Perm woman survives lightning, cancer, becomes medical student

A young woman from Perm has faced serious trials. In her teens, Arina Roma experienced a lightning strike a couple of meters away and cancer. Even during six months of cancer treatment, Arina began to admire the work of doctors and wanted to master this noble profession herself. Now the young woman is fulfilling her dream and is in her second year at the Medical University. Her story is told in a short video.

At 13, Arina was carefree at a children’s summer camp when lightning struck near her and other girls. The thunder and bright flash scared them, and the aftereffects were felt physically.

— «I felt an inexplicable tingling all over my body, and my legs turned red. We looked — a trace of the strike remained in the asphalt», recalls Arina.

The unpleasant adventures at summer camp did not end there for the girl. In that same place, Arina noticed some kind of growth above her collarbone. By the time she returned home, the lump was the size of a chicken egg. Doctors began examining her and diagnosed Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an oncological disease of the lymphatic system. The day after her birthday, Arina went to the hospital. Treatment lasted six months; her family, fellow patients, and doctors supported her. The doctors’ work especially inspired the girl, and she wanted to learn the profession herself in the future. After school, Arina entered the Perm Basic Medical College and graduated with distinction. After working on an ambulance crew, Arina decided to deepen her knowledge and enrolled at the Medical University. She is now in her second year and is delighted to be fulfilling her dream.

— «I have always been impressed being present during surgeries — in general, being among doctors who do their jobs, operate, or receive patients. Perhaps for all of them it is already routine, but I look at them as people who help others every day, who treat them. That certainly inspires me. And in the future I also want to become such a competent doctor and help people», says Arina. — «I want to work in this field, to ease people’s conditions, to see them happy and recovered — to know that I helped them. I often think back to the doctors — both Olga Evgenyevna and Irina Vladimirovna. They are truly people in my life who helped me a great deal, and I always remember them with kind words. And when Olga Evgenyevna learned that I had entered the college, she said: “Never stop — you will succeed!”».

Earlier, we reported that in Perm there lived and worked an obstetrician-gynecologist who was the prototype for the protagonist of the novel “The Kukotsky Enigma”.