A Decade After Starting Over in the US, Boris Lazarev, MD, Arrives
Pentucket Medical is proud to welcome our newest Internal Medicine physician, Boris Lazarev, MD.
A practicing MD before emigrating to the United States from Russia in 1999, he arrived with few contacts, little English and a dream: to practice medicine in America. Moving to the Detroit area, within days he had his first job, working as an aide in a nursing home. Despite the humble nature of this role, he found satisfaction in working "with people who needed my care, needed my help."
Boris, a warm-hearted man with a self-deprecating sense of humor, relates that his background as a physician in Russia didn't much impress his employers at the nursing home.
"They gave me an extra 25 cents an hour, because I was a doctor," he laughingly relates.
More seriously, he said that he was shocked at the number of residents with dementia.
"You don't see that in Russia," he says. "People don't get that old in Russia."
His year at the nursing home gave him a chance to settle into the culture and soon, having learned to speak competent English, Boris signed on as a medical assistant in a cardiology practice. Meanwhile, he began his medical studies - again.
"Deep in my mind, I had a goal, to become a doctor in America."
It was no small challenge, he says.
"When you are in school, it's easier to be motivated to study. When you have to push yourself to work at night, it's much harder to do."
During the last decade, Boris earned his board certification in Internal Medicine, practicing in California, North Carolina and most recently at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan. Along the way, he brought his parents over from Russia and became a US citizen.
"Now I have my dream job, here at Pentucket Medical," he says. "It's been quite an adventure."
Pentucket CEO John Sarro says that Boris is a personification of the ideal that America rewards hard work and talent.
"We're fortunate to have this spirited and talented physician of the Pentucket Medical – RiverWalk team," he says.
Dr. Lazarev will begin seeing patients at on August 1st.
Welcome, Dr. Lazarev!
