PS Content Question

[Redline]

In my personal statement I'm contemplating on whether or not I should include a story about a man who had to have a leg amputated due to necrosis of tissue after a fracture had healed badly. The fracture had happened years earlier and he never saw a doctor. This was on a mission trip to a third world country. I plan to continue mission work in the future. I talk about how if a doctor had been present to properly set the fracture the leg would have probably healed fine.

Should I include the story or replace it with a more upbeat story with a pleasant outcome? I also say something about how doctors don't always have pleasant outcomes and situations such as the one mentioned cannot affect their work with other patients. A doctor has to deal with the bad as well as the good. I don't want this story to give my PS a depressing tone.

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[LizzyM]

In my personal statement I'm contemplating on whether or not I should include a story about a man who had to have a leg amputated due to necrosis of tissue after a fracture had healed badly. The fracture had happened years earlier and he never saw a doctor. This was on a mission trip to a third world country. I plan to continue mission work in the future. I talk about how if a doctor had been present to properly set the fracture the leg would have probably healed fine.

Should I include the story or replace it with a more upbeat story with a pleasant outcome? I also say something about how doctors don't always have pleasant outcomes and situations such as the one mentioned cannot affect their work with other patients. A doctor has to deal with the bad as well as the good. I don't want this story to give my PS a depressing tone.

Your story should make sense in terms of the manner in which you wish to practice medicine. We know that people here in the US and around the world suffer because they lack access to medical care but unless you are resolved to serve in a severely underserved area -- as your primary role in medicine, not on a 10 day mission every year or two -- then your story is just B.S. that is unrelated to your desire to be a physician.

Tell us why you want to be a doctor and how you see yourself helping people with the skills you acquire.