Recently I received a curious letter in the mail. MaineHealth wanted me to “recognize a care team member to whom you are grateful by sharing why they were important to you and making a donation to MHMMC in their honor.”
As a retired registered nurse, I appreciate the dedication and compassion of every care team member, whether they’re checking vital signs, drawing blood, operating on trauma patients or cleaning a room for the next admission. As a patient, I appreciate everyone who has helped me navigate a variety of age-related health problems. Thank you to all of you. I can’t single out any one of many caring individuals.
But I am baffled by this request for a donation.
While many of us struggle with the high costs of health insurance, co-pays and prescription drugs, a quick look at mainehealth.org tells me that CEO Andrew Mueller earns a $1,792,868 salary, with $52,043 in benefits, for a whopping $1,844,911 for the year. Recently retired Chief Financial Officer Albert Swallow III was not too far behind; his salary and benefits totaled $1,300,113 per year. You can be sure these salaries will only continue to rise. Swallow’s replacement, Richard Bayman, must be doing pretty well too.
I’ll never in my lifetime see money like that, and I bet most you won’t either.
But, back to the MaineHealth Healthcare Heroes Program. As much as I appreciate hospital staffers here in Maine, my real heroes are the health care workers in Gaza who have been relentlessly targeted throughout Israel’s genocide.
Doctors, nurses, ambulance crews, medics, lab technicians and more, have been systematically fired on by Israeli quadcopters, bombed and murdered with U.S.-supplied weapons. More than 1,000 workers were killed. At least 297 others were arrested and detained, held in notorious prisons like Israel’s Sde Teiman, enduring unspeakable torture. At least 185 health care workers are reportedly still in Israeli detention, while 24 others are still missing after hospital invasions.
Examples include:
• Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, was arrested in November 2023 and says he was imprisoned and tortured for seven months.
• Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa, reported his brutal attack and abduction while performing surgery at Al-Ahli Hospital in Central Gaza.
• Mahmoud Abu Shehadeh, head of orthopedic surgery at Nasser Hospital, was also reportedly abducted while performing medical duties and subjected to “torture and harsh treatment.”
• Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, relocated to other health care facilities throughout Gaza each time one was bombed. After refusing to abandon patients at Al-Awda Hospital, Israeli forces arrested him in December 2023. He died at Ofer Prison on April 19, 2024, following severe torture.
• Dr. Hussam Abu-Safiya, who refused to abandon his patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2024, endured electric shocks, beatings to his chest and other tortures. He reportedly remains in Israeli prison, where his health is deteriorating and he has been denied regular attorney visits.
As a member of the Maine chapter of Healthcare Workers for Palestine and the descendant of a Jewish family who were tortured and murdered by Nazi Germany, it is my duty to speak out against these atrocities. I wish every organization of health care professionals would stand up to condemn Israel’s deliberate and relentless targeting of Gaza’s health care infrastructure and the dedicated workers who have tried, throughout this genocide, to fulfill their oaths to help the sick and injured.
Rather than donate to MaineHealth, I will continue to support organizations like Doctors Against Genocide that call for the release of all detainees and an end to the oppression of Palestinians, while supporting hospitals and clinics in Gaza and the West Bank in the wake of Israel’s genocidal attacks.
Silence is complicity. If we don’t speak out now, when will we?