Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
A Servant means to give without asking back and if you give without asking back, that's
the highest service you can, with honor, you can give to your patient and your community.
Being a servant is an enjoyable thing. That's the most enjoyable and when you see you're
accomplishing things and you're changing things, you bring some good positive efforts to your
patients and your community. Dr. Zibdeh and I first became acquainted when I became a
member of the board here at the hospital probably close to twenty years ago, and I would come
to the board meetings and I would have fun with him, and he would really get a big kick
out of me joking around with him and he's a wonderful, wonderful man and I just couldn't
say enough wonderful things about him. He's very, very deserving of this award, for the
many, many years of service that he's given to Norton Community Hospital. My dad actually
was a true refugee. He grew up without any money. He played with literally, socks that
were filled with pebbles in the streets. His dream was, of course, to leave the life that
he was living. The way that he found medicine was actually through his oldest brother, who
was studying medicine in England at the time. I think, through his brother, he noticed what
-- such an important job a physician had to serve others and help others and save others.
I was playing high school football and a state policeman stopped me one day and he said "are
you Dr. Zibdeh's son?" and I said "yes, I'm Dr. Zibdeh's son" and he said "your dad saved
my daughter's life and my two grandbabies' lives and I can't thank him enough for that",
and I was thinking to myself "this is the same dad that can't find the utensils in the
kitchen" and he's saving lives" and I think it had such an impact on me, it made me want
to get into health care, and my sisters are both in health care, so he's had a significant
impact on our family. My whole life was devoted for my family and my marriage. I have been
married to the same lady since 1977 and I took care of other people in my family who
needed it and who are needy in Jordan, too and I send some people who are needy to college
on my expense sometimes and that is fulfilling. Dr. Zibdeh has taught me a lot over the years.
He has taught me a lot about being, not only a better nurse, but a better person in general.
He really does care about not only his patients, but also the nurses, and you can't say that
about every doctor that you run across, but he is one that you can definitely say that
about. Dr. Zibdeh is a very hardworking doctor, but he always recognizes when you've worked
with him and you've had a hard day and you've done a lot of deliveries. He always pulls
out his wallet, pulls out lunch money for everybody that's working and he'll say "here,
go buy your food, you've worked hard today" and he does that on several occasions, holidays,
different occasions, he's always good to the nurses, and he always stands up for the nurses,
too. Dr. Zibdeh, when he decided to postpone his retirement a couple of years ago, as he
is trying to secure the future of NorWise and the birthing center here at Norton Community
Hospital, that spoke to a lot of people, a lot of health care providers in the area,
because Dr. Zibdeh has chosen to be here -- he's given up so much. His dedication certainly
rubs off on people -- it rubbed off on me. If Isam didn't have a good team, the OB's,
especially all the nurses, but particularly the team that he started with and still are
here. The way they respected him, the way they take care of him, the way they look up
to him, that would have made it more difficult and actually that would have made it conducive.
That's why he stayed -- because the people here are good and appreciative, and they were
really kind to us, they adopted us as a family, because we lived here away from our family
and that was really the only reason we stayed. Financially we could have done that anywhere
else, and he would have a job anywhere else, but because of the kindness, we don't want
to leave. I love the people in this community, the management, reports, doctors, support
that I have and these are the things which kept me here for 34 years and I couldn't leave
them anytime- I don't know -- I dread leaving them when I retire. They're always in my heart.