Patient Seeks Doctor To Express Gratitude

Please help a grateful patient find a doctor from his past in order to say "Thank You."

Here's the back story:

Last week, former Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy wrote a post about 20-year-old Boaz Tamir, who in 1973 was the leader of a defensive tank group on the Golan Heights in Israel when the Syrians attacked. "In the course of the battle, he was blinded by shrapnel and taken to the closest hospital for treatment," Levy writes. In that small hospital was a "young American doctor" who was able to treat Tamir and remove the metal particles from his eyes. With his eyesight restored, Tamir "'escaped' from the hospital and rejoined the tank battalion as it began the counter-attack toward Damascas."

Levy continues:

Because Boaz left in such a hurry, he never had a chance to thank the doctor. He later tried to track her down but was unable to find her.

Now, 40 years later, Boaz told me the story. I said that, with his permission, I would begin a search for this doctor [who may be an eye specialist, a general surgeon, or something else] using our social media tools.

So here we are. If you know a female eye surgeon (or perhaps a general surgeon) who spent some time in Israel during her training and might have been in Tiberias during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, would you please submit a comment on this blog post?

Or, if you know of someone who might know the surgeon, would you please contact that person and ask him or her to leave a comment? Or, if you just want to spread the word through your channels, that would be great. Thanks.

Since his initial post, Levy says, the response has been tremendous. (For example, he says, "Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media retweeted it to his 1.6 million (!) followers.") Boaz, who went on to earn a Ph.D. from MIT after the Army, told Levy he is "breathless" with the level of response from people everywhere.

We will keep you posted on the search for this elusive doctor.