Throughout my youth, I had the belief that my family was perfect. However, during my first year of college, this belief had changed. On Christmas Eve 2012, my brother was status post his first ACL reconstructive surgery on his right leg secondary to an injury sustained while playing football. At about 10:30 PM on Christmas Eve, with his right leg elevated, my brother started complaining of abnormal parasthesias of his right leg starting from the knee radiating slowly, distally with gradual edema. My mother and I immediately called 911. As I was calling 911, my brother started bursting out in tears, as the leg pain was gradually worsening. Eventually, my brother was taken to Children’s Hospital in Washington DC where immediate surgery was performed. At 4:19 AM Christmas morning, we got the news… “We are sorry. We have no other choice than to amputate Christian’s leg”. Though measures were taken to ensure that he would be able to walk with a prosthetic leg, eventually, it took my several weeks, months to get over this. It was a difficult time for my mother, brother, and for me academically. With the difficult times endured, taking my brother to Physical Therapy, endless visits to the hospital, working two part time jobs, commuting to school for two hours round-trip, I continued to hear the voice in my head from my grandfather, “ Never let go of your dreams”.
With the speedy efforts in trying to save my brothers leg, I was amazed how the doctors in the Emergency Room responded to my brother’s admission with their quick rational and skills in a hectic environment. To explore the field of medicine, I decided to work as a lead medical scribe in the inner city of Baltimore, Bon Secours Hospital. As a medical scribe in a highly populated area, I was afforded the opportunity to be bed-side with the attending physician and with patients with a unique dilemmas. I can still remember the time when a young African American male in his 20’s presented to the Emergency room with trauma through his abdominal cavity secondary to a gun-shot wound. Though I was not able to be fully present bedside, I was again shocked how the attending physicians in the Emergency Room handled the situation. Luckily, with the doctor’s rapid work, the patient survived.
As a current medical scribe and medical assistant in a Neurology clinic led by Dr. Gunawardane, I continued to persevere in the field of medicine. I continue to grow and learn an extensive amount of knowledge from and in the field of medicine. In this position, I was able to encounter the patient, take their vitals, create detailed HPI’s, and update their current medications in a fast and efficient manner. Once I was finished triaging the patient, I would give the attending Neurologist a brief history of the patient. Once I verbally give the doctor the brief history, I would also do the assessment and plan for the doctor bedside. Doing this, I have been able to learn various differential diagnoses from the symptoms the patient would present with. For example, a 65-year-old Hispanic patient with whom prior to presenting to the Neurology clinic presented to the Emergency Room with atypical headaches, dizziness, and unusual parasthesias and was later referred to our outpatient Neurology clinic. This particular patient presented to the Neurology clinic with Spanish as his native and only language. Luckily, as Spanish is my second language, I was able to interpret to the doctor and interpret back to the patient in a manner in which both parties understood each other. As such, the patient’s family reports during the patients most recent walk around his neighborhood, he had noticed an abrupt onset of left parietal region headache, associated with dizziness, blurring of vision, and parasthesias on the left V3 facial distribution. The patient was worked up by a Neuro-opthalmologist a week prior to presenting to the clinic and had ruled out optic neuritis and other underlying symptoms associated with his visual disturbances. We then ordered a brain MRI and a Carotid Ultrasound which later on revealed mild to moderate ischemic changes and bilateral plaque in both carotid arteries less than 50%. “Differential?” The Neurologist asked. I responded “TIA or less likely, demyelination”. Though the Neurologist was impressed, she was not convinced with the diagnosis of TIA as the patient’s symptoms progressively worsened in a day-by-day basis. Dr. Gunawardane then referred the patient to a Cardiologist for a full cardiac work up which included an Echocardiogram. The Echocardiogram was performed and revealed a large pedunculated left atrial myxoma.
The complexity of medicine continues to amaze me. Medicine is challenging. However, with the many pitfalls there are in studying and practicing medicine, I believe that with the skills I have developed, hard efforts, determination, passion, and stress, my obsessive interest to study the field of medicine will make me succeed as a doctor.