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Doctor who treated London attack victims: 'When you think of Muslims think of the surgeon who operated all night, not the terrorist'

'Hundreds of Muslims were part of the amazing teams that responded to this incident, doctors, nurse, technicians, receptionists, police officer, paramedics and so many more'

Rachael Pells
Monday 05 June 2017 16:08 BST
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(REUTERS)

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A London doctor has spoken out in praise of the Muslim members of his team who worked to save victims of the London terror attack.

Karim Ahmad, an A&E consultant at The Royal London Hospital urged members of the public to think of Muslims as the “hundreds” of doctors, nurses and receptionists who responded to the emergency by working through the night, and not the extremists who carried out the attack.

Posting a public message on Facebook, he said: “I'm incredibly proud of our team at The Royal London and Barts Health. The response to the call was outstanding from all.

“There is something the world should know about that team. Three extremist[s] with warped views of the world committed horrific acts of hate.

“[Hundreds] of Muslims were part of the amazing teams that responded to this incident, doctors, nurse, technicians, receptionists, police officer, paramedics and so many more.

“When you think of the word Muslim I want you to think of the Muslim nurse that ran our casualty triage area, the Muslim surgeon who operated all night, the Muslim technician that helped arrange transport home for discharged casualties, the Muslim security officer that ran out relatives reception area, the Imams from our Muslim chaplaincy that stayed all night to help comfort the casualties and so many more.”

Mr Ahmad’s message has so far been liked and shared almost 4,000 times on social media, garnering hundreds of positive messages in response.

On Facebook user by the name of Kam Marshall wrote: “This post reinforces my faith in humanity - it's so easy to vent anger at all non-Caucasians. Thank you all for being so understanding. The post proves the British are a tolerant and fair society.”

Jill Avey said: “So good to hear the truth about the aftermath of an awful event, and to put things into perspective.

“A big thank you, again,to all the good people involved, just getting on with doing their jobs and selflessly giving whatever was required.”

At least seven people died and almost 50 were injured when three men drove a van into pedestrians and attacked people with knives before they were shot dead by police.

The Royal London Hospital was one of six in the city to receive patients with critical injuries following the attack on Saturday night.

A trauma doctor from The Royal London said victims arriving at the hospital on Saturday night were so shocked they couldn’t speak.

D Malik Ramadhan, who operated on 12 victims of the London terror attack on Saturday night, said he was “humbled by the way they behaved”.

Speaking to Radio 4’s Today Programme, he said: “People who had gone through an experience so traumatic I can’t even imagine were just sitting on trolleys unable to speak.

“We’re a major trauma centre and London has a trauma system so we’re used to seeing people who are badly injured but to receive 12 patients who are all non-medically shocked.

"I’m humbled by the way they behaved, they were stoical and very patient with us while we did things to them that were probably relatively painful.”

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