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UNT Health students celebrate Match Day
The wait is over for doctors who found out today where they'll do their residencies. FOX 4's Alex Boyer talked to one student who is celebrating much more than the next step in her career.
DENTON, Texas - Friday is "Match Day," where medical students across the country find out where their careers will continue.
Here in North Texas, the anticipation was especially high for one student who pursued her medical degree while fighting cancer.
Medical school Match Day
In medical school, you're supposed to be learning how to diagnose and treat others.
Sadly, one student at the UNT Health Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine was teaching first-year medical school students how to use an ultrasound machine in 2023, when she found her own cancer.
Now, it's the moment Dominique Iida has been waiting for. On Friday, the 28-year-old fourth-year student and her classmates found out where they "matched" for residency. Iida got her number one choice: Texas Tech in Lubbock, where her fiancé is.
What they're saying:
"It's been three years of long distance. It's always hard in residency med school," Iida's fiancé, Ruthvik Allala said. "With her coming home — our new home — it's great. We can start our life together."
Cancer diagnosis
The backstory:
This joyous occasion was not without hardships for Iida — both in the classroom, and in the hospital where she was a patient.
"I was like, 'Okay, I'll do my neck.' We did mine, I saw something that looked not normal. I talked to my advisor and got it looked at, and found my cancer that way," Iida said.
It was on the day of surgery to remove her thyroid in January 2024, that Iida had a revelation about her career path.
"When I had surgery, I was really nervous. I had never had surgery before," Iida said. "And my anesthesiologist was great. She cracked jokes, made me feel a whole lot better about the whole process and myself."
The experience prompted her to do her residency in anesthesiology.
"I think being in that kind of comforted role made me feel that that was something I would want to do," she said.
Her parents are thrilled. Iida says she's grateful to all the people in her life that have supported her on this sometimes rocky journey.
"Everything is supposed to work out the way it's supposed to," she said. I never imagined my journey to look like this, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Keep going."
And her mom told FOX 4 that Iida and her fiancé are getting married exactly one year from Friday. Lots to celebrate for the couple: To health and happiness!
The Source: Information in this article comes from FOX 4 interviews.