Fellowship: UCLA/VA PM&R Pain fellow

Residency: UCLA PM&R Residency 2021

Undergraduate: Howard University College of Medicine 2017

Pronouns: he/him

Hometown: Hawthorne, California

Chinese-Vietnamese American

I was born and raised in Hawthorne California to immigrant parents. My mother worked in the garment industry while my father was a carpenter. My community did not have the resources to encourage high academic achievement.

I was fortunate to graduate from Leuzinger High School. Their graduation rates were roughly 60%. I matriculated into UCI and majored in Asian American Studies. In this major , developed a passion for ethnic disparities and socioeconomic injustices. I left UCI knowing I wanted to go back and serve my community.

I realized that education could be used to empower. I applied for my masters in education and was lucky to get into UCLA’s Teacher Education Program for my teaching degree and credential.

I taught 9th grade Algebra in South Central Los Angeles. While I loved teaching, I found some things difficult to do. For example, it was hard to differentiate the curriculum to serve seniors taking algebra for the fifth time without a proper individualized education plan (IEP) that would help them succeed and 9th graders who were excelling past their expected grade level.

During this time, my interest in the sciences grew and I decided to place teaching on hold. I began taking science courses (Chemistry, Biology, Psychology) at a community college and loved it.

My first semester, though, I developed an insect bite that became infected. I was prescribed Bactrim (an antibiotic) and had a severe allergic reaction. I was eventually diagnosed with erythema multiforme/mild Steven Johnson Syndrome. I didn’t have health insurance and was stuck with a $30k hospital bill initially. After an appeals process, this was lowered to $10k.

This was still a high hospital bill, and I appreciated anything that would help. During this time, I had met a very kind inpatient internal medicine doctor by the name of Dr. Khalid Chan who told me that while he could not help me with my hospital bill, he would not charge me for his services.

That helped me realize that I could fuse my passion for underserved communities and science, and give back as a health care provider the way Dr. Chan did for me.

[an aside from the editors: another example that access to quality, affordable healthcare should be a human right. Wonderful things can occur when that happens.]

A special aspect of PM&R is its focus on function. My own recovery from Steven Johnson was not just recovery from a physiological perspective…but also from a psychological aspect. I believe that the biopsychosocial model was important to my recovery. In PM&R we make sure to take a broader lens. We focus on more than pathology. We focus on the whole person.

Additionally, we know that PM&R serves a high amount of underserved groups. For example, African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos suffer from comorbidities such as HTN, HLD, DM more than white Americans and are more at risk for cerebrovascular disease. [from the editors: Interesting research shows that racism plays a role in this pathogenesis]. In PM&R, a large part of our discipline is neurorehabilitation after cerebrovascular accidents.

I think the most challenging moment in pursuing medicine was when I switched careers and was also diagnosed with Erythema Multiforme/Steven Johnson Syndrome at the same time. Just prior to that, I had a job as a teacher and I knew what I was doing. I was making a difference in students’ lives and earning an income. I dropped all of that to pursue a different path, lost my health insurance, and then became very sick. It was a very challenging and traumatic experience. The recovery process took nearly a year, and I developed significant anxiety while I questioned my decision in changing careers.

My biggest goal is to work with the underserved, to take a specialized skill and cater to a community that may not have that access. Currently I’m a Pain Medicine Fellow at the UCLA/VA Greater LA Health Care System PM&R Pain Medicine Fellowship. I hope to take the skills that I’m learning this year and from residency to help those who are most in need at a community or county hospital.

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