Dr. Najjar Character Analysis

Dr. Najjar is a neurologist working at the NYU hospital. His personal background is a success story—as a child in Syria, he'd been unsuccessful in a private Catholic school, but when his father moved him to public school, a teacher took Najjar under her wing and Najjar began earning straight A's. He went on to study medicine and graduated at the top of his class. Because of his own experiences, Dr. Najjar feels compelled to help those in need, especially when others have given up on them. Dr. Siegel passes Susannah's case onto Dr. Najjar when her ailment proves to be a mystery. Dr. Najjar is the first to suspect that Susannah has anti-NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis. When he first meets with Susannah and her parents, he speaks to Susannah directly and promises to help her. After Susannah's article about her time in the hospital runs in the New York Post, the article is translated into Arabic and runs in several Syrian newspapers. Dr. Najjar's father cries with pride, and a Syrian ambassador to the UN thanks Dr. Najjar personally for his contribution to medicine. He's later named on of the top neurologists in the US.