By Precious D. Freeman
The University of Liberia (UL) yesterday honored Liberia’s only neurosurgeon Dr. Alvin Nah Doe, with the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) Honoris Causa.
A citation by the University said that Dr. Doe is originally from Grand Kru County, southeastern Liberia, and began to show promise for an outstanding and dynamic career in medicine at an early age, “adding” that he began his early education at the Henry Wilmot Dennis Elementary School and later at the Monrovia Demonstration School System.
According to the university’s citation, during the Liberia civil war he and his parents fled to N’zoo, Republic of Guinea where he continued his schooling as a refugee and returned to Liberia in1993 and later completed his secondary education in1999.
“After obtaining a scholarship from the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Educational Foundation, in 2000, he immediately enrolled at the Liberia’s flagship institution of higher learning, and at the University of Liberia in the T.J.R. Faulkner College of Science and Technology where he majored in Biology,” the citation stated.
It added that his academic performance at the university was equally remarkable to the extent of earning a full bilateral Liberia-Morocco Scholarship to study in the Kingdom of Morocco where he was able to obtain a Medical Degree in Medicine and Surgery from Mohammed V. University, Soussi, Rabat, Morocco.
Furthermore, it said that Dr. Doe returned home after realizing the need to contribute to Liberia’s Healthcare Delivery System and began working for the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health and was later assigned at the Firestone Medical Center in Duside, Margibi County and later at the Ganta United Methodist Hospital in Ganta, Nimba County.
“Consistent with your excellent and professional performance as a Neurosurgeon, you led an all Liberian team of Liberian doctors, nurses and nurse-anesthetists that carried out the first-ever successful brain tumor removal at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center,” the citation pointed out.
They further stated that with the support of the Korle-Bu Neuroscience Foundation and the Ministry of Health of Liberia, he delved into the teaching and practice of neurosurgeon and worked for two years at the Jackson F. Doe Regional Referral Hospital in Tappita, Nimba County.
“Based on your professional expertise, you served as a member of the National Polio Experts Committee under the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, junior faculty at the Liberia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and part-time lecturer at the A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine at the University of Liberia, “the citation concluded.