When I was in fourth grade, I was stricken with Salmonella food poisoning and

was admitted to Schneiders Children Hospital in L.I.J. Hospital in New Hyde,

N. !he impact of this illness took a toll on my family and me "ecause it went
undiagnosed "y my pediatrician, and I constantly had terri"le stomach pains
for # weeks and e$en lost considera"le weight. I despised going to the
doctor "ut my hospitali%ation at L.I.J. changed my outlook. !he doctors in the
hospital ga$e me and my family strength and hope and helped me reco$er
through their compassion, intellect, and attenti$eness. &$er since then, I
ha$e always wanted to gi$e that compassion "ack to people in need.
In '(((, I tra$eled to my parents homeland of )angladesh and was
fortunate enough to take part in a pro*ect that my father and uncles had
started in po$erty stricken $illages. !hey esta"lished a clinic to pro$ide free
immuni%ations to inha"itants in rural areas. I helped measure patients "lood
pressure and take their medical histories. +dditionally, I was e$en a"le to
witness one of my uncles, a practicing physician in the ,nited States,
pro$ide consultations to $arious needy patients. I had ne$er really
understood until that $ery moment how much doctors care for their patients.
I remem"er a woman who held her son in her arms and cried tears of
gratitude "ecause my uncle had helped them in their time of need. I ha$e
"een returning with my family e$ery few years to )angladesh and seen the
program grow into a nota"le and functional clinic where hundreds of patients
are seen each day.
-ne of the "iggest o"stacles I encountered recently and had to
o$ercome as a medical student was witnessing the death of a patient under
my care at .ings County Hospital, )rooklyn, N. /y patient was an elderly
+frican +merican woman with dementia and was "rought into the hospital
with onset sei%ures witnessed "y her family mem"ers. She had a $ery kind
disposition towards me and often referred to me as her grandson. -$er the
course of her hospital stay, I de$eloped a special fondness for this elderly
lady. !hough her "ody was physically deteriorating, she would ha$e a huge
smile on her face e$ery time I went to $isit her. It was e0tremely di1cult got
me to see her pain and struggle and she e$entually passed away. I felt
responsi"le for her loss the days following her death, "ut in the end I knew
that I did my "est as a medical student to help her and pro$ide her with
compassion and care.
!hrough my clinical rotations, I ha$e "een e0posed to many diseases
that presented themsel$es in di2erent ways, as well as di2ering
methodologies of how to treat them. +s a result of my clinical e0periences, I
feel that Internal /edicine pro$ided me the "est in terms of the "asic
knowledge. It has "een e0citing to see how I can apply the sciences that I
learned in medical school including physiology, pathology, "iochemistry, and
pharmacology, for "oth diagnosing patients in addition to understanding the
fundamental mechanisms of how a disease progresses and can "e managed.
!he most rewarding e0perience I ha$e had throughout my medical
school career is the amount of knowledge I ha$e o"tained through my
clinical rotations, and how much I ha$e "een a"le to help my lo$ed ones.
3hether it is my fathers dia"etes, my mothers hypertension, or my cousins
leukemia, I ha$e "een a"le to not only gi$e them a full understanding of
what is going on with them, "ut I ha$e also "een a"le to gi$e them the
ad$ice they need to "e a"le "etter manage their conditions. +fter
e0periencing other specialties, I "elie$e that Internal /edicine is a 4eld that
gi$es me the freedom to encounter di2erent diseases and di2erent people,
and re5uires one to think critically and meticulously in order to manage and
treat a patient as a whole. I strongly "elie$e that Internal /edicine is my true
calling.

+s an aspiring physician, I ha$e seen the horrors of patients who are
underser$ed in inner6city areas of )rooklyn, N, and all the way to the other side of
the world in the po$erty stricken $illages of )angladesh. !here are $ast
di2erences in the way patients are treated in a third world country like
)angladesh $ersus an already de$eloped country like the ,nited States, "ut
the foundation of knowledge and how we treat the patient, remains uni$ersal
in the world of medicine. /y commitment to medicine is to help care for the
underpri$ileged and to pro$ide them with the same, if not "etter, 5uality healthcare
that I ha$e "een a"le to recei$e. &ducating a patient is an important part in the
ideology of medicine. +s a tutor, I know the le$el of stress I must put on telling
patients a"out their treatments, what they are used for and how they work. +"o$e
all, I am a compassionate person who knows how to communicate and connect with
people. In the medical 4eld today, I feel that "eing honest with your patients and
allowing them the con4dence to trust you with their li$es are the most important
characteristics a physician must possess in order to "e successful.