Assaad, you are the Lord whose life testimony enriches mankind and humanity. I recall a medical visit I had made to you, our beloved and eminent professor, in Paris, as recommended by the late President Charles Helou, when you had asked me "Madam, you have a treasure trove of medicine in your country and you come to us?"
You founded a medical empire: a refuge for all those altered in their physical and moral health. Your love was therapy, your treatment was medical, your discipline was healing.
Your footsteps alone reminded the family of the hospital to lead and fulfill their duty ethically and competently.
You performed miracles in your surgeries. As your late Papa Toufic used to say: "This hand that will operate on a metastasized patient is the hand of the Good Lord ... that blesses you in your medical journey."
The many footprints you leave are eternal.
The great builder that you were, you faced the bombs, the mavericks, while protecting the workers and your colleagues. You, yourself, escaped death and received a serious injury to the eye. What perseverance, what assiduity. The word ‘rest’ was banned from your vocabulary, from your way of life.
While you were a Minister of Education, I once heard someone exclaim: "It is a great thing to work with the Minister. A man of exceptional culture and finesse and above all endowed with a lively wit.”
Assaad, you showed exceptional physical endurance. How can you forget the time you left mid-way through your dialysis in order to keep your appointments.
The hospital has become an official site in Lebanon. It is part of our heritage. The sale of the hospital did not eclipse your dream: In your journey of loyalty and exemplary constancy your goal had been to preserve its high standing, so that it may remain this distinguished place where the hands of doctors intersect to rescue, heal and save the life of man. And he lives, thanks to all those who have taken over: with wisdom, science and conscience.
To dear Colette, Sami, the director of the hospital, his sister Mona, his brothers, both doctors, and all his family, our sincere condolences.
Mona Daher Nehmé
Assaad Toufic Rizk
23 July, 1931 - 11 December, 2020
1992, Paris…I was working in the cath lab with Alec Vahanian when suddenly he stopped... he look through the glass of the control room and asked me if I know the person who was standing there! It was Dr Assaad Rizk.
I never met him before, he was searching and choosing the team with whom he will start an ambitious program of interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery. (Personal contact, personal flair)
Since that time, our common adventure started, full of passion, ambition, achievements and challenges.
In 2009, as I was listening to the speeches of Dr. Assaad Rizk and Dr. Joseph Jabra during the handing over of the hospital, I remembered the famous quotation of Winston Churchill: “The farther backward you can look the farther forward you are likely to see”. It was a ceremony marked by deep emotion and great ambition, ambition at the size of our dreams, and the dream was great throughout the history of this institution and I’m sure great it will remain!
Rizk Hospital, as built by Dr Assaad Rizk, has all the building blocks of a visionary company; a precious jewel appreciated and admired by its peers, an institution with a glorious past which has impacted the society and its surrounding environment, an enterprise where above all, there was the ability of its founder, Dr Assaad, to build and build and build, never stopping, never looking back, never finishing the institution.
Looking backward, a glance over the hospital's history, we see a work of pioneers.
Looking backward, we see Rizk Hospital as a role model of conviviality and teamwork, a hospital where it is great to be a physician, and even to be a patient.
Looking backward, we remember this extraordinary motto stated by the founder: Science + Experience + Conscience = Confiance
Looking backward, we see a man that has perfectly illustrated this mission statement which leading to greatness: “We are in the business of preserving and improving human life. All our action must be measured by our success in achieving this goal”. A hospital where medicine, as stated by Dr Assaad, is not a destination by itself but a journey where every single step is done with a great sense of care, humanity and dignity.
Looking backward to see the future looking promising despite all difficulties we are going through in these times of crisis. « Un ouragan ne dure pas toute une matinée ni une pluie torrentielle toute une journée ».
Our dear Dr Assaad
There are people reaching high during their life and bringing us up with them. You are one of those. You can be reassured, Sami is still here, Adnan Selim and all others still here… the torch you handed to Dr Jabbra in 2009 is now in trusted hands and be sure that Dr Michel Mawad is holding it trying to make it as bright as possible before handing it to future generations…and the mission will never stop.
Georges Ghanem
A great man has left our traditional setting to reappear in another of his dimension and authenticity.