Hi everyone, my name is Coco. I have aspired to be a physician since I could talk. When I was 3, I wanted to be a pediatrician just like my doctor. My bedtime stories were all my father’s injury stories (he was quite accident-prone). As I grew up, I shifted my curiosity towards becoming a surgeon. I started shadowing surgeries in high school and fell in love with the field. When I was in college however, I was in a terrible car accident that totaled three cars including my own when I was hit. I couldn’t talk for three weeks and was seeing 10 doctors a week (including physical therapy). My car accident experience however further shaped the type of physician I was to become. I had nothing done when I was brought to the resuscitation bay of the hospital. No imaging, no labs. My mother was told “if I stopped recognizing her as my mother, then bring me back to the hospital.” This was my first experience of being a minority in medicine. It was as a patient, not receiving the proper care. I trained, went to rehab, forced myself to push past my PTSD, and became a first responder as soon as I could walk again. I wanted to be there on other people’s worst day of their lives, and help them through, to change the system from within, so that no one else would have to experience what I want through. That feeling of neglect. I then pushed through and studied for medical school while working four jobs, two as a first responder, one as a tennis coach and one as a math tutor. I then finished medical school with a 4.0 GPA, multiple honors, volunteership and a member of the honor society. I then matched into a general surgery residency. More recently I was diagnosed with early stage cervical cancer. And now am struggling with debt and tuition loan repayments, and medical bills. I have gotten this far on my own but now I need your help so that I can help others. I can’t afford this journey. But I just want to help those people on the worst day of their lives. To hold their hand and get them through the rough patches. I am asking for fundraising because I just want to help people. My entire life I just want to bring the focus back to helping the patient. Simple as that. Thank you.

Side note: once I am done with training and the journey in becoming a surgeon, I plan to create a scholarship/mentorship program to help others like me through the journey as well.