A medical student who’d been badly hurt at age 16 in a car accident will be mentored this summer by the physician who helped to save her life.
You can read about Chloe Koessl in her own words through a story in the Billings Gazette.
Koessl is from Glasgow, Montana, a town of just under 5,000 people. After the accident, Koessl was rushed to the town’s small clinic. It was evident they were not equipped to care for her injuries. Kevin Ross, M.D., the ER provider that day, stabilized her injuries and arranged for Koessl to be air-lifted from Glasgow to Billings.
“Without [the Billings] physicians, I probably wouldn’t have made it,” she said. “After that experience, I knew I wanted to be a person that could help others.”
The accident changed her life dramatically. It solidified her mission to serve a greater purpose for her community and Koessl started down the path to becoming a physician.
Most people do not have the chance to thank the physician that saved their life, let alone be mentored by them. Koessl considers herself lucky to be working with Dr. Ross as he starts his new position as the Glasgow Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST) site preceptor.
Later this year, Dr. Ross and Koessl will reunite (under much better circumstances) as she continues a portion of her medical education in Glasgow as a TRUST Scholar. And in what could have been a great post just talking about herself, Koessl makes a point in the article to remind Montana students that they can learn medicine at home, for home:
“Montana WWAMI prepares students to become well-rounded physicians who can thrive in rural settings.”
You can read more of Koessl’s story here.