Tameem Abu Gharsa

Dr. Tameem Abu Gharsa is a doctor who lives and works in the city of Misurata in Libya. During the civil war he provided medical services to the wounded by working at aid stations and field hospitals on the front line. We met at the aid station in Dafniya, Libya in early June of 2011. The shelling was intense and the flow of wounded neverending. Together we worked to retrieve casualties from the front line and stabilize casualties that arrived at the aid station. I served as his assistant during this time and also later during the battle for Sirte.

We discussed several things at length, among them the history of the rebellion to that point and the deaths of other journalists that Dr. Tameem had met during this time. Prior to meeting me Dr. Tameem had been a regular companion of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. Both were killed in an artillery attack in April of 2011 in the same region. We discussed why they had died and what would have kept them alive. Tim Hetherington died for want of a chest needle and adequate suction.

After a grisly month, and having transferred what medical supplies I could spare, I traveled back to the United States in an effort to organize more funding and additional supplies. While this was largely unsuccessful it was not completely so. I did manage to replace several pieces of equipment that had become expended in Libya. My supply of chest seals and chest needles chief among these. I also managed to acquire a large number of paramedic shears which were well received.

I returned to Libya by way of Malta, which was substantially cheaper than traveling by way of Egypt, and settled at Alreem heavy transport. A month after arriving, in late September, I encountered Dr. Tameem near Sirte and we once again began traveling together. He had been in Tripoli tending the wounded there until this point.

We began operating in Sirte in late September, beginning the 25th, and did so continuously until mid-October when Dr. Tameem was greviously wounded by a heavy machinegunner. 

A bullet destroyed his leg as we were attempting to cross a street. We faced a dense field of fire and made the decision to attempt to navigate it after observing technicals push through the storm of lead in furtive, teasing attack runs for several minutes, each time sustaining only a small number of hits. We estimated that a person stood a reasonable chance of making it across unharmed so long as they ran. Dr. Tameem elected to go first. He was hit almost immediately and had to be bodily retrieved by myself and a Libyan by the name of Tofeek.

Tofeek was one of Dr. Tameem's companions whom I met during the Sirte campaign in Libya. He was a quiet and skilled medic.

Together we stabilized him and with others saw him delivered to an ambulance in a timely fashion.The injury left him badly crippled and though it will take upwards of a year to heal he will likely recover full use of the limb.

Without Dr. Tameem's guidance, protection, generosity, and bravery I never would have been able to film or experience any of the things that I did in Libya.