War E Reynoldsburg doctor turns living through terror into meaningful experience Teaches by Debbie Dunlap ntering Dr. Ziad Hennawi’s Reynoldsburg dental office, patients are greeted with comfort and warmth. A living-room style waiting area, complete with an upholstered sofa, wing chairs, a throw blanket, coasters and framed photos ease nervous patients into what can often be a very stressful experience. But not here. “You belong here. Welcome home,” reads one of the many wallhangings in Dr. Z’s office. It’s a sentiment that is not lost on Dr. Z himself, who is finally settling down after years of upheaval and worry, trauma and terror. He has escaped from a region of the world that has not spared anyone immense pain, suffering or inhumanity for a decade, not then and not today. “That’s the journey,” he says about the road he’s traveled to get here. And despite his relaxed demeanor, his soft laugh, his thoughtful pauses and brilliant smile, Dr. Z admits his journey has been fraught with challenging twists and turns. But it has also made him into the compassionate man he is today. Dr. Z grew up in Damascus, Syria, one of the oldest cities in the world. “Growing up there was beautiful,” he remembers. “It was home.” Since he was a child, he has loved working with his hands, tinkering with tools and figuring out how things work. At the young age of 18, Dr. Z entered dental school immediately following high school graduation, traditional in Syria. Two years before he graduated, though, Syria was thrown into a war crisis after protests in 2011 grew into weeks, months, and years of violence. The decade-long war has become one of the most devastating humanitarian crises of the 21st century with over 400,000 Syrians killed, more than five million Reynoldsburg Magazine • Spring, 2021 “I was way over my head.” Amid all the chaos, Dr. Z met Top, war-torn Syrian neighborhood, at left, Dr. Z recalls the destruction he has lived through. his wife, another volunteer, at the refugee camp, and they married in April of 2013. Not long after, he traveled to California to visit his sister – but soon received word not to return, for his own safety. For the next seven years, he continued to face enormous personal struggles, the separation from his wife and family, the death of his father, and the guilt he felt being away from home. He attended NYU Langone Hospitals and completed two years of Advanced Education in General Dentistry. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Health Policy and Management from Brandeis University in Massachusetts. His wife eventually joined him Reynoldsburg Magazine Photo refugees, six million displaced, and almost 12 million in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to the World Bank and United Nations. “Hell broke loose,” remembers Dr. Z of his beautiful country. “I’ve seen things I should not have seen.” One of his friends disappeared and was never seen again. Another was kidnapped and held for ransom. Just before his graduation from dental school in 2013, Dr. Z was asked by a friend to help out at a refugee camp in Damascus where some 1,200 displaced refugees sought food and shelter. He was put in charge of the medical office. “I’m not a doctor. I’m a dentist! Nothing trained me or prepared me for what I was going to see,” he remembers. One night, when he came to the camp to attend injured people, he found himself with a gun to his head. A security officer did not recognize Dr. Z and threatened to pull the trigger. and they now have a two-year-old son. Settling in the Columbus area was comforting to him. “It’s a perfect place for me.” And while he admits that his son is the best thing that ever happened to him, his practice is his pride and joy, where his home is his patients’ home. It’s a place where he can change lives, a conviction born out of the refugee camp in Damascus. “I promise to never dismiss your fear of pain, always listening to your questions and concerns, and working with your fear rather than trying to work around it.” It’s a lesson he has learned first-hand on a journey painful enough that he never could have predicted. Debbie Dunlap is a freelance writer and is a staff member of Reynoldsburg Magazine. She is also President of the Reynoldsburg Board of Education 9
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