Each Wednesday, Lehigh Athletics, Lehigh Valley Overall health Community and Coordinated Health is proud to recognize a Mountain Hawk Hero – an individual related with Lehigh Athletics who is generating a variation in the professional medical industry. We carry on now with keep track of and discipline/cross region alum Shannon Wright ’16.
Former Mountain Hawk Heroes
Oct 14: Darren Saks (Men’s Soccer Alum)
October 7: Jenny Warner Southard (Track and Discipline Alum)
September 30: Taylor Wise (Swimming and Diving Alum)
September 23: Matt Christman (Observe and Industry Alum)
September 16: Steph Fratoni (Subject Hockey Alum)
September 9: Mike Price (Swimming and Diving Alum)
September 2: Yasmin Deliz (Observe and Industry Alum)
August 26: Evan Guerrero (Men’s Lacrosse Alum)
August 19: Ross Biggs (Baseball Alum)
August 12: Cynthia Izuno Macri (Soccer Alum)
August 5: Susan Westman (Rowing Scholar-Athlete)
July 29: Megan Hetzel (Monitor and Industry/Cross Region Alum)
July 22: Lexi Martins (Women’s Basketball Alum)
July 15: Nii Daako-Darko (Track and Industry/Cross State Alum)
July 8: Ali Linsk Butash (Softball Alum)
July 1: Kimberly Scotto-Wetzel & Jonathan Wetzel (Keep track of and Subject/Cross Region Alums)
June 24: Robert Bonow (Men’s Basketball Alum)
June 17: Morgan Decker (Softball Alum)
June 10: Jim Guzzo (Previous Quarterback)
June 3: Amina Affini (Women’s Basketball Alum)
Might 27: Natalie Krane (Women’s Soccer Alum)
Could 20: Tricia Klein (Women’s Golfing Assistant Mentor)
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
The journey for crisis drugs resident doctor Shannon Wright has arrive whole circle.
When Wright was at Lehigh, the cross state and monitor and discipline university student-athlete collapsed all through an August, 2012 observe. That commenced a complicated journey in the direction of the diagnosis and procedure of what was ultimately discovered to be a benign mind mass. The word benign isn’t going to do justice to the healthcare issues Wright (and her medical professionals) would face considering the fact that it was an uncommonly huge measurement, and the spot of the mass influenced her high quality of lifetime and produced surgery tough and dangerous. (Click listed here to browse 2014 tale: Lengthy Street Back to the Start out Line.)
“Shannon impressed me instantly in the recruiting course of action throughout her formal stop by,” mentioned Lehigh head coach Debbie Utesch. “I could tell Shannon possessed an uncommon degree of toughness and I was anxious to have her sign up for our groups. Well, Shannon’s toughness was quickly analyzed.
“I remember sitting down in our keep track of and field staff banquet anxiously awaiting a contact from Shannon’s mother telling us how she came as a result of surgery,” Utesch ongoing. “The crew had rallied around her as she ready for this surgical procedures and everyone was so relieved to get that information that medical procedures experienced long gone very well.”
Wright arrived through the ordeal an even more powerful pupil, athlete and person. Flash ahead 7 many years and she’s now on the other aspect of the health-related field. And due to the fact of what she went as a result of, she is equipped to relate to her individuals in a way very handful of can realize.
“I’m in my very first 12 months of residency at Temple University Healthcare facility,” mentioned Wright. “I am a medical doctor, but even now in coaching for my specialty to be board certified in crisis medication. I essentially graduated from health-related faculty and moved to Philadelphia in the center of the coronavirus pandemic. I predominantly work in the crisis office, then also do some other rotations, which includes in the ICU (intense care device).”
Wright graduated – pretty much – from professional medical faculty at the College of Virginia in May possibly, then jumped right into the crisis area in June… in a city enormously impacted by the pandemic.
With it brought lots of issues.
“I actually started out in the ICU and did my initially rotation there,” said Wright. “It’s normally challenging in predicaments when sufferers are critically ill. Then, when you are in situations where you have to get specific permissions to get a single visitor in for a critically ill patient… that can be really difficult.”
One more problem for Wright was forming connections in a new town with social distancing protocols.
“Setting up in the center of every thing, there is certainly a ton of uncertainty,” she reported. “When you perform in health and fitness treatment, you could experience a great deal of uncertainty, but you are unable to screen that to your people. The intention is to discover the best and safest strategies to advocate for people, striving to get the finest care plans for individuals.”
Wright felt drawn specifically to crisis medication mainly because of her accessibility to treatment throughout her have health-related emergency.
“I’ve witnessed other people today not recuperate just since they failed to have the identical guidance I experienced in place,” stated Wright. “What I genuinely like about emergency medicine is that we just take care of any individual and absolutely everyone who arrives by way of the door.”
Wright’s health care ordeal performed a function in leading her to drugs nowadays.
“Finally, I imagine operating got me to Lehigh and Lehigh bought me to medicine,” she reported. “I was normally fascinated in science and math, and it was what I did effectively, but medication by no means seriously appeared serious to me until finally it was real to me as a patient. Right after that, it took a lengthy time to come to feel like I was recovered enough to be in a great location to be creating long-term selections.
“It definitely made me look at the job that health professionals enjoy in people’s lives, and in caring for persons,” Wright continued. “It made me believe seriously about doing the job in the professional medical area. I’m not happy I experienced people experiences, but it led me down a path that I have really appreciated and identified worthwhile so far.”
It is really been fulfilling for Wright to enable some others, and to be in a rapid-paced setting.
“I think emergency medication is nicely-suited to an athlete,” she stated. “You might be on your ft and imagining all the time. You often have to be completely ready for whatever’s going to occur subsequent and that’s a attitude you can be skilled into, and are properly trained into if you have been an athlete your full lifestyle.”
Wright’s scholar-athlete experience has served her in numerous techniques, the two in medical university and the very first couple of months of residency.
“I keep in mind when I experienced my to start with weekend off in professional medical university and didn’t have a keep track of or cross place meet,” she said. “Some of my classmates ended up chatting about how they had no totally free time. Professional medical school was hard, but the frame of mind of receiving things done as a university student-athlete assists you deal with the problems.”
What Wright went via for the duration of her time at Lehigh even further emphasised the worth of community. From the preliminary symptoms to the analysis, medical procedures and recovery, Wright’s Lehigh teammates were there for her each and every stage of the way.
“Lehigh gave me a robust appreciation for group and supporting each other throughout,” she reported. “That was also extremely valuable to me in the course of professional medical faculty. I’m grateful I made that mindset and designed a ton of friendships… and the talent set to produce far more group.
“That is possibly been most essential to my achievements in health care school, and ideally my eventual success in residency.”
Medication is a staff activity, particularly crisis drugs, and Wright has arrive in with all the equipment to prosper, thanks in big element to her time at Lehigh.
“It is vital to know how to form interactions with your coworkers and normally be doing the job with each other and defining objectives,” she stated. “Whether it truly is a difficult case or just possessing a seriously hard day with a whole lot of quantity coming as a result of the office, speaking effectively with all the users of your crew is essential.”
Being in the emergency place, Wright’s staff sees a huge range of patients.
“We see all various sorts of pathology, ranging from individuals who are pretty medically sophisticated to ankle sprains and anything in amongst,” she said. “It truly is one particular of the broadest specialties in conditions of the scope of your observe, who you see and what you treat.”
One region Wright and her crew has dealt with is COVID-19.
“We at Temple do have separate inpatient products and services for our individuals who are identified with COVID,” she said. “I have certainly viewed people who have been identified with COVID. The pandemic has also influenced how men and women seek out care. We see people today who just never want to be in the medical center simply because they are frightened of finding it, even with all the precautions we consider.
“It’s a serious panic.”
As a health-related skilled, Wright is pretty cautious, but not fearful of staying about patients with COVID. She isn’t really fearful due in big aspect to the safety measures taken at the hospital.
“I dress in my protecting equipment all the time,” mentioned Wright. “The following particular person who arrives by means of the doorway could have COVID. We have masks on our individuals, too.
“I am grateful I have a great deal additional feeling of normalcy than a good deal of people because I continue to am likely to get the job done.”
That assertion by Wright exhibits the heroic, selfless nature of professional medical specialists. As an alternative of focusing on the fears a lot of men and women (specially those not in the professional medical area) would have on the entrance traces, Wright is grateful for what she does have – an capacity to do the job and make a variance in others’ lives.
“There are not a complete large amount of issues far more rewarding than owning fantastic results and obtaining persons connected to correct assets,” she mentioned.
Wright’s mind typically focuses on an critical word… healing.
“What I went through as a client did instruct me a whole lot about therapeutic, which is some thing I consider to communicate to patients,” she reported. “It can be a definitely complicated and very long system [in the hospital] and setting these expectations for sufferers is seriously vital. Being in a position to communicate and understand what that course of action appears to be like is a little something I learned by means of my have practical experience.
“We routinely see individuals on the worst times of their lives, and ultimately owning an great result may not appear wonderful for quite a long time,” Wright continued.
“It was a long course of action for Shannon to acquire a prognosis and therapy prepare, but she tailored to experience just about every twist and switch along the way,” mentioned Utesch. “Her self-self esteem and take care of introduced her again to the monitor and she went on to be a leading steeplechaser and 5,000 meter runner for the group.
“It is really no ponder that Shannon is excelling in crisis drugs.”
No make any difference what her long term delivers and the place she finishes up performing extended-expression, Wright will look at every single and just about every affected person the same, with empathy, remembering the feelings she went through in a clinic mattress yrs before.
“I’ve usually reminded myself that there are men and women on the close of each and every solitary conversation,” she mentioned. “I test to recall what it was like to be on the other facet of points, specially doing the job in an unexpected emergency section which can be a challenging location to be. In the ideal of moments and most effective of procedures, at times, you just want a drink of h2o and everyone is chaotic someplace else since there are critically sick patients.
“But I’ve also been that patient who just preferred a sip of h2o.”
In calendar year one particular of her residency, Wright is undecided on the exact path she’ll take afterwards, but admits she’s however incredibly early in her clinical career.
“I could see myself training community unexpected emergency medication and would like to get involved in rural or wilderness medication,” she claimed. “3 many years is extensive, but I’m guaranteed it will go by speedier than I consider.
“Suitable now, I am just seeking to get my bearings, do a great job and consider superior care of men and women.”
Seven years afterwards, Wright’s journey has come whole circle.
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