Yes, you read that right.
Today, Donald Trump proposed to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. Because that’s the kind of thing that demagogues do when they want to win office by scapegoating people on the basis of their religion. (Where have we seen that before…?)
Well, if Trump’s proposal had been in effect a few years ago, there is a good chance that my son would be dead.
My son Josh was born, along with his twin brother, in April 2011, two months premature. Josh has Down syndrome and was born with several severe life-threatening medical conditions. One of the most pressing of those issues was a heart defect.
In June, during the week that Josh had been due to be born if he had gone to term, and weighing just five pounds, Josh underwent a very delicate and risky heart surgery. He survived, and his heart has been healthy ever since. This thanks to the brilliant surgery performed by Doctor Mohammed “Ali” Mumtaz, a Pakistani Muslim who was then the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at CHKD.
But performing the surgery that saved Josh’s life isn’t all that Dr. Mumtaz did for my family. In the weeks leading up to the surgery, he spent hours with us explaining the situation and procedure. During the procedure, he sent nurses out on a regular basis to give us updates. I took advantage of my position with Bearing Drift to share those updates during the surgery with friends, family, and other people who offered their hopes and prayers. You can read that entire post here.
But that still wasn’t all that Dr. Mumtaz did for us. Josh remained in the hospital for over a year with other serious medical conditions, first and foremost a condition called tracheal stenosis, in which his airway was so closed up that he needed a tracheostomy tube and ventilator for months just to breathe. And throughout those months, Dr. Mumtaz continued to monitor him, not just to make sure his heart was doing well but to make sure Josh was getting everything he needed with regard to all of his medical needs. This was way beyond Dr. Mumtaz’s responsibilities as a heart surgeon. When Josh and his twin brother Dylan received their belated bris (ritual circumcision – the most important ritual in all of Judaism) in the hospital, Dr. Mumtaz was there. My rabbi and I were both deeply moved to have all three of the great monotheistic religions represented on this important occasion.
But that still wasn’t all that Dr. Mumtaz did for us. When Josh finally came home, he still had a trach and a ventilator, and we had a living room full of enough equipment to staff an ICU. I received enough medical training to become an RN (like my wife), and Kim and I both ended up needing that training for all of the life-threatening episodes that Josh continued to have, landing him back in the ER every week or two. Finally, when Josh was about 18 months old, he had an episode in which he nearly died on our floor.
After reviving him, we were able to make arrangements to take Josh to Cincinnati for a surgery by a world-renowned ENT surgeon. The surgery required opening Josh’s heart, and Dr. Mumtaz made arrangements on his own to go to Cincinnati to be present in the operating room so that he could be available to answer questions based on his experience having opened Josh’s heart the previous year. Dr. Mumtaz initially planned to pay for his trip with his own money, but CHKD ended up agreeing to foot the bill (after Dr. Mumtaz had already made his travel arrangements). And he did indeed go to Cincinnati and was indeed in the OR during that surgery – which was a miraculous success that changed everything for the better for Josh then and ever since.
If Donald Trump’s proposal had been in effect, Dr. Ali Mumtaz, the greatest human being I have ever known, never would have been here in Virginia to save Josh’s life and guide our entire family through the most difficult and nightmarish 18 months of our lives. Thank God Trump’s proposal was not in effect.
And God willing, he will never be in a position to try to implement it.
