
Laila Mohammad, MD
- English
From an early age, I knew I wanted to be a physician. My earliest memory of this is at age six, when my kindergarten class held career day. I sat in my classroom with a toy stethoscope around my neck and a black physician's bag resting in my lap. It was from that moment that I decided I would grow up to be a pediatrician.
I then went onto college at Vanderbilt University, on the pre-med track. At the urging of a friend, I took an introduction to neuroscience course and was immediately hooked. I stayed at Vanderbilt to complete my medical training and further solidified my love of the brain. Combining my initial desire to serve pediatric patients and my new passion for neurological diseases, I decided to purse pediatric neurosurgery.
I joined the Cook Children's family in 2021 after completing my neurosurgery residency and an enfolded neurocritical care fellowship at the University of New Mexico, followed by a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, affiliated with Northwestern University. My research has focused on traumatic brain injury and cortical spreading depolarization, for which I received the Young Investigator Award and presented at the 2018 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting. I am also a consulting neurosurgeon for the Ismaili Muslim community of North America, India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, and Central Asia.
It is a true privilege for me to be able to combine my passions of playing with children, educating families, and performing surgery on our most elegant organ in the body. Through my journey, I found that I have the hands of a surgeon, but the heart of a pediatrician.
Outside of the hospital, I enjoy traveling, reading, and spending quality time with my husband and our young daughter.
Teaching Excellence Award from the University New Mexico School of Medicine (2019)
Louise Eisenhardt Travel Scholarship from the American Association of Neurologic Surgeons (2019)
Young Investigator Award from the International Conference of Spreading Depolarizations (2018)
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
University of New Mexico School of Medicine (RESIDENCY)
Northwestern University, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago (FELLOWSHIP)
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