Page 30 - Layout 1

FEATURE

Immigrants

as Healers:

The Role of International

Medical Graduates in

U.S. Healthcare

By Fadi Adel, MD

he candlelight was dancing back and forth on the pages In Syria, I found myself to be clueless and without a clear path
T of my book; there was no electricity and the temperature to a bright future. College was expensive. I felt uneasy as I saw my

dream fade away. But, soon enough, I picked myself up. I worked
was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Every now and then,
I would hear the sound of gunfire or an explosion. I as an interpreter for a local tech company, took the SAT and the
would blink and I could still see the candle-lit page. I knew I was TOEFL (Test of English as a Second Language), and spent nights
still alive and I would resume studying for my exam the next morn- at Internet cafés applying for scholarships to come to the U.S. since
ing. This scenario was the norm as I studied for my twelfth-grade I didn’t have a personal computer. On a game-changing December
baccalaureate exam on a typical hot and dry June night in Baghdad. night, I was awarded a fully-funded scholarship to study Cell and
It was a rough time to be living in Baghdad and an even harder time Molecular Biology at UT-Austin. Now 10 years later, I am a 4th-
to keep dreams alive. year medical student at The University of Texas Health San Antonio
Despite the surrounding inconveniences, I did not lose focus on (UTHSA), headed for residency training in internal medicine, and I
my goals. I survived the war, the heat, and the turmoil of a changing cannot be any more thankful for this opportunity.
country, and graduated as the top student of my class at The Gifted The tortuous path that I took to become a medical student is not
Students’ School. Then, I was admitted to a competitive six-year uncommon among immigrant physicians who come to this country.
medical program at Baghdad College of Medicine. I was thrilled. They may not all have had to deal with war, but they all had to work
Finally, I could understand the intricacies of the lub-dub sound I extremely hard to become worthy of the privilege of serving the
heard when I measured my chronically-hypertensive mother’s blood community in the U.S. That work ethic – study hard, work hard,
pressure using my Oncologist father’s old mercury sphygmo- don’t leave a page unturned – is one of the many things immigrant
manometer (yes, they do still exist in Iraq). However, I was destined healthcare workers, like myself, and international medical graduates
to put my future on hold, as my family’s safety was threatened. We (IMGs) bring to the U.S. health system. “IMGs are diverse. One
had to flee for Damascus, which was safe in 2007, and assume the unifying theme is their strong work ethic,” said Saad Ghumman,
refugee status. MD, a third-year internal medicine resident at UTHSA, heading for

30 San Antonio Medicine • August 2018