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By Andrea Nagel
There is a reason
neurosurgery is a
standard of difficulty and skill in our
society. Hearing, “It’s not like it’s brain
surgery,” is a common comparison used to
diminish the difficulty of lesser tasks for
good reason. After completing 11 years
of medical school and residency, with
some opting for an additional fellowship,
neurosurgeons have a strong dedication to
their craft and make sacrifices to see their
hard work pay off.
“When I was going through my residency, I was ini-
tially accepted into a general surgery residency and later
switched to neurosurgery after two years,” said Katie
Huynh (pronounced “hwin”), D.O., a new surgeon with
Kootenai Clinic Neurosurgery. “I felt that if I was going
to be away from my little girls, it better
be for something I’m absolutely crazy and
passionate about.”
Dr. Huynh is no stranger to sacrifice and
steep challenges. In addition to finishing
a fellowship program where she spent the
past year focusing on rigorous, detail-
oriented surgeries in hard-to-reach areas of
the brain, she also spent a good portion of
her life overcoming the many challenges of
being a Vietnamese refugee, moving to the
U.S. with her family at the age of 6.
“You know that phrase,
fresh off the boat
? That was
my family,” Dr. Huynh said. “My father was an officer
in Vietnam, fighting against the Viet Cong. He was
supposed to go into one of the ‘reeducation’ camps in
1980, but instead we packed up and fled the country at
night on a small boat.”
Rising fromAdversity
W I T H H A R D W O R K A N D D E T E R M I N AT I O N ,
N E W N E U R O S U R G E O N O V E R C O M E S T H E O D D S
Katie Huynh, D.O.
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