Mahmood Ahmadi was a surgeon at the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. He was born into a privileged family in the small agricultural village of Vastan in Iran not far from Tehran. As an infant, he survived an earthquake to which many of his siblings succumbed. Growing

Charles Marks was professor of surgery at Louisiana State University, New Orleans. He was born in Kremenchug, Ukraine, the son of Abe Marks, a businessman, and Sonia Marks née Beck, a housewife. He migrated to South Africa, where he matriculated from Wynberg Boys’ High School in Cape Town in Decembe