The Benefits Of Open Heart Surgery

Ellyn Bache once said, “It’s normal to shy away from illness and death. It’s natural to gravitate toward laughter and life.” My dad has congestive heart failure, which is normally not considered a terminal disease, but his stage of failure is. He had his first heart attack when I was 8 years old. He was in and out of the hospital quite often. My dad had his second heart attack the summer after my 6th-grade year when I was twelve. He was in California, visiting his mother before she died. He had a heart attack and a stroke and was in the hospital for 52 days before we were able to go out to California and visit him. By the time we got there, almost all his bodily systems had shut down. He had frontal lobe brain damage, which made him unable to recognize my

Although, I was an adult and college was supposed to be preparing me for the real world, it did not prepare me to take care of my own father, let alone anyone else. Above all, in the moment of that diagnosis, the duty of caring for another person became a part of my life. I had become responsible for someone else—responsible for my role model, for my father. What was once a “nerve-racking” responsibility evolved into a motivating

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, once said, “I attribute my success to this:—I never gave or took an excuse.” That is an outlook on life I try to live up to. I have had a few set backs in my college career to keep me from achieving my goal of becoming a Registered Nurse. I could have easily given up on my dream but I took those hardships and turned them into fuel to keep going. My father suffered a massive heart attack and went into cardiac arrest when I first started college. It completely flipped by life upside down. I spent weeks at a time in the hospital with him. Seeing him go in and out the hospital for years reaffirmed my need to become a nurse and help others like how those nurses took care of my father. Once I

I have faced many adversities in my life; the most significant one being the passing of my dad. My dad battled with Multiple Myeloma since 2012, and unfortunately lost that battle on March 22nd, 2015. He was being treated for his cancer in Mexico, so when he became seriously ill I had to travel to see him. I visited him during winter break of my junior year and stayed a few days after my break was over. When I came back, I was behind in Chemistry. I went in on a daily basis to receive extra help from my teacher. All my hard work payed off as I earned an A in Chemistry my entire junior

Looking back on my life, there were many difficult times my family and I went through. Those difficult times, however, became my motivation for pursuing a career in the medical field. Growing up my brother had to overcome many different obstacles. At five years old he started talking after we thought he never would. In kindergarten he contracted meningococcal meningitis and was hospitalized for a long period of time. A couple years later his appendix ruptured while waiting in the hospital emergency room. After a couple weeks he had to be transferred to Akron Children’s Hospital where he stayed for another month. During those times

I started college at age 18, but shortly after life interrupted my higher education. One of the biggest setbacks in my academic career was my father having a massive stroke. He was in several hospitals over a six-month span. My mother once said that our family motto was “if one of us suffers, we all suffer”. This motto became a family joke during this difficult time and helped us get through it. My

Within the program I plan to earn a master’s degree and an M.D. While telling others my academic goals, I have been doubted by many and am frequently encouraged to take other routes. I am often told, “Why don’t you become a nurse instead?”, “Are you sure you can become a doctor?”, “Nursing is more of a woman’s job, rather than becoming a doctor.” The doubt and discouragement from my peers, family, and others has only encouraged and motivated me to a greater extent. My father has also played an important influence in my determination to become an Orthopedic Surgeon. He left his family and friends at the age of fourteen and crossed the United States-Mexican border with the little he had. He didn’t speak a word of English nor knew what to expect. He only knew he was coming for the American Dream to help his family and to one day be able to provide his future family with opportunities not accessible to him. Since I can remember, he has always told my siblings and me to go to school and get an education so we wouldn’t have to “break our backs” like he has. My father has gone to work with sprained ligaments, high fevers, shingles, and many other

When I first began my college career in 2011, I was a first generation college student. I entered into college with only a vague goal of becoming a Physician’s Assistant. The most common question I was asked was why? Why a Physicians Assistant? And I my answer was always the simple standard answer of: “I want to help people”. I, undeniably, still want to help others but it was not until the Christmas of my sophomore year, that I truly understood what it meant and took to be a successful Physician’s Assistant. A few days after Christmas my mother was hospitalized for two and a half weeks with a continuous blood clot in her leg and a small blood clot in her lungs. She spent the first 3 days in ICU, required multiple blood and iron transfusions, and eventually surgery. For me, the worst part of the entire experience was being awakened in the middle of the night by nothing more than the faint whisper of my name. Till this day, I don’t know how I heard it. My mom had collapsed on the stairs in excruciating pain. She was extremely weak and unable to move. I thought I was watching my mother die, and the immediate fear and panic that I felt, still haunts me sometimes. I didn’t know what to do or what was

In 2011, my brother was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis which affected my entire family including myself. He went through many surgeries, many of which made it quite impossible for me to see him given that I was only 11 years old, and everything on that level in that hospital was contagious. Throughout, this period in my life my mother was always busy and I learned to slowly do my things on my own. Although it sounds crucial, I didn’t expect much from my mother given that she basically lived in the hospital. I fell into depression because my brother was my best friend and I couldn’t accept that he was in so much pain. I learned to overcome depression and slowly learned that life shouldn’t be taken for granted and I should believe in myself.

In February of last year my grandfather was having problems with his heart. He often complained about the feeling of pressure casting on to his chest so he went to the doctors in pursuit to figure out what is causing these menacing pains. To his discovery, the doctor examined his heart and explained to him that he would need to receive coronary artery bypass surgery. My family and I were scared of the risks involving the surgery but the doctor assured us that it is not as intricate as it sounds. So on February 23rd My grandfather went into have coronary artery bypass surgery and regrettably did not make it out alive. In tears my mother screamed at the surgeon who gave us this terrible news, demanding answers. The surgeon explained to us that

A hardship that my family and I faced was my mother being placed on disability. When I was four years old, she stepped off a ladder wrong and slipped a disk in her back. To repair the disk, it required multiple surgeries. As a result, she is still on disability. During this time, my father was the main breadwinner in our house, so money was sometimes a tough thing to come by. On top of my mother’s medical issues, I have my own medical issues. I have always had some minor issues, but in the last couple of years they have started to become more serious. During my senior year, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. This syndrome is chronic and so are some of the other issues that comes with it. Now that I am currently enrolled in college,

Going through all these struggles makes me realize that we can never take one day of our life for granted. Despite undergoing three high-risk open-heart surgeries, I still am very active in my community. I play three sports, including basketball, volleyball, and cheer. Every year for each of my teams, we get to participate in an act of service in the community. For example, my volleyball team volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in downtown Cincinnati just a couple of months ago. Also, my basketball team, just a couple of weeks ago, made cookies and donated them to the less fortunate. I like to volunteer at my church, and I’ve helped with Vacation Bible School over the summer. I am a server at Sunday mass, and I also recently became a Eucharistic minister. I’ve participated in the Peanut Butter and Jelly ministry; I’ve also become active in my church’s youth group. I have had the chance to attend Camp Joyful Heart in the summertime, and I hope to be a counselor there one day to help other kids, like me, have a week of

I think it is an exciting time to be part of a University that surrounds itself with a Christ like mindset. I believe that an experience such as an illness or even trying to pursue a career in business or becoming an entrepreneur is something that can lead me into greater things and enhance my academic skills here at the university. Ten years ago I had a triple bypass surgery. All my friends who had that procedure had passed away. I didn’t know the doctors and I didn’t want them touching me or my heart, but I had to overcome that fear otherwise it wouldn’t have been done and I may not have survived. It was a tremendous challenge that I overcame.

In the winter of 2013, I lost my father to a rare disease called Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). This disease is a life threatening immunodeficiency in which the body makes too many activated immune cells. He suffered bed rest for months on end in the hospital where I, nor any other of his seven children, were able to see him until his last day. I was only in eighth grade and was just starting to learn what it was like being a teenager in high school. Surviving the rest of the year was mentally exhausting and undoubtedly was the most challenging time of my life. It wasn’t until ninth grade when I truly realized I wasn’t the only one affected by the loss of my father. My widowed mother was torn in two and would never be whole

My mother, Gina Needham, is the biggest inspiration in my life. Throughout her life, Gina worked primarily as a loan officer for financial companies; however, she was not content with her career. In 2008, her father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and was hospitalized for an extended period of time. During his stay, Gina was constantly at the hospital spending time with her father and eventually developed an interest in caring for people. After months of rigorous treatment, medical professionals opted to do an operation to remove the tumors. However, due to a mistake during the operation, her father died during surgery. Although she was emotionally distraught, she became determined to pursue a career in the medical field in honor of her