With its domed, mirrored roofs and walls, the Glasshouse in the heart of Glasgow Botanic Gardens stands out, basking under the clear sky. Shohista Saidkasimova welcomes the summer of 2023 in her home in the West End of Glasgow, where she has been working for more than 20 years as a consultant eye surgeon, specializing in vitreoretinal diseases. Driving on the left side of the road now feels natural to her, and she no longer needs local nurses to translate colloquial Glaswegian into standard English. Everything is familiar and dear to her now.
However, Glasgow still doesn't feel like home to her.
"When I go home, back to Tashkent, spend time with my family and loved ones, and taste norin and patir-non, I feel truly at home and happy," she says.
"Growing up in my family and Uzbekistan’s strong family tradition with respect for elders, modesty, and sense of community was the foundation for my later accomplishments. In our family, individualism was not suppressed but encouraged. My family nurtured my love for books; we had a large library, and I used to spend many hours immersed in the beautiful worlds of classical literature…"
Saidkasimova loves escaping to the hills in the Scottish countryside. Those boundless mountain ridges and forests remind her of childhood mountain climbing and the times when she would play on the streets and backyards with her sister and cousins in search of adventures. Perhaps these moments on top of the Scottish hills allow her to rise above the worries of everyday life and escape into happy childhood memories.
Music for Shohista is another source of inspiration, in addition to spending time in nature. She took violin and piano lessons in a music school as a child. "Although I don’t practice instruments anymore, music is still very important to me and lifts me up," she says. Music, like literature, she says helps to enrich her life.
Saidkasimova, who grew up in a family of doctors, cannot even remember when she decided to become a doctor: "I do not recall ever making a decision to become a doctor; I always knew I would be one..."
The busy and lively West End of Glasgow hosts the University of Glasgow and its beautiful ancient buildings with dazzling cloisters, reminiscent of Hogwarts from Harry Potter movies, and the Hunterian Art Gallery with its diverse exhibits. It is home to thousands of students and young professionals.
There’s also a significant number of disadvantaged people in Glasgow due to generations of unemployment and deprivation, similar to many parts of the world, but the family support network is much weaker here. Saidkasimova recalls the early days of working in Glasgow.
"Friday night on call in the hospital in Glasgow's East End was an unforgettable experience. Binge drinking and fights on a Friday (payday) night are a real problem there. I remember also being horrified to learn that the state funds long-term regular prescriptions of opioids to the drug-addicted population."
Saidkasimova is a highly skilled and experienced ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon, a training lead for the British and Eire Vitreoretinal Society, as well as an examiner for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. She has wide-ranging academic interests relating to ophthalmology, having published widely in peer-reviewed journals. She is actively involved in the training of the new generation of ophthalmologists.
"I knew I wanted to become a surgeon; initially, I thought of neuro or cardiac surgery, but after fainting in the operating theatre due to the smell of burning flesh, I realized I’m not physically strong enough to tackle general surgery. Ophthalmology seemed a much kinder option. In eye theatres, they played music, were very polite, and relaxed. The beauty of ophthalmology is that we perform high-impact surgery on a microscopic level where even the tiniest movement translates into life-changing results," she adds.
When, during her studies at the medical school in Tashkent, reading through Fedorov’s journal of eye microsurgery and coming across photo images of diabetic delamination, a complex retinal surgical procedure, Saidkasimova immediately realized, "This is exactly what I want to do in the future!"
"At the time, there was no vitreoretinal (VR) surgery performed in Uzbekistan, and it became my purpose to become a world-class VR surgeon."
She fondly recalls her teachers – the head of the department, Alisher Khudoyberdiyev, who supported her entrance into a complex specialty; Feruza Urmanova, her mentor in cataract surgery; Murat Khojibekov, the motivating dean; Karim Yafasov, a pharmacology teacher who ran a hobby club of foreign medical literature.
There was a lot of interest in learning from foreign doctors who came to teach, encouraging students to learn English to engage with and learn from them.
moving to Glasgow in 2000, she has overcome language and cultural barriers, hardships of adapting to a new place, with help from kind and supportive colleagues and her son, whom she calls her “bundle of joy and inspiration.”
She was a young specialist with a passion for vitreoretinal surgery, a field not yet established in Uzbek medical science at that time. Thanks to the reputation of the UK as one of the best centers for postgraduate medical training, and with support from the prestigious ORBIS organization, Saidkasimova decided to move to the country of beautiful mountains and lakes, Scotland. She gained further experience in prestigious medical institutions in London and other British cities, engaging herself in scientific research.
Located at the corner of Hyndland Road, Jelly Hill café invites patrons for artisan and freshly baked cakes. I found Shohista Saidkasimova sitting in the courtyard of the café next to the pedestrian path, where locals and representatives of other groups talked to each other in their own languages or in mixed English. While sipping her beloved cup of tea, she thinks about the trials destined for her. “It is always difficult to make big decisions in life,” shares Shohista, “I have had a lot of such decisions in my life. Moving country, passing medical exams in English, raising a child in a foreign culture... but there is a silver lining in every cloud. Difficulties make us stronger and more resilient.”
Saidkasimova has come a long way, to reach her current position with a highly valued job, the recognition of patients and colleagues, and invitations to share her experience at international conferences, including her research in reducing the recovery time after surgery and making surgery less traumatic. “I love what I do and I’m very fortunate to be able to restore people’s sight, the best gift one has.” She continues to work on herself and improve her results. During her 25 years of work experience, she has performed more than 10,000 surgeries with outcomes above the national average.
Also suggestive of her deep affection for her profession and duty as a doctor is Saidkasimova’s work as a volunteer all across the globe. “I enjoy helping poorer communities and love exploring new places, and so travelling to help is the perfect combination. We give up our holiday to work abroad in places of need and the rewards cannot be measured—smiles of kids in Ethiopia, elderly Muslim peasants in Myanmar, grandmas from the West Bank in Jerusalem, or a tear of a silent Syrian child with shrapnel injuries in Reyhanlı; these are images that will stay with me forever.
In addition, she’s currently working on a series of educational eye health videos in Uzbek on YouTube, with the participation of Uzbek doctors working abroad as well as with foreign experts. By the way, about doctors from Uzbekistan: “Perhaps there are more of them abroad than we think. I know several of them in the US, Australia, Israel, African countries, and the former Soviet states.
For those who would like to gain experience abroad, learning English and reading the latest research literature is the first step. Experience in a system with a good undergraduate and postgraduate education system is the next. Uzbekistan may not offer this universally as yet, but there are some excellent centers in the country. Another step will be to apply for scholarships and membership programs of international medical societies abroad.
This article first appeared in Uzbekistan's Club.
By: Saidaziz Azamov
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