On March 20 at 11 a.m., the College of Medicine class of 2015 will learn where they will spend their residency training after graduating from medical school this May. The following is the first in a series of articles spotlighting several of the medical students who will be matching.
Name: Sarah Marsicek
Hometown: Auburn, Kansas
What key events influenced your path to medical school?
As a teenager, I heard those three words: “You have cancer.” In the blink of an eye, my world was turned upside down.
Prior to hearing those three words, I felt invincible. However, those beliefs crashed down around me. When I received my diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease, I was truly scared for the first time. Why did I deserve transforming from a young beautiful, vivacious, blonde-headed teen, to a bald shriveled cancer patient? How could I survive not only this disease, but the road it would lead me down?
I will never forget trying to get a history from a recently diagnosed 16-year-old female with acute leukemia. She was guarded, less than willing to cooperate with my interview. Grasping at straws, I decided to share a glimpse of my story. Immediately, she began to relax and open up. I instantaneously transformed from a faceless medical student to an empathetic ally.
As I watched her struggle with the diagnosis and treatment, I was jolted back six years. I knew the struggles she and her family were consumed with. I knew after spending that week with her, this was my calling — to devote my life to sick children and adolescents, helping them through not only the physical, but the mental struggles illnesses impose, many unique from adult medicine. Pediatrics allows you to shape a life forever.
My battle with cancer at a young age seemed to be a travesty at the time. However, I now know that it has serendipitously shaped me as a person. It is because of my struggle that I have found my calling to healing the pediatric population.
How will your experience influence you as a doctor?
I hope my battle will make me a more empathetic and compassionate physician. It’s very rare a doctor can tell a patient they understand because they have been in their same shoes, but in certain cases, I can. I get that cancer affects so much more than biology — it is truly an invasion in every aspect of your life.
When you went on interviews for your residency, what is the most interesting question you were asked or interesting thing you were asked to do?
I was never asked to do anything that outlandish or answer any questions other than your typical “get-to-know-you” questions.