Saint Mary's Foundation, the charity arm of the hospital, is honoring the couple as this year's recipients of the Spirit of Saint Vincent Award. They also received the 2004 Michigan State Medical Society Community Service Award.

The Akbars have practiced medicine in Saginaw since the early 1980s, after coming to the United States in 1976. Both have served as president of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America. In the wake of 9/11, they spoke out to promote the peacefulness of their Islamic faith.

"They are the reason I came to Saginaw seven years ago," said Dr. Sarosh Anwar, a cardiologist with Michigan CardioVascular Institute. "They encourage other immigrants to get involved."

The Akbars, both 53, met at King Edward Medical College in Pakistan, where their mutual commitment to giving drew them together. As students, they worked on various relief projects and led blood drives. They donated to fellow students who attended the school on scholarships.

He helped fellow students in a quiet way, said Dr. Zakir H. Qureshi, a Saginaw anesthesiologist who knew Waheed Akbar during those school days. "He is always an optimist and pushes people to go forward."

Both husband and wife came to medicine through family expectations. There were no doctors in Waheed Akbar's family, but he was chosen from a young age for that career, he said. "It was the right decision."

Raana Akbar didn't want to become a doctor, though. Her mother had her own practice in Pakistan - one of a handful of Muslim women doctors. Two sisters and a brother also went into medicine.

"I didn't want it," she says. "I was literary, into politics and activism - exactly as I am now. But women had two choices: teacher or doctor."

Her father didn't talk to her for a year before she finally accepted her parents' wishes, but only if they didn't insist on an arranged marriage, she said.

In school, Raana Akbar found she disliked the clinical work, but loved interacting with patients. She needed to serve, something her patients today know.

"This is the best doctor in the whole wide world," says Marva D. Barnett, 66, of Saginaw. "She's a mother, sister and friend. She'll get you on the right track."

Dr. Fred J. Cady Jr., a Saginaw ophthalmologist, says the doctors treat their patients like family. "I admire their spunk. They are good Americans and I am proud to know them."

Four hours after their Dec. 3, 1976, wedding in Pakistan, the Akbars boarded a plane for New York City. Their only contact was a cousin who helped them find jobs working with geriatric patients at Fulton State Hospital in Fulton, Mo., before they found physician residencies.

Waheed Akbar studied orthopedic medicine for four years at Jewish Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. He went on to a fellowship in orthopedic surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.

Raana Akbar started her residency work at Mayo Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. She continued her training at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, followed by a fellowship in pediatric infectious disease at New York Medical College, and a second fellowship in allergy and immunology at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit.

Their first years in this country working as residents with two small daughters and dealing with the stress of culture shock were "horrible," Raana Akbar said.

"I don't know how we got through it. We had no family here, no resources." She took only two weeks of maternity leave. Both their mothers came from Pakistan to help out for some time, along with her childhood nanny, and the couple later hired a regular housekeeper.

While she is a "high-energy" person who might have been suited to an emergency room, Raana Akbar said she chose her specialty because it is office-based and allows her more time at home. Waheed Akbar came to Saginaw in 1982, during one of the worst recessions in Michigan - when many doctors were leaving the state. He'd never heard of Saginaw, but there was an opening. He was assured the city needed his skills, and he said he found a warm welcome at Saint Mary's hospital.

"My first day in the operating room, they had all the special spine instruments I needed set out for me. They'd bought them for me after just one meeting."

He soon began his relationship of mutual learning and practice with neurosurgeon Dr. E. Malcolm Field. They often operate together, using his skills with bone and Field's knowledge of nerves.

"In most places, neurology and orthopedics fight each other, but we have shared our expertise here."

Dr. Gerald R. Schell, another Saginaw neurosurgeon, calls Waheed Akbar a "model physician. He taught me so much about the spine from his point of view."

Seeing patients freed of pain - whether through surgery, therapy or medication - is the highlight of his career, Waheed Akbar said. "I get one or two hugs every day. People are so relieved."

The Akbars always have shared an office for their practices; they've worked in the Medical Arts II building at 4701 Towne Centre since 1989. For 10 years, their desks sat back to back in one office, but now they share a waiting room between two suites.

The Akbars had planned to return to their home country to serve as doctors, but the American way of life "engulfed" their existence, they said.

"We were so well trained here; we couldn't use that information back home," Waheed Akbar said. "You'd have to raise the whole infrastructure there."

Returning to Pakistan also would have meant taking their children out of American schools.

Daughters Amna, 26, and Zainab, 24, both are starting careers - though not in medicine. Son Ahmed, 16, is a student at Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy. The children share their parents' political activism.

"I'm proud of them and proud of how this award reflects on our community," Zainab said.

The family is working to help raise the level of education in Pakistan. With the help of Waheed Akbar's brother there, they have financed 75 primary schools that serve nearly 3,000 children in rural areas.

Their roles as advocates in this country took on new meaning following the terrorist attacks in 2001. Longtime members of the Islamic Center of Saginaw, they spoke on behalf of those families. Raana Akbar organized an interfaith rally in 2002 at Saginaw Valley State University to promote unity. She also has worked to help other Pakistani physicians immigrate to the United States.

"The one positive of 9/11 is that people want to know more about Islam," Waheed Akbar said. Yet as they strive for understanding, there are barriers. They have witnessed and experienced hostilities in America and in Pakistan.

"We are in the middle in both places," Raana Akbar said. But the support from their patients and the medical community in Saginaw steadies their resolve.

"This award means we are accepted," she said. A Catholic hospital giving this award to two Pakistani-American Muslims "speaks to the greatness of this country, and speaks volumes for the values of our society," Waheed Akbar said.

Both have served with the Saginaw County Medical Society, he as past president. He also is past president of the medical staff at Saint Mary's. She is on the board of Saginaw Valley State University and won a religious leader award from the Bridge Center for Racial Harmony.

Spirit of Saint Vincent Awards

Saint Mary's Foundation will present the Spirit of Saint Vincent Award at the foundation's 10th annual Cornette Ball Saturday, Nov. 20, at Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State. The ball is a fund-raiser, with proceeds going to purchase powered surgical instruments for orthopedic surgery. A cocktail reception is at 6:30 p.m., with dinner at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $125. Call the foundation at 776-8300 for information. Previous Spirit of Saint Vincent award winners include:

Dr. Donald Sargent -1995

Dr. Edwin Wright -1996

Dr. William Knapp -1997

Dr. Donald Cady -1998

Dr. E. Malcolm Field -1999

Dr. Edgar Balcueva - 2000

Dr. Leroy Barry - 2001

Drs. Carlotta and Luigi Maresca - 2002