Teen eyes medical forum

CAMILLA, Ga. — Hunter Pollock, a ninth-grader at Baconton Community Charter School, went through a lot in the first six months of his life. Now that he is reaching adulthood, he is ready for another challenge.

He just needs a little help getting there. Hunter, now 14, has been recommended to take part in the National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) this summer.

Founded in 1992, the NYLF helps prepare high school students for their academic future and professional careers. Its mission is to bring various professions to life and empower young people with confidence to make well-informed career choices through programs that are held in various cities throughout the United States.

Forums are offered on a variety of topics and career fields including law, medicine, collegiate success and national security.

Hunter is hoping to attend the forum on medicine, in order to help him reach his goal of becoming a surgeon. The forum will be held at Emory University in Atlanta from June 25 to July 5.

Hunter’s journey to the NYFL actually started at Tift Regional Medical Center on April 11, 1996, when he was born and diagnosed with pulmonary stenosis, a condition in which the pulmonary artery is too narrow.

“It’s what our grandmothers would have called ‘blue baby,'” Renee Pollock, Hunter’s mother, said.

The diagnosis led him to have a valvoplasty when he was four days old after eventually being sent to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.

“Because he was premature, the tissue in that artery was so tender that all they had to do was put a balloon in it,” Pollock recalled.

Not long after that, a consult from a plastic surgeon revealed that Hunter also had a skull malformation known as craniosynostosis — a condition in which one or more joints in an infant’s skull closes before his or her brain is fully formed. The brain cannot form in its natural shape, thereby resulting in the newborn’s head being misshapen.

“The (joints) in his forehead closed, so as his brain and the rest of his body grew, it left a point on the top of his head,” the elder Pollock said.

To correct the problem, Hunter had skull reconstructive surgery when he was six months old as part of a clinical trail.

Now, aside from the occasional check-up, he is living a normal life.

“He has suffered no physical repercussions at all,” his mother said. “I wanted to make sure all of (his issues were) handled before he was old enough to remember.”

Both of these experiences, even though he does not remember them, paved Hunter’s way to the NYLF.

“He knows everything that happened to him and has always had an urge to give back,” his mother said.

As a participant in the medical forum, Hunter will essentially get to live the life of a medical resident — and will also get to learn about the legalities of medicine, among other things.

“He will shadow prominent physicians, who will let (forum participants) know what they need to do for medical school and beyond,” Pollock said. “He will get to observe surgeons, help with patient histories and be in contact with patients.

“They actually get to do stuff. Hunter is excited about doing it.”

The physician-hopeful has reportedly shown enough potential to have been invited to take the SAT in the seventh-grade, which his mother would not let him do.

“I wanted him to have a normal 12 years of school,” Pollock said.

Hunter has shown the commitment and know-how necessary to back up his academic standings, his mother said.

“I’ll walk by when he’s on the computer and I’ll think he’s on Facebook or MySpace, but he’s actually studying,” she said. “I’ll be watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and he’ll watch what they’re doing. If they use a medical term, he’ll explain it to me.

“He has a scientific mind.”

Students are nominated to attend NYLF programs by educators, organization advisors, alumni, participating institutions or through classroom surveys. Students may also be admitted through an application process provided they meet the academic requirements. NYLF scholars are expected to demonstrate strong academic abilities, leadership and an interest in the career field being studied.

Since the cost for the NYLF is a little steep for his parents, Hunter applied for a scholarship to help with the tuition costs, but the family has not heard anything yet. The scholarship application process required him to write an essay, at which time he took the opportunity to talk about the physicians that had helped him.

He summed up the essay by stating what his overall ambitions are.

“I do not see my becoming a surgeon as a dream. It is a goal, and I will do anything and everything in my power to become one,” the 14-year-old wrote. “The dream aspect of it is that one day I will also inspire someone to enter the medical field to change the life of someone else and to do it for all the right reasons, simply to make a difference.”

In the meantime, the Pollock family has an account set up at Family Bank in Pelham named the “Hunter Pollock Scholar Fund” to help raise the money needed to send Hunter to the forum.

Should he be able to go, Hunter will have earned two college credits going into his sophomore year in high school and will have also been given one more thing to put on his medical school application.

“It can also help him decide whether he wants to be a general or cardiothoracic surgeon,” Pollock said. “They can give him the information to help him decide things like that.”

The cost to go is $2,600. Amongst family and friends, about $300 has been raised so far. In order for Hunter to be able to attend, the money is preferred to be in place before the end of this month.