Symptoms And Treatment Of Dr. Chang, The Surgeon

When I was younger, I fell off my bed and cracked my head on the bed frame. I was sent to the emergency room and was given stitches. I had to keep going to the doctors for check-ups and me being a child, I was curious of the doctors and always asked them many questions about their occupation. At a young age I became very interested in the medical field. My mother being a surgical technologist and my ex-stepfather being a CRNA, I fell in love with the health care system and that’s when I knew I wanted to help others by becoming a nurse anesthetist.

I remember my fingers leaving shallow depressions on her cold pale skin. As the Paramedics left the room, they sadly instructed us to say our goodbyes and that they would be back shortly. If I had known she was going die, I would have said more to my grandma when she kissed me on the cheek the previous day. Our large family sat in the living room crying as my grandma was placed in a large black bag before being taken away. That sorrowful morning I watched as the paramedics unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate my grandma. This frightful and gloomy experience would inspire me to one day save lives. After witnessing a patient code, working as patient care technician (PCT), and experiencing the sincere generosity of two physicians, I became certain that I wanted to be a doctor.

On a dreary day some time in April, 2013 I received the unfortunate news that I have been diagnosed with severe Inflammatory Bowel Disease, also known as Crohn’s disease. On this day, over three years later, I have become extremely interested in medicine and healthcare, I have been invited to camps at John Hopkin’s University in Maryland, and I have successfully achieved remission! On top of that I have re-confirmed my faith with Jesus and I feel that he has greatly helped me get through this difficult time. My frightening experience has given me a grand new perspective on the world! I feel that God wants me to become a medical surgeon so I can help people with horrible diseases like mine and others. The thought of helping people in the name of God has changed my perspective about my medical condition. Gaining this new perspective has most definitely helped my coming-of-age process.

The whole night my father was groaning with pain and died the following day, witnessing the death of my father and another relative in my village due to lack of health care facilities grew in me a desire to become a doctor and save live. I moved out of my village and got an opportunity to volunteer in a pharmacy

After beginning medical school, I quickly realized that for every one question we could answer there were about a dozen that could not be answered. I delved even deeper into my studies, determined to learn all I could to help my patients to the best of my ability. Suddenly, two of my close family members died, and with this my determination to find answers increased again. Something else awoke within me during the morning of these loved ones, as well. I truly understood what families were going through while watching their loved ones suffering, and my empathy, compassion, and bedside manner became even stronger.

I have been interested in medicine ever since I was young, when my mother caught studying her medical almanac with a flashlight, under the covers, every night during second grade. However, I was only seven, so studying was the child’s equivalent of looking at “pretty pictures” of coronary artery bypass grafts and intricate diagrams of alveoli. I became intrigued with human anatomy and how each body part works in harmony. Through my activities, I discovered a hands on approach to body functions. From kicking soccer balls to breaking boards with my feet and exhaling to play the flute, I have observed the body’s ability to perform and nothing takes my breath away like anatomy can. During my high school years, I observed a close family friend during his surgeries.

As a child, I dreamt of having a career in a medical field. Throughout my late elementary and middle school years, I wanted to become a Pediatrician. I remember this one memory from when I was younger. I was at a local Pediatric office getting my yearly checkup done and thought about how I wanted to be like Dr. Hletko (my family’s Pediatric Doctor). He has been my doctor since I was born. Anytime I was sick, he would be there to diagnose the problems and prescribed me my antibiotics to get better. Not only did he help me get better, but he also helped so many sick kids get healthy and I aspired to be like him one day. As I got older and started high school, I changed my career choice and wanted to become a Nurse Practitioner (APRN). APRN’s

I have grown up as a middle child in a small town called Valley City, where there is such a thing as “bring your tractor to school day.” I have always loved to learn and naturally strived to do my best in school. I am a first generation college student. My childhood dream was and still is to become a doctor. It all started when I would treat my younger brother, Anthony, as my patient. I mostly just covered him in Band-Aids. My family was pretty well off until my parents divorced. Since then, life has not been so easy financially. In high school, I continued to strive to be a good student just as I do now. Then, unfortunately, around tenth grade, my father had gone through a procedure gone wrong and ended up having paraplegia. Of course, it broke my heart to see him in the hospital and then in a wheelchair. It also scared me away from my childhood dream. What if I became a doctor and I accidently hurt someone? That is when I learned responsibility, not just the responsibility doctors have for their patients, but responsibility in general.

My educational aspirations consists of acquiring a secondary bachelor’s degree in nursing. With this degree, I hope to continue pursuing my passion in the medical field. More specifically a career path in the pediatric unit or NICU. When I was nine years old, I was in a serious bicycling accident that left me unconscious with cuts covering a large portion of my body. My father brought me and my family to my pediatrician’s office where she spent the next two hours patching up the superficial wounds and stitching the deep ones.

My best friend had a difficult delivery that resulted in an emergency c-section. I credit the quick and competent intervention of those on her obstetrics team with saving her life and the life of her baby. I spent several days with her in the hospital following her delivery. I began to think about my mother and what would have happened to me if she had declined medical care in a similar situation. I thought about the people of Costa Rica who want and need access to health care, but do not always have it. I again began to question my career path, and I became compelled to explore a career in

Two decades and many existential crises later, one single aspect of my life has pulled me through: that passion I experienced as a child. I have questioned the source of this motivation more than once, and have sought out to put myself in all possible situations that would predict how I would feel later in my life as a doctor to make sure this passion was not mere infatuation.

I am the “prized possession” in my family. My elders believe that I can do no wrong, I hold all family secrets, and I’m expected to be successful. Since I was little, I always had dream of becoming a doctor. My mother would always buy me doctor accessories and when I got of age, she would ship me off every summer to a science camp. It was not until my sophomore year in college that I realized that I did not want to be a medical doctor. When I broke the news to my mother, she was disappointed but encouraged me to find something that I was interested in. Although I would not become the medical doctor my mother hoped for me to be, I knew that I would still end up helping others in

My mom went through a multi-hour surgery just right after delivering me due to several organ failures. My dad went through significant liver surgery when I was two years old. My younger brother was born with elevated levels of bilirubin and spent several days in the medical care. My dream is to pursue science and do my medicine is not a capricious decision, but rather from close-up experiences and sincere appreciation of the role of a doctor and medicine.

Growing up in a single parent household with a mother that was constantly sick and two younger siblings under my care, proved challenging for a premedical student. All my life, it has been my dream to become a physician and to be of service to people in need. I have done nothing else but devote all my time and effort in pursuit of this goal of becoming a physician.

However, no other death of a patient has stuck with me the most than my first encounter. Two years ago, I was reviewing my list of patients