Your Neighbor: Dr. Dezarae Leto: Surgeon Is Where She Needs To Be

Dezarae Leto is on a mission.

 The newest addition to the Greenwood Leflore Hospital surgical team — and its first female general surgeon — said she feels this is where she belongs. 

“I feel incredibly lucky,” she said. “Everyone who knows I came here was like, ‘Why would you want to go there?’ And I said, ‘Because here is exactly where I  need to be.’” 

The 34-year-old physician, who grew up between Hollywood, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale, said she knew when she was in medical school that she wanted to do mission work. 

Greenwood was one of the many places where she sent her credentials after graduating from the University of Central Florida and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia, and completing her surgical residency in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

“It’s a spirit-driven, faith-driven purpose in my life that I feel like I want to provide to underserved areas in the world ... so I sent out my CV everywhere in the country I felt was an underserved area,” she said. 

Leto said Jason Studley, who was then the CEO of the Greenwood hospital, called her over Easter weekend and, after reading on her CV that she was interested in mission work, talked to her about Leflore County. “He was like, ‘You know 80% of this area is on some form of subsidy,’ and, you know, it is the most underserved, worst health care, worst demographics in the country, so I really came here on a mission to make a difference in the community,” she explained. 

Originally, Leto wanted to be a painting restorer — a role she said one would have to “die into” because of the 2,000 required hours for an apprenticeship. 

Her interest in medicine began in middle school, when she decided she wanted to be a marine biologist. “I think everyone in Florida wants to be a marine biologist at some point,” she said. 

In high school, that interest in medicine showed itself in an anatomy class. 

“My anatomy teacher at my school was like, ‘Oh, you’re doing really good. Have you ever considered the medical field?’ And I was like, ‘Kinda, you know, not really, I don’t know,’ but then I did really like the human body and anatomy.”

So she took a course offered by her high school for those interested in health-care occupations. Through it, she had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by the chief medical examiner of Miami-Dade County, an African American woman who had worked her way to the top forensic pathology position in the county. 

Leto began her undergraduate career as a forensic science major but switched to molecular and microbiology when she realized the previous major wouldn’t give her access to medical school.

She didn’t realize she was going to be a surgeon until her second year of medical school, when the chair of surgery talked with her. 

“He said, ‘You’re going to be a surgeon,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, right. I’m too impatient to be a surgeon,’” she recalled. “And he was like, ‘That’s why you’re going to be a surgeon,’ so I was like, ‘Hmm, I never thought about it before.’” 

Now, she said, she has no feeling that she should be doing something else anywhere else. 

“I felt like God really wanted me to become a surgeon because even, you know, on the really hard days when I’m like, ‘Why did I decide to do this?’ I know God wanted me to do it,” she said. “I need that push to get out of bed, you know? 

“I need to know there’s something bigger than my personal needs — my flesh needs, you could say. .... When you know God wants something for you, you know he’s going to provide the strength that you need to get through.” 

When she’s not focused on medicine, Leto enjoys exploring her other passion: art. 

She worked on the hair and makeup for the Greenwood Little Theatre’s most recent production, “Blithe Spirit,” and is currently co-directing the upcoming “It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play.”

“To have a little theater here and be involved in the middle of this area is very charming,” she said. 

But her interest in the arts started even before she moved to Greenwood. 

“One of my first classes in middle school was film appreciation, and we watched ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ so I was learning about the history of all that stuff,” she said. “I like cinematography in a lot of the classic horror films because they used a lot of special effects early on ... that were so impactful for the audience.” 

She is naturally gifted with art, she said. 

“My dad told me early on, ‘Being a doctor, you’ll make money to support your hobby, which you’re already good at naturally. You can’t naturally be a doctor, but you naturally have a talent to paint.’ So, he was like, ‘Why don’t you become a doctor while you’re young and able to go to school for 20 years and then go back and learn more about painting?’”

Leto said Greenwood’s creative and strong spirit surprised her. 

“Before I came, I read about this place, and what I read was obviously just about racism and civil rights, and then I came here and saw the people and the community and the pride that they have,” she said. “You can tell this small town has a lot of passion, and it has a lot of culture, and I just really knew I felt like I was meant to be here and that I could be here for my whole career. I bought a home here and everything, and I can still see that.

Regarding the hospital’s financial problems, she said, “Obviously, it’s devastating to me in that I don’t want it to close. I don’t want the community to suffer. I know I’ll have a job somewhere, but these people won’t have a hospital. It brings me to tears almost every day I think about it, and it’s like, ‘Why them?’ We’re all Americans. Why is this community, where we need it the most, we’re not getting it? It doesn’t make sense to me.”