As someone who has often said, “Well, at least it’s not brain surgery,” when confronting work challenges, the chance to interview an actual brain surgeon felt like a rare and fascinating treat on a cold, rainy December day. 

Highpoint Health had just cut the ribbon on its new Highpoint Orthopedics and Neurosurgery – Gallatin facility on Hancock Street, and I was ushered through vibrant balloons, cheerful chatter, and humming Christmas music to the office of Dr. MarkMina Ishak.

Dr. MarkMina Ishak, DO of Neurology, joined Highpoint Health in Gallatin this past June after four years in rural North Carolina. He moved to Tennessee with his wife and baby girl, quickly discovering that Gallatin feels like “a fusion of NYC and North Carolina,” he said in his smooth, steady voice.

Wearing black-edged glasses that frame his deep brown eyes, Dr. Ishak offers an easy smile. “It’s nice to have a big city feel—to have those amenities here—but still care for people from a small town, connected community standpoint.”

Community, he explains, has always guided him. Growing up in Long Island in the close-knit environment of his family’s church, he felt its impact from a young age. “My mother passed when I was a little boy. So my dad had four kids and a very busy business, and we grew up in church. It was his way to make sure we were looked after and not, you know, growing up on the streets.”

In high school, Ishak loved science and math—“and was terrible at everything else,” he jokes. Paired with the call to service instilled in him through his faith, medicine soon became the natural path forward. “I grew up with a sense of service. You find Christ in others. You serve, and you help out. I did a lot of mission trips. Service became part of my life.”

Medicine, for him, marries science and service together. It was the perfect fit.

During his residency in New York, a single trauma case cemented his calling to neurosurgery. A young immigrant laborer arrived after a catastrophic workplace accident. While transporting stone slabs, 3,000 pounds of concrete crushed his head, causing two major skull fractures and rapidly expanding epidural hemorrhages—injuries fatal within minutes.

As the trauma team debated next steps, Ishak identified with the medical fellow who knew they had to take quick action to save the patient’s life. He recalls the scene being chaotic and precise all at once. But the team managed to take a dire situation and turn it around. His colleague texted Ishak hours later: “Hey our patient is awake, talking, eating breakfast in his chair.”

The man who had been moments from death was suddenly alert and alive.
“He was dead… and then he wasn’t. That’s the beauty of this specialty. I was hooked. There’s only one specialty that can do that.”

For Dr. Ishak, brain surgery—often a true last resort—is a chance to restore hope and renew life. But despite the dramatic moments, he’s clear-eyed about his role:

“I’m not a cowboy. If there’s something I know I can’t do or need to send to the University Center, I’ll say it. There is a whole lot we can do here in Sumner County. The goal is to reach Sumner County in a different way—care close to home.”

And that care, especially when delivered by someone as grounded and compassionate as Dr. Ishak, extends far beyond the operating room. Surgery, he reminds us, affects more than the individual. “The whole family is impacted.”

For residents of Sumner County, having expert neurosurgical care nearby isn’t just convenient—it’s transformative. And with physicians like Dr. Mark Mina Ishak leading the way, “care close to home” becomes not just a slogan but a phrase with profound impact for residents of Sumner County.