From my first breath on Earth, I was presented with the greatest challenge of all living things, survival. After being brought home swaddled in a blue, fuzzy cloth, my parents began to nurture their newborn. Refusing to eat, my parents entered a state of alarm and immediately brought me to the Emergency Room. Duh Duh Duh, Duh Duh Duh! Upon noticing a slight murmur in my heart (an additional beat), I was immediately rushed to CHOA for further examination.
Dr. Videlesky diagnosed me with a VSD or a ventricular septal defect, which is a hole between the two chambers/ventricles that hold oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood. Urgently, Dr. Videlesky conducted open heart surgery to patch the hole. The long struggle’s outcome was a successful surgery and more notably this written introduction.
Growing up, kids used to point out the large scar going down the center of my chest and a hole on the left side of my stomach that looked like a gunshot wound. It was a large insecurity as every time I took off my shirt, people would give me strange looks and ask questions. Sometimes I would even try to avoid the pool and taking my shirt off on runs. Unwanted attention made me unwilling to take off my shirt; however, I quickly learned going through high school that no one cared. In fact, many of my friends found it fascinating and to be a special characteristic of what makes me who I am. Everybody has features that are unique to themselves, but only when you embrace these features as positive qualities will you free yourself from the restraints of judgment.
Until this year, I had never met another person with the same operation and diagnosis as myself. By rare chance, I met another individual who is to this day, one of my best friends at UGA, who has gone through and described some of the exact same social implications and difficulties as I had gone through. I had always wanted to be a doctor and become a cardiovascular surgeon to help those as I was helped. Such trust between us has confirmed my decision to pursue a career to help others just like me. Even further to be noted, there are individuals who are far more implicated by physical trauma after surgery and deserve not to be judged by their appearance and solely by their character.