Surgeon who saved Tammy Duckworth's life, Adam Hamawy, elected to Congress

Egyptian American surgeon Adam Hamawy, who saved U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth's life during the Iraq War and volunteered to perform 120 surgeries in Gaza in 2024, won New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. Hamawy will be the first Muslim to represent the state in Congress.

The surgeon who treated U.S. Army pilot Tammy Duckworth after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004 and whom Duckworth, now a senator, says "saved my life" is now a member of Congress. Egyptian American surgeon Adam Hamawy defeated his Republican opponent, Gregg Mele, in New Jersey's 12th Congressional District in the midterm elections, winning a seat in the House of Representatives and becoming the first Muslim to represent the state in Congress.

According to NBC News data, with about 93 percent of the expected vote counted, Hamawy had 70.2 percent and Mele had 28.3 percent. Democrat Hamawy will succeed retiring Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman.

Cerrah Adam Hamawy beyaz önlüğüyle

From Baghdad to Khan Younis

Born in Egypt and moved with his family to the New Jersey town of Old Bridge as a baby, Hamawy works as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Princeton. He served for eight years in the New Jersey National Guard, spending nine months at the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He treated the wounded in New York after the September 11 attacks and also worked as a volunteer physician in Sarajevo, Haiti and Syria.

Hamawy traveled to Gaza in May 2024 on a volunteer medical mission organized by the Palestinian American Medical Association and the World Health Organization. At the European Hospital in Khan Younis, he performed 120 surgeries, more than half of them on children. After Israel closed the Rafah crossing, the team remained in the area for seven more days; Hamawy refused to leave Gaza until his colleagues from Jordan, Egypt and Australia could also get out. The surgeon told NPR that about 80 percent of the patients arriving at the hospital had died because of shortages of medicine, staff and resources.

Adam Hamawy, Gazze'de yıkılan binaların arasında çocuklarla

"I have never seen anti-Muslim hatred so openly expressed"

Addressing supporters on election night, Hamawy said, "I served this country. I wore its uniform. I served in war and in peace. And I have never seen anti-Muslim hatred as open, as loud and as accepted as it is today." Hamawy said he would fight for everyone left behind by the system that had governed Washington for decades, and ended his speech with the words "Allahu Akbar" and "God bless the United States of America."

Running his campaign under the slogan "Health care, not bombs," Hamawy advocated ending U.S. military aid to Israel. In June, he won the Democratic primary, which featured 13 candidates, with the support of Duckworth, Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar. Hamawy became one of four Muslim Democrats elected to the House of Representatives in the midterm elections; Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and André Carson retained their seats.

Photos: Social media

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Surgeon who saved Tammy Duckworth's life, Adam Hamawy, elected to Congress