Prof. akhtar ahmed – a memoir of love, respect, admiration, and...

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS), Dec 2014

Prof. Akhtar Ahmed – a majzoob, how can it be. What an unusual analogy! I was kind of surprised when I heard this from one of my revered teachers Prof. Iftekhar Ahmed who happen to be one of the students of Prof. Akhtar Ahmed like me. However, when he explained this analogy it made complete sense. He explained that a majzoob throws stones on the salik and treats the salik harshly until he is confident that the salik can go through and endure the hardships on the path. Once satisfied, the majzoob opens up for the salik and the knowledge and love starts to flow then.

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Prof. akhtar ahmed – a memoir of love, respect, admiration, and...

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS) Prof. akhtar ahmed - a memoir of love, respect, admiration, and... Ismail A. Khatri 0 0 King Saud bin Abdulaziz University of Health Sciences in Riyadh. - Article 2 PROF. AKHTAR AHMED – A MEMOIR OF LOVE, RESPECT, ADMIRATION, AND... Ismail A. Khatri, MD Consultant neurologist at King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Associate professor of neurologyat King Saud bin Abdulaziz University of Health Sciences in Riyadh. Correspondence to: Date of submission: November 20, 2014, Date of revision: December 1, 2014, Date of acceptance: December 5, 2014 Prof. Akhtar Ahmed – a majzoob, how can it be. What an unusual analogy! I was kind of surprised when I heard this from one of my revered teachers Prof. Iftekhar Ahmed who happen to be one of the students of Prof. Akhtar Ahmed like me. However, when he explained this analogy it made complete sense. He explained that a majzoob throws stones on the salik and treats the salik harshly until he is confident that the salik can go through and endure the hardships on the path. Once satisfied, the majzoob opens up for the salik and the knowledge and love starts to flow then. Generally considered a stern and tough teacher, Prof. Akhtar Ahmed was full of knowledge and love for those who know him well. I am no one to write this memoir, however, I am thankful to Dr. Abdul Malik who invited me to write this. A lot of this memoir is based on old memories and can have recall bias but this is not fantasy, or dreams. All of what follows is true but may not be exact in dates and details. Before I go on describing my love and love relationship with Prof. Akhtar Ahmed, I must admit that except for a month of neurology rotation in 4th year of medical school, I was never his formal trainee, not a house officer, nor a postgraduate trainee, yet I feel like a perpetual student and admirer of him. Brief Biography I have not known a lot of this information until recently. I have obtained this from a presentation recently made at the condolence meeting held at Dow University, and a presentation given by Dr. Arsalan Ahmad in 1st Neurology Research Day at Shifa International Hospital. Born in 1935 in Hyderabad Deccan, he graduated with honors from Dow Medical College, Karachi in 1957 ranking first and receiving Mistri Gold Medal. He became member of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1962 and was awarded fellowship of Royal College in 1978. He received fellowship for study of mental retardation in the USA in 1965. He received a WHO fellowship in neurology in 1979. After practicing in Navy Hospital, Karachi in 1962 and 1963, he became incharge of Mental Retardation Project at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center from 1964 to 1969. He became assistant professor and founded the department of neurology at Dow Medical College in 1970, where he stayed till his retirement in 1997. He became associate professor in1979,and professor in 1985. He was also the vice principal of Dow Medical College between 1986 and 1988 and visiting professor at Aga Khan University. After his retirement from Dow Medical College, he was also affiliated with Baqai University for couple of years. He was awarded honorary fellowship by College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan and was member of several national and international organizations related to neurology. His research interests included subacutesclerosingpancephalitis (SSPE) and mosquito born neurological pathogens. He worked extensively with Japanese researchers on the arthropod borne encephalitides and SSPE in Karachi. He also worked on neurometabolic errors causing mental retardation. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to Neurology by the division of neurology of Shifa International Hospital in September 2007 and Professional Excellence Award in March 2013 by Dow University of Health Sciences. My First Encounter As you are entering into the clinical years of medical school training, you fantasize about great clinicians. The reputation of Prof. Akhtar Ahmed as a great clinician was well acknowledged, but came with the scare of stern and tough attitude. He used to collect the whole clinical group in his office and give a lecture on the first day, which he called a khutba. He asked the group to prepare a summary of his khutba to be presented in next grand rounds which used to take place on Tuesday. I don’t remember if anyone else from our group did it or not, but I did and I still have a copy of my summary after 21 years, which I presented in the Tuesday grand round and he was very impressed by the content as well as English. He was very picky on the mistakes made by his RMOs and trainees in English. He did not anticipate a well versed summary from a young medical student who was in his first week of rotation with him. This probably paved the wave for future long term relationship. I thank my nieces Nuvera and Muneeza for helping me find this summar (...truncated)


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Ismail A. Khatri. Prof. akhtar ahmed – a memoir of love, respect, admiration, and..., Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS), 2014, Volume 9, Issue 4,