I Learned Humility from the King

by Dr. Shafic Twal

As a high school student in Jordan, I was offered a scholarship by Rotary International and placed at UB. In Jordan, they asked me what I wanted to study. I did not know, so I just wrote down "engineering." However, I knew someone in Jordan who had just returned from Detroit with a degree in medical technology. A month or so after I arrived in this country, I went to see Dr. Fopeano at HRP. I told him, "I'm interested in med tech."

I also told Dr. Fopeano that I was from Jordan, and he thought I said I was from Georgia. He knew I was not from US Georgia, so he thought I came from the Soviet Union. Later on he told me, "You know, all that while I thought you were from a Russian country."

Med tech was a good choice for me, and when I applied to medical school in my senior year, Dr. Fopeano helped me.

After medical school, I went to Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where I became chief resident in pediatrics. At that time King Hussein of Jordan had just married Queen Alia, and they were in Washington. I met his wife when she toured the hospital. She recognized my last name, and I told her that I was friends with her younger brother in high school.

After I went back to Jordan, I did not make an effort to call her. However, one night Queen Alia's second child, Prince Ali, got sick. She called her obstetrician. He said, "We have an American-trained physician who just came to the country, and you should ask him to see your child."

When she asked my name, she remembered that I was the one she met in Washington. She called me at home. I became the pediatrician to her children, Prince Ali and Princess Haya, for two years, until the queen died in a helicopter crash. During those two years, I learned humility from the king. He was always available to his children, no matter how busy he was. He was a very humble person.

In the same summer that the queen died, my wife and I decided to come back to the United States.