HI, I'M DR. VICTORIA I recently matched into dermatology, and here is my "WHY" ♥️

HI, I'M DR. VICTORIA I recently matched into dermatology, and here is my "WHY" ♥️ On October 22, 2006, when I was eight years old, my family was hit head on by an eight-time drunk driver on the interstate. Seconds before the accident, my dad turned our car to take the impact head on, saving us kids in the back. RealLife CTVN.ORG The day before the accident, my dad had a "vision" that if something happened while we were driving, he needed to turn the car and take the impact himself. At the time, it made no sense to him, but would later understand it as a message from God. Less than 24 hours later, the accident happened. RealLife CTVN.ORG Helicopter is Ready - Jaws of Life Getting Scot Out I remember the drunk driver who hit us walking up to our car, look at my unconscious parents first, make eye contact with me in the back, then running away. I sat trapped inside the vehicle, looking toward the front seats and seeing my parents completely covered in blood, neither of them moving. I thought they were both dead. With my brother and sister screaming and crying next to me, I just sat in shock. RealLife CTVN.ORG First responders were outside struggling to get into the totaled vehicle, and it felt like I sat there for hours just staring at my parents, waiting to get out. I didn't understand what was happening, but I remember praying and somehow holding onto the belief everything was going to be okay. My dad was flown in by flight for life with massive internal injuries, broken bones, his body went into DIC, and was resuscitated multiple times. He was given only a 1% chance of surviving. My mom suffered multiple spinal fractures and it was a miracle she had not been paralyzed.. Both of my parents would spend months in hospitals and rehabilitation while my siblings and I were cared for by family. When I was finally able to see my dad again months later, I barely recognized him. He was heavily medicated, immobilized, and covered in casts. I had spent months wanting to hug him, but when he was finally in front of me, I was afraid to even touch him because I thought I might hurt him. And in the middle of everything, doctors discovered something no one could have ever imagined. My mom had fractured her spine at essentially the same level as her pancreas, and while doctors were evaluating those injuries, imaging revealed a lesion. It was pancreatic cancer. If you know anything about medicine, you know how devastating this diagnosis is... and is usually terminal. Had the accident never happened, there would have been no reason to obtain that imaging, and we have no idea when her cancer otherwise would have been found. The accident that had devastated our family actually is what led doctors to make the diagnosis early. While my parents were fighting to survive, our small-town community carried our family. Before the accident, my parents had built their own veterinary practice, which was just starting to grow. Now they were lying in hospital beds, unable to work, unsure if they would ever be able to work again. People brought meals to our home. Relatives rearranged their lives to care for us kids so we could stay in our own house and school. Our community continued supporting my parents' practice so it would still be there when they returned. I was too young to understand it then, but I do now. I learned that sometimes God answers prayers through other people. Sometimes His love looks like first responders climbing into a crushed car, neighbors bringing dinner, or people simply showing up for you when you cannot carry the weight alone. After months in the hospital, my parents finally came home, but surviving the accident was not the end of our story. The next few years were filled with physical therapy, doctors' appointments, surgeries, court dates, and years of trying to figure out what normal life looked like again. My dad was recovering from his injuries while also now struggling with an opioid addiction, and getting off of them brought an entirely different set of challenges, while my mom was now battling cancer. A few months after the accident, she underwent a Whipple surgery. Nearly twenty years later, she is still cancer free. As a child, I believed that once my parents came home, life would go back to the way it was before. Instead, faith became less about asking God to give us our old life back and more about trusting Him enough to keep moving forward into a life that looked different than the one we had planned. I've carried this perspective with me through every season of my life. When you grow up watching almost everything you know disappear overnight, you learn that hard things can change you without breaking you... and that even when life looks nothing like you planned, you can keep moving forward with strength, faith, purpose, and family. After the accident, I knew I wanted to become a doctor. From a young age, I felt especially drawn to caring for cancer patients. I know what it feels like to wait for answers, to cling to hope, and to have your whole world depend on the person walking into the room. I never want to forget that what may be an ordinary day in medicine for us can be one of the most important days of a patient and their family's lives. Through every exam, every long night of studying, every setback, and eventually every challenge of medical school, I carried with me the 8yo girl who I had watched medicine give her family another chance at life. Becoming a physician became one of the ways I could live out the lessons God had been teaching me since I was little. Almost twenty years later, that little girl achieved her dreams and became a doctor (alongside the love and support of her mom and dad). Along the way, I found my passion in dermatology and hope to one day become a Mohs surgeon and treat patients with skin cancer. My family was given another chance at life because people showed up for us... and through all of them, I believe God showed up too. I hope to spend my career showing up for others, using the life I was given in service of theirs, and never forgetting what a privilege it is to care for someone else's whole world. GETTING TO HEAVEN BY GOING THROUGH HELL If you're going through a difficult season or searching for God's direction in your own life, my dad wrote about our family's story in his memoir.