Halim Nassim Abi Chahine

Halim Nassim Abi Chahine (1912-1998).

A Lebanese surgeon, born in Amioun.

Family
Father Nassim, mother Tarfa Abi Chahine. Married to Lili Nasrallah Al-Borgi, had a family of 6 children. Elder brother, Sami immigrated to Argentina in his 18-th, before the birth of his only brother. His sister Adla, married to Youssef Raffoul Saade, lived in Equator. Another sister, Mserra, married to Chedid Dib Khouzami, immigrated to Argentina.

His grandfather, Ibrahim Abi Chahine was a regional tax-commissioner in El-Koura, in addition to be a dealer in agricultural products and silk worm raising, in the mid 19-th century, under Ottoman occupation.

Education
Elementary and secondary education were completed in Tripoli, in the French Missionary School, Friars (Freres) until year 1931.

His medical was accomplished in the Syrian University, Medical Faculty, Damascus.

He recognized equivalence of his medical thesis at St. Joseph University, Lebanon.

In 1939, he joined Hôtel-Dieu in Paris to specialize.

With the outbreak of war, he moved to Montpelier University, where he finished his specialization in surgery.

Later moved to Naples Italy, and under the supervision of the faculty of medicine and surgery, he acted in several hospitals as surgeon practitioner.

The diplomas he acquired


 * Bone surgery and casting fractures.
 * Head and neck surgery.
 * Emergent operations.
 * Digestive tract surgery.
 * Obstetric surgery.
 * Surgery of the thorax.
 * Limb surgery.
 * Diploma in biology and biochemistry.

Later at the University of Geneva: Diploma in medical laboratory analysis.

Practice
In 10 June 1940, after getting an official license, he instituted a hospital of eight beds.

Returning from Europe in 1946, he reorganized the hospital into "Amioun Surgical Hospital" of 52 beds.

In the fifties, under contract he served as a surgeon of the prisons of the region.

In 1957, he became a legal medical officer of El-koura district.

1968-1974, head of the municipal council of Amioun.

In 1972, participated in making representations to have an official school in Amioun, a legitimated right of this town. Thus the school was instituted in Amioun.

In 1996, the Ministry of Health, Suleiman Frangieh, granted him the Golden Jubilee Award in recognition of his medical services for more than 50 years.

During his medical carrier of 56 years, he introduced several medical innovations:

-A peri-operative cardiac and respiratory monitoring system.

-A thermocoagulation system.

-The alarm for bradycardia,

-A serum infusion system.

-He registered in Germany a system of continuous intra-operative anesthetic infusion; this invention is poorly recognizable between the documents of the surgeon.

As result of the Lebanese civil war, his medical library was looted, including valuable references and manuscripts. After his death in 1998, inefficient attempts were made to render his hospital working, ended to no avail.