Keyhan Farian: A Role model for Iranian women, An angel for South Bronx, New York

Aug 25, 2012

Society , Iranians in Diaspora

Dr. Keyhan Farian

Many Iranians or Americans had not heard of her, but when she died (in January 2010) Keyhan (Kay) Farian was mentioned in one medical article this way: " For 40 years Dr. Farian was more important to the people of the South Bronx, New York, than the nine presidents of the United States who served during that time." Keyhan Farian was among the first in America to practice in the field of emergency medicine.

Farian was born 1929 in Mashhad Iran, the second of seven sisters in a prominent family. At a time when many Iranian girls ended up in arranged marriages (instead of in college) Keyhan attended college and medical school at Tehran University before coming to the United States in the 1950s. After working in outpatient clinics in Massachusetts and then the South Bronx, Kay completed an internal medicine residency there at Lincoln Hospital, where she remained a member of the attending physician staff until her retirement in 2003.

Keyhan Farian, Tehran Medical School graduation, 1950's

South Bronx has a large populaton of poor people. Farian spent about 40 years working at Lincoln Hospital treating the poorest of the poor, her son said. "My mother went to bat for the people of the South Bronx repeatedly ... She was known for saying 'Over my dead body will the people of the South Bronx not get the medical care they deserve."

In the late 1970s, when emergency medicine was becoming a specialty, Kay recognized the enormous need to provide high quality emergency care to one of the largest underserved populations in the country, and though already in her 50s, she began to devote all of her efforts to emergency medicine and the ED of Lincoln Hospital. Dr. Farian became a board-certified emergency physician in 1987, and in 1996, at the age of 67, she recertified a year after obtaining a master of public health degree from New York Medical College.

Dr. Keyhan Farian

There are currently about 26,000 board-certified emergency physicians in the United States. It is important to remember the role Dr. Kay Farian and other pioneers played to define this specialty. Farian was determined to ensure that some of the poorest and most disadvantaged citizens of her newly adopted country received the best emergency care possible unheard of!

Throughout her life, Dr. Farian created her own path. An Iranian-born physician and mother of two children, Farian lived her life the way she chose to. She never stopped learning, never stopped teaching, and never stopped caring. Farian was proud of her Muslim, Iranian and American heritages, as well as being a member of the Nyack community, where she lived since 1977, her son said.

While taking an afternoon stroll, Farian was killed on January 19, 2010, after being struck by a sport utility vehicle driven by a 16-year-old in Nyack, New York.

A hero and fitting role model for Iranian women, Kay Farian was a woman of valor who will be very much missed by all who knew her. Farian's daughter, Farah Farian, said her mother "was a pioneer for women. She believed it was possible for women to do anything."

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