Dr. Riza Mazagri

Professor of Neurosurgery and a practicing Neurosurgeon at West Virginia Marshall Health. A pioneer in health care delivery in Libya and a leader in charitable health care services throughout Libya. The Cabell Huntington Hospital neurologist studies the mechanics of the body’s most complicated organ daily, but it was understanding the psychology of the brain that pulled him through a five-month imprisonment in Libya.“You have to prepare yourself psychologically. I told the other prisoners, ’They may break your arm, but don’t give them a chance to break your brain. Your arm may heal, but your brain might not,’” Mazagri said. He traveled to Libya in February 2011 after seeing photos of the injured and dying on the Internet. A neurosurgeon on a medical mission to treat the injured in his strife-torn homeland, Mazagri’s was imprisoned by Moammar Gadhafi loyalists