LOWVILLE — On Wednesday, a physician assistant who had returned to Lewis County Health System two months ago after serving in the Air Force, threw a pizza party for the medical-surgical floor nurses and practitioners to celebrate the birth of his daughter days before. On Friday evening, a tragic motor-vehicle accident on slippery roads took his life.

The words colleagues use to describe Amer bin Ahmed Al Naqeeb, 31, are all glowing — genuine, kind, warm, humble, dedicated and passionate about helping people and medicine.

“Even when he was alive we all still talked about how great he is as a team member. How great it was to be working with him. We were happy to see he was on the schedule whenever we did see him,” said Dr. Bareeqah Ahmad, who mentored Al Naqeeb when he started at Lewis County Health.

The pizza party was typical of the joy and energy he shared around the hospital, she said. He was “one of those people who lit up a room.”

Al Naqeeb had first worked at Lewis County Health in 2017 and 2018, and before returning, completed his doctorate in medical sciences — the highest degree possible for a physician assistant — with honors at Touro College in New York City in August 2021.

“He was well regarded, very engaging, took his medicine seriously and was someone who had a real place in his being for the elderly,” said Lewis County Chief Executive Officer Gerald R. Cayer. “It was not unusual to see him sitting near or sitting side-by-side with someone older that he was caring for. It was just kind of in his nature to engage in that way.”

As a hospitalist contracted, like Dr. Ahmad, through Delphi Medical Staffing, Al Naqeeb worked on the medical-surgical floor and the intensive care unit.

“I think it’s fair to say that people were genuinely pleased when he returned and there’s great pride in the North Country with individuals who serve our country and that was recognized upon his return,” Cayer said.

Dr. Ahmad agreed.

“As a professional, he was fantastic … but even separate from being a professional, as a human, that’s where the tragic loss is. He was such a beautiful soul that always was smiling and always so cheerful and trying to put his own personal things aside every time to make sure everyone else was taken care of,” she said.

Delphi nurse practitioner Matthew McLain, who works at a number of North Country hospitals including Lewis County, started a GoFundMe page for Al Naqeeb’s family on Saturday and by Monday evening it had raised more than $48,000.

“The GoFundMe idea was prompted by multiple members of our group wanting to help because they knew he had just celebrated the birth of his baby,” he said.

McLain referred to Al Naqeeb as a “brilliant clinician and provider” who was born with a level of dedication rarely seen.

“There are people that go into the profession for one reason or another but he went into the profession truly because he cared about other people,” McLain said, remarking on Al Naqeeb’s “ongoing zeal for learning” how to be a better clinician and go the extra mile for his patients. “That isn’t something you can teach. That’s something that you’re born with or not … He obviously put the needs of the Lowville community above his own.”

Most recently, he and his wife Naaila Ali, 26, were living in Horsesheads near Elmira.

He was returning to work in Lewis County after visiting her and their newborn daughter, Sumiya, in Hollidaysburg, Pa., where Ali was visiting family.

“She (Ali) lost the love of her life. She was telling me how they fell in love so soon when they saw each other and within a month they were planning their marriage and looking forward to the rest of their future together and this baby,” Dr. Ahmad said. “Amer was so proud of her and his daughter.”

Al Naqeeb died at Lewis County Hospital on Friday evening from injuries he sustained in the accident on State Route 177 in the town of Pinckney.

According to Dr. Ahmad, his parents are coming from India for his funeral this morning to be held in New York City.

To contribute to McLain’s GoFundMe account for Ali and Sumiya, go to the “Amer Al Naqeeb — Tragically Gone to Soon” page on www.gofundme.com.