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Dr. Aneesh Gupta

Dr. Aneesh Gupta

OB/GYN Residency

Drexel University/ Hahnemann University Hospital

“The most impactful experience I had in medical school was the eight-day medical mission at the clinic in La Victoire, Haiti, says Gupta, an OB/GYN resident at Drexel University/Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.

“This was an eye-opening experience into how the vast majority of the world lives. We take for granted the immediate access we have to health care, and it was fascinating to work with patients that had never seen a physician before in their lives. We treated more than 500 patients.”

As a two-time state tennis champion, Aneesh Gupta knows what it’s like to prepare for victory. But when he faced off against a team of teenagers for a soccer match in La Victoire, Haiti in the mountains outside of Cap-Haitien, he learned all about crushing defeat.

“They were far better than us and beat us quite easily,” said Gupta about the children from the local orphanage. Before the match, Dr. Yvens Laborde, the instructor from UQ‑O who organizes the eight-week rotation for UQ‑O medical students, gave 100 new uniforms for the students.

The smiling children running past him as they scored, their bright blue and white uniforms, set against the dusky brown dirt of the soccer field, remain one of the lasting images from Gupta’s four years of medical school.

“The most impactful experience I had in medical school was the eight-day medical mission at the clinic in La Victoire, Haiti, says Gupta, an OB/GYN resident at Drexel University/Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.

“This was an eye-opening experience into how the vast majority of the world lives. We take for granted the immediate access we have to health care, and it was fascinating to work with patients that had never seen a physician before in their lives. We treated more than 500 patients.”

Besides the soccer match, there were other experiences Gupta will never forget. “There were a few highlights from the trip that stand out to me,” he says. “The first was an elderly lady who came to the clinic a few months before we were there with an aggressive form of lupus that had caused her to lose her hair and was attacking the skin on her scalp. After a few months of oral steroids that Dr. Laborde was able to secure for her, her life had drastically changed, and her disease was under control. When we saw her at her follow-up visit, she was extremely grateful to Dr. Laborde for changing her life, and was happy to return home with a multi-month supply of steroids. Her skin had healed and was no longer causing her pain or discomfort.”

Like many graduates of UQ-Ochsner, Gupta learned to treat and care for a variety of patients, in an assortment of situations. The vast range of experiences offered by this unique medical school was a major attraction for him. Gupta recommends UQ-Ochsner to other ambitious, adventurous students.

“In an ever-globalizing world, medical professionals need to understand how health care works on an international scale,” Gupta says. “The UQ-Ochsner experience taught me far more than the basics of medicine, and serves as the basis of my drive to treat patients around the world. It provides students with a holistic medical school experience. You are taught the basic science underpinnings of medicine at one of the top universities in Australia (and the world), and then undergo rigorous clinical training at one of the top teaching hospitals in America. UQ-Ochsner understands what it takes for students to match into top residencies, and begins the process from Day 1.”

Gupta’s skills and experiences are tested every day in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. Hahnemann is a 500-bed, inner city, tertiary-care, level 1 trauma center. Due to the location and the demographics of the city, the doctors at the hospital where he works treat a number of pathology and critically ill patients, many of whom have little or no insurance. The OB/GYN unit deliver more than 2,000 babies per year.

“My daily schedule consists of rounding on postpartum or post-op patients, managing complicated pregnancies, delivering babies (either vaginal or c/section), operating on gynecology patients, seeing consults in the emergency department,” Gupta says. He also rotates through other institutions to understand how medicine is practiced in different settings such as Main Line Fertility (an REI clinic outside Philadelphia), and Virtua Memorial Hospital (in NJ).

“Growing up, I always knew there was a possibility I would be a doctor,” Gupta say. “I wanted to help people in some capacity, and as I got older, I saw the impact you could have on people’s lives as a physician. I wanted to enter a profession where I would interact with a variety of people, remain active throughout the day, constantly be learning, and use my hands in some capacity. I was very fortunate to find a profession do all of those things on a daily basis.”

Gupta’s busy schedule leaves little time for tennis, although he admits to playing a few sets every now and then. He may not be sharp enough for another state championship, but you never know. Nothing is impossible for some of the high-achieving UQ-Ochsner graduates.