kind-hearted. If we compare some well-known Saudi doctors who are globally recognized for their outstanding performance and achievements to Dr. Yacoub, we find that Saudi doctors who become globally famous sign contracts with private hospitals to perform surgeries there and earn a lot of money. They neglect their jobs at government hospitals and let patients wait for months and months. They charge astronomical fees for operations that even the middle-income classes cannot afford. I urge our Saudi doctors to learn from Dr. Yacoub and help the poor and treat them free of charge. They can cooperate with rich businessmen and build clinics in remote villages to achieve this purpose.
