Seniors at MU med school receive degrees

HUNTINGTON -- James Robert Hayes has already seen the good and the bad that comes with medical knowledge, and he has yet to log his first hour as a resident physician.

Hayes, who received his medical degree along with more than 40 classmates of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Friday night's commencement, had extra reason to be happy Friday night, because his two-week-old daughter, Reagan, was out of neo-natal intensive care.

Born very small, the infant had struggled to regulate her blood sugar and had been in intensive care at a local hospital until this week. The baby is at home and healthy now, but it was a stressful time for the 27-year-old Hayes and his wife, Brittany.

"Knowing what I know, it was easier in some ways to deal with the situation and more difficult in others," said Hayes, who lives in Huntington. "It was easier because I understood what was going on, but, at the same time, I knew about all of the rare things that could be causing it."

The worry could be attributed to a concerned father, but, in truth, the worst case scenario is a theme common to the medical school class of 2008. More than a few have children, siblings or relatives with rare health problems. So many so that the class started an endowment to fund a lecture series on rare pediatric neurological disorders so that future physicians will be trained to look at every possible diagnosis in a child.

That particular effort was highlighted by Marie C. Veitia, associate dean for student affairs, when she addressed the class at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center on Friday evening.

"Let me make this perfectly clear: Grass does not grow under the feet of the class of 2008," she said. "You are always on the move, doing what needs to be done. ... You don't sit and wait to be told how to make a difference."

Chris Adams, president of the graduating medical class, said the group of students who had been working together over the past four years have become like family to one another.

"Somehow, through all the insanity, we managed to keep each other sane," he said. "We picked each other up and pushed each other to work harder than we ever thought possible."

Thanks to the expansion of the school's medical program through facilities like the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Center, the class of 2008 will likely be the last "small" class to graduate from Marshall, Adams said.

"But hopefully we're not the last family," he said. "I don't know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future; it is us."

Many of the students will be going to points across the country to begin their residencies. Hayes will be staying here, doing his residency in internal medicine at Marshall. He eventually wants to go on to cardiology. But Friday, he was happy simply to be graduating, knowing that his fledgling family was happy and well.

"This is certainly a big celebration for us, but it's certainly bigger because (Reagan) is healthy," he said.