Intern of the year following in father’s footsteps

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Intern of the 2016-2017 year, Dr. Simone Evelyn, appears to be on the same career path as her father, Dr. Victor Evelyn.

The young doctor was praised for the hard work she put in during her intern year at the hospital, during an awards ceremony which took place in the board room at the QEH yesterday morning.

She revealed that when she got the call from Dr. Clyde Cave, Internship Co-ordinator, she was speechless but pleasantly surprised and humbled to be awarded such a title.

She revealed that, like her father, she plans to go into internal medicine.

“My dad is proud that I’m following in his footsteps; but he always told me to do what I wanted to do. He always tells me to do what makes me happy because at the end of the day, it doesn’t make sense to do something that doesn’t make me happy, so I’m satisfied and happy with my choice,” she said.

On her plans going forward, Evelyn stated that she wants to get into internal medicine due to its wide reach. She explained that other sub-specialities were narrow, but with internal medicine there was a wider appreciation for most of the pathologies going on in the body. She revealed that during her rotation period, her time in internal medicine was her favourite and added that her team felt like family.

She revealed that haematology was a late love as she recently found the area of study to be quite interesting.

“It is such a great area for research, especially in this region. In Jamaica we have a lot of persons with sickle cell disease, so I think there’s lots of opportunities for research in that area going forward as well,” she said.

Evelyn went on to note that her favourite part of her internship year was knowing that the work she put into the medicine and taking care of the patients was actually appreciated.

“That really warms my heart when I know that myself and my team can actually help and change a person’s life,” she said.