OMSA Student of the Month of September 2014 - Saurabh Gupta

  • Posted on: 28 September 2014
  • By: OMSA Admin

Saurabh Gupta is quite the inspiration. We received multiple nominations for him from students in Windsor. As a fourth year student at Schulich School of Medicine at the Windsor campus, Saurabh has remained quite involved in both hospitals and the school throughout his clerkship year.

As a clerk, Saurabh spent countless hours with patients, even after his shift is done. He wasn't doing anything "medical" per se; simply visiting them to spend time, listen to them, and share in their life experiences. For example, at the beginning of clerkship year, he had a patient who was recovering from stroke. Saurabh would visit him every evening just to chat, patiently listening to the patient try and talk about his trips to Italy. During his surgical rotation, he ensured daily visits to two patients not on his service anymore; traveling from other sites, or coming in on weekends he had off.

More recently, Saurabh would come to the hospital a bit earlier to visit and play with inpatient pediatric patients. One of our colleagues mentioned an incident just last week: A small girl stepped out of the elevator for a follow up, and as soon as she saw him, ran up and hugged him; all the while screaming, "I MISSED YOU!" Such compassion and dedication to patient care is what makes Saurabh stand out as a role model in patient care.

Saurabh shows this same approachability in all aspects of his life. Outside of clerkship and electives, he continues to find time to teach first and second year students suturing and hand-tie skills using oranges and expired needles/sutures he picks up at the hospitals. In addition, just a few weeks back, he found time from his hospital work, and met with incoming first year medical students to discuss the Windsor facilities and the program here.

All of this personal time spent outside of hospital hours, however, has not affected his academic performance. Saurabh hopes to be a Cardiac Surgeon and so, has been working diligently throughout the past year to be an exceptional clerk and student. He has already been nominated for the Schulich School of Medicine Clerkship Surgery and Obsetrics/Gynecology Awards. Additionally, throughout the year, he has worked on countless case reports and research projects. In fact, finding a lack in radiographic teaching during pre-clerkship year, he banded with our anatomy professor and has created different systems-based anatomy and radiology based clinical scenarios.

Beyond the school and hospitals, Saurabh is an avid traveler and photographer, with a flare for adventure. During his first two years of medical school, he went hiking and camping through the Andes, and backpacked a while through Argentina. In fact, just last summer, he spent a few months in Thailand, training as a Muay Thai fighter and participated in two fights. His vibrant, warm and loving personality is something that is quite unique. Quite a few students view him as ‘go to’ for advice on navigating through clerkship, electives and medical school in general. He is open to share his experiences, struggles, and mistakes in a way that makes many feel reassured. He is the one person who, despite his busy clerkship and electives period, always tries his best to make sure all around him are cared for, content and enjoying life. At the end of the day, we feel he deserves recognition for his passion, his hard work and his incredible personality.