Witnessing the culmination of your child’s medical training on Match Day is a proud moment for any parent. And that was certainly the case when Cynthia Kudji Sylvester, MD, heard her daughter matched in the general surgery residency at LSU Health New Orleans.
The two would be uniting as colleagues in one the most noble professions, and they’d be doing so as resident colleagues within the same health system. Minutes earlier, Cynthia received an email indicating she had matched in the family medicine residency at LSU Health Lafayette.
“There was lots of screaming, at the top of our lungs,” Cynthia said. “Jumping up and down, running around the room—the whole bit.”
Multigenerational physician families in medicine are not uncommon. It is highly unusual for multiple generations to go through training in tandem—and that’s what makes the story of Drs. Jasmine Kudji and Cynthia Kudji Sylvester so notable.
“Life happened”
A trip to Ghana, her parents’ native country, as a 17-year-old enforced Cynthia Kudji’ Sylvester’s desire to become a physician. She wanted to be able to offer help, combating disparities in the care that exist internationally and in the U.S. Cynthia’s plan led her to Tulane University. Then “life happened.”
As an upperclassman, Cynthia found out she was pregnant. Giving birth to Jasmine changed her plans.
“I was studying biology at the time, but I needed a skill and a job, so I went into nursing,” Cynthia said. “I worked as a maid, a nursing assistant for about two years before I got through that program.” Living in New Orleans, Louisiana, she worked her way up and did the necessary training—including a master’s degree—eventually becoming a nurse practitioner. But those careers in health care fell short of her life goal. “I always wanted to be a physician,” Cynthia said. “It was never my plan to be a nurse.” As Cynthia forged a career in health care—also earning a master’s of health administration—Jasmine was given exposure to the potential career paths in the field.
“My mom encouraged me to pursue different fields of medicine,” Jasmine said. “Watching her pursue her dreams and always being around medicine, really inspired me.”
Study buddies
After Jasmine completed her undergraduate studies at Tulane, she gained acceptance at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. At 43, Cynthia was accepted into the University of Medicine & Health Sciences on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. The pursuit of a shared dream would put more physical distance between mother and daughter than ever before. Emotionally, it brought them closer than they ever had been. “The lines of motherhood became truly blurred,” Cynthia said. “Jasmine became my best friend—someone I could rely on and share experiences with.”
In sharing their medical school journey, the two spoke multiple times a day, sometimes studying over Skype.
“One of the things I really struggled with was my [board exams], and Jasmine tests really well,” Cynthia said. “She helped me to understand concepts and prepare. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and share experiences.” On Jasmine’s end, the lessons her mother offered went well beyond the clinical realm. “I was blessed to have my mom lay out a plan for me,” Jasmine said. “There’s a lot of things my mom went through that she didn’t allow me to go through, which is why I was able to finish med school at 25.”
An ongoing journey
Residency training has brought the Kudjis back to within driving distance, but it’s hardly the end of either of their journeys in medicine. It’s a journey that was two-and-a-half decades in the making for Cynthia.
Jasmine hopes that the journey inspires others, noting the sober reality of underrepresentation in American medicine in which only 5% of physicians are Black and about 2.5% are Black women, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That disparity, Jasmine points out, is more pronounced in her chosen specialty of surgery. “The most important part of our story is that we are African American women who achieved the same goal at different stages of life,” Jasmine said. “It’s very difficult for a lot of people to get into and finish medical school. My mom’s story is a great example of persistence. It took her 26 years to achieve her goal and though this is a great accomplishment, we hope to shed light on the obstacles she faced that prolonged her journey, since they are the same obstacles that prevent many other African Americans from ever becoming physicians. We want to help others avoid these struggles to hopefully increase the number of physicians of color.”
Launched last year, the AMA Center for Health Equity has a mandate to embed health equity across the organization so that health equity becomes part of the practice, process, action, innovation, and organizational performance and outcomes.
