Heart-rending childhood events have the power to shape lives, even direct career choices. For Ibrahim Ismail-Sayed, MD, the death of a beloved uncle when he was a boy incited a desire to help people with their health problems.

Dr. Ismail-Sayed of St. Luke’s Pulmonary & Critical Care Associates sees patients in Palmerton, Orwigsburg and Allentown and cares for patients in the Intensive Care Unit of St. Luke’s Carbon Hospital.

As a pulmonologist, he specializes in the respiratory system – the lungs and other organs that help you breathe. He diagnoses and treats respiratory diseases and conditions, such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, COPD, interstitial lung disease, pneumonia, tuberculosis and lung cancer.

As an ICU specialist, he cares for seriously ill patients.

His desire to become a doctor began when he was 10. Dr. Ismail-Sayed was at a gathering of his large extended family in Cairo, Egypt, where he grew up. He was playing with his many cousins when the phone rang. His uncle, who had been ill, had taken a turn for the worse. Everyone rushed to his home and soon learned he had died.

“It was devastating for the entire family,” he said. “He was the eldest in the family and the one that everyone turned to. That’s when I started to say I need to be that person who takes care of patients. I want to diagnose and treat conditions early when it’s most beneficial.”

At that time, there were no private medical schools in Egypt. To get into public medical schools, students needed to score within the top 5% in the country in the preadmission test and have near-perfect scores in high school. Motivated, he studied hard.

“Caring for others was my passion. There is nothing better,” he said. “I thought that if you are healthy, you must conserve some of your energy and health to help those deficient in those areas.”

He was accepted to the Medical School of Ain Shams University in Cairo and completed his internship at the university’s hospital. After immigrating to the United States, he settled in Central Pennsylvania. He worked in cardiology research for about three years before enrolling in a residency program at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. Next, he completed a Pulmonology and Critical Medicine Fellowship at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey.

When St. Luke’s recruited him, he moved to Orefield, about equal distance from the three offices where he now works. Growing up in large and congested Cairo, he, his wife and four children now live happily in his quiet home with green open spaces.

Besides his family, his profession gives his life meaning and joy, especially when he can help gravely ill patients recover. He recalled an encounter in an elevator with a former patient.

“I kept looking at him, thinking I knew him. When I finally placed him, I hugged him,” he said. Dr. Ismail-Sayed had treated the man in the ICU. At the time, he had end-stage liver disease and encountered many complications, including heart, liver, respiratory and liver failure. The patient spent two and a half months in the hospital but despite it all, recovered. On the day of the chance elevator meeting, the man’s health had improved so much that he was going to see a liver specialist to discuss a liver transplant.

Dr. Ismail-Sayed trains doctors just out of medical school and often shares stories of patients’ amazing recoveries.

“When I see a sense of hopelessness in their eyes, I tell them not to give up hope. I’ve seen patients in much worse shape recover and walk out of the hospital,” he said. Caring for patients and witnessing them get better, including extremely ill ones, keeps him going and enriches his life.

“I never tire of caring for my patients, but I’m not the only one. Ask anyone in our group, in our specialty,” he said. “They’re married to their profession. During my training, many of my mentors were in their 60s and 70s. While with them in the ICU, I discovered their heads were filled with decades of rich experiences. I’m looking forward to being like them one day.”

To schedule an appointment with Dr. Ismail-Sayed in Palmerton or Allentown, call 484-526-3890 and in Orwigsburg, 272-639-5130.