Tributes paid to caring Dubai doctor who treated the needy free of charge

Dr Shirva Amiruddin ran a clinic in a busy Dubai neighbourhood for 35 years

Dr Shirva Amiruddin died of cardiac arrest on Thursday at the age of 73. Courtesy: Henna Amiruddin 

The owner of a Dubai clinic who treated low-income families and labourers free of charge has died from cardiac arrest at age 73.

Dr Shirva Amiruddin ran the Amiruddin Clinic in Hor Al Anz, a Dubai district which is home to a large population of blue-collar workers, for 35 years.

The Indian doctor died on Thursday and leaves behind his wife, two daughters and a son.

UAE residents took to social media to pay tribute, with one poster saying “He literally opened this clinic to help the unfortunate”.

His daughter Henna Amiruddin spoke to The National about her father's work in the UAE.

“We are really grateful to all the people that have called us and spoken so highly about my father. He has served our community, especially the needy,” she said.

“The area that he had his clinic had a lot of low-income and labourers working there. They would come to my father and ask if he could treat them as they didn’t have money. He would happily treat them for free. Even for patients, otherwise, who would come to him and didn’t have enough to pay, he would say ‘pay whatever you can’.”

She said her father was not “money-minded” and stayed true to the doctor’s oath of serving the community.

He moved to the UAE 40 years ago and started his clinic five years later.

“He’s treated generations of families because they trusted him and they knew that he only wished the best for them,” she said.

Marby Sapad, a nurse who worked with the dedicated doctor for 10 years, said that he would also distribute free medicines to the needy.

She said that many low-income families and labourers would travel from different Emirates to get treated by him.

“He was a very great and down to earth man. He was very dedicated to his profession and compassionate," she said.