What to expect in Episode 19
Ep 19: Dr Zana Mohammed | Empathy is a superpower
Dr Zana Mohammed is head of neurology at Iraq’s first diamond hospital. As well as leading the neurology department at Shar Teaching Hospital, he is assistant professor of clinical neurology at the College of Medicine at the University of Sulaimani in Kurdistan, and program director of neurology in the Kurdistan high council of medical specialties.
When we first interviewed Dr Zana in 2024, along with his team of young residents, his department had just won a WSO Angels gold award. The framed certificate, displayed in a hospital corridor, told the story of an eight-year battle to open Iraq’s first stroke unit. But it said even more.
As senior resident Dr Kaiwan Kawa explained: “This award is proof that the doctors and nurses in Iraq have the capacity to achieve something great; it is a testimony to our energy and potential. The award gives us a standpoint, a hope. It means we can say to young people, look, we are capable. We are capable of making big changes and reaching our potential.”
Shar Hospital reached diamond status in Q2 of 2026.
In this episode:
• The journey to Iraq’s first stroke unit
• The unstoppable force of empathy
• The beautiful city of Sulaymani
• Becoming a doctor
• The link between music and the brain
• Respecting every moment of life
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE BELOW
In January 2023, in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, a dream came true for a man who dreamed of things that never were. The thing that wasn’t – not here nor anywhere in Iraq – was a stroke unit that would provide world-class care to the people living in and around the Sulayman capital.
It had been an exceptionally long dream.
For eight years Dr Zana Abdulrahman Mohammed had been asking why not, and each time the answer had been yet another obstacle in the way of treating stroke patients according to global standards.
Stroke patients at his and other Iraqi hospitals were being diagnosed and discharged after receiving little more than nursing care and aspirin. Dr Zana knew the burden that awaited them and their families, the financial difficulties, the months of rehab, all while global developments in stroke care promised a different outcome.
Driven by empathy for his patients and the support of a team of courageous young doctors, Dr Zana dreamed Iraq’s first stroke unit into existence, and in July this year, Shar Hospital became Iraq’s first diamond hospital.
In an interview recorded last year at the World Stroke Congress in Barcelona, he explained how “suffering his patients’ suffering” made giving up unthinkable.