[3] Plagued by frailty and illness growing up, Baiev took up martial arts to overcome his physical weaknesses – by late adolescence he was a black belt judoka who won national competitions and faced a promising career as a coach in the sports-oriented Soviet Union.

[2] However, Baiev desired to become a doctor, as his sisters were nurses and his father a herbalist, and in his words, "I always wanted to do something that would be of service to society.

He returned to Chechnya in 1988 and became a successful plastic surgeon; and, in the early 1990s, he went to Moscow for additional training.

People came from abroad—Sweden, Germany, Switzerland—for plastic surgery because we were offering such operations at a tenth of the cost in their countries.

"[4] By 2000, Baiev was the single surgeon for nearly 80,000 residents near Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and at one point during the conflict he performed 67 amputations and eight brain operations in a 48-hour period.