From New Americans to the Operating Room

Deepa works in a field of surgery that may sound unfamiliar to most: neurotology, a specialty focused on the base of the skull. Originally, she didn’t anticipate a career as a surgeon. “My jaw dropped the first time I saw the inside of an abdomen as a first-year medical student, and then all my goals shifted,” she says. Today, Deepa practices at Johns Hopkins, and particularly enjoys performing cochlear implant surgeries. 

As a New American—Deepa’s parents immigrated from Gujarat, India—she says she appreciates the ability to connect with those whose lived experience parallels her own. “Although I feel very American, I am aware I am not always perceived that way, and that can be discouraging,” she says. “I am grateful to have a community of people who, despite representing many different fields and very different backgrounds, have grappled with the same complex feelings.”   

“I feel that being a New American helps me better work with the wide variety of patients and families I see. Both in terms of their heritage, but also their varied medical complexity. I take care of a lot of very medically complex children with significant underlying genetic or neurologic disorders,” says Sumeet, who grew up in Rochester, New York after his parents immigrated from India. “While their families may not be New Americans, they often face similar challenges to New Americans,” coming from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Sumeet has enjoyed working with kids since he was a teenage camp counselor. That interest stuck with him through running an after-school program in college. As he contemplated a surgery career, he says, “it felt very clear that my role in medicine was to continue that.” As a practicing pediatric orthopedic spine surgeon he specializes in young patients who suffer from scoliosis. 

Growing up, Sanaz’s dream lay not in the operating room, but on the football field. When her family moved from Tehran to the Bay Area of California in 1979, she quickly became a 49ers fan. “I was thrilled by the epic work ethic of players such as Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, and Steve Young,” she explains. “I knew I had that same work ethic and felt that would propel me to being a 49er.” Unfortunately, at some point it became “painfully clear” that her talents didn’t align with the sport, so Sanaz redirected her attention to the team doctor on the sidelines, who would later become a mentor. 

Today, she specializes in knee and shoulder pain as an orthopaedic surgeon in Silicon Valley. She works with adults, providing surgery for injuries such as meniscus and rotator cuff repairs and alleviating pain through non-operative methods like injections. “Over time, my interest evolved,” Sanaz says. “I loved orthopedic surgery as a specialty because I like to fix things.”

When Robert was barely a teenager, he endured one of the most challenging experiences a person can go through: witnessing the injury of a parent. After a car accident, his mother needed life-saving surgery and had to spend months recovering in the hospital. He was young, but the event left a lasting impression. “That experience filled me with both the curiosity of what it takes to be a physician and caring for patients,” he explained, “but also a responsibility to pay it forward.” The journey to his current role as a neurosurgeon took Robert from his native Ghana to Gilbert, Arizona. He moved to the US when he was 18 and became a naturalized citizen. 

During his neurosurgery residency, Robert found his calling. The field uniquely blended his fascination with the nervous system and the ability to deliver immediate, life-changing results for patients with cranial and spinal conditions. After practicing in Wisconsin, he went on to found Spine Capital, a private neurosurgery practice in Arizona. What began as a single practice has since expanded to Wisconsin, with growth to other states in the pipeline. Robert hopes to expand access to top-tier spine care throughout the country, fighting against the tendency for specialized and highly-skilled doctors to concentrate in large cities and population centers. 

Paul’s journey to surgery began with his training as a pianist—honed during graduate school at Juilliard—where he learned to love the singing voices of the vocalists who accompanied him. As a laryngologist and laryngeal surgeon at NYU Langone Health and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, he now works with singers to ensure they are able to perform at the top of their skill level and maintain their unique instrument throughout their careers.

“I love working with my hands—and the very idea that we put patients to sleep, try to improve some part of their anatomy, and wake them up—is constantly amazing to me,” he says. Paul, who was born in Ohio to Korean immigrants, explained that his participation in the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans also provided inspiration. “I have always cherished our community of Fellows—increasingly, though, the Fellowship reminds me that we would be nothing without immigrants.” 

Born and raised in Texas, Vijay comes from a family of doctors in South India. “I grew up steeped in a culture that held education, service, and medicine in the highest regard,” he says. 

After training in neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, he now treats patients with spine disorders and focuses on complex spinal surgery at Hartford HealthCare. Interestingly, for a surgeon, he’s surprisingly focused on helping patients avoid it. “My guiding philosophy is that the best back surgery is often no surgery at all,” he says. “The patients I find most rewarding are those who come in resigned to surgery and leave with a path forward that doesn’t require it. Restoring function and returning someone to their life is the greatest privilege of this work.”