[5] In an attempt to escape the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire,[6] he left for the United States in October 1895 and settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, and took a job in the local wire factory.

After attaining United States citizenship in 1900, he decided to try for a career as a dentist, and in 1902 was accepted by Harvard Dental School, qualifying in 1905.

He was married and successfully running his own dental practice when the First World War broke out, but he volunteered to join the Harvard Medical Corps, posted to a huge tented hospital complex in Camiers, France where he served British forces.

[7] There he began to treat some of the worst injuries suffered in trench war-fare - jaws, noses, cheeks and skulls shattered by bullets and grenades.

[4] Working under primitive conditions in makeshift hospitals near the battlefields of France, Varaztad H. Kazanjian exhibited humane concern combined with innovative medical procedures that established his reputation and marked his subsequent career as a founder of the modern practice of plastic surgery.