Childhood  Emergency Room Experience Paved the Way to Cancer Research

By Elizabeth Lassiter, Communications Intern

Darrell Hunt, an inner-city kid from Miami, vividly remembers his first encounter with the medical system.

"The first thing I remember about medicine was sitting with my grandmother in the emergency room while she was having chest pain. That day we arrived at 7 a.m. and didn't see a doctor until around 4 p.m.," said Hunt.

Hunt didn't go to school that day. Instead he spent those nine hours comforting his grandmother while she held her left arm and spoke of the pain in her chest.

"I remember, even at the age of six, thinking, there's got to be a better way to do this. That's when I decided to become a doctor."

Hunt credits his grandmother and her many trials with the Miami medical system for teaching him about inequalities in the system. Through the years he spent taking care of his ailing grandmother, he realized that recovery could come in all forms.

"I realized that all I was doing [for her] - checking her prescriptions, holding her hand, reading her stories, cooking her dinner, administering her medication, telling jokes, crying with her - were all part of caring, a part of healing," said Hunt.

Hunt went on to enroll in a pre-med curriculum at UNC in pursuit of his medical dreams. While there, NC-HCAP's Science Enrichment Preparation (SEP) Program proved to be an invaluable step toward becoming a physician.

"SEP provided a foundation of learning how to study and provided my first undergraduate experience with medical professions," recalled Hunt. "I think SEP was great for its ability to show students a broad range of careers and opportunities for minority students. I came out of that summer more confident in my abilities as a student and as a student-leader."

After graduating from UNC, Hunt attended medical school at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, where he became particularly interested in surgery for the "craft of operating" and the intimate interactions with surgery patients.

Following medical school, Hunt spent time working at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UNC School of Medicine where he completed research in surgical oncology. In a position where he felt distant from patients, Hunt managed to keep sight of the broader community.

"Even though it seems like I'm in a little lab by myself, I'm part of a group of thousands of people worldwide who are trying to cure cancer."

Today, Hunt is finishing his last two years of surgical training at the University of Florida. He has already earned a Ph.D., and was honored with the Ray Bierstedt Memorial Award from the University of Florida Department of Surgery.

Hunt is well on his way to achieving the goals he set as a little boy in that Miami emergency room, one step at a time.