He was not supposed to make it to his first birthday; now he is a first-year medical student at Wake Forest.
Juan Collazo was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome, a congenital disorder in which the unborn baby becomes entangled in the fibrous string-like amniotic bands in the womb, restricting blood flow and obstructing the baby’s development.
In Collazo’s case, he was affected with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, as well as several other severe deformities on his fingers and other areas.
Collazo was born in a small satellite village in Mexico that does not show up on a map.
The doctors at the nearest major hospital, which was an hour away, told his parents that they simply did not have the resources to treat Collazo and he would have only a couple of months to live.
But, the prognosis did not faze Collazo’s parents. They uprooted everything from their previous home and brought him to Duke Hospital for treatment.
After more than two decades and 15 surgeries, he is now one of the select few to attend Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Before medical school, Collazo attended University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
He excelled in rigorous science classes, held a near-perfect grade point average and even conducted research with notable professors, all while managing surgeries.
As a proud Chapel Hill High School alumnus, Collazo credits the Advancement Via Individual Determination program for helping him realize his potential. Throughout grade-school he was bullied for his appearance, which was a tough obstacle to overcome.
“Kids will be kids, you know?” Collazo said. “I eventually just learned how to embrace my uniqueness.”
Collazo credits his surgeons as his main inspiration for pursuing the medical field. Collazo wants to open health clinics for under-served populations in North Carolina and Mexico.
He aspires to become an emergency-care doctor.
“You never really know what you’re going to get with emergency care,” Collazo said. “ You need be a jack of all trades and know all parts of the body well to succeed.”
However, before he can achieve his goals, Collazo must first make it through medical school. The curriculum is much more rigorous than college and requires a lot of self-discipline and motivation to be successful.
“College is like drinking out of a garden hose, and medical school is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant,” Collazo said.
Nonetheless, Collazo still finds ways to excel and believes that everyone else can too.
“One of the most challenging things about life is learning how to overcome adversity,” Collazo said. “Every obstacle can be handled in two ways: you can let it beat you down or embrace it and learn to use it to your advantage.”
