To many people, Dr. Alex Jahangir was the face of COVID in Nashville. He was the one who said “stay at home” or “wear a mask” and he faced hostility for it. But despite any ideas you have about his upbringing or his privilege, he’s endured the kind of life-defining hardship most of us will never understand.
At 6 years old, his family abandoned their life on the other side of the world when war made them refugees. He came to America speaking zero English and was bullied for his heritage and his real name (which is Amir, not Alex). Despite it all, he's devoted his life to improving his community through his work as a trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt Health since 2009.
This episode is for you if:
-You want to understand the man behind the mask
-You're interested in how he's devoted his life to Nashville and his family
-You already love Dr. Alex Jahangir and you want to hear about the experiences that made him who he is
What's in this episode?
In this episode, you'll learn about Dr. Alex Jahangir's commitment to his role as an orthopaedic trauma surgeon with a specialty in saving limbs. He downplays his role with humility, using his phrase "don't believe the hype."
Dr. Jahangir talks at length about being an immigrant, moving to the US at age 6 to escape the Iran-Iraq war in 1984. His parents gave up everything to give Alex and his brother a better life. Dr. J describes being bullied and doing everything he can to honor his parents and the sacrifice they made.
In this episode, he also covers how he decompresses from his most challenging days, clinically, and the weight he felt in March 2020 as he announced the city was putting into place a "Safer at Home" order which would shut down most in-person operations. He also covers the physical response people had to that order.
We end the episode with everyone's favorite AMPstigator game, Best Time/Worst Time where we cover some life defining moments and how he's changed just since COVID.
📝 Show Notes & Mentions 📝
Find the full transcript by going here: https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/alex-jahangir-show-notes
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