Dr. Asghar Khaghani is stumped.
The rock star surgeon who leads Spectrum Health’s heart transplant program, who is praised for his wisdom in deciding not only medical issues but organizational ones, who has performed more heart transplants than just about anyone in the world, has met a question he can’t answer.
At least not right away.
The question: What career would you have chosen if you weren’t a heart surgeon?
In his eighth-floor office at Spectrum’s Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center, Khaghani leans forward in his chair and thinks for a moment.
“Possibly a mechanic of some sort,” he begins. “I’m very mechanically minded. That’s why I like artificial hearts.”