Wrong turn, right place: How 2 Canadian foot doctors landed in Eastern Kentucky
Sam Adams with The Mountain Eagle tells the story of how a wrong turn ended up bringing two Canadian foot doctors to Eastern Kentucky in 2024, where they have since performed 3,000 foot and ankle surgeries – largely related to diabetes.
Dr. Adam Bhatti is from Toronto, Ontario, and Dr. Jacob Nasser hails from Calgary, Alberta. The two attended podiatry school at Temple University in Philadelphia together and chose the same specialty. Bhatti completed his residency in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk area, while Nasser trained in New York City, Adams reports.
The two Canadian podiatrists work in Letcher County, with Bhatti beginning work for Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation in February 2024 and Nasser arriving five months later. They are now expanding their services into neighboring counties, Adams writes.
“Most of what they see is related to diabetic foot ulcers, though they also treat bunions, burns, broken toes and other injuries,” he writes.
“It’s tough because we see so many different things in a day, but the patients I worry about the most are diabetic patients who haven’t seen a foot doctor before or don’t have routine care,” Nasser told Adams. “A small wound or puncture can turn into something that leads to infection, amputation and everything down the line. That’s why we want to see these patients proactively, before any of those things happen.”
Bhatti added that “about 15 percent of Americans will develop diabetes, and about 15 percent of those patients will develop diabetic foot ulcers. Of those, he said, 15 to 25 percent eventually require amputation. . . . Once you’ve had one amputation, there’s a 50-percent chance you’ll have another within five years. Once you get to the level of above-the-knee amputation, there’s a 50-percent mortality rate within five years.”
Adams writes that one of the challenges in the region is that ” many patients do not return for follow-up care until the condition has worsened beyond any treatment other than another amputation.”
“So why did two doctors born in Canada and educated in Philadelphia, New York and Virginia Beach come to Whitesburg?” Adams asked Bhatti, to which he deadpanned, “I was going to Florida. I took a wrong turn, ran out of gas, and ended up in Whitesburg.”
Both doctors told Adams they are happy they landed in Letcher County, pointing to the lack of traffic and the beauty of the area.
Editor’s note: The diabetes rate in Eastern Kentucky (Appalachia) is 20.4%, compared to 11.5% in non-Appalachian Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health 2025 Diabetes Report.