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Story of Dr. Zulekha Daud aka Mama Zulekha and her journey in the UAE from being the first lady doctor to a thriving medical practitioner in the country.

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Transcript
00:00I was born in India, in the town of Nagpur, which is in the middle of India.
00:20I got my education there, I became a doctor, and then I did my internship, house job,
00:29and from there, I got married.
00:35My husband got a job in Kuwait, American Mission Hospital, I followed him, I also got.
00:42I learnt Arabic there.
00:46So they needed a female doctor in UAE.
00:52I went to deliver my son, and we didn't have any job in American Mission, so I went to
01:01the Ministry.
01:02The Ministry wanted one lady doctor, they sent me to UAE.
01:09I travelled by cargo plane, and I landed in Sharjah, it's a runway, that was British,
01:21and then, you see, I went to Kuwait, Kuwait hospitals were there, I worked morning and
01:29evening there, because I didn't have anything, my husband did not come with me, I came alone.
01:39Then one thing led to the other, there was no equipment, no medicines, we had to work only.
01:50I started delivering people, looking after babies, dehydration, diarrhea, fever, but
02:00with little medicine, and then, you see, people needed me in other emirates, so I started
02:15going there, nobody wanted to work there, so I went there and there, a lot of people
02:21used to come to me, and I did whatever was required then.
02:31People had accidents, young people had nose, throat, pneumonia, measles, chicken pox, everything.
02:48I saw one case of smallpox, you know, smallpox is wiped out from the world, so I used to
03:00call the British doctor to see, and then I was a police doctor in Sharjah, I worked
03:07for them, there was no municipality in Sharjah, in 1966, I went to Sharjah and opened my clinic,
03:22because people needed me all the time.
03:27I worked hard, day by day, I went into another clinic, then the third clinic, I shifted one,
03:36because I needed bigger places.
03:40Then I started delivering people in my clinic, and going out and delivering in their house.
03:47That I did from the very beginning.
03:51Tell us about how you started the hospital in 1992.
03:54In 1992 I started the hospital, and you see, because people were travelling out for small
04:04small things, for tonsillectomies and things like that, and they came with more infection,
04:12so I said we should open a hospital.
04:17So I had the view that everything should be in the hospital, x-ray, CT scan, MRI, I went
04:28from one discipline to other discipline, I started opening and becoming better, keeping
04:34the surgeon, physician more qualified.
04:41So they used to get consultant license, specialist, head of the department and all that.
04:59I said patients have to go here, there, for each thing, so I had in one house, I bought
05:07the land, chef has been always very good, my rulers have been very good, they have understood
05:15and they have seen my devotion to the medical profession, when they had nothing.
05:24So since then, they gave me the license to open my own hospital, and in my name, nobody,
05:35they never have that privilege, and I could buy anything in my name.
05:41That is quite true, because nobody has got a hospital in their name.
05:47I don't know about Al-Zahra, I don't know, it is somebody, doctor's name, but because
05:54of my work, they gave me, and they have been very good with me.
06:01The rulers before, Sheikh Sultan's brother, Sheikh Khalid, he was so humble, he used to
06:09stand when he used to see me in the car, nobody does that, he touched my heart.
06:19Anyone used to say, go to Zuleikha, Zuleikha is good.
06:28So tell us about that day, when you had that accident.
06:33Yes, I was crossing, I started going, because I used to live behind this road, I had villa,
06:43so one patient came, he said, I will not allow you to go, you only treat me, she took my
06:52both hands, and I was treating them, so I just saw it, and I saw her reports, and then
07:04her hemoglobin was very low, so I did it, and I just wanted to run, I crossed the road
07:11near the petrol station, one lane I did not know, and second lane I did not know what
07:16happened, so these people, they lifted, and the car did not stop, the police was behind
07:23him, and he put me, and took me to the Kuwaiti hospital.
07:29So in six months you bounced back, you came back, and then the rest is history.
07:36They treated me there, the ICU, they put all the important, and then you know, people said
07:44that it better take to Zahra hospital, Zahra hospital, I did not find any relief, because
07:50my leg, you know, it was broken in two, three pieces, and they tried about 17, 15 days,
08:01and then we said, we must go to Sheikh, also advised me to come to the Qasimiyah hospital.
08:13So any advice to budding students?
08:16Yes, see, you will get people, the patients, they get so much trouble going here and there,
08:28you must understand the patients, try to do, do not send them away just because you cannot
08:37sit, try to understand what they want, so that is what was, and over the years I gained
08:47the confidence of people, see I treated them for every element of this, do not just push
08:57off the patients, try to understand, that is all.
09:06For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org
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