My name is Dr. Mohamad Majed BariMy friends and patients called me Dr. MajedI was a doctor not a terroristI saved lives while terrorists take lives awayI was killed when my car was targeted with a heat-seeking missile by a Syrian fighter jetI bled to deathNo emergency crew was able to reach me on timeThe International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN are not allowed by the government in my hometown behind rebel linesThey stay away safe in the capitalThey have to abide by the system's bureaucracyThe system does not protect me or my patientsThere were no news reports of my death.The reporters are all in Kobani
I was riding in an ambulance in Aleppo trying to save another lifeAnother three civilians were killed with meThey joined another 200,000 Syrians killed in my homelandI was working with a humanitarian organization called Saving Lives!I was killed while saving lives"How Ironic," you may say but Syria is the land of ironies these days
Many of my colleagues left Aleppo because they were afraid about losing their lives.Some of my friends were detained, tortured and killed just because they insisted on working as doctorsThey swore to save livesThey were treated like criminals or even worseWe were told that the whole world respects our neutralityWe were told the Geneva convention guarantees our impartialityWe were told that being a doctor is like being an angelYou give from yourself to heal your patientThe regime did not respect any of thatThe world did not rush to help usWe suffered in silence like my homelandSome of my friends died drowning trying to flee on boat to a new land of hopeThey were swallowed by unsympathetic waves of the Mediterranean sea
I stayed because it is my duty to save livesI stayed because if I left who else will stay?Who else will offer a hand of healing to a sobbing child pulled out of the rubble of her home destroyed by a barrel bomb?Who else will vaccinate the children in my neighborhood so they don't have polio or measles?Everyone left us to face our fateWe have no one but GodHe is watching those who deserted us I guess He is testing them and testing usI don't expect anyone to react to my deathI don't expect anyone to stop the killing in my hometown
I lost my faith in humanityBut I lived a fulfilling life and I don't regret a minute I had serving my patientsI will join another 560 Syrian doctors who were killed by the war criminalsMy patients will miss me and so will my wife and two young childrenI will miss what is left of my city and homelandI will miss the courage of my colleagues who are still workingSaving lives as usualI will miss their faith, their warmth and their humorAnd I will miss the sounds of the barrel bombsIt is too silent hereIt is too coldIt is too darkIt is too "un-Syrian"Pray for me and for my homeland
Dr Majed Bari with his Newborn Child
My name: Dr. Majed BariMedical School: Aleppo University Medical SchoolGraduation: With honorsDate of my death:10/15/2014Place of Death: Aleppo City, Castello roadCause of Death: Heat-Seeking MissileReason of Death: Saving Lives
Zaher Sahloul is a Syrian-American critical care specialist who is the president of The Syrian American Medical Society, SAMS.