South Florida surgeon raised in Nigeria helps patients around the world
MIAMI — A Georgia-born, Nigeria-raised surgeon is stacking awards from world leaders on hospital shelves in South Florida hospitals.
Dr. Norman Ajiboye is part physician and part teacher. However, he is wholly focused on saving lives with rare skills.
He wears his white physician's coat almost as proudly as the mission driving him.
"(Dr.) Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that everybody can be great because anyone can serve," Ajiboye said. "To be able to serve, all you need is a heart full of grace and a soul full of love. So, that's part of what excited me and provided me the passion."
Ajiboye grew up watching people in Nigeria struggle to afford healthcare. So, as Ajiboye loved video games and working with his hands, he fell in love with medicine. Several members of his family had careers in the field. Ajiboye, however, enjoys working with what he calls the body's black box: the brain.
"My mission is to alleviate the burden of stroke and every time I'm able to take a clot out of someone's brain, even if it's at two o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning, when I see the smile on their face that really excites me," he said.
He is a neurointerventionalist in a world hardly full of them. He says there is a shortage of neurologists focused on stroke. So, as the director of stroke programs for Memorial Hospital Miramar and Memorial Hospital Pembroke, Ajiboye more than treats patients.
Dr. Ajiboye is helping patients around the world
Ajiboye leads teams to the Caribbean where they treat patients for free. They also train and mentor physicians in Caribbean countries.
Everywhere he goes, Ajiboye teaches and mentors surgeons and physicians to serve their communities. That passion helped him develop a non-profit clinic in Texas, organize free care for people experiencing homelessness in Chicago and inspire so many people in New York City that the mayor gave him a key to the city.
Now, Ajiboye is trying to take his travel mission around the world with bigger medical teams and specialists beyond neurology.
His work earned Ajiboye a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joe Biden in 2024.
"Getting awards are fine," he said. "But honestly, the work you put behind it -- the volunteerism -- is what makes me excited, what makes me happy. It's really what drives my passion."
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