“We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.”
― Che Guevara Thursday September 3, 2009 |
By GEORGE ROBERTSON, M.D.
Dr. Brian Camazine, a general surgeon from Texas, was at the Nigerian Christian Hospital during the time of the recent hijacking and kidnapping of the resident missionary doctor Robert Whitaker.
In a telephone interview with him on Aug. 26, Dr. Camazine seemed unaffected by the barbaric treatment of his partner. Dr. Camazine said that he was watching a movie with the headphones on and thought the gunshots in the neighboring compound were part of the video. When he took his headphones off, he realized that they were shots next door. In an adjacent bedroom were two college girls who also heard the gunshots and called their parents in the United States. Dr. Camazine’s next contact was a call from the U.S. from the parents of the two girls who had called home. Rather than going to the next room to be advised as to what to do by the doctor chaperone, they had called the U.S.
About an hour later, the word came that Dr. Whitaker had been abducted. The girls were completely freaked out by the situation and next morning they made plans to leave to go back to the U.S. while Dr. Camazine went to the hospital to take care of the guard who’d been shot in the hand. He said that following this surgery a daily schedule of surgical patients were operated on and he continued right on with his work as if nothing had happened. He did hire four guards with AK-47 guns to stand guard at night after the incident. The guards would shoot their guns every couple hours just to let any would-be robbers know that considerable firepower would be at the doctor’s disposal.
Brian still plans to return to the Nigerian Christian Hospital in December. He did say that other doctors who had planned a trip later in the year were canceling their visits. Among those doctors are Dr. Netterville from Nashville and Dr. Robertson from Lebanon.
Editor’s Note: Robertson is a physician with Family Medical Associates, PC, in Lebanon.
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