(Photo by Jay Paul)
Sayed Hashemy demonstrated an impressive grasp of procedures and techniques for a new surgical assistant, remembers Dr. Ralph Layman, director of trauma surgery and kidney transplants for Henrico Doctors’ Hospital.
As Layman soon learned, Hashemy went to medical school in Ukraine to become a general surgeon before returning to his native Afghanistan and working with Doctors Without Borders. But several years, many miles and some heavy life experiences had passed by the time the two men met in 2019.
Still, when Hashemy remarked that he wasn’t a doctor, Layman told him he was; he just wasn’t licensed as a general surgeon in the United States ... yet.
Layman had worked with international doctors while in the Army, including six deployments as a surgeon to Iraq and Afghanistan. These doctors have to perform extraordinary feats to help patients, despite lacking resources and sometimes the trauma surgery training they need, says Layman, who became a mentor for Hashemy.
Layman’s words planted a seed in Hashemy. Being a surgeon again was a dream he had almost lost hope of fulfilling. Four years later, it’s one he is ecstatic to be on the cusp of realizing.
This month, the 35-year-old Hashemy begins a five-year general surgery residency at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. He learned the news on Match Day, March 17, the day more than 40,000 applicants nationwide check to see if they have matched with a residency program.
Beyond the opportunity to continue doing the thing he loves best, helping patients, Hashemy is grateful he is preparing to move toward, not away from, something.
A Rocky Path
After graduating high school in Kunduz, Afghanistan, at age 16, Hashemy won a scholarship to study in Ukraine, where he spent seven years in medical school and three years in a general surgery training program. After graduating from the training program in 2014, he returned to Afghanistan and passed the exams to become licensed in his native country. He worked in a community hospital for about eight months in Kabul.
After a decade away, Hashemy wanted to work closer to his family, so he took a post with Doctors Without Borders at a 92-bed hospital in Kunduz that handled major trauma injuries from all over northeastern Afghanistan.
Doctors Without Borders appealed to Hashemy because it treats everyone without prejudice. Its philosophy — “If you are a human being and you need medical help, we are here to help you” — fit with the reasons he became a doctor, he says.
Hashemy went from performing simple and routine surgeries in Ukraine to trying to save victims of car crashes, gunshots and bombs in a trauma center. His struggles with the violence and suffering were compounded by a lack of understanding from family and friends, who had become somewhat desensitized to it.
“They have seen those kinds of explosions and those kinds of attacks several times, like almost every year or every six months. But for me, since I was away 10 years, I haven’t heard any gunshots. I was not exposed to that level of stress,” he says.
The professional mental health providers offered by Doctors Without Borders were essential to helping him cope with both the stress of daily life there and the night that changed everything.
(From left) Drs. Sayed Hashemy and Ralph Layman (Photo by Jay Paul)
A Tragedy, A Beginning
On Oct. 3, 2015, Hashemy was working on a patient when an explosion went off nearby. Staff continued the surgery, but suddenly, a second explosion rocked the hospital. People began fleeing as the building fell around them and caught fire.
The damage was caused by a mistaken U.S. airstrike and killed at least 42 people, including 24 patients and 14 staff members. In a Doctors Without Borders release from 2016, Hashemy recounted the bombing, caring for the wounded and his devastation at seeing the hospital destroyed.
Because there were no signs that the hospital would be rebuilt, Hashemy eventually resigned and was invited to teach at Kunduz University. However, his time there was plagued by bureaucracy and the power struggles between the official government, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the Taliban, which was a “parallel government” with conflicting systems.
In 2017, Hashemy attended a higher education conference in Baltimore and stayed after to travel and visit friends. During that trip, he met and fell in love with the woman who would become his wife. They settled in Northern Virginia.
Hashemy wanted to take the United States Medical Licensing Examination required for medical licensure, but he quickly realized he wasn’t proficient enough in English, especially medical terms.
He struggled for months to find a job before taking a post as an Amazon delivery driver. Hashemy improved his English enough to become certified with the American Board of Surgical Assistants, so in addition to delivering packages, he started picking up temporary surgical assistant assignments.
The joy of stepping back into the medical field was dampened by heartbreak when Hashemy’s marriage fell apart. Moving to Richmond in 2019 to work as a surgical assistant at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital offered distance and a fresh start.
Hashemy’s dream of becoming a licensed surgeon meant finding time for intense studying, first to improve his English and then for his licensing exams, all while still working as much as seven days a week. He also began sending money to his parents, who both lost their jobs when Afghanistan fell under Taliban control.
He has gone past all these problems with the mindset of getting to a spot where he can do what he wants to do, and what he wants to do is help other people.
—Dr. Ralph Layman, director of trauma surgery and kidney transplants
Layman says that Hashemy took on increasing responsibilities as a surgical assistant. Soon other surgeons recognized his abilities. He describes Hashemy as a testament to perseverance and as someone who overcame the burdens of being a displaced person, improving his English and always worrying about loved ones who are in harm’s way.
“He has gone past all these problems with the mindset of getting to a spot where he can do what he wants to do, and what he wants to do is help other people. So, I think that is kind of a miraculous thing,” Layman says.
After passing the second of the three licensing exams with good scores, Hashemy applied to the National Resident Matching Program, hoping for an assignment. He got one interview, with Mission Hospital, “so all my eggs are in one basket,” he says.
Learning he matched with a hospital is one of the most memorable moments of his life because it creates a path to his dream of becoming a surgeon again. Hashemy says, “All those nights, all those mornings, every sacrifice you made, every emotion you suppressed, every drop of tears is being honored. All of the great heights of this life and the valuable lows of this life, you persevered for this day.”
Dr. Courtney Sommer, director for the Mountain Area Health Education General Surgery Residency Program, says Hashemy impressed the hospital with his unique career path.
“He is dedicated and passionate about training here in the U.S. after practicing in [Ukraine] and Afghanistan in austere conditions. He obviously has a wealth of experience to bring to our program, and at the same time remains humble and aware of the differences he will encounter in this next phase of his path to become a surgeon,” Sommer says. “We feel Dr. Hashemy will bring maturity, grit and incredible work ethic to our program. We look forward to helping him further develop his skills.”
