(phone trilling) (phone trilling) (speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) Whenever I call my parents, they're always like, "What did you learn today?

What, what -- what is that?"

And then they're like...

I tell them and then, like, they correct me on stuff.

"No, you said that wrong.

It was this thing, it was this."

So it's -- and they're always, like, intrigued about what I'm learning and stuff, but it's also there's a language barrier.

Like, sometimes I tell them, "Oh, we learned about that."

And they're like, "What is that?"

Because they learned it in -- in Arabic, right?

(speaking Arabic) (speaking Arabic) I basically grew up in my parents' clinic in Syria.

My dad is a general surgeon and my mom is a OB/GYN.

They were my first inspiration to becoming a doctor, just seeing their life and how they interact with their patients, and how much their patients value them and their work.

(explosion) There was a civil war in Syria.

Things got closer to home and the situation became more dangerous.

So my parents and I moved to -- to the U.S. That's where I've been ever since.

But they had to go back to Syria, eventually.

We're originally Palestinian refugees.

My grandparents left Palestine back in 1948.

I was basically stateless, uh... up until I got the U.S. citizenship.

So the only thing I am technically, is an American.

I love Syria, but I also know how much opportunities I'd be missing out on if I don't study here.

-Woo!

(laughs) If you study in the U.S. and you graduate as a -- a U.S. doctor, you can basically work anywhere in the world.

(speaking Arabic) Back in undergrad, when I used to work in a clinic... and I was in a more rural area of Georgia, so they were usually not used to like, uh... non, like, white people, to be honest.

Eh... so they were always like, "Oh, your accent is, like, different.

Where is it from?"

Eh... And then I-I tell them, "Well, I'm like from Syria."

No, I never had like a bad reaction from anyone.

I think I used to be, like, more... annoyed by it when people like, mispronounced my name or, like, they're like, "Oh, it's different" and stuff.

But like now, I think I embrace the uniqueness of it.

Like, I like...

I like people asking about it, even if it, like -- people are like misspelling it or, like, mispronounce it.

I get Garth.

I get -- sometimes they don't even hear the T-H.

It's just "Gai."

Eh... No one ever says "Ray-th," which is like the actual pronunciation.

♪ -Hello, how are you today?

-Good morning.

I have a first-year medical student with me today, from Einstein.

-Great.

-All right.

Uh, any chest pains, chest heaviness?

-No.

-Chest squeezing?

-No, no.

-Good.

Okay, Ghaith is going to listen with me to your back and your chest, okay?

All right, give it a shot.

(chuckles) -Some deep breaths.

-(inhaling & exhaling) -Deep breath.

-(inhaling & exhaling) -Deep breath.

-(inhaling & exhaling) Good.

Let him...

I always wanted to go into the cardiology field... And I think following Dr. Charney only like, I think, made me want to do it more.

And there... One more time.

Patient interactions... that was a little bit of a new thing for me.

The other side...

While I definitely am empathetic, it's something new to m to, like, show these emotions.

My mom and dad do that very, like, seamlessly, and, like, I never thought about that, cognitively.

I was like, yeah, they like actually, like, try to do that.

I thought that was just part of their character.

Deep breath... Again, his cardiac and lung exam is normal.

As you're aware, most people have something by the time they reach 75, you know?

They gotta -- they gotta get to 75 first.

-Right, exactly, you know, but...

But I don't know most things, or almost everything about, like, medicine, right?

So...

But it's mostly going through those motions, knowing how to interact with a patient, and I think that's the most important part.

-So, everything looks fine.

All good news.

You definitely can be a better doctor by improving those skills.

You're able to better treat the patient, I feel like, and get a more holistic view of, "Okay, that -- it's not just this problem.

There's other things going on in his life."

And that's -- he -- the patients usually open up when you're -- they can trust you more, and you feel like you're -- they have a better relation with you.

♪