Small-town physician relocates, leaving behind debts, lawsuit

For more than seven years, Suzie Gaines considered Dr. Maher Ahmad her family doctor. So she was stunned when she heard at a local convenience store that he'd left town without sending a letter to her or her family, or even leaving a sign on his office door. "Nobody in Sidney understands why he did this," she said. An internal medicine doctor who came to Sidney 13 years ago, Ahmad left more than baffled patients behind when he moved his offices to Champaign in mid-October. He left a trail of debts and pending litigation.