{"id":1314156,"date":"2026-02-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wisconsinwatch.org\/?p=1314156"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:49:01","slug":"wisconsin-watch-ukraine-cardiologist-doctor-anesthesiologist-madison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisconsinwatch.org\/2026\/02\/wisconsin-watch-ukraine-cardiologist-doctor-anesthesiologist-madison\/","title":{"rendered":"How I met a Ukrainian cardiologist starting over in the US","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/b><\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

When I went to the Literacy Network\u2019s offices for an interview about the federal government freezing funding for adult education, I didn\u2019t expect to find myself talking to a medical specialist.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna Mykhailova enrolled in English classes at the Madison nonprofit after fleeing Ukraine in 2022. She later joined the organization\u2019s student advisory board, which is how she ended up at the interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked what kind of work she\u2019d done in Ukraine. Her answer startled me so much that my mind went blank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCardiologist \u2026 That\u2019s a heart doctor, right?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Anna said, and went on to explain that she now works as a cardiac sonographer at a Madison hospital. At 42, she told me she\u2019s studying for licensing exams to restart her medical career in the United States and making plans to spend three years as a medical resident all over again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her husband Sasha, 52, an accomplished anesthesiologist and perfusionist, is in a similar boat, she told me. He decided to go back to school, enrolling in the medical perfusion graduate program at Milwaukee School of Engineering to study the profession he practiced for more than 20 years in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I met Anna, I knew a bit about the challenges facing immigrant medical professionals. In a previous life, I worked in student support services at a community college in New Orleans, where I often met with immigrant students who wanted to practice the professions they\u2019d trained for back home. As a journalist, I reported on the fact that most foreign-trained dentists<\/a> have to repeat dental school if they want to practice in Wisconsin, even as many parts of the state are deemed \u201cdeserts\u201d of dental care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna and Sasha seemed like poster children for this conundrum: How can a state create rules that protect patients and ensure quality care without creating obstacles that can seem insurmountable to foreign-trained professionals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked Anna if she\u2019d be willing to talk with me more about her experience. She agreed. Six months later, we published that story<\/a>, complete with stunning portraits my colleague Joe Timmerman captured on his 1950s film camera. Newspapers and news websites across the state ran it. The American Society of Anesthesiologists put it in their newsletter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t expect that people would notice our story, so hearing that it\u2019s resonating with readers is incredibly touching,\u201d Anna told us in a text message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists like to talk about \u201cimpact,\u201d the things that change because of our stories. I don\u2019t know if this story will change any policies \u2014 or if it should. But the fact that Anna and Sasha discovered that their fellow Wisconsinites cared about what they\u2019ve been through? That\u2019s impact, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\tRead the full Story<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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The transplants: 2 doctors fled Ukraine for Wisconsin. They\u2019re still trying to get their careers back.<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t

An anesthesiologist and a cardiologist gave up prestigious careers to save their daughter from war. Nearly four years later, they\u2019re still on the long road to practicing their professions in the Dairy State.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t expect that people would notice our story,\u201d said Anna Mykhailova, who fled Ukraine and now works as a cardiac sonographer at a Madison hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":531,"featured_media":1313667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"gigafact_has_fact_brief":false,"gigafact_remote_fact_brief_post_id":0,"gigafact_remote_sync_timestamp":"","gigafact_remote_sync_status":"","gigafact_remote_sync_response":"","gigafact_has_been_published":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-02-11T15:14:42Z","apple_news_api_id":"27ce7dc4-118d-417c-8bcd-c0f2417e5f11","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-02-11T15:49:05Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AJ859xBGNQXyLzcDyQX5fEQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"beside","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[3656,18981,3617],"partner":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[3451],"class_list":["post-1314156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-about-wcij","tag-news","tag-ukraine","tag-wisconsin-watch","entry"],"fact_brief":null,"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/wisconsinwatch.org\/2026\/02\/wisconsin-watch-ukraine-cardiologist-doctor-anesthesiologist-madison\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How I met a Ukrainian cardiologist starting over in the US","url":"http:\/\/wisconsinwatch.org\/2026\/02\/wisconsin-watch-ukraine-cardiologist-doctor-anesthesiologist-madison\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wisconsinwatch.org\/2026\/02\/wisconsin-watch-ukraine-cardiologist-doctor-anesthesiologist-madison\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wisconsinwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/asse20251119-Ukraine-Doctors-Public-Square-Timmerman-007.jpg?fit=140%2C138&quality=100&ssl=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wisconsinwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/asse20251119-Ukraine-Doctors-Public-Square-Timmerman-007.jpg?fit=1200%2C1182&quality=100&ssl=1"},"articleSection":"News about Wisconsin Watch","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Natalie Yahr \/ Wisconsin Watch"}],"creator":["Natalie Yahr \/ Wisconsin Watch"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wisconsin Watch","logo":"https:\/\/wisconsinwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ww-logo-footer-1.png"},"keywords":["news","ukraine","wisconsin watch"],"dateCreated":"2026-02-11T13:00:00Z","datePublished":"2026-02-11T13:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-02-11T15:49:01Z"},"rendered":"