My path to medicine doesn’t follow a typical route. It wasn’t until I was 25 that I found my passion for medicine. Shortly before then, I had emigrated from Australia to the United States. I saw this move as an opportunity to leave my first career, which was in banking, behind. I knew for a few years prior that banking just wasn’t for me. While I liked helping people achieve their goals, financial goals seemed rather shallow. After all, there’s only so many houses, cars, boats, etc. that somebody can enjoy. I wanted to help people in a way that was more personally fulfilling, so I decided to train as an EMT shortly after I immigrated. I saw EMT training as a pathway to help people in what’s often a time of their greatest need. However, it wasn’t …show more content…
The first was how much gusto the nurses, medical students, residents, and attending in the Medical University of South Carolina’s trauma bay showed trying to save this patient’s life. The second occurred a little later as I was preparing the ambulance for return to service. I received word that the patient’s pH was incompatible with life. Ultimately, I knew what this meant. I knew it was coming. By the time we arrived on scene earlier in the call, the patient was hypoxic and a noticeable shade of blue had started to set in. I knew we tried everything to revive her enroute to the hospital. However, layperson CPR provided prior to arrival on scene caused vomiting and aspiration. In the cramped back of the ambulance, it has been my job to try to suction what I could. I did everything I was trained to do, but it wasn’t enough. I accepted her passing. What I couldn’t accept is that I had no idea what pH incompatible with life meant. At that moment, I felt a spark ignite, a spark I hadn’t felt since high school. I wanted to know how that happened, and more importantly, what I could do to avoid it from happening again. From that moment, I knew I wouldn’t be contempt for long as an …show more content…
A year later, I moved from Charleston, SC to Florence, SC to be closer to my, now, wife. This move also allowed me to attend Francis Marion University where I have continued to maintain my grades while gaining exposure to research opportunities both in and outside my major. One such research pursuit is in the field of implicit racial bias, and specifically, interventions that help to reduce this bias. As an immigrant, I’m no stranger to bias, and I wanted to better understand the bias that I could see in my community due to my outside perspective. As my time at Francis Marion University continued, I was recommended for a month long shadowing experience organized through the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. For a month, I shadowed physicians from various third year rotations. This intensive shadowing experience provided valuable experience outside of emergency medicine. Two moments from this experience stood out the most to me. The first corresponds to my first experience from my EMT training. I was able to see a rising second year resident share some good news with the first patient he ever treated as an