Americans for Ben-Gurion University is proud to present Joseph Sakran, M.D., M.P.H., M.P.A. as the guest speaker at our Annual Dinner Party, Sunday, October 27, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, New York City.

An alumnus of Ben-Gurion University’s Medical School for International Health (MSIH), Dr. Sakran experienced a shocking life event that inspired him to become a trauma surgeon. Today he is director of emergency general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

At 17, he was celebrating his high school football team’s first game of the 1994 season when he found himself suddenly on the ground, choking on his own blood.

A gang member had fired random shots into the crowd and hit him in the throat, severing an artery in his neck, paralyzing a vocal cord and rupturing his trachea. During his lengthy recovery and multiple surgeries, including a tracheotomy so he could speak and breathe, he resolved he would do something important with his life.

“After this happened, I kept saying to myself, ‘God has given me this second chance.’ I knew I didn’t want to waste it.”

And he didn’t. He decided to enroll in BGU’s MSIH in Beer-Sheva, the first medical school of its kind to train physicians to practice medicine in any situation, any emergency, any culture or environment around the world. Today Dr. Sakran saves the lives of hundreds of gunshot victims and is researching why gun injuries these days have become more lethal than ever.

Dr. Sakran has been featured in People magazine, The Washington Post and on NPR radio. Today he travels around the country, despite his heavy medical schedule, addressing groups about gun violence and how to control it. He started the @ThisIsOurLane account on Twitter, which currently has over 30,000 followers.

Don’t miss your chance to hear this amazing speaker at our Americans for Ben-Gurion University Dinner Party. Click here to register.

Proceeds from this event will go to support the Ben-Gurion Annual Fund and the Medical School for International Health.