Moroccan doctor treats incurable

Moroccan physician Hammad Omohie spoke of his success in treating many incurable diseases and bone fractures. He also described his work in alleviating the pain of rheumatism, as it is a chronic disease with no cure. Omohie, aged 80 years, said that his civilian and military patients were treated from intractable cases in the days of the Desert War before 1991 gaining fame outside his hometown Takalfat in Azilal province. Local youth call him "Doctor" after they witnessed the results of his work and his experience in the field of medicine. "Takalfat suffered for 30 years from an acute shortage of medical services with its high costs...it had a small medical clinic that was not responding to the needs of the residents at the level of initial treatments...so people naturally turned to the conventional way of treatment, and amid this urgent need for treatments in society with low income, people appreciated my efforts." The Moroccan doctor added: "I am a surgeon general and an orthopaedic doctor at the same time. I treat bone fractures and also rheumatic diseases, or more precisely, I relieve the intensity of it, as it is a chronic rheumatic disease and cannot be cured. In addition, I also treat cases of chronic arthritis, headaches, and stomach diseases." Dr. Hammad talked about his first experience with planes, which carried him to the south of Morocco to treat a senior office in the Moroccan army. "I felt dizzy when the plane took off from Marrakech towards Smara, and I also felt I am no longer aware of anything...this was the first time i left the land to be in the sky, and when I arrived at the desert I examined an army officer with a broken leg, and noted that it had not recovered despite undergoing sophisticated treatments. I cured the fracture and he was healed without the need to plaster it at hospital." Although the Moroccan doctor did not cross the borders of his small village, his fame reached the city of Taounate and Tangier in northern Morocco, and Smara in the far south, in addition to Marrakech, Rabat and many other areas in the country. Omohie said: "The Almighty God blessed my with this gift, and I cannot hide what God gifted me. I inherited these treatments from my father who inherited it from his grandfather, and my ancestors in the past were like vets specialised in healing bone fractures of horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, and goats, as the popular economic activity in this region was only agriculture depends upon rainwater, livestock, and gazing." On his stranger cases, Omohie reminisced: "I visited a patient in Ait Aatab in Azilal province, and when I was going to leave, I learned that there was an old man who had been bedridden for years. So at the request of his family, I did a massage for him in different parts of his lower and upper limbs, and in the evening his neighbours were shocked when they saw the man leaving his house and going to the mosque...people did not believe what they see." The doctor added: "There was another case of a patient ages 65 who had three ribs broken in his left side, which is one of the most difficult fractures that could face even specialists. I asked to bring eggs, soft wheat flour, wool, a cane, and white cloth, that is all what is needed to plaster the fracture. I mixed the eggs with flour and water and spilt it on the wool and put it on the affected area. Over it, I cut the cane into pieces and tied them to each other by strings, and then rolled the white cloth around the front and the back of the patient." Omohie explained the benefit of this method by saying: "The eggs and flour will stick to the patient's flesh, so it will pull the broken ribs back to its right place. I prescribed to the patient eat big amounts of barley couscous with milk, because it helps the swelling of the abdomen and pushes the ribs from inside to its place while the wool and eggs help pull it to the back. I also advised him to eat quantities of almonds, pistachios, and walnuts on a daily basis, as they would bring strength back to the fractured bones." Hammad noted that he does not use special ointments or oils in the massage, just cooking oil, because "it is better than any other substance, and this what I use in the case I dealt with in Rabat: a retired military officer who could no longer move his right hand. After massage sessions for two days, the patient began to move his hands, and Omohie did not let him until his condition was improved. On headaches and chronic cases of it, the doctor advises patients in urban areas to be calm and not resort to anger and anxiety for trivial reasons, because that affect the nervous system. There is a simple way to measure the headache and its treatment, as we bring a one meter length string and roll it around the patient's head, then we put two signs (A and B), determine the length of the string around the head. After determining the distance, we begin the massage process, which starts with the palms, through the muscles of forearms and joints up to areas in the head near the ears. After the massage, we take the same string and measure the distance again, and we will notice that the distance between A and B became shorter, and this is because point B moved backward in the second measurement, due to the fact that the massage helped to empty the load of tension and pain in different veins." Dr Hammad revealed that he had received a lucrative offer to be a doctor specialising in orthopedic surgery at the regional hospital of Marrakech a few years ago for a good salary, but he rejected the offer, for many reasons. "I cannot remain confined in the atmosphere of the city, I am only familiar with living freely and moving up and down in my mountains...also I am a father of ten sons, some of them are breeding sheep, and others are farmers, so I cannot change my lifestyle easily. "After all I am an old man, my sons are still young and they can live in the city," he smiled.