Pharmacy Statement Personal Statement My

Pharmacy Statement

Personal Statement

My interest in medicine began perhaps later than many individuals, though the circumstances surrounding my introduction to the arena were no less meaningful or profound than other experiences, and perhaps more so than some. At the age of twenty-two, I had to watch my grandfather spend three years suffering from ninety-five percent paralysis and other sever medical issues as the result of a stroke he had suffered. His eventual passing was incredibly bittersweet; I was losing a man I had loved, looked up to, and respected, but who was no longer wholly available, and who was in an unknowable amount of mental and physical anguish. What made the entire three-year period the most agonizing from my perspective, other than watching my grandfather's suffering and the suffering it caused my grandmother as she cared for her slowly dying husband, was the knowledge that something possibly could have been done to ease or even prevent some of the effects of his stroke.

When my grandfather was first rushed to the emergency room immediately following his stroke, the attending physician mentioned a new drug that he wanted to inject my grandfather with. This drug, he explained, was believed to reduce the severity of the stroke and its short- and long-term effects. Being still in the experimental phase, however, there was no guarantee of the drug's efficacy, nor was there complete knowledge about the possible side effects. The physician needed my grandmother's permission to administer the injection, and he needed a quick decision for the drug to have any chance of being effective. With the extremity of the stress in the situation and the lack of knowledge regarding the drug, my grandmother decided it wasn't worth the risk.

The next three years convinced me beyond any doubt that pharmaceuticals were among the most important areas of medical advancement; a simple, single injection could have prevented my grandfather's paralysis in whole or in part, and could have both prolonged his life and greatly increased his quality of life in his remaining years. My goal is to eventually become a part of a research team that develops and tests new pharmaceuticals, possibly for something as large as an effective antiviral and vaccine for eliminating HIV, or even helping to eradicate cancer. I have also seen the power of pharmaceuticals -- and the detriment of their lack -- in less publicized situations that are even more common, and can have just as profound an effect. Becoming a pharmaceutical researcher means having an opportunity to truly improve people's lives, and this is what I would like to dedicate my life to.