Dr. Samer al-Sheikh stared numbly at the photograph of himself on his phone.
The doctor pictured at the operating table was now almost unrecognizable to him.
After fleeing the Iraq war at age 16, Dr. al-Sheikh built a life in Ukraine as a trauma surgeon, gaining admiration for his work at the City Clinical Hospital in Kharkiv even as the Russian shells began falling.
But now, the pings of job rejection emails, not racing heart monitors, mark his time.
But I didn’t want my family to see what I saw in Iraq,” said Dr. al-Sheikh, 33, who had a temporary job unloading trucks at a London supermarket but is now unemployed again.
Persons:
Samer, Sheikh, numbly, “, ”, al
Organizations:
Clinical Hospital, Ukraine
Locations:
Iraq, Ukraine, Kharkiv, Russian, Britain, London