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Dr. Shahida Sultana’s fulfilling career in medicine began with a dream. “When I was young, I wanted to be an architect or an engineer,” she recalls. “But because of my dad’s dream, I went to medical school and now, I love it. I have no regrets.”
As a General Internist with Oak Valley Health’s Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH), Dr. Sultana balances a demanding schedule. She provides care and consultations across various departments, attends to outpatients in the General Internal Medicine Clinic, and sometimes takes on-call shifts in the Emergency Department. “The most satisfying part of my day is to see a patient going home better, and seeing them leave the hospital with a smile,” she says.
Dr. Sultana is grateful for the community’s generosity towards the hospital’s ongoing needs. Through donations to MSH Foundation, their investment helps enhance MSH’s specialized services and clinics, in turn allowing Dr. Sultana to provide the best patient care and outcomes possible.
“Our patients are so complex nowadays. They come in for one problem, and we find five. The more services we have, the more we'll be able to serve our patients better,” Dr. Sultana expresses. “It goes back to the community. It’s the service that improves. Ultimately the beneficiaries are the donors and the patients.”
In her 18 years of service at MSH, Dr. Sultana has earned teaching awards and received heartfelt gestures from patients. Among her most cherished tokens is a handmade angel from a grateful patient who endured multiple hospital admissions and countless referrals to specialists for diabetes and ulcers, until Dr. Sultana discovered an effective treatment.
“After that treatment, she did really well and she did not have any other recurrent admissions,” recalls Dr. Sultana of her patient. “When she got better, she sent an angel she made, and she said, ‘You’re my angel.’”
Along with angel, Dr. Sultana can now add MSH Hero to her unofficial title — a testament to her dedication, and a reminder that her dad’s dream led her down the right path. “Thank you for appreciating me,” she beams. “I would not want to work anywhere else.”
