Dr. Susan Badidi steps away from BMC

The Breckenridge Medical Center hosted a celebration for Dr. Susan Badidi, who is stepping away for an unspecified amount of time to spend time with her family. The celebration featured a cake, as well as numerous co-workers and friends to help send Badidi off.

Badidi has worked for the Breckenridge Medical Center for three years, and said she will miss her patients and coworkers the most. While she said she doesn’t know how long she will be gone, she said this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of her time at the BMC.

Born to be a doctor

Badidi was born in Nigeria on July 21, 1985, and moved to Ontario, Canada when she was seven years old, where she grew up and went to high school.

She completed her first four years at the University of Toronto, then did two years of medical school in Saint Kitts and Nevis. The other two years were spent in Houma, LA. She was about 27 when she finished medical school. She completed her residency at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

Badidi said she wanted to start her career in a rural community, which is when she found Breckenridge. Despite realizing her goal, she said it has been difficult. Her husband works in Fort Worth, so it has been a challenge to make it so they could be together and still complete their work. She said for the first two years she would go to him in the metroplex on the weekends and live in Eastland on the weekdays. But once they made the decision to have a family, they moved to Mineral Wells, which acts as a mid-point between Breckenridge and Fort Worth. This is where she currently resides.

Badidi said she knew she always wanted to be a doctor. She grew up surrounded by the medical field with her mother being a psychiatric nurse, as well as having sick family members growing up. All of it made her want to learn how to care for people in that capacity.

“I really was fascinated with [my mother’s work],” Badidi said. “Following her to work, shadowing the doctors …. It really fueled my passion for medicine.”

With her mother working in psychiatry, she said she was initially interested in that field. But it wasn’t until later she decided to pursue family medicine instead, saying medicine is much more broad and allows room to explore other aspects of medical care, as opposed to being limited to just mental care.

“As a family medicine doctor I can take care of the whole body,” Badidi said. “Mind, body and soul.”

Growing up, she had four brothers, one of which was a half-brother that she didn’t meet until she was in her mid-20s, which she called a life-changing experience. Both of her parents are also in her life and live in Toronto.

“Growing up was a little bit lonely,” Badidi said. “I had my mom and she’s a female. But with four brothers you don’t always relate to them …. It was an interesting childhood.”

She also liked sports growing up. She eventually did track and field through her school, competing in the 100-yard dash and the four-by-four relay as a sprinter. She said she didn’t remember what she timed at, but with a smile said she usually got first place.

Her new family

Enter her new family, as Badidi gave birth to her daughter in September. Since having her daughter, Badidi said her outlook on being a doctor has changed in several ways, describing it as giving her a better understanding of certain issues parents bring to her regarding their children.

“Now that I have a baby, as opposed to just being sympathetic, I’m more empathetic,” Badidi said. “Because I can relate now. When my daughter got sick about a month ago, even though I’m a doctor, you get so worried. So now I kind of see where parents are coming from …. That has changed me quite a bit.”

Badidi added she has found motherhood is harder than medicine.

“I would say that for sure,” Badidi said. “There’s no book for it. There’s just a bunch of people sharing their life experiences. But every child is different.”

While Badidi said that she plans to come back into the field, she said she would like to come back to Stephens County and Breckenridge. Though, nothing is set in stone.

“I’m not really quite sure [what will happen],” Badidi said. “But we’ll see how things go. You never really know how life goes.”

Badidi the person

When she’s not taking care of patients, she enjoys reading mystery novels and traveling. She has been several places around the world, including Italy, France, Dubai, Spain and several places in the Caribbean Islands, including Jamaica and the Bahamas. She said she used to also play the piano, but no longer gets to because of all the moving parts in life.

“I used to do a lot more things than I do now,” Badidi said. “More hobby things. But I like to travel. It’s harder now with a baby but [my husband and I] do like to travel.”

Reflecting back on when she started versus where she is today, Badidi said her doctor’s notes were terrible when she began her residency. She said she had felt ignorant and unsure if she was going to make it through. But she was able to get help from her co-resident, who had already been in for a year. She said ultimately, it was fun and she learned a lot.

Having worked within the community for three years now, Badidi’s impression of Breckenridge has grown. While she thought Breckenridge was a nice town, she had never really seen horses or other livestock before coming here. She said her closest experience to a rural community was when she was a child and her family would drive to a small town outside of Toronto to get fresh meat. It was through this experience she decided she wanted to be part of a small town.

“I was like, ‘this is so peaceful, I’d want to live in a small town one day,’” she said. “And then I ended up here. Life is like that.”

Badidi currently resides in Mineral Wells. She said she hopes to have one more child within the next year or two.