Presenting Author
The University of Mississippi Medical Center
I have a long history with UMMC that is independent of my graduate training here and my career progression once I returned here. Specifically, my grandmother lived until I was 8 years old because of the actions of doctors here at UMMC in the 1960s. She presented with a gangrenous leg as a complication of her Type 1 diabetes. Unfortunately, she was refused treatment at the hospital her local doctor in Starkville sent her to. She was sent home to die. My mom's Caucasian employer packed my mother and my grandmother into her car, drove them to UMMC, and got her admitted. Physicians at UMMC amputated my grandmother's leg and saved her life. Because of their actions, I have fond memories of my grandmother in her wheelchair singing to me as I snuggled in her lap. Many years later while I was a UMMC graduate student, my mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer. We brought her to UMMC because of the expertise but also because, to be honest, she had no insurance and couldn't afford treatment at other places. Even though I was here and in research, I felt helpless and didn't know exactly what to do. Fortunately professors, fellow graduate students, and other friends at UMMC helped me sort things out. The oncology group here performed all the surgeries, radiation therapy, and after-care. They did an excellent job. There was a young resident involved in my mom's care whom I knew from Med Biochem class a few years earlier. He recognized that I was a basket case early in the process. He took me aside and said that he would be looking after my mom and told me not to worry. He, of course, couldn't guarantee the outcome, but he made sure I believed that everything possible was being done. He gave me his home phone number and told me to call him at anytime if there was anything that my mom needed or if I had questions, concerns, or just needed to talk. He did so very much to try and make my mom and me feel positive about the dire situation. Thanks to his actions and those of many others, my mom lived another 16 wonderful years.
I have many such stories as do many other people that I know who have depended on the UMMC for the health and well-being of their loved ones. To me, this represents the true strength of UMMC; the people. Not the people necessarily on the radar; but the people that do the things that they do here not just because of salary or career or prestige; but simply because they care and would do anything and everything in their power to help with the UMMC missions: Education, Research, and Healthcare. There are many, many people such as that here at UMMC. They have always been here but don't always get nor do they seek attention. These people and their deeds and actions are the reasons that I got to know my grandmother for a while; that I was fortunate to have 16 wonderful years with my mother after cancer; that I was able to pursue a PhD.; that I wanted to come back to UMMC and try to be "one of those people." We are a resource-poor state. However, I've worked at and visited many places with excessive amounts of "monetary resources" but left disappointed at times with the quality of the "people resources." I firmly believe that UMMC is as rich or richer than most places in "people resources."
Eighteen years ago, I chose to continue my career at UMMC and try to be a good faculty member, a good team player, a good leader, a good researcher, a good teacher, ... a good representative of the noble and proud ideals that UMMC and its "people" stand for. Each day I strive to be better at it than the day before.