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The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire

The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire
By Khassan Baiev, Ruth Daniloff

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When Chechen rebels took Moscow theatergoers hostage in October 2002, it tragically highlighted the ongoing conflict between Russia and its breakaway republic, Chechnya—a war that has claimed an estimated 200,000 Chechen lives in the past decade. Yet the true nature of the debacle lies behind the headlines. In The Oath, a heroic Chechen doctor relates his harrowing experiences in the line of fire to bear witness to this international calamity, and illuminates his remarkable people and their culture.
In 1994, when fighting threatened to break out in Chechnya, Baiev left his promising career in Russia to aid his countrymen. First, he worked in a Grozny hospital until it was destroyed by Russian shelling. Returning to his hometown of Alkhan Kala, he and his fellow villagers restored a clinic with his own funds, and he soon found himself the only doctor for 80,000 residents in six villages and 5,000 refugees. During the next six years, he worked without gas, electricity, or running water, with only local anesthetics, and at one point dressed wounds with sour cream or egg yolks when supplies ran out. He often donated his own blood for surgeries, and on one occasion performed sixty-seven amputations in forty-eight hours.

Although he mainly treated civilians, Baiev also cared for Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters alike, never allowing politics to interfere with his commitment to the Hippocratic oath. He harbored Russian deserters and Chechen rebels at great personal risk and single-handedly rescued a Russian doctor who was scheduled to be executed. For this, Baiev was nearly killed by both the Russian special forces and Chechen extremists. Only when the Russian Army ordered him arrested for treating a wounded rebel warlord did Baiev finally flee Chechnya.

Echoing through his memoir is the history of Chechnya, a Muslim nation the size of Connecticut with a population of one million. Baiev explains the roots of the Chechen- Russian conflict, dating back 400 years, and he brings to life his once-beautiful ancestral home of Makazhoi where his family clan goes back generations, steeped in ancient traditions that are an intriguing blend of mountain folklore—including blood vendettas, arranged marriages, the authority of village elders—and Muslim religious rituals. And he writes frankly about the challenges of assimilating into western culture and about the post-traumatic stress disorder that has debilitated him since the war began.

The Oath is an important eyewitness account of the reality of the Chechen-Russian conflict, in which countless atrocities have been committed against average Chechens in stark contrast to the Kremlin’s portrayal of the conflict. It is also a searing, unforgettable memoir that is certain to become a classic in the literature of war.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #500070 in Books
  • Published on: 2004-08-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 320 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Russia's war against Muslim separatists in Chechnya turned Baiev from a cosmetic surgeon into a real-life Hawkeye Pierce. As he shows in this understated, honest memoir, the change "took some getting used to": he faced constant obstacles, such as poor supplies, not to mention occasional bombing campaigns-one of which placed him in a coma. And as the only doctor in a city of 80,000, he once performed 67 amputations in 48 hours. Baiev is a clear Chechen patriot, as he goes to great lengths to demonstrate, countering Russian allegations that the Chechens were Nazi sympathizers during WWII and documenting the mighty suffering of his people during the fighting, which has raged sporadically during the past decade. But he details Chechen atrocities as well. He treated everybody, whether Russian or Chechen, and risked his life on numerous occasions to save those on both sides. The result: both sides physically threatened him, yet he was also honored by Human Rights Watch. Throughout, Baiev, who is also a martial arts expert, is modest, which only adds to his heroism. But more than that, he has humanized the Chechens, whom others have portrayed as terrorists. Russian president Vladimir Putin has tried to equate Russia's fight against the Chechens with the U.S. battle against al-Qaida. Those who read this stirring memoir will be hard-pressed to see the situation so simply.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New England Journal of Medicine
The manifest theme of this revealing and fascinating book is the inherent and perpetual conflict between the universalism of the Hippocratic oath and the particularism of selecting patients on the basis of any number of criteria (age, sex, race, color, class, nationality, religion, wealth, and so on). What makes this book exceptional is that the ground on which this conflict is played out reflects the struggle between Chechnya and Russia at the end of the 20th century. The author is a Chechen physician who put his life on the line, time and again, because he chose to honor the oath and treat both Chechen people and Russian people. It is unfortunate that the book's title does not reflect the venue and the substance of the story; the subtitle states only "A Surgeon under Fire." (Figure) The surgeon is Khassan Baiev, and the book first provides valuable background information on Chechnya, a small region of the Caucasus, incorporated against its will into the Tsarist and Soviet empires, of the Muslim faith, and striving for some kind of independence or autonomy. In 1944, during World War II, the region's entire population was deported to Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, and Siberia on Stalin's orders (as were those of other, neighboring ethnic regions), on the grounds that they were sympathizers of the Germans and thus branded as traitors by the Russians. At the present time, the epithet has been replaced by "bandits," although the author also qualifies for the "traitor" appellation because of the formula "Whoever helps my enemy is my enemy." Dr. Baiev's parents were allowed to return in 1959 to their native land, where he was born in 1963. He chose a career in medicine, specializing in facial surgery, and successfully practiced as a cosmetic surgeon in Moscow. At the outbreak of the first Russian-Chechen war (1994 to 1996), he decided to return home and served as a doctor and surgeon. After a few years of uneasy truce, hostilities resumed in 1999, and again Baiev found himself on the front lines and performed thousands of operations (mostly amputations) and treated all, civilian and military, Russian and Chechen. In one period of two days, he performed 67 amputations and 7 brain surgeries. He often lacked surgical instruments and worked with ordinary carpentry tools (saws and drills) that were difficult to sterilize and keep sharp. What was most appalling was that his patients were primarily civilians, children, women, and the elderly: "innocent victims sacrificed on the altar of power-hungry leaders on both sides of the conflict." He thus holds no brief for the Chechen warlords who looted or extorted or kidnapped people to enrich themselves any more than for the Russians who shelled indiscriminately and pillaged and killed at random. "Bullets, rockets, mortars, shrapnel -- each produces its own kind of wound," he writes. Lethal fragmentation bombs caused "shredded intestines, livers, kidneys, and sexual organs reduced to ground meat." Dr. Baiev adds that he and his staff gave blood every two weeks, sometimes once a week. Because he treated patients from both sides, he was condemned to death for being not only a "traitor" but also a "bandit-doctor" (for treating Chechens) or a "pig-doctor" (for treating Russians). The fact that he survived can only be called miraculous, as there is no other word to convey that meaning. In one episode he describes, he escaped death twice in a single day. Because of the stressful conditions of his life and his work, he suffered, at times, severe depression and was even hospitalized for several weeks. He attributes his recovery, among other things, to his faith in Allah and his devotion to his work. Eventually it became clear that his life continued to be in danger, and several organizations (including Physicians for Human Rights and Amnesty International) managed to arrange for his emigration to the United States, at first on a temporary basis and then permanently as a political refugee. The description of Baiev's departure to New York from the Moscow airport, where he was stopped, interrogated, and eventually allowed to board the plane as the doors were being closed, is so suspenseful that it revived in me similar feelings of anxiety -- which I experienced when I left the Soviet Union -- at the idea of being arbitrarily detained. Baiev's description of the nature of medical and surgical practices in the United States as compared with what he experienced back home is itself a reason to read the book. This is a unique story. It teaches us a great deal about the Chechen situation today, and particularly about the effects of the wars on the civilian population. Recent media accounts of what goes on in Chechnya are consistent with what the author describes in the book. This is an important testimony that belongs in the annals of the history of medicine. Mark G. Field, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Baiev lived an extraordinary chapter of his life during a devastating time for his homeland of Chechnya. His war memoir, written with Ruth Daniloff and Nicholas Daniloff, gives American readers an important perspective to consider as our government's quest for support in the war on terror constrains it from condemning atrocities committed by allies. It's the perspective of an oil-rich Muslim republic naive enough to think it could break away from Russia during the period of glasnost and so steeped in warring tradition that it resorts to terrorism in its now-suicidal struggle for freedom. Through two Russian invasions of Chechnya, Baiev refused to take up arms or retreat from his hometown of Alkhan Kala. There and in the devastated capital of Grozny, the martial-arts-champion-turned-stoic-surgeon made a stand for humanity and the Hippocratic oath, treating civilians and soldiers on both sides even as missiles rained down, his family suffered, and he found himself targeted by Russian and Chechen leaders. As in The Pianist, one marvels at how a man can continually escape seemingly certain death and persevere under the most perverse conditions. Perhaps understandably, Baiev proves an unreliable analyst of the political situation, sometimes blaming the Russians for atrocities committed by Chechens. But this peace hero is at his best when he recounts the countless medical miracles he performed under fire and sears our senses with the horrors of war. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A must read book for all thinking people5
Khassan Baiev wrote absolutely amazing book about his life growing up in the former Soviet Union and later working as a surgeon under extremely harsh wartime conditions in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. His character represents the very best of such human qualities as integrity, compassion, and selfless devotion to duty, which contrast so sharply with all the ugliness of the violent armed conflict between Russia and Chechnya. His life is an extremely powerful story, and I am firmly convinced that his book should be displayed on the front shelves of all bookstores in America. Khassan Baiev's character represents what all of us should strive for - maybe then we have a chance to make our world a better place to live.

Opened My Eyes5
This book opened my eyes to the tragedy in Chechnya, and now I want to know more. A compelling, first-hand narrative of the situation in Chechnya that everyone should read.

THE WORLD WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE WITH SOME MORE LIKE HIM5
1. The book is a narrative written by Dr Hassan Baiev, a Surgeon from Chechnya, from the diaries written by him during the two wars fought between Chechans and Russians. It is a story of a doctor who lived through the tough and intriguing days of Chechans efforts to seek freedom and Russia's response to those efforts.

2. Born and brought up in Chechnya, Dr Hassan studied Medicines at Siberia. There after he specialized in Plastic Surgery and had a lucrative practice at Moscow. In the run up to first attempt of Chechans to declare independence from Russia and the Russian response, he decided to leave every thing at Moscow and head for his village Alkhan Kala, to be on the side of people suffering the war, Chechans and Russian, rebels and soldiers alike. There were no gains in this move. It only brought misery and sufferings to the doctor.

3. This saga of his velour under fire and self less service continued even during second attempt to seek freedom by Chechans and the usual Russian response ( which the doctor calls second war). In this era of trials and tribulations where at the end both Chechan rebels and Russians wanted the doctor to be killed / arrested for treating Russians and Chechans (including rebels) respectively, he stood firm on his belief and his Hippocratic oath to treat every one who was suffering and needed medical attention. A difficult and tall order indeed to maintain sanity and above all your values, when your own people are dying around you.

4. Some of the events mentioned look unreal to happen in the era of information explosion and the narrative sounds a bit self centred in some parts, but then two things must be remembered. One the war is a dirty business where any thing is possible and second is, he is not a writer by profession but a doctor. What comes out shining out of the book is this mans commitment to his values and his oath as a medical man, two sterling qualities which are fast becoming uncommon in materialistic world of the day.

5. He lives in exile in USA as back home he is a hounded man by both Chechan rebels and Russians. A reading of this book is must for all those who value human life and ethics and who recognize struggle some lone individuals put up to uphold them.