Contributing Writer
Emory University School of Medicine
Leenah Abojaib is a medical student at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, class of 2027. In 2022, she graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas with a Bachelors of Arts in Biosciences and Spanish Studies. In her free time, she enjoys weight-lifting, long-distance running, crocheting/knitting and connecting with friends and family. She is interested in pursuing a career in critical care medicine.
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 …
“Welcome, everybody, to the last module of your second year.” I froze. There was no way. I pulled up Google calendar on my laptop in the increasingly warm lecture hall. Oh my gosh, they were right!
It’s okay to feel in the cadaver lab. It’s what your first patient wanted for you.
From the pectoral region dissection on August 1 until our final practical in December, we have undergone one of the most intimate and transformative experiences in medicine: dissection of our cadavers. Shared by only the select few who have taken this journey in medicine before us, our cadaver donors—our first patients—have given us a glimpse of what it means to be a doctor. Our donors are the first completely vulnerable set of bodies with which we …
Not everyone has the pleasure, or should I say honor, of being a part of the miracle that is life; even fewer get to say that they witness and influence that miracle every day. As a medical student, I have been privy to a whole new world of opportunities that have opened my eyes to how fragile life truly is and how much of a difference one person can make to affect the life (or …
It was 6:58 a.m. and it was my first day in the hospital as a third-year medical student. I was excited. I had my short white coat on and my pockets were full of little gems recommended by those more experienced than myself. As I found my team I saw the second-day-interns nervously preparing for rounds. I hoped my excitement was not too obvious. I could not believe I was about to round on real …
Every life is full of firsts. First steps. First words. First kiss. First love. First (and ideally only) marriage. For physicians in training, there is one other first that quite possibly ranks ahead of those other life milestones: the first real patient. Sure we’ve practiced on each other, on paid actors, and even on lifelike robot mannequins along the way, but at some point every medical student starts rotations. Rotations equal the first taste of …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine
Deke Barron is a Class of 2014 medical student at Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has a master's in biomedical sciences from William Carey University and a bachelor's in cellular, molecular, and systems biology from Berea College.
He likes pretty much any sport and long walks on a beach (no, not really). Deke's medical interests include family medicine and sports medicine, as well as rural medicine. Deke is very excited to join the in-Training team, and he would like to thank his great friend Brittney O'Grady (http://foodieuncensored.blogspot.com) for inspiring him to start writing again.
