Professor Daoud Mustafa, a great Sudanese physician and neurologist, died on 3/6/2008 at his home in Khartoum, aged 90.
Professor Daoud Mustafa was active in both teaching and clinical practice until nearly two years before his death, when he started to ail. His death is a real loss to both the Sudanese and the international medical profession.Thousands of doctors trained under him, hundreds of whom became specialists and professors in medical schools in the Sudan, in the Gulf states, in Europe, (U.K. and Ireland in particular), the USA and Canada.
He supervised postgraduate students for both clinical and research degrees. However, to him medical diagnosis was the most important part of clinical medicine. He was a strong believer in rotation through a broad range of specialties, for trainee registrars, and hands on in clinical experience.
Professor Daoud Mustafa will be remembered by the present generation and many enerations to come for his great deeds in the medical profession.
Below is a summary of his very broad and interesting C.V.:
- He was born in Tuti Island, Khartoum, in 1917.
- He had his preliminary and intermediate school education in Khartoum Public Schools.
- He joined Gordon Memorial College (high secondary school) in 1936.
- He joined the Ministry of Health and worked in hospitals of several provinces in the Sudan.
- In 1950 he was sent to the U.K. to be trained for the MRCP (London) which he got in 1953.
- On his return to the Sudan he was appointed physician to Omdurman Civil Hospital (now the Omdurman Teaching Hospitals (OTH).
- He joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum in 1958 as a full staff member. In 1963, he became the first Sudanese ever to be the Head of the Department of Medicine in the University of Khartoum. In 1965, he was promoted to the status of full Professor of Medicine, University of Khartoum.
- In 1967, he was elected as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
- In 1974, he became the Dean of Faculty of Medicine and the Deputy Vice-chancellor in the University of Khartoum.
- He was appointed The Emeritus Professor in the University of Khartoum in 1975.
- Since 1958, he took the full load of a Consultant physician and neurologist in Khartoum Civil Hospital (now known as the Khartoum Teaching Hospital, KTH).
- In 1985 he founded the unit of neurology in the Shaab Hospital and became its first head.
- Professor Daoud Mustafa published original research, which appeared in medical journals of very high repute, in the field of kalaazar schistosomiasis, tropical splenomegaly, relapsing fever and neurology.
- Three big lecture theatres were named after him as a memorial, one in Khartoum Teaching Hospital, the other in Soba University Hospital and the third one in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum (the latter accommodates about 450 persons).
Awards and Prizes:
- He had been awarded the honourary Doctorate in Sciences by the University of Khartoum in 1988.
- The Elgomhoria medal in 1978
- The El Nilein medal in 1989
- The El Injaz Star medal in 1990
- Awarded “Martyr Elzubeir Mohamed Salih Prize” for distinguished and excellent scientific achievements for the year 2001.
- Medal of Sciences and Arts, First Class Arabic Republic of Egypt, had been awarded to him as the Sudan representative on the Medicine Day in Cairo in 1983.
- Awarded a honourary Doctorate in Sciences by the Gezira University in 1998.
Professor Daoud shall be remembered by the present generation of doctors and patients alike in the Sudan and abroad for his phenomenal virtues of honesty, refined ethical behaviour, commitment, dedication and kindness during his practice of medicine and his sociability. He was one of the most capable physicians, both in knowledge and clinical practice.
May God The Almighty bless him and rest his soul in heaven.
Salih Yassin Salih, Professor of Medicine
Sudan Medical Journal Vol. 44 No. 1, 2 & 3 (Published 2008)