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“Since my ear reconstructive surgery, I knew I wanted to be a surgeon.”
Olivia Howe, a Surgical Trainee, at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) was inspired to care after receiving reconstructive surgery at 10 years old.
Olivia was born without her right ear and was deaf on her right side. She was born with microtia and atresia which meant she was born with a very small and malformed right ear, and she had no ear canal.
Olivia said: “At 10 years old I decided to undergo reconstructive surgery where they took cartilage from my rib and a skin graft from my leg to reconstruct my right ear.
“Since that first surgery I was so inspired by the surgeon, the day after my surgery I started operating on my teddy bears and I haven’t really decided about any other career since.
“I had a total of three surgeries for my ear and in every one of them I was so touched by the expert care from all the clinicians involved, including the doctors, nurses, and the healthcare staff.
“ I knew that I really wanted to make people feel how I felt in that moment of being helped.”
Olivia is now in her second year of core surgical training and is applying to higher specialty training for general surgery .
She added: “Now that I am actually a surgical trainee it feels a bit surreal, from such a young age I dreamt of being a surgeon and now I can finally call myself one.”
Often it can be a direct personal experience or witnessing the experience of a loved one that can inspire us to want to make a difference and follow a career path that is linked to that moment .
Do you have an interesting story of how you came to be in your caring career?
If you have been inspired to care and work at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, please contact nuhnt.nuhmedia@nhs.net .
As part of our inspired to care campaign, we have shared the stories of Rachel Spence who was inspired to care and start her career at NUH after losing her mum to breast cancer at a young age and Cystic Fibrosis Specialist nurse, Lindsey Hemmingway who was inspired to care when her Nanna had a fall and Lindsey had to jump into action, among others.