At first blush, given that Heather Boakye-Wenzel, MD, an assistant professor at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, was born in Warsaw, Indiana, and still has family working in the major industry there, it does not seem particularly outlandish to assume she thought about a career in orthopaedic medicine.

After all, the Wall Street Journal has called the Warsaw region in northeast Indiana “the undisputed capital of today’s global orthopaedic device industry,” with its remarkable concentration of orthopaedic design and manufacturing companies responsible for nearly one-third of the world’s $32.5 billion orthopaedic device sector, including 60 percent of the global hip and knee replacement market. Following the 1895 founding in Warsaw by inventor and marketer Reva DePuy of the world’s first modern orthopaedic device company – DePuy Manufacturing produced custom-fitted leg braces – more than 20 other manufacturers followed suit. It wasn’t long before Warsaw’s leaders touted the city of 16,000 as the Orthopaedic Capital of the World.

As she grew up, Dr. Boakye-Wenzel, who had shown an interest in science as a little girl, heard more and more from relatives on her mother’s side of the family about the merits of orthopaedic medicine. She was even given an artificial knee as a gift that she could proudly put on her desk.

But what would have been another PR headline for Warsaw – “Young Woman Born In Orthopaedic Capital of the World Becomes Orthopaedic Surgeon” – wasn’t to be.

“I did think about specializing in orthopaedics,” she says. But during her clinicals (in medical school), her career path changed to an internal medicine focus.

What actually caused Boakye-Wenzel to seriously think about a career in medicine came as a result of something that happened more than 5,000 miles away from Warsaw – on the continent of Africa, in the country of Ghana, the birthplace of her father.

While her family spent the early years of her life in the Midwest, they moved to Ghana in 1993 when the little girl who would become a doctor was nine. Boakye-Wenzel’s mother and father had met in Warsaw, her mother’s hometown, and where her father worked in telecommunications after immigrating to the U.S.

But the move to Ghana, so her father could start a communications company, lasted only six months when the entire family came down with malaria, a malady which caused fevers, seizures, and gastrointestinal problems.

Boakye-Wenzel says that experience, which saw the family return to the Midwest to recover, left an indelible imprint on her. “That’s when I decided I wanted to become a doctor to help people … At that point, I wasn’t sure how. I just knew I had to make people feel better.”

Though her initial Ghana experience was rough, Boakye-Wenzel says it was much different when the family returned to Ghana about a year later as her father took over a CEO position at a new company there.

“I saw the beauty of the country, very lush and green. The people were very friendly and nice … they might not have much, but they’d give you the shirt off their back. I learned we are part of the Ashanti tribe … known for being fierce warriors and … leaders against British colonization. I am forever grateful to my parents for an opportunity to explore my roots.”

When things have gotten particularly challenging in her life, Boakye-Wenzel says her parents have reminded her of the never-give-up attitude of the Ashanti tribe in its drive against colonialism. “My culture has become a kind of internal drive for me,” the doctor says.

After a year in Ghana, Boakye-Wenzel says a lack of financial resources caused her father’s new telecommunications company to cease operations, and the family once again returned to the Midwest before settling down in Keller, Texas, just outside Fort Worth.

There, the teenager from Warsaw was in the top 5 percent of her high school class and so accomplished in soccer that she won both an athletic and academic scholarship to the University of Texas at El Paso, where she majored in biology and minored in chemistry. That was followed by master’s work in the sciences prior to admission to the Ross University School of Medicine. After medical school and a residency in internal medicine at New Jersey’s Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Boakye-Wenzel completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine from the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV in 2019.

Now married with two young children born during her postgraduate training, Boakye-Wenzel says it was during her first year of residency that she realized she would specialize in pulmonary and critical care medicine. “After working in the intensive unit, I found more fulfillment taking care of the sickest patients in the hospital. I found every patient is different and needs a tailored treatment plan in the ICU ... I want to take care of the entire patient.”

Boakye-Wenzel did just that with the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System prior to taking her position last year as an assistant professor of internal medicine-pulmonary and critical care at the medical school, where she enjoys teaching medical students.

“I enjoy working in pulmonary-critical care because every patient is different with a unique history … that requires tailored medicine. Being both a pulmonologist and critical care intensivist requires critical thinking and the bonus of performing procedures. Working at the VA gave me the opportunity to see firsthand the impact that war can have on people not just physically but also emotionally. Working at the VA developed my empathy and more compassion for my patients who are dealing with real challenges in their everyday lives. I learned to care for more than just the bodies of my patients, but also to listen to their stories, to appreciate their emotional states. Sometimes listening to our patients is the best medicine.”