As a child, Jesus Viña Moreno spent countless hours at Hospital General Regional Dr. Marcelino Velez Santana in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. His mother completed her residency there, often bringing him along.
This past summer, Viña Moreno returned to those same halls, not as a visitor, but as a medical student from the UNC School of Medicine. Through the Office of Global Health Education in the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, he spent five weeks in the Dominican Republic, building clinical skills and reconnecting with a place that shaped his earliest memories.
“I have feelings for the place, so it felt natural for me to go back,” Viña Moreno said. “Seeing all the nurses and others who knew me, they’d say, ‘Oh, my gosh. You’re so tall now and you have a beard!’ They would hug me. It brought back those childhood memories.”
But not all of those memories were joyful. In the seventh grade, Viña Moreno was hospitalized there with dengue fever. His condition worsened unexpectedly, and he was transferred to a larger hospital. Still, his original physician, Dr. Dania Torres, continued overseeing his care.
There were some dire moments, but Viña Moreno ultimately made a full recovery largely because of Dr. Torres.
Read more from the UNC School of Medicine.