Bombs, tyranny, fleeing his homeland of Kurdistan, and studying in caves – these are just snippets of the heroic story of Professor Gazi B. Zibari, who describes his journey to becoming a transplant and hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeon as “very rocky at best.”

He persevered through a vicious war Kurdistan, family separation and loss, and cultural, educational, and language barriers to earn the utmost respect for relieving human pain and suffering in the United States. During his entire journey, he never forgot his motherland Kurdistan and the brave peshmerga fighters. 

Zibari was born in the village of Birakapra outside Akre, Kurdistan. His childhood village was destroyed by the Ba’ath regime like several thousands of other Kurdish villages before and during the Anfal Campaign, which resulted in the tragic death of 182,000 civilians. 

Zibari was very lucky to have survived, but sadly, he lost his father at a very young age due to leukemia, and his siblings and he were raised by his mother. His oldest brother General Babakir B. Zibari stepped up to the plate and became a father figure at a very young age! Both mother and older brother made sure Zibari received the best education possible, despite some of it occuring in a cave. 

He received elementary and some middle school education in Akra and then completed his middle school education in Mangesh, a predominately Christian village in Duhok governorate. Subsequently, he attended Kawa High School in Duhok. He was studying hard and dreaming about applying to medical school in Baghdad.

Since Saddam was planning to attack Duhok, it was not safe for his family to stay. In February 1974, he moved to Mangesh hoping to complete eleventh grade. He remembers April 24, 1974, like it was yesterday. He was about to walk out of the house to go to school in the early morning when Iraqi airplanes bombed his high school. 

From that day on, Zibari had to escape to the mountains and study in caves, which of course made his dream of going to the medical school appear impossible. After many ups and downs, surviving multiple attacks, and going through horrific journeys, Dr. Zibari and his family sought refuge in Iran and settled in Kerman. There they were punished for the same crime – being a Kurd.

During that time, the Shah of Iran would not permit Kurdish refugee students to study at Iranian universities, and Zibari’s older brother felt passionately that they needed to pursue education in another country.  With the support of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, he applied to the United Nations to go abroad as a refugee. 

Incredibly, he was granted a refugee visa for the United States, but the Shah’s secret agents (Savak) did not give him permission to travel to Tehran to claim it – they had ordered bus stations not to sell tickets to Kurdish refugees. Zibari and his friend took the risk of traveling to Tehran without Savak’s permission because they did not want to lose this dream. On April 24, 1976, he set off for America via Germany.

On May 1, 1976, Zibari arrived on the shores of New York, barely speaking a word of English. He was transferred to the Catholic Charities sponsor in Nashville, Tennessee and later this new home became known as “Little Kurdistan.”

Upon arriving in Nashville, he was ready to accept any available job and was employed within one week by the Mid-South Printing Company. He worked during the day and studied English at night at the public library. By the fall, his sponsors Professors Franklin Jones and Willis Owens got him special student status to attend the Nashville State Technical Institute because he did not have an official government high school graduation diploma. 

While in training, Dr. Zibari never lost sight of the unwavering support of his mother, brothers, extended family, Dr. Najmaldine Kareem, and many close friends who always encouraged him to pursue higher education. 

It was during his fellowship at Johns Hopkins that the State Department awarded him as one of the five “Best Refugees” from different regions of the globe in October 1992.

Thirty-one years after Dr. Zibari arrived in the United States, his hard work, devotion, strength, and contribution to his host community started to pay off. He emerged as a prominent doctor whose name echoed beyond his home state. 

After many significant achievements as an academic clinician, he was awarded the prestigious Ellis Island Medal. Five years later, the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association awarded him its highest honor of excellence in the field of HPB surgery. Also, an Honorary Fellowship was bestowed upon him by International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association.

Among the many turns of events in his life, Zibari recalls one of his proudest moments where he led teams to establish the first renal transplant units in Kurdistan as well as HPB units in Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. He identifies one of his greatest passions as helping foreign countries build their medical capacities to treat HPB diseases within the constraints of their limited resources. Every year, he spends his vacation visiting countries to lend his expert hands and compassionate heart. 

Reflecting on his life, Zibari said, “All my life I have not forgotten my homeland and our peshmerga who have been fighting for democracy, equality, peace, tolerance, and justice. With the support of NATO, they fought and defeated ISIS with bravery on behalf of the world.”

Additionally, Zibari has done his best to support his family, provide the best care for his patients, and teach his students everything he knows. “If I can succeed, anyone should be able to succeed as well,” he often says. 

Academic Achievements:

Zibari was what is called in his profession a “triple threat,” excelling in patient care and clinical work, educational instruction, and academic research. Within a decade he was promoted from Instructor of Surgery to Assistant Professor then to Associate Professor with tenure and finally to Professor of Surgery and Transplantation with tenure. He was also appointed as Division Chief of Transplantation and Academic Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery as well as the Malcolm Feist Chair in Transplantation at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport (LSUHSC-S).  Presently, he is Academic Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Director of Surgery Residency program at the Willis-Knighton Health System (WKHS). Additionally, he is director of the John C McDonald Regional Transplant Center and the Advanced Surgery Center at WKHS.

Medical Outreach and Capacity Building:

As a child, Zibari witnessed the poor state of the health care system in Iraq and particularly in Kurdistan. Infant, children’s, and maternal mortality rate were extremely high, while wounded peshmerga died from tension pneumothorax and wound infections. This combined with losing his father at a very young age motivated him to pursue a career in medicine with the hope of helping those in need. 

In fact, this was a major driving force for Zibari to work so hard to obtain his medical degree. He has been going to Kurdistan since 1992 at least every year, but after the Erbil International Airport opened in 2005, he visited two to three times every year because he no longer had to travel through hostile neighbors. He supported the Kurdistan medical community, who were already hard at work but were unfortunately isolated by a double embargo, one by the UN on Iraq and the other by Saddam and the neighboring states on the Kurds. 

Like other Kurds, Zibari has a heart bigger than this world. He believes in tolerance, harmony, peace, equality, democracy, and justice. At a time when occupiers of Kurdistan were committing war crimes, building mass graves, using internationally forbidden chemical weapons, and committing genocide against the people of Kurdistan, Zibari helped Persians, Turks, Arabs, Christians from the Middle East, Africans, Central Americans, Pakistanis, Indians, Southeast Asians, and Latin Americans. 

Dr. Zibari and his team have helped nearly 40 surgeons from Kurdistan win ACS Fellowships. These are but a few examples of how a Kurd reciprocated kindness in place of war crimes and genocides.

Zibari believes that “the sky is the only limit in this country,” and his story of bravery inspires our community to never lose sight of what the power of hard work, integrity, honesty, and desire to help others can achieve.

As a former Kurdish refugee who was given a chance to live a better life, he has in return made our world better. He is indebted to the men and women in uniform and to the peshmerga of Kurdistan who saved him from Saddam’s army and who, with the support of NATO, defeated ISIS on behalf of the world. 

Rahim Rashidi (also known as Mr. Kurd) is the Chief Correspondent for Kurdistan24 and Kurdistan TV in Washington, DC. Mr. Kurd also oversees the operations of Zagros TV’s Arabic section. Rashidi is also a member of the Gold Institute for International Strategy, and a consulting advisor to several companies and establishments in Washington, DC.