Contributing Writer
INOVA Children's Hospital
Dr. Kenneth Lopez is a 1st-year Pediatric Resident at INOVA Children's Hospital in Fairfax who is experienced in multiple fields, including medicine, chemistry, biology, public health, sociology and mathematics. He has trained in multiple industry-standard lab techniques in immunology and microbiology, as well as clinical and epidemiological translational research within multiple disciplines. His diverse experiences, leadership skills and consistent compassionate and curious approach towards tasks, allow him to contribute dynamic ideas to organizations and produce high-quality work within multiple stages of project development and implementation.
“That doesn’t happen often,” I quietly but excitedly say to myself while discussing our consult from the PICU. My attending hesitates, pondering the precarious balance between encouraging my medical curiosity and protecting me from the horrors of child abuse and mistreatment that still haunt her to this day. That day, I was a first-hand witness to the necessary but horrible clinical task of a brain death exam. This task is a rite of passage for …
Being a health care professional can, at times, feel ironic because our intention is to promote health and wellness, yet we often neglect our own. As medical students, we consume large amounts of information in short periods of time, which can be both stressful and mentally strenuous. We often must be awake for long hours, whether it’s for rotations, for studying or for both at once. This lifestyle can foster many unhealthy habits, but are …
I walked up the stairs in my heels, white coat and stethoscope, which I had no idea how to use, on the first day of my first clinical day two weeks into medical school. The question of whether I belonged in a position of authority felt more prominent than ever as patients in the lobby passively asked me about their treatments and I waited for the staff to return from their lunch break. I told …
I have always been taught to treat the patient and not the disease. As a first-year medical student, I am not sure I know how to treat either yet, but I know that putting a face to a disease is crucial to my training as a physician. I have always been intrigued by human stories in medicine that involve difficult and often stressful conversations because they have a tendency to become flashbulb memories that impact …
Science, in German, is Wissenschaft, which translates to “pursuit of knowledge” in English. I recently finished my neuroscience PhD training and revisited my scientific journey spanning from my teenage years to my PhD thesis. As a teenager, I was busy memorizing knowledge from textbooks. As an undergraduate, I had some experiences where I learned that science is not always as clear-cut as what I was taught in classes. As a PhD student, I have been trained to look at scientific findings with a critical eye and always ask if they are accurate.
This was my patient. I sat with her, held her hand, coaxed her to share pieces of her life story from underneath the covers.
Moving to Arizona for an eight-year dual-degree MD/PhD program was one of the biggest, and reflecting back, best decisions I had ever made. Though at the time, it truly felt like the scariest commitment of my life.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of puncturing the thin shrink film around a new canvas. Getting ready to paint is a routine — the rumbling of the kettle as I thumb through my collection of teas, picking the perfect album to play on repeat for the evening. Putting on the highlighter yellow shirt from high school plastered with smudges of blacks, greens, and whites from years of previous paintings.
Oh God, what time is it? I stumbled over to my bedside table in pitch-black darkness, thanks to my new blackout curtains, which continue to be the best financial decision I have ever made, and checked my phone that was blasting my alarm.
As patients moved in and out of the modest office for their appointments, their duffel bags and luggage in tow containing all their personal belongings, the day unfolded in typical fashion. Yet, within the confines of this psychiatry office catering exclusively to the local unhoused population, “normal” took on a unique meaning.
At the start of clinical rotations, we are urged by preceptors to immerse ourselves in the experience, advocate for our patients and strive to understand them better than the rest of the team. I could not, however, shake an underlying thought: Why would any patient divulge their most intimate details to someone so inexperienced? After all, I was just a medical student.
“Could you water my plants?” I asked my roommate when I was out of town. They say it takes a village to raise a child, make it through medical school, to do anything worth knowing. When I started medical school, I had a village: parents, friends, family, a partner and my plants.
Contributing Writer
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Sai Kottapalli is a 4th year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA class of 2025. In 2021, she graduated from Arizona State University with a BA in Spanish Literature and Culture. She enjoys pickleball, building furniture, and throwing around a football when she's stressed. After graduating medical school, Sai would like to pursue a career in urology.
