As my husband is finishing up secondary applications for med school, one of the schools asked the following question,
What is important to you that you want to make sure the Admissions Committee knows about you that is not already included in your application?
and he responded as follows. (I apologize for the formatting, it seems too much to change right now)
My daughter Lacy was about four months old when my wife, Beth,
hurriedly carried her through a
narrow doorway. Her head was sandwiched between the frame of the door
and the force of my wife’s
body. She cried but after keeping a close watch on her we felt strongly
that she was fine. The following
afternoon we noticed swelling around the area she injured. An
Otolaryngologist I was shadowing
recommended we watch it for a day. We took her to her pediatrician when
it did not reduce. An Xray followed. The
small town radiologist assured police that Lacy suffered from a frontal skull
fracture
incurred by purposeful blunt force trauma. As a result, we were
interrogated for hours, forced to
meet with lawyers, I took time off from school – including studies for
the MCAT, and police harassed
our neighbors and my wife’s workplace. My wife was threatened to be
charged with felony child
endangerment. We were scared we may lose our wonderful daughter.
We decided to drive four hours to Primary Children’s Medical Center in
Salt Lake City, UT where we
would meet with the specialists. Lacy was submitted to endless exams,
X-rays, and CT-Scans. The
doctors concluded without debate that the original doctor had
misdiagnosed. Lacy suffered from a bicoronal skull fracture, common in children
her age from often minor incidents – our story was consistent with the
incident.
My life is littered with experiences that will help me become a great
physician. My personal statement
addresses some but not all. I went through a dramatic change of
lifestyle that ended with me committed
to serving others, I witnessed my father be overtaken by financial
hardship, I watched cancer steal
my mother’s life, I saw doctors in action as they helped my mother and
as I shadowed them in their
workplaces. Significantly, I’ve
seen the immeasurable good that comes when doctors succeed in their
specialties. Unfortunately, I’ve also been the one to suffer when a
physician stepped out of his training.
These experiences culminate in an unwavering determination to do
nothing less than become the best
physician I can.
This is me again, I'm still amazed that my little family has had to go through this situation, but with that being said I'm happy to say that it has been the biggest experience for growth as a family that I could have ever hoped for. I know that the covenants I've made can keep my family together forever and I know that Heavenly Father knows us individually, all of us. I hope that people also see the importance of going to doctors specialized in their form of medicine, because sometimes doctors do step out of bounds and also how important and life saving a second opinion can be. Hopefully this post doesn't scare anyone, I've just felt prompted to share this experience for a long time.
