An Army veteran who was once a patient will soon become a doctor.
Published on August 16, 2017 by Jason Hahn for PEOPLE
A wounded Army veteran is close to achieving his dream of becoming a doctor after earning admittance to the prestigious Harvard Medical School.
Greg Galeazzi, 31, lost both of his legs and part of his right arm when a roadside bomb exploded in May 2011 during his deployment to Afghanistan. Since then, he has endured dozens of surgeries and hundreds of hours of physical therapy, which he called a “nightmare.” But through all the trauma he experienced, Galeazzi held on to his dream of one day becoming a doctor.
“Not only did I still want to practice medicine, but it strengthened my resolve to do it,” he told ABC News.
Galeazzi took 18 pre-med courses over two years at the University of Maryland, before finishing in May 2016. It was in those classes that Galeazzi met his future fiancé, Jazmine Romero, who he plans to marry next year.
Around that time, Galeazzi studied for six months to prepare for the hours-long Medical College Assessment Test, and after passing it, he sent applications to 19 medical schools on the East Coast. While he was accepted to many, Galeazzi announced in a blog post on August 5 that he had chosen to attend the top-ranking medical institution in the world, Harvard Medical School, where he will study for the next four years.
“It is tough to explain just how thrilled I was to simply be invited to interview at Harvard, let alone be accepted,” Galeazzi wrote in his announcement. “Mostly, it came as an immense relief to know that my hard work in pre-med and MCAT preparation paid off; and it reminded me just how grateful I am to have survived my injuries, and still have talents to share with the world.”
Galeazzi is still deciding what type of medicine he’ll practice, but he’s leaning toward primary care, he told ABC News. In the end, Galeazzi said, he just wants to be a good doctor.
“While I’ve overcome some pretty harrowing life challenges, medical school is going to be an entirely different struggle, so please wish me luck!” he wrote. “Then again, I recognize that this is a wonderful challenge to have, and I am happy and eager to take it on!”
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Fast-forward to 2021 to learn how the IBOT wheelchair – provided by the partnership between Roberts & Ryan and the Robert Irvine Foundation, further transformed his life. READ FULL ARTICLE.
