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Journeys User4November 22, 2024March 5, 2025Clinical Training Experience, Cross-cultural Experience, My Story, Post J-1 ExperienceAlumni, Headache Medicine, Kentucky, Neurology, Pakistan, Returning Author, Texas

Growth is Best When Shared

By Dr. Muhammad Ismail Khalid Yousaf

“Serve well and learn more—they’ve given you a place in their country, and it takes a big heart to do that,” my paternal grandmother, Jamila Begum, told me during our family’s ritual prayers before I left for the airport to begin my training in the United States. This 7,500-mile journey from Pakistan to Kentucky came with its own uncertainties and challenges, but the belief that “there is a blessing when you migrate to study abroad” was deeply rooted in my cultural and religious values. I was determined to carry forward these virtues with pride and dignity, as my parents had sacrificed everything to ensure I received the best training, and my wife’s support to get me to the United States to train was monumental. Thanks to the BridgeUSA J-1 Exchange Visitor Program, I was fortunate to match and start my training at the University of Louisville (“UofL”) School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology.

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Journeys User4August 23, 2023August 22, 2023Host Institution, My Story, Post J-1 Experience, Words of WisdomAlumni, Anesthesiology, India, Ohio, Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology

Embracing Challenges: From IMG to Program Director

By Dr. Tanaya Sparkle

In 2010, as a young and ambitious medical student, I found myself at a crossroads in my career; I was considering leaving my home country of India to pursue advanced medical training in anesthesiology in the United States. A decade later, in 2020, I was presented with a remarkable opportunity to serve as the program director of the anesthesiology residency training program at The University of Toledo. My passion for anesthesiology and my experience as an international medical graduate (IMG) led me to take this role supporting aspiring physician IMGs, like I once was.

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Journeys User4April 25, 2022March 5, 2025My Story, Post J-1 ExperienceAlumni, India, Internal Medicine, Returning Author

Coping with Personal Grief as a COVID-19 Physician

By Dr. Kumar Ashish

We’ve lost so many lives over the past two years. As a physician working at a hospital since the beginning of it, I have witnessed the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This global crisis has resulted in worldwide lockdowns, the economic collapse of countries, and universally rising mortality and morbidity. Although the first wave of the pandemic came with the most uncertainty, it was the second wave that resulted in the most personally disruptive time of my life. It brought a multitude of issues to my home country, India. Due to a lack of resources, the healthcare system there collapsed under the pressures of the second wave.

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Journeys User4May 25, 2021May 21, 2021My Story, Post J-1 ExperienceAlumni, Lebanon, Neurocritical Care, Ohio

Becoming the First Neurointensivist in My Country

By Dr. Toufic Chaaban

It was 2:00 AM at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, moments before a long trip to the United States. I was drinking coffee and trying desperately to distract myself. At the time, I was 30 years old, recently engaged, and a fresh graduate in pulmonary and critical care. I was on my way to begin a U.S. graduate medical education program on a J-1 visa for subspecialty training in neurocritical care.

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Journeys User4November 14, 2019April 6, 2023My Story, Post J-1 ExperienceAlumni, New York, Nigeria, Pediatric Critical Care

The Nigeria Pediatric ICU (PICU) Project

By Dr. Odiraa Nwankwor

I am a pediatric intensivist, and I am from Nigeria. As an intensivist in the US, I offer multi-disciplinary care to children who are critically ill, in an ICU environment. Our team offers various forms of support for any organ-system failure ranging from tracheal intubation/mechanical ventilation to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). However, in Nigeria and most other low and middle-income (LMIC) countries, children who are critically ill are not cared for in an ICU environment. Most of the hospitals in these resource-limited settings lack the capacity and resources to intubate and mechanically ventilate children who are in respiratory failure from varied causes. As you read this blog, if a child goes to any of the major tertiary pediatric institutions in these regions, in respiratory failure, or has any major organ-systems dysfunction, the fate of that child is grim. There are millions of such children, even at this moment.

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