Dr. Lawrence D. Dorr Scholarship Winner
Dr. Kamran Movassaghi
I have spent the last 10 years of my life mostly trying to answer the “how” of medicine. How does the bodywork, fail, and heal? As I became more specialized, my focus turned to understanding bony pathology and its surgical treatment. How do I fix this fracture…How do I perform this surgery? Throughout this journey, it became easy to lose sight of the “why”.
My mission trip with Operation Walk to the Philippines was a tangible reminder of the reason why I decided to pursue medicine in the first place. One of the most rewarding experiences of my short career has been seeing those young patients come into the hospital in wheelchairs and leave post-operatively walking.
I will be forever grateful to the staff at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for creating a collegial and collaborative work environment. I am very blessed to finish my medical training and step into my role as an attending physician after this experience with new invigoration and fervor. This trip further underscored that the skills and knowledge I have gained are a privilege that will allow me to directly impact people’s lives both locally and abroad. I am thankful to OpWalk for affording me this opportunity and I look forward to future mission trips as I move forward into my career to continually answer the question “why”.