Left: The Hill Medical Centre in Noble Park where Dr Khulod Maarouf was stabbed to death last week.By Shaun Inguanzo
A GRIEVING colleague of a doctor stabbed to death at a Noble Park surgery will reopen the centre just days after the tragedy.
Doctor Khulod Maarouf died last Friday after a Springvale man entered her Hill Medical Centre office and attacked her with a knife that evening.
Colleague and close friend Doctor Fouad Dawood this week fought back tears to reveal he would soldier on and reopen the medical centre this week to help staff move beyond the tragedy.
Dr Dawood said he was making a nearby house call at the time of the stabbing when he noticed police cars swarming towards the Chandler Road practice.
“I returned to the practice pretty much as soon as it happened,” said an emotional Dr Dawood.
Dr Dawood said Dr Maarouf was already dead when he arrived and police had blocked access to the room for forensic examination.
He said staff felt devastated by the death and many felt they had lost a family member.
“There are no words I can say that can begin to describe her personality,” he said.
“Even though we are not related by blood we here at the practice feel like a family.”
Dr Dawood said he and fellow colleagues would muster the strength to reopen less than one week after the tragedy.
“We have had counselling,” he said, “and it was suggested to us that we should be open albeit with shorter hours.”
He reflected on Dr Maarouf’s contributions to the practice and said she helped people beyond her doctor’s role.
“She complemented the practice, as soon as she came here she fitted straight in because of her personality.
“Dr Maarouf was involved in helping refugees, and more than just medically,” he said.
“She was involved in teaching them English, and before she came here she was involved in teaching Arabic.”
Nawaar Hassan, Dr Maarouf’s eldest of three daughters, said her mum was well respected and that the family had been inundated with support since the death.
“She was so well loved and respected by so many people,” she said.
Students and staff at Al Kamal Arabic School where Dr Maarouf spent almost a decade teaching Arabic said this week they were shattered by the news.
The funeral for Dr Maarouf will be held this Sunday from 10am to 2pm at the Villa Adriana Function Centre, 525-531 Frankston-Dandenong Road, Dandenong.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the man fled the practice after the attack and later turned himself in at Springvale Police Station.
On Friday evening police charged 26-year-old Springvale man Samuel Benjamin with murder.
He appeared before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday and was remanded in custody for a 12 September committal hearing.
