6 DOs, 1 amazing story: After escaping Vietnam in the ’70s, this family embraced osteopathic medicine

When Huy Nguyen, DO, FACOS, reflects on his family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to establishing one of the most respected osteopathic surgical groups in the Bay Area, he describes it as a story of perseverance, purpose and deep familial pride.

The Nguyen family fled Saigon in the 1970s as refugees and rebuilt their lives from the ground up, eventually producing six osteopathic physicians across two generations. Nang Nguyen, DO, Dr. Huy Nguyen’s brother, says, “What inspired me to become an osteopathic physician was [our] father. He was our foundation for education, work ethic and helping others.”

Dr. Huy Nguyen, Dr. Nang Nguyen, and their brother, Richard Nguyen, DO, all became osteopathic surgeons, rising above challenges to become leaders in their field. As Dr. Nang Nguyen states, “[Those early challenges] motivated me to be the best physician I can be—and the best example to the osteopathic profession.”

Below is an edited Q&A with Dr. Huy Nguyen.

Your family’s journey from escaping Vietnam to producing so many osteopathic physicians is truly inspiring. Could you share more about your unique immigrant experience and path to osteopathic medicine?

When my family came here from Vietnam right after the fall of Saigon, I was only 12 years old and my middle brother, Nang Nguyen, DO, was 5 years old. What you see in Afghanistan recently is pretty much what happened to us.

My father was a colonel at the time, and he took us to the airport. Up until the last minute, everything was just chaos. We jumped on the plane, and we took off, and we were immediately surrounded by bomb shelling.

It took us about three months to reach America, as we went through several camps in the Philippines and a military sub-camp before arriving at Camp Pendleton, a United States Marine Corps base. We were sponsored out to Davenport, Iowa, and my father had to start all over again. He was a psychological warfare officer in Vietnam with a degree in psychology. He had to start his education from the beginning, and it took him three months to get a high school diploma equivalent.

My mom was pregnant during our family’s escape with my youngest brother, Richard, who was born in Davenport. She worked washing floors, taking care of people’s houses and working assembly lines to take care of us while my dad was in school. At this time, my father, who used to oversee 5,000 people as a colonel, worked as a security guard at a museum to earn extra money. In 1976, we returned to California so my mother could be near her sister and my father could focus on his studies.

My father had a previous back injury from his time in the Vietnamese military as a paratrooper, leading him to seek treatment at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport. It just so happened that the founder of the chiropractic college, Daniel David Palmer, is to chiropractic treatment is what A.T. Still, DO, is to osteopathic medicine.

Inspired by his chiropractic care, my father completed his education and went on to become the first Vietnamese chiropractor in America in 1981. He started a chiropractic office in California and practiced until he retired in 2004. Later, he went on to get a PhD in nutrition, continuing his commitment to holistic health.

You and each of your brothers chose osteopathic medicine. What inspired all three of you to pursue this profession?

We were all inspired by our father’s chiropractic work. We saw the benefits of manipulation through his practice. When I was in 10th grade, I was initially looking to become a chiropractor myself and follow in my father’s and older sister’s footsteps. Then I had a change of fate.

The newly opened Western University of Health Sciences/College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (WesternU/COMP) visited my high school in 1977. The college came to introduce students to osteopathic medicine. What I saw in chiropractic treatment, I could see in osteopathic medicine, but even more so. I wanted the holistic approach, and I also wanted the traditional approach.

After learning about osteopathic medicine, I thought, “Does this mean I can do manipulation, prescribe medications and also do surgery?”

I was accepted to the Kansas City University College of Osteopathic Medicine (KCU-COM) in 1988 and graduated in 1992. Later, I explained the osteopathic principles and philosophy to my middle brother, Nang. He decided to also pursue osteopathic medicine and went on to attend KCU-COM. My youngest brother, Richard, followed a similar path and graduated from Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine-CA (TUCOM).

I believe in the concept. I believe in what Dr. Still sought to achieve through osteopathic medicine, and I follow that. Basically, you mobilize and use the lymphatic system and the autonomic system to help you treat the whole person, not the symptoms. Although I am a surgeon, I still do osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) on occasion for my patients. Over the years, I have had countless students that I helped get accepted into osteopathic schools.

The three of you have built a well-respected surgical group in the Bay Area. You were the first osteopathic surgeon in the San Jose area, or as I like to consider you, you are the ‘grandfather of osteopathic surgery in San Jose,’ but you faced resistance. How did you overcome that bias and pave the way for future DOs in the region?

It was extremely tough for me to start my career as a general surgeon. I was initially denied hospital staff privileges because I was the first DO there. I fought my way through and eventually got admitted for privileges at a hospital here.

Five years later, I became the busiest surgeon in the county. Seven years after I came here, the hospital recognized my contributions to the community, and they recruited my brothers (Drs. Nang and Richard Nguyen) to join me.

Fast forward to 2013, Stanford University School of Medicine asked me to train their minimally invasive fellows. Now, in the Bay Area, approximately 20% of physicians are DOs in all specialties. Those same hospitals that made it difficult for me now accept third-year osteopathic students from KCU-COM and University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM)—the college where I serve as the regional dean.

You’ve broken ground through achieving several firsts in minimally invasive and robotic surgery. What are some of your proudest moments and what continues to drive your passion for surgical innovation?

As the oldest brother, you can say I paved my family’s path into surgery. After graduating from KCU-COM in 1992, I went on to complete a general and advanced laparoscopic surgery residency at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in New York, which I completed in 1997. My middle brother, Dr. Nang Nguyen, also went to KCU-COM and did his training at the same hospital. My youngest brother, Dr. Richard Nguyen, went to TUCOM, and went on to complete the Henry Ford Hospital general surgery residency in Detroit, and finally, a minimally invasive fellowship at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville in 2007.

Minimally invasive surgery was in its very primitive stages when I first started in this field in the ’90s. I realized that surgery was heading toward smaller, less invasive incisions, and that this minimally invasive approach is the future of the field. I decided to train in this rapidly evolving area of surgery.

What launched me nationally and internationally was my single incision surgery. Single incision surgery is just one small incision at the umbilicus. I became the first surgeon in the U.S. to perform a single incision laparoscopic colon resection in 2008. After that, I became the first in the Bay Area to remove a gallbladder using single-incision robotic surgery.

In 2012, Intuitive, the robotic platform surgery company, developed a platform for single incision surgery. They reached out and asked me to lead the training for their single-incision robotic surgery. I went out to train surgeons all over the country. I was even sent internationally to South Korea and Vietnam.

The Stanford University School of Medicine also recruited me to be on their faculty. There I trained their minimally invasive fellows for seven years until COVID-19. I wanted to give back to my alma mater KCU-COM, which lead me to help develop their clerkship program in the San Jose area. We now have 30 students at this core rotation site. This coming year, we’re going to partner with UIWSOM to train students as well.

I pride myself on taking surgery cases from everywhere and anywhere. From emergency room patients to elective procedures, from tough cases to easy cases, I will do it until I cannot do it anymore.

Now that the next generation of Nguyens are also DOs, what message do you hope your family’s story sends to aspiring osteopathic physicians, especially those from immigrant or underserved backgrounds?

My brothers and I are an example of what’s possible for immigrants and people from underserved backgrounds when you work hard and believe in yourself.

Coming from an immigrant background, you look at your dad, your mom and the older adults around you, and you see how hard they have worked. You recognize the value of this hard work. My father became the first Vietnamese chiropractor in America. My mother helped support the family by scrubbing floors after school. We are so grateful for the opportunity we received to relocate to America, and we are happy to give back to this country as osteopathic surgeons.

When I was a student and trainee, I went through learning curves and recognized that perseverance is key. Train yourself and develop your skills to be your best. There’s a lot to say about following your profession’s philosophy. For me, it was about treating the whole person, not just the symptoms.

I have three children. Brandon, my oldest, is 28 years old and he graduated from KCU-COM. He followed in our footsteps and is currently a surgical resident in Ventura, California. My middle son, Eric, is 26 years old and he’s a family medicine resident in Stockton, California. He also graduated from KCU-COM. My daughter, Victoria, is 18 years old and just finished her freshman year of college. What makes her unique is that she’s in a special program at UIWSOM. It’s an eight-year direct entry program. So, as you can see, we are all DO-oriented and our family’s next generation is continuing the tradition of osteopathic medicine.

From our humble beginning, the U.S. has helped our family. My parents paved the way by showing us examples of hard work and perseverance. In the 50 years since the fall of Saigon, our family has produced six osteopathic physicians.

Related reading:

From nursing to NYITCOM: A Filipina physician’s quest for DO excellence

The DO Book Club, Aug. 2025: ‘​The Women’