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SUMMER
2012
25
IC
or I won’t leave!
Would you leave a successful cardiovascu-
lar practice, a sprawling home on a green
golf course, and twenty-six years of life in
the US?
Dr.
Walid Alami ‘81
did. When his wife
suggested the move, Alami was not too
thrilled. He was used to living in the US
but she wanted their two children to grow
up in Lebanon. Alami remembered his
best friend,
Basel Fuleihan ’81
, who was
severely burned during the fatal attack on
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s motorcade
in 2005. Fuleihan was subsequently trans-
ferred for treatment to Paris where Alami
immediately joined him. Sadly, Fuleihan
succumbed to his wounds. Hundreds
attended his funeral – many of them old
IC friends.
“If we stay in the US, my children will
never have the kind friends like we did,”
said Alami. “The friends that will keep in
touch and be there for you 35 years later. I
know that I can go anywhere in the world
and an IC friend will be there for me.
That’s the culture of IC.”
Alami agreed to the move granted that
the children will only attend IC – it’s the
family tradition after all.
Fortunately, the children were accepted
and the family moved in 2010. Alami ar-
rived a little later in the spring of 2012.
Barely a few weeks after his arrival, Alami is
looking a little dazed. “I can’t say it’s a cultural
shock as I’ve been visiting Lebanon every
year,” he said. “But it’s certainly different.”
After graduating from IC in 1981, Alami
received his MD at the University of
Oklahoma and completed his residency
and cardiology fellowship at Baylor Col-
lege of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In
1995, he completed his Cardiology and
Peripheral Vascular Interventional Fel-
lowship at St. Vincent’s Heart Institute
in Portland, Oregon. He then moved to
Arizona in 1996 where he became the
Director of the Cardiac Catherization
Laboratories, Chairman of the Medicine
at the Department, and Director of the
Heart Failure Clinic at the Arizona Heart
Institute.
In 2008, Alami was the first physician in
North America to use a diamond-coated
atherectomy device to clear a blocked ar-
tery in an arm to prevent an amputation.
He was cited in Phoenix magazine as one
of the top Interventional Cardiologists in
2010, 2011, and 2012, as voted on by his
peers in the medical community.
“It’s a new start here,” he said. “I like to
think that I’m bringing new ideas, im-
proving the system with my expertise, and
feel that I’m serving my own people.”
His two children, Nour and Jad, are re-
portedly thriving at IC and will hopefully
be making their own IC memories.
Alami’s own poignant memory is of 1981
when he and his sister, Rima, walked off
with five trophies, including the “athlete
of the year award”.
Alami’s memories are many and he feels
“goose bumps” as soon as he arrives on
campus. But most important, he added,
is “that I can look up old friends in the
Torch and call them up. It would be just
like yesterday. And this is what I want to
give my children.”
Dr. Walid Alami has set up his clinic in
Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC). For
more information, go to: www.alamimd.com
Dr. Alami with son, Jad