Growing up as a second-generation immigrant from Guatemala and El Salvador whose parents crossed the border for a better life, expectations were high. I was destined, my parents were sure, to become a doctor.
At 14, one of the nation’s best neurosurgeons performed an operation on my brain, and later allowed me to witness a similar arteriovenous malformation surgery on another patient. That’s when I became enamored with the hospital setting and helping people.
