First-year Texas A&M University College of Medicine student Skyler Child ’25 was about to finish middle school when he knew he wanted to be a doctor. His eighth-grade class was taking a group photo to commemorate their middle school graduation when he was hit in the finger by a pencil a classmate had carelessly thrown.
As the day went on, his finger continued to hurt and swell. That evening, he asked his father, a physician, to look at it. His father thought the finger might be infected and said he would reach out to some doctor friends in the morning.
The next day, Skyler went to school as normal but forgot his gym clothes at home. When his mother dropped his gym clothes off at school, she advised him to avoid eating and drinking anything for the rest of the day. He would be having surgery that afternoon to drain the infection from his finger––devastating news for a 13-year-old boy with a fear of needles.
During his prep for surgery, he remembers being overwhelmed and scared, just as any young child would be. That is until his anesthesiologist walked into the room.
“I just remember him sitting down and talking with me, this really overwhelmed, hormonal child that just wants nothing to do with the medical system at this point in my life,” Skyler said. “The only thing I cared about was that my finger was hurting, I was about to have surgery and I was scared out of my mind. And he just really calmed me down.”
The anesthesiologist gave Skyler a mask with anesthetic gas and helped him count down from 10. He broke down the complicated process of anesthesia so that a young boy could understand it, which made the process seem less scary. With the reassurance from his anesthesiologist, he felt more prepared for surgery.
Skyler cites that interaction with this anesthesiologist—and not his physician father—as to why he pursued medicine. “He treated me with such kindness and such empathy,” he said. “It seemed like my life was ending. I was this teenage kid, and for me, it was a big deal. It made me realize I could do that for other people.”
Since that moment, Skyler has tirelessly prepared himself for medical school.
A Long Journey
Following his high school graduation, Skyler went on a mission trip to Sacramento, California, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He spent his days throughout the next two years serving his church. He had limited contact with his family, only getting 30 to 60 minutes a week to write one email home. While the experience may seem drastically different than his professional goals, he found that it prepared him well for his medical school journey.
