🎗️ Meet Emily: A Med Student, A Fighter, and A Future Rural Doc 👩‍⚕️🌾
Emily is not your average medical student. At 36 years old, she’s in her third year at ATSU’s Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (KCOM) and currently completing her general surgery rotation with Dr. Jay Nastav at Scotland County Hospital in Memphis, Missouri. However, there’s more to Emily’s story that makes her journey unforgettable.
Originally from St. Louis, Emily has fallen in love with northeast Missouri and rural medicine. Her journey to Memphis started when she met Dr. Nastav during a previous Family Medicine rotation and requested to work with him for a General Surgery rotation. Like many med students who rotate through Scotland County Hospital, she’d never been to Memphis before. From the moment she arrived, she was greeted with friendly waves from Memphis residents. As she drove into town, she noticed that everyone waved at her and she said that was a new feeling. When she stopped at Lacey’s Family Diner for coffee, the staff at the Diner found out she was a medical student, and they made her a cup of coffee “stat!” Emily says she later saw some of the Lacey’s staff and thought that it’s a small world and funny how everybody knows everybody in a small town. Emily said, “Honestly, back home, I didn’t even know my neighbors and I only knew a few people on my block, and here I feel like I know the whole town already, in a matter of a month!”
Emily’s path to medicine hasn’t been traditional. After earning her degrees from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University in St. Louis, she worked with the National MS Society, traveling the country for events like MuckFest MS. It was there, meeting patients and doctors, that she realized she wanted to make an even bigger difference—and medicine was the way to do it.
During her first year of medical school at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, and at the age of 34, she had lost a lot of weight and her grades were slipping. She chalked this up to medical school being hard and being a little older than the average med school student. She found a breast lump that was painful and made an appointment with her PCP in Kirksville. After some tests, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through a bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. The cancer was in her lymph nodes and she went through all the traditional cancer treatments & recovery during her second year of medical school. She praises the officials at KCOM and her classmates. She did end up repeating her first year of medical school. She said, “My school was so supportive. There’s just something about those people. They understand it’s all about community. My fellow students did a fundraiser for me. They cold capped me so I wouldn’t lose all my hair and I would keep my follicles. They showed up. They made me food. They made sure I had all of my assignments. They walked me through everything.”
Today, Emily is healthy, thriving, and deeply grateful. She feels healthy, supported and eager to get through med school. “I feel amazing,” she says. “I chose to stay in northeast Missouri for my clinicals so I could be close to my cancer care team and the community that supported me through my cancer.” When she graduates, Emily has no doubt where her future lies. She’s committed to practicing medicine in a rural setting, giving back to the kind of community that gave so much to her.
‍️ From cancer survivor to rural healthcare champion, Emily’s story is a beautiful reminder of the power of perseverance and the importance of community in medicine.