She Left a Surgical Fellowship and Found Herself Again | Mohini Dasari, MD

In this episode of Surgeon, Interrupted, Frances Mei sits down with Mohini Dasari, MD—a general surgeon and writer—who speaks candidly about one of the most taboo topics in medicine: leaving a surgical fellowship mid-training.

Mohini shares what led her to step away seven months into a transplant fellowship, the quiet suffering that preceded that decision, and how shame, identity fusion, and “just push through” culture keep physicians trapped long past the point of health. Together, Frances and Mohini unpack the myths we’re taught in training—that it will all be worth it later, that attending life fixes everything, and that wanting something different means failure.

This conversation explores:

1. Why surgeons are encouraged in… and abandoned once they’re in
2. The difference between what’s “possible” and what’s healthy
3. Motherhood, medicine, and the cost of suppressed humanity
4. Shame as a hidden driver of physician burnout and exits
5. Why careers don’t have to be linear—and why medicine resists that truth
6. Reclaiming joy, creativity, and identity beyond the operating room

Mohini also discusses returning to writing after years away and her debut novel releasing January 13, a coming-of-age story rooted in heritage, dance, and self-reclamation.

This episode is for medical students, residents, attendings, and anyone questioning the life they were told would finally make sense “on the other side.”

🎧 Listen if you’ve ever wondered:

What if the problem isn’t me—but the story I was told about this career?

Host: Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Guest: Mohini Dasari, MD

Connect with Mohini: @modawrites

https://www.mohinidasari.com/

Presented by: The Hippocratic Collective

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