A Cleveland Clinic medical intern was diverted back to Saudi Arabia, and two others were detained but ultimately let into the United States, based on President Donald Trump's executive immigration order banning visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days.
Politico reports that Dr. Suha Abushamma, a first-year medical intern at the Clinic, was put on a flight out of the country minutes before a federal judge in New York issued a temporary stay on removing those who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa. According to Politico, the physician was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but holds a passport for Sudan, one of the seven countries from which the order bars visitors.
Clinic officials confirmed that Abushamma was denied entry and that two other residents were detained. In a statement, the Clinic said the White House's action "has caused a great deal of uncertainty."
"We deeply care about all of our employees and are fully committed to the safe return of those who have been affected by this action," the statement reads
The system is also getting attention for a fundraiser planned at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club while one of its doctors is being barred from the United States.
Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil tells Cleveland.com that the fundraiser was planned months before Trump became president and notes that it has been held there for at least seven years.
"Many other nonprofit organizations also hold fundraisers there and have for years," Sheil said to Cleveland.com.
Writes STAT: "Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove has entered into Trump's orbit since the election, meeting with the president at least twice and turning down an offer to become secretary of Veterans Affairs."
Politico spoke to Abushamma via Facetime as she traveled across the Atlantic this weekend and reports that she held an H-1B visa for workers in "specialty occupations."
According to Politico, the physician, who's in the first year of an Internal Medicine residency program at the Clinic, said she would try to see if she could get a waiver for the 90-day period during which visitors from the seven countries cannot enter the United States.
In a statement released by the Clinic, Abushamma thanked everyone for support and well wishes.
"Although this has been a difficult experience, I am grateful to be safe with my family in Saudi Arabia. Please know that I am deeply committed to my medical career and to helping patients at Cleveland Clinic."
BRIGHT SPOT
Brian Grimberg, a malariologist and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Grimberg helped develop a portable, battery-operated malaria detection device that can test for the disease more accurately and at a fraction of the time and cost.
He will conduct research on this device, which Crain's reported on last year, as well as teach and mentor undergraduate, graduate and medical students at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru, according to a news release.
He is an assistant professor of international health, infectious diseases and immunology at the Center for Global Health and Diseases at CWRU School of Medicine.
Grimberg is one of more than 1,200 U.S. citizens who, through the Fulbright program, will teach, conduct research and provide expertise abroad for the 2016-2017 academic year, according to the release.
"Cleveland Clinic weighs in on doctor forced to leave United States" originally appeared in Crain's Cleveland Business.
