He spoke up at a resident meeting in October. By April he was handing over his badge and being walked out in the middle of the workday, in front of his colleagues and his patients. Vasilii Khammad is a physician and researcher who came to the U.S. as a Fulbright Scholar and matched into pediatrics. He says the only weakness anyone named was an exam he took in his first month.

⏱️ Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 A Fulbright invitation signed by the president
2:20 The residents who spoke up started feeling pressure
2:50 Anonymous feedback no one would explain
3:24 The ADHD evaluation he never asked for
4:30 Passing every rotation while his knowledge was questioned
8:38 Sympathetic faculty who told him to keep his head down
9:51 Focused review and a mandatory psychiatric evaluation
10:58 The reason given was one exam from his first month
14:46 The ACGME visit that skipped every resident who complained
16:20 Escorted out in front of his colleagues and patients
17:50 The decision was made before he walked in
20:44 Why no lawyer would take his case
21:18 He wrote to the president and got an answer
22:36 Take home messages

About this episode:
Vasilii Khammad came to the United States in 2019 as a Fulbright Scholar, having already finished medical school in Moscow, completed a residency in medical oncology, and started a PhD in neuro-oncology. He matched into a pediatrics program in 2024 and, by his account, spent his first months passing rotations, scoring near the national average on the in-training exam, and writing two manuscripts and roughly five abstracts with the pediatric hematology oncology faculty. Then a group meeting in October, where he and several first-year residents raised concerns about night coverage, last-minute schedule changes, and unclear expectations, was followed by repeated one-on-one meetings in which the program director questioned his medical knowledge and cited anonymous comments that appeared in no evaluation system. She also suggested he be evaluated for ADHD, something he says no one had ever raised with him in his life. By February he was placed on focused review, told he was no longer recommended for conferences or research with the hematology oncology team, and required to complete a psychiatric evaluation as a condition of the plan. He describes other residents facing similar pressure, and says the ACGME reviewers who visited the program met only with residents close to the program director, not with those who had filed the complaint. In April, after a shift in the neonatal unit, he was called into an administrative conference room with the institution's designated official and two faculty members, read a list of allegations, told no explanations would be heard, and asked to hand over his badge. He learned later, during the legal process, that preparations for his removal had begun days earlier. He filed an internal appeal, wrote to the president who had signed his Fulbright invitation, and now has claims under review with the ACGME, federal agencies, and a state commission, and his advice to other international medical graduates is to learn their rights before they need them.

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