Alin Gragossian
Without my white coat, I am a hospital patient. Sometimes, I switch between the doctor-patient role even in one day, as I get an echocardiogram in the morning, hurriedly put on my scrubs, and then head to an ER shift right afterward.
During the end of my Emergency Medicine residency, I was diagnosed with acutely decompensated heart failure secondary to dilated cardiomyopathy. I received an urgent heart transplant just days after my diagnosis. Since then, I have been using my platform as a physician to advocate for organ donation and transplant patients altogether. I like to show others that patients with organ transplants can be normal, everyday people with regular working lives, families, dreams, and goals.
I went on to graduate from residency after my illness and I am now doing a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine in New York City. I think that it is a blessing to know what it’s like to be in my patients’ shoes, especially given the field that I’m in.
”#withoutthewhitecoat I am a patient. I have been to both medical school and patient school, and I have learned the most beautiful and vulnerable things about humanity through both.
Alin Gragossian
DO | Class of 2016
The Mt Sinai Hospital
