Product Description

'My country is a medical disaster area, and I cannot rest until I return. But I know I can't go home again - at least not yet - not while Russian troops and a few Chechen extremists are pursuing me. The Kremlin called me a terrorist doctor because I treated Chechen freedom fighters. The extremists called me a traitor because I treated wounded Russian soldiers. In truth, it was the civilians I treated most and they still need my help.' As the struggle for independence in his native Chechnya moved into its bloodiest phase, Dr Khassan Baiev was enjoying a life of affluence as a plastic surgeon in Moscow but he knew he had to go home. Horrified by the violence and destruction, Dr Baiev set to treat the appalling casualties with out-of-date equipment, often donating his own blood for operations. During one particularly gruesome period, he performed sixty-seven operations in forty-eight hours until his hands were too heavily blistered to continue. It is remarkable how anyone could perform intricate surgery under such conditions, but Baiev was driven by his allegiance to the Hippocratic Oath: a vow to serve anyone who needed help. The Oath placed him outside politics, but in the eyes of t

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #414235 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Review
At the outbreak of Chechnya's war of independence, plastic surgeon Khassan Baiev was living a life of luxury in Moscow. He was called on by wealthy Russians to provide them with facelifts or nose jobs, he had maids to wait on him and a chauffeur to drive his car. But being a Chechen, he felt he must return to his homeland where his skills were needed by the injured rather than the vain. Baiev's story is one of courage and stoicism overlaid by the modesty of a good man. As a doctor he felt bound by the Hippocratic Oath to treat Chechens and Russians equally - a principle that almost cost him his life. He stuck to the task, however, working in the most primitive conditions and with a dwindling band of helpers as war continued. The tales of suffering are heartbreaking, as is Baiev's description of a beautiful, flower-bedecked country ravaged by shellfire. A harrowing but ultimately uplifting account of one man's struggle. (Kirkus UK)

Jonathan Kaplan, author of THE DRESSING STATION
'An incomparable insight'

Oleg Gordievsky, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'[Khassan Baiev's] descriptions of the atrocities, sufferings and humiliations inflicted on the Chechens make one shudder and weep'

Customer Reviews

A surgeon's journey
The Oath is a harrowing memoir of a Chechen doctors experiences caring for both Russian and Chechen soldiers, during the genocide, that has plagued this region over the last half century. Dr. Baiev has written one of the most important memoirs of the year. This book will put you in the middle of ethnic genocide, not seen since the Holocaust, and the Armenian genocide of the early 20th century. His dedication to medicine, and his unwavering care for those regardless of their ethnicity, whether Chechen or Russian, is a true testament to the embodiement of the Hippocratic Oath.

Graphic account of a largely unknown war
A moving story of life growing up in rural Chechnya, of a life under the rule of Moscow and ultimately a life under fire of the Russian army. Khassan Baiev is a brave man who has seen the kind of things that most of us cannot never imagine. As a doctor who treats the wounded from both sides, he gives an honest account of the atrocities he witnesses both sides committing in this seemingly never-ending war. For those who know nothing of the history of the region, or who don't know much about the current fighting, this book provides the context as well as a dramatic, emotional story.

Great book which deserves to be read
Moving account of a lone, at times overwhelmed, Surgeon who worked through the worst of the conflict in Chechnya over the last decade. The circumstances of suffering and death are something which we can't really relate to.

The narrative on the retreat of the Chechen rebels from Grozny in January 2000 and his operation on Shamil Basayev (Baiev amputated Basayev's foot which injured by a mine) is riveting.