“SreyRam Kuy” by SaraBiographer is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Dr. SreyRam Kuy story is one of triumph and resilience. In 1975, just three years before Dr. Kuy was born in 1978, the Cambodian government was toppled by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge rebels who wanted to create a perfect communist society in the country. Prior to the takeover, Dr. Kuy’s mother, a teacher, and father, a government official, lived happily in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia with Kuy’s sister, SreyReath. Once the takeover occurred, however, the Khmer Rouge fighters forced millions of Cambodians to march into primitive work camps, and those found to have an education were executed or sent to a special facility to be more systematically killed. This genocide and the subsequent stacks of bodies left out in the open in the Cambodian countryside earned its title of the Killing Fields.
To avoid execution, Dr. Kuy’s parents posed as illiterate peasants which led to them and Kuy’s sister being placed in one of the work camps. They struggled to survive the years of hard labor and starvation, and then, in 1978, in a time and place where medical professionals were too educated to be allowed to live by the Khmer Rouge, Dr. SreyRam Kuy was born at the edge of the Killing Fields.
A year after her birth, Vietnamese soldiers toppled the Khmer Rouge regime providing some relief for the people of Cambodia, but not before about one-fifth of its population (about two to three million people) had been starved, murdered, or died of disease. Unfortunately, guerrilla warfare would continue for another 12 years. To avoid the danger of warfare in Cambodia, the Kuy family braved the treacherous journey to the makeshift aid camps in Thailand with hundreds of thousands of other Cambodian refugees. They walked by night and hid during the day until they reached the camp. With the massive number of refugees, the Thai government became displeased leading Kuy and her family to essentially live as illegal immigrants in the country. Tensions became so bad that at one point, a grenade was thrown into the aid camp Kuy and her family were taking refuge in leading to a head injury so severe it almost ripped her ear off. Her sister injured her arm, and her mother, who tried to shield her and her sister from the blast, sustained almost fatal wounds. The three of them were saved by a German surgeon who was volunteering with the Red Cross in the camp the day of the blast. It was an experience that would inspire her to do great things in her life including pursuing medicine.
As they recovered from their wounds, the Kuy family was deemed fit to emigrate to the United States. After being transferred to three different refugee camps, they finally landed in the Philippines where a group of Seventh-day Adventists sponsored their entry into the United States in the city of Corvallis, Oregon in 1981. When they settled in Corvallis, Kuy’s father became a janitor at Oregon State, and her mother a housekeeper at Good Samaritan Hospital.
After graduating as valedictorian at her high school, Kuy turned down a generous scholarship to Harvard to attend Oregon State University in order to help her mother as her father was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. Kuy would go on to Oregon Health and Science University to receive her medical degree before completing her surgical residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She also applied and was accepted into the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program which brought her to Yale’s School of Medicine where she earned a master’s in health services research in 2009. The significance of her upward mobility was not lost on Kuy. As she puts it, “My mom used to mop the floors of the operating room and now I work as a surgeon; my dad mopped the floors at Oregon State University, and that’s where I graduated. That is how amazing America is.”
After graduating, Kuy worked for a while for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in various positions including Director for the Center for Innovation in Quality, Outcomes and Patient Safety and, eventually, as the Assistant Chief of General Surgery. She then became the Chief Medical Officer for Medicaid in Louisiana in 2016. While working with Medicaid, Kuy helped fight the opioid epidemic by enacting policies that resulted in a significant decrease in opioid prescriptions among Louisiana Medicaid patients. She would ultimately return to the VA in 2017 as the Associate Chief of Staff and first full-time female surgeon at the Michael E. DeBakery VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas. She still works as a surgeon at the VA helping veterans and improving healthcare for patients recovering from surgery. She also works as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine helping teach the next generation of surgeons. When she’s not teaching, making rounds, or winning countless awards for her achievements, Kuy is providing free surgery to low-income patients and help raise funds to support her community and veterans.
Her story is inspiring, and she never forgets the importance of freedom. She credits her mom for always telling her and her sister stories about the Killing Fields but always focusing on the positives rather than the negatives. Her mother would tell her stories of their time in the Fields but focus on how someone helped save them or provided them aid in some way. She has held on to her mother’s positive attitude in life. She admits to having a profound respect for the veterans she serves through the VA and is thankful for their fight to defend the freedom we experience in our country. From the Killing Fields in Cambodia to a leading surgeon and key figure at the VA in the United States, Dr. Kuy is a hero for the work she does and a reminder of how greatness can come from humble beginnings.
References:
Curtis, J. (2018). From the killing fields to the halls of power. Yale School of Medicine. https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/article/from-the-killing-fields-to-the-halls-of/
Hartley, S. W. (2017). One on One with SreyRam Kuy, MD Medicaid Medical Directory, Louisiana Department of Health. Healthcare Journal of New Orleans. http://healthcarejournalno.com/sites/default/files/journal/fb/nola/2017-jul-aug/2017-jul-aug.pdf
Knowles, A. (2018, May 2). “Cambodian refugee and doctor volunteers supporting veterans, low-income patients in her community”. Points of Light. https://www.pointsoflight.org/awards/cambodian-refugee-and-doctor-volunteers-supporting-veterans-low-income-patients-in-her-community/
Miller, K. (2015). From terror to joy: The grateful, optimistic journey of Dr. SreyRam Kuy. Oregon Stater. https://adminlb.imodules.com/s/359/file_lib/1001/53/C1822_coverstory_Kuyfall2015_635763553857495045.pdf?sessionid=e9336748-36f0-48f1-8d7f-f13220042629&cc=1
Kuy, Sreyram (n.d.). Experience [LinkedIn Page]. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreyramkuy