Michael DeBakey does not need an introduction in America, and particularly not to an audience of medical professionals. However, his name brings to memory a young Lebanese poet who, some 100 years ago, stood before the towers of New York and said, “I am the descendant of a people who built Damascus, Byblos, Tyre, Sidon and Antioch, and I am now here in America to build with you and with a will”. In a speech he made to young Americans of Syrian origin, Gibran Khalil Gibran added, “I believe that even as your fathers came to this land to produce material riches, you were born here to produce riches by intelligence and labor”. Ladies and Gentlemen, our guest of honor who, himself is a son of a Lebanese immigrant, did indeed “build, and with a will”; did indeed produce “riches by intelligence and labor”; “riches” that have shaped the future of American medicine and have defined the greatness of America. There is no other American who has contributed more to modern medicine, and I have no doubt that one day, he will go down in history as the “Surgeon of the 20^th Century”. What a source of pride to be a contemporary of this man; what an even greater honor, that he is one of us. 

Both Gibran and Michael DeBakey are universal in their messages. The message of Gibran is the power of love; the message of Michael DeBakey is the power of knowledge. Bertrand Russell, the renowned British philosopher, and the Nobel Laureate, described the combination of love and knowledge as “the greatest force in the world”. It is this kind of combined force, and not physical force, which is needed to save the world and mankind.

Ladies and Gentlemen; there is a myth that surrounds every great man; and in almost every instance, the myth is bigger than the real man, but in the case of Michael DeBakey, the reverse is true; the man is bigger than the myth. To students of science and medicine, he is known for his genius in heart surgery, but those who have known him well, do not only appreciate his genius in medicine, but also his genius in using medicine as a tool of diplomacy, and as a tool for building bridges between people and nations. His “riches” were not only for America. He went beyond geography and politics, to extend the fruition of medicine even to America’s adversaries. He was in Moscow long before the Berlin Wall collapsed. He has just returned from a trip to Libya. He went where no American politician dared to go. He was always there, somewhere there, in the service of man, any man, and all men. 

In this age where we witness the assault of bureaucracy, government, and insurance companies on the quality of medical care, and on the very essence of the nature of medicine; none had the courage to challenge these forces more than Michael DeBakey. Of all the “products” that America has produced, the very best, in my opinion, has been American medicine; and he was not only instrumental in the making of this “product”, but also in preserving its sanctity. In this era of materialism, mechanization, and the decline in human values, Michael DeBakey stands as a monument to character, integrity, courage, and above all, humanness. It is indeed a great privilege for me to have known him, and a unique honor to be his friend. He has made each one of us a little taller, a little prouder. This man is from our beloved land, but we should always remember, that he does not belong only to us, but he belongs to the whole world. 

The world knows him by the name of Michael DeBakey, but to his very intimate friends and family, he is known as Michel Dabaghi. Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise and join me in wishing our guest of honor, Michel Dabaghi of Marjioun, Lebanon, fast recovery, as he now lies in a hospital bed in Houston recovering from heart surgery.

Dear friends,

It is indeed a pleasure to introduce our honoree, Dr. Philip Salem, and I want to thank our President, Dr. Paul Wakim and the Organizing Committee for entrusting me with this privilege.

I am proud to say that I have known Dr. Salem for over 30 years. I first met him in 1972 when I started my residency at the American University of Beirut. Dr. Salem was then a young Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine with one distinction. He was also the Director of the Cancer Program at the Hospital.

As a matter of fact, he had established the Cancer program one year earlier, after completing three years of research fellowship at the two greatest institutions in the U.S., mainly Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and MD Anderson in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Salem immediately became one of my role models. What fascinated me the most about him was his dedication and his commitment to excel. In my eyes, he is the ultimate physician that all doctors aspire to become.

He has 4 major qualities that are essential for any doctor to be exceptional:

1. He possesses an exquisite knowledge of his specialty that no one else did in Lebanon at that time.

2. He treats patients not as case numbers but as persons with disease, often becoming their friend and attending to different aspects of their affliction.

3. He never loses hope or give up, even when everyone else does. He follows treatments all the way in hope to gain a cure or a remission.

4. And most of all, he is humane. Although he already had the most famous and the richest clientele in the Middle-East from Presidents to Emirs to Businessmen, he always found time to treat the poor in the same manner he treated all his patients.

Now my friends, these are the qualities of an exceptional physician.

In the late 70s, the civil war in Lebanon prevented many of us from returning to Lebanon, and ultimately forced many others to immigrate back to the U.S.  Dr. Salem and I reconnected in this beautiful country, and I got to know him better as a colleague and as a friend. His dedication and his commitment to what I like to call “Excellence in Medicine” never wavered.

He worked his way to become a Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He is widely published and serves on the editorial Board of several national and international cancer medicine publications. He is the Director of the Salem Oncology Center and the Director of the Cancer Research Program at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston.

Through the years, we got to know Dr. Salem not only as “the doctor” but also as the “thinker”. He writes extensively about Lebanese and Arab immigration to the United States both in Arabic and in English. Like all of us, as we say in Arabic, he maintains a foot in Lebanon and a foot in the U.S. His achievements have brought him multiple awards, too numerous to enumerate.  Most importantly, he has raised the bar and he elevated the name of “Lebanese American” to a higher standard.

Please help me in welcoming the one and only, Dr. Philip Salem.

I would like to start by thanking the president of the American Lebanese Medical Association, Dr. Paul Wakim, the organizing committee of this convention, and the board of the association, for bestowing upon me tonight this great honor. I am not sure that I deserve it, but I happily accept it, and I will certainly work hard to earn it. What is dear to my heart in this honor is the fact that it comes from people who are the descendants of a sacred land, Lebanon. I am here in America and America has been extremely generous to me. I am grateful, thankful, and I acknowledge allegiance to it. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do to promote its prosperity and greatness, but at the same time, when I look into my own deeper self, I realize that my identity is Lebanese. There is no contradiction whatsoever in being a devoted Lebanese and a grateful citizen of the United States of America. In fact, people like me who came from distant lands appreciate America and American values more than those who were born and raised here. In my office in Houston, I have a branch of an olive tree from my land in Lebanon and on my desk, there is a bottle of oil from El-Koura, and a vessel that contains soil from my village, Bterram. Also, the license plate on my car is Lubnan. This is not to remind me from where I came, but to remind me of who I am. Khalil Gibran said that “if Lebanon where not my country, I would have made it mine.” I say “that if Lebanon were not my country, I would not know who I am.” Let us all pray for a quick resurrection of Lebanon from Death. 

One of the big challenges for the American Lebanese Medical Association is to contribute to Lebanon. We should try to reverse the brain drain and put our talents and our resources in the service of Lebanon, not only in the area of medicine and medical care, but also in areas that would eventually shape the new Lebanon we aspire for. It is not true that the Lebanese talents in diaspora go to waste. The Lebanese in diaspora should be a major resource to the new Lebanon that we want to build. Also, they should be an integral component of the Lebanese population and should not only contribute in finance, medicine, engineering, science, and in arts, but they should also have the right to contribute to the new political formula that should emerge. 

Also, I would like to remind you that our major commitment to America is to contribute to it. In medicine, we can contribute enormously. In the area of quality of medical care, we should infuse the American medical culture with the values that we brought with us from Lebanon: mercifulness, compassion, caring, loving, and humaneness. These are values which are unfortunately fading away in the everyday practice of medicine in America. Only when the patient is considered sacred to us, are we worthy of taking care of him. Medicine is not a business. The patient is not a client. Medicine is a mission and the patient is a sacred human being who deserves our best care and our utmost love. Also, we need to contribute to the science of medicine and to expand the frontiers of medical knowledge. This cannot be done without research. Only research leads to knowledge and I would like to encourage every one of you, whether you are in private practice or in academia, to be involved and engaged in one way or the other in research. The objective of research is not only to expand human knowledge, but also to expand the mind. I want you to remember that when you contribute to research and you bring about new knowledge, this new knowledge is not only a gift to America, but it is also a gift to the whole world. The great Lebanese who contributed to America indeed did not contribute to this country alone, but to the whole world. The writings of Gibran, the innovations of Michael DeBakey, the mission of St. Jude’s Hospital of Danny Thomas, are all gifts to all mankind.

May God bless you, bless our sacred land of Lebanon, and bless America.