The University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine enrolls about 2,000 students every year in their Biomedical Science programs.
Every one of those 2,000 students has their own personal reasons for choosing to go into the medicine industry. For some, the calling for financial stability drives them through the near endless years of school. Others go into the field after being inspired by a family member’s related career path or unfortunate health issues.
For junior Biomedical Science major Shauna Ragbir, 22, going into medicine wasn’t exactly a choice, as much as it was a hope at extending her own life span.
“I didn’t choose the medicine life, the medicine life chose me,” said Ragbir, laughing. “I’m learning medicine so I can cure myself, and any one that has my cancers. I don’t want anyone to have to go through the obstacles that I still have to go through,” said Ragbir.
Ragbir was born with a rare brain cancer called ependymoma, which took her team of doctors seven years to diagnose. Ependymoma is a tumor that comes from the cells lining the ventricular system of the brain or spinal cord. Children that have this cancer usually only have it in their brains. Ragbir was one of the few kids who also had it in their spinal cord. The most common symptoms of this cancer include headaches, nausea, and lethargy.
The amount of tumor mass Ragbir had called for some very drastic surgeries. At age 7, Ragbir had total spinal surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, and then a series of radiation to kill the roots of the tumors. Because it was not a complete success, Ragbir was transferred to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where they started her on an experimental chemotherapy drug. Fortunately, the drug worked and there were no traces of the tumors left in her spine.
“Having cancer makes for a very weird childhood,” said Ragbir. “I knew how to say words like, ‘neurologist,’ ‘radiologist’ and ‘pathologist’ while other kids were struggling with how to say ‘hippopotamus’. My normal surroundings were the cold and white hospital rooms and the wide and empty hallways, while my friends only knew of the classrooms and the playgrounds.”
Ragbir said her parents tried their hardest to make her and her brother, Ramin’s life feel as “normal” as they could. They took trips across the States when Ragbir wasn’t too sick, and even chaperoned school field trips. They even disciplined her and her brother if one of them ever started to slip in their school work.
“I never wanted Shauna to feel as if she was entitled to a ‘D’ grade on a test just because she was sick,” said Ragbir’s mother, Shantie. “I never wanted her to settle. I want my kids to know the value of hard work, no matter what troubles life puts in their way. From learning how to sit and study through her pains, Shauna has learned how to believe in working to live. She will not give up. She will beat this.”
That core value is the reason Ragbir managed to get her Associates of Arts degree even though she was hit with another diagnosis, Papillary Carcinoma, a form of thyroid cancer, causing her to withdraw from Valencia College. For this new diagnosis, Ragbir had to go through radioactive iodine treatment, which prevented her from being around people, including her family.
To top it off, because she had to withdraw from school, Ragbir had to pay back the state for the classes that were paid for by her Bright Future Scholarship.
“The State of Florida did not believe that I was sick enough to have to withdraw from my classes. Go figure,” said Ragbir. “My neurologist wanted to go with me own to the Bright Future offices to fight the case. I think he was more upset than I was. At that point, I was looking at life with a, ‘what else can you throw at me,’ type of view.”
In the spring of 2013, Ragbir was in her final semester at Valencia College when her brain tumor came back, this time, causing total paralysis of her entire body. Fluid had been building up in her brain for the past ten years and with her thyroid cancer, the fluid had no way of filtering out. Somehow, Ragbir still made school her top priority.
“I took online classes, had work sent to my house, rolled into class in my wheelchair if I actually had to show up. My mom drove met to school and took down notes for me. She became my arms and legs,” Ragbir said.
At this point, the prognosis was dimmer than a black hole. Ragbir said she was given two choices. The first one was to live out the remainder of her already shortened life span as peacefully as she can, still paralyzed, or she can undergo another major surgery to insert a Shunt in her back to drain the fluids from her brain and spine. The catch? Because of all the scar tissues in her brain, she had a one percent survival rate if she chooses surgery. Another catch? Finding a surgeon that would agree to perform the high risk surgery.
“For the longest time, I didn’t want to do the surgery. I was tired and beat down by this cancer. I was ready to accept life for what it was and to go out happy and peaceful,” said Ragbir. “Then my brother came to me crying one day, saying he didn’t want to live without me. That’s when I changed my mind.”
Last spring, during the time when most college students travel down to Miami to party and enjoy their spring break, Ragbir went down to Miami to go under the knife for the sixth time in her life. She spent the next two months alive and recovering before being transported home to start the process of re-learning how to walk.
“That was the worst,” said Ragbir. “It’s tough when you have professional people around you telling you that it can’t happen or that it will take years before you will be able to do something as simple as pick up a pencil. Those people really need to go to some kind of positive outlook class. The next time I hear someone tell me that I can’t, I swear I’m going to resort to some violent actions. Just take a look at my medical records and my academic record. Heck, just look at my life and then look me in the face and tell me that I can’t do something. I dare them.”
Ragbir made it her new goal to be able to walk before the fall semester started and worked with a physical therapist three times a week. While she did manage to walk with two weeks left before school started, Ragbir just completed her last therapy session this week.
Today, Ragbir continues to study to become a neurosurgeon, having just past two major tests last week. She is currently studying for her MCAT and training her Siberian husky, Dakota, to be a service dog.
“I honestly believe that there is nothing I can’t do. It sounds cocky and arrogant, but I’ve come too far to stop now. I just have to keep on believing in myself and staying strong,” said Ragbir.
Written by My-Nhon Truong
