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From: B-Haile (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sun Feb 27 2011 - 02:25:30 EST
Springfield News-Sun
Black leaders help Springfield move forward
By Everdeen Mason, Matt Sanctis and Lawrene Calder Trump, Staff Writers
11:39 PM Saturday, February 26, 2011
SPRINGFIELD - Tedros Andom came to the United States 24 years ago, alone and unable to speak English.
Fast forward to 2011, and the 39-year-old Andom is a U.S. citizen and a practicing surgeon.
"I like the aspect of helping sick people," Andom said. "And I like the aspect of fixing things and seeing results quickly."
Andom has been in Springfield for 21/2 years. He works at the Springfield Health Care Center on Lexington Avenue, Mercy Memorial Hospital in Urbana and Ohio Valley Medical Center. He also is the medical director at the Springfield Regional Wound Care Center and is the president of the Clark County Medical Society.
Andom's journey to Springfield began when he was 15 years old, and his parents sent him to Kentucky from Eritrea, a country in Northeast Africa.
"There's a lot of civil war in Eritrea," Andom said. He sees his family once every 5 years or so. "My parents wanted me to further my education. Even then I always wanted to be a physician."
Through connections from a distant relative, Andom said he struggled in the beginning at the boarding school he attended - Oneida Baptist Institute - because he could only speak Tigrigna, the language of Eritrea.
"I put myself through school welding. I worked on 18-wheeler trucks, modifying them. ... It's come in very handy," Andom said with a laugh.
Andom practiced in Kentucky before he moved to Springfield in 2008 to work.
"In (a larger city) I'm just another doctor," Andom said. "But here you have impact. I run into my patients at the grocery store and talk to them about life."
He also chose to live here because of its proximity to Columbus, where there is a population of fellow Eritreans. He said he tries to attend Eritrean community events with his four children so they can learn their heritage.
Now that he has made his home, Andom said he has another goal he'd like to accomplish.
"A lot successful people in town are foreigners, Indian or Asian," Andom said. "I'd like to be a role model for African-American young people. If people have questions regarding being a doctor or a surgeon, I'm willing to spend time with them."
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