Meet Medical and Nursing Students

When Brian Sullivan, MD was in college, his grandmother was diagnosed with colon cancer. Despite undergoing colonoscopy screenings every three years, her cancer was not identified early.

A few years ago, eight-year-old twins came into the physical therapy clinic for neurologically-disabled children in Utah where Trac Norris, now a third-year student in the Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy program, volunteered while an undergraduate student. He noticed that they could not walk by themselves, that they were unable to communicate, and that they were blind. During their treatment, the parents told the therapists that one of the boys loved music. Norris set him down on a bench and placed a piano in front of him. The boy began to play.

It was another hectic day at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Duke University Hospital. Chris Fry, RN, BSN, was taking care of a 65-year-old man who had received a heart transplant the day before.

Two weeks before her 19th birthday, Samantha Casper, MSN’18, had a car accident. She was headed out for a night of fun with a friend, but ended up at the hospital. The doctors told her mother that Casper had suffered a traumatic brain injury and that she might not survive. Casper has survived, but she was told that due to short term memory loss, she could never go back to college. But she had other plans. “My mother instilled in me ‘Do more, be more, don't give up,’” says Casper.

The 2012 London Olympic Games played out like a fairy tale for Abby Johnston McGrath, MD’18. She stood on the podium, watching her country's flag rise up as they put a silver medal for synchronized diving around her neck, and she was inspired to continue diving at the 2016 Olympics.

Duke Medical students share their time and talents with Durham area non-profits on this semi-annual community service day.

Scholarship funds enabled wife and mother Sarah Free to pursue a full-time nursing degree at Duke, where she is following her passion to serve women and children.