3While attending the New Friendship Primary School, young Dr. Shebiki Beaton would walk late at night from extra lessons to her home in Buxton, on the East Coast of Demerara, in the company of her mother. The duo would navigate their way under heavy Police and Guyana Defence Force soldiers’ presence.
A crime wave was ongoing in the area, and it was one of several challenges the young woman managed to overcome at the time. It did not stop the determined young lady from excelling at primary school, and later she would gain a place at Queen’s College, where she continued to progress towards her goals.
“While in high school, I remember hiding under our bed in the dark with my brother while gunshots rang out in the streets, some even hitting our roof, and still finishing assignments and going to school the next morning,” the young woman told Guyana Times recently. “I completed SBAs and IT assignments without a computer of my own, and sometimes studied with candles and kerosene lamps. So I always felt I had to go the extra mile to achieve my educational dreams,” the University of Guyana alum said.
Dr Beaton’s medical colleagues who studied with her at the University of Guyana have also “matched” into residency programmes.
Just last week, she clambered to another achievement. Dr. Beaton is on her way to becoming a General Surgeon after she was accepted into a residency programme at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, a prestigious medical institution in the United States.
Dr. Beaton said she is particularly grateful to The Almighty following her achievements thus far. “It still feels surreal that I am on this path, but God has made it all possible. He has never left my side, and deserves all the glory for where I am today. I know God has a plan for me, so I will trust in His will,” she said.
Her parents, she said, invested heavily in her education, and she would forever be grateful to them. “Having parents who invested in my education and a family and community who supported and encouraged me made me want to achieve my fullest potential, so that others like me could believe they could achieve it too,” she said.
The medical journey
Dr. Beaton, who is in her 20s, grew up in Buxton with her parents, Clarence and Bonieta Beaton, and her younger brother, Okeme Beaton. After completing her secondary education at Queen’s College, her prayers for attaining higher education were answered when several scholarships came her way from members of her community.
They included scholarships from the Wilfred Vernon Clarke Foundation, Cimbux, and the Annie Daniels Award, which enabled her to attend medical school. Dr. Beaton attained a pass with distinction in 2017 when she read for UG’s bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (UG MBBS) medical programme. She then relocated to Jamaica, where she is now based, to work at the Savanna La Mar Public General Hospital, to begin her medical career.
Love for medicine
According to Dr. Beaton, since her time at medical school at UG’s Turkeyen campus, she was impressed by the surgical knowledge of her lecturers, especially the likes of Dr. N. Rambaran and Dr. Motilal from Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). “I have always been interested in studying and learning about surgical pathologies,” she said.
After finishing her rotating internship, Dr. Beaton discovered that general surgery was the most exciting of the four core specialties. “When I became a fully registered doctor, I opted to work in general surgery, and I have been there ever since,” she said.
She said she finds, “great pleasure in being able to manage complicated cases or patients presenting in extremis back to health. But being able to learn, perform, and sometimes even teach others a new surgical procedure while knowing that you’re providing lifesaving and often life-changing care to your patients is by far the most fulfilling aspect of my career.”
Dr. Beaton said the hospital in Jamaica is situated in a rural area, and statistics have indicated that it has the second-highest murder rate and a high volume of motor vehicle accidents on the island. She observed that there is almost no shortage of trauma cases, many of which she sees on a regular basis.
“Despite the fact that they frequently require many long hours and late-night surgeries, the high intensity and adrenaline of it all are what invigorate me,” Dr. Beaton said.
Prior to being successfully accepted into Morehouse College, Dr. Beaton had to overcome a few other challenges. They included completing the United States Medical Licensing Examination which she undertook during the COVID-19 pandemic. “But having the strong foundation set by the surgeons and physicians from the University of Guyana School of Medicine was invaluable. I’m happy to be a part of that rich legacy, and I’d likely encourage my fellow colleagues aspiring to this path to value the training they received and know that they are more than capable of excelling in any clinical domain,” she added.
During her academic and practical exposure to the field, Dr. Beaton has always had the support of a group of friends, who all continue to enhance their medical studies.
“Matched”
“I met the best group of friends during Medical School, and we have continued to support each other throughout our medical careers,” Dr. Beaton said. The group adopted the popular catchphrase “Matched”, which signifies their individual medical achievement.
Matched is a term used in the United States to mean a medical student or practitioner has been accepted into a residency programme. Dr. Beaton said her UG colleagues have also matched into internal medicine; some are pursuing pediatrics among other specialized studies, she said.
“Matching into a US General Surgery Residency in a categorical position is a rarity for an international medical school graduate like me, and amidst a lot of skepticism from other physicians, my friends encouraged me to fight for the spot, because they knew of my love for the field,” Dr. Beaton said.
She said that female surgeons, particularly black female surgeons, are still in the minority around the world, despite becoming more common. But she said she couldn’t have asked for a better outcome than being accepted into Morehouse School of Medicine, which is considered a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).
The institution has one of the top surgical residency programmes in the United States, carefully designed to prepare black female doctors like herself, she added. “I am truly honoured to be able to follow in the footsteps of these trailblazers at Morehouse, and be a part of such a prestigious group of young female surgeons,” she said.
Dr. Beaton expressed appreciation to her General Surgery colleagues, her Consultant Dr. Cox, Senior Registrar Dr. Valdes, and all the other seniors who mentored her at the Savanna La Mar Public General Hospital in Jamaica.
As regards the latter, she said even though she wasn’t enrolled in a formal residency programme at the Jamaican hospital, the medical institution ensured she received her surgical training early, and that she became skilled enough to handle many cases on her own.
“It still feels surreal that I am on this path, but I know God has a plan for me, so I will trust in His will,” an ecstatic Dr. Beaton said of her medical journey.
