One of the world’s leading physical therapists, Mohammed Al-Qasheesh, believes that success is a journey and one should choose their field carefully and enjoy it.

“Passion is a key and you should always think about your people and your country,” said the young Saudi.
Al-Qasheesh is a specialist in orthopaedic rehabilitation (spinal cord injuries). He was driven to pursue this field by a story his father used to tell about the death of Mohammed’s grandfather because of a spinal cord injury 60 years ago, when there were no hospitals that specialized in that field.

“My grandfather was injured when he was riding a donkey to the farms to feed the lambs and goats. The donkey got scared and threw him on the ground. There were some men around him but unfortunately they lifted him in the wrong way, which made the injury worse and caused a complete cut in his cervical spinal cord. Two weeks later he died. I thought if there had been a good clinic and specialist he might have survived, and that’s why I decided to be a specialist doctor in this field,” Al-Qasheesh said.

His journey was not without challenges. He believes that successful people always have many challenges but as they conquer them their expectations become greater and they reach for higher horizons. “With huge support from my family and my government, I was pushed to work hard to give back great gifts to those people who waited for my achievements,” he said.
Al-Qasheesh believed in his capabilities even though he came from a small family and a humble upbringing. He dreamed from an early that he would be a doctor in medicine and an academic.
He married after one year in university, then completed his bachelor’s degree while having two children and caring for his parents and 11 siblings.
He joined the Riyadh Military Hospital immediately after finishing his degree and worked for eight years to become a senior physical therapist. During that time he studied and pursued a masters degree in sports medicine from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008 while working at the hospital.
In 2008, Al-Qasheesh received a phone call from Jazan University and accepted its invitation to join it as an academic. He went to the US to acquire another masters degree in musculoskeletal rehabilitation from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011, which is considered one of the world’s top institutes of higher education in this field.
He was selected as one the best students in the US and honored by the minister of higher education, the Saudi culture mission attaché, and the Saudi Ambassador.
Al-Qasheesh applied to the University of Utah, also renowned in the field of physical therapy. He was supervised by Dr. Julie Fritz, who was considered one of the best professors in spine rehabilitation.
Al-Qasheesh attained his Ph.D. in 2016 and returned home. He is now head of the physical therapy department in Jazan University and the chairman of the Saudi Physical Therapy Association in Jazan, as well as the chairman of the JIAD volunteer Association there.

 /  Source: arabnews