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SEO: Kayleen Bailey works to fight cancer for her mother Kayleen Bailey, Tulane Medical School alumna has overcome much heartache in her life, including losing her mother while in college to cancer. Bailey decided to change path and became a doctor and helping children with cancer.

Doctor credits her mother for career choice Kayleen Bailey helps others going through similar experience as her mother

The sounds of a hospital surround her: the beeping of machines, the hustling of feet, the barking of orders and the ringing of alarms. It can sound overwhelming, intimidating and even frightening, yet Kayleen Bailey stands calmly in the middle of it all. Bailey is in the middle of working yet another 12-hour shift, a typical weekend for her and in the inside of all this chaos, she thinks about the events that lead her to this moment in life.While many credit the influence of a particular teacher or the support of loving parents for their success as a physician, Bailey, 29, credits her mothers death as the thing that turned her toward medicine.Early lifeKayleen Bailey was born and raised in Baltimore, surrounded by friends and family. Bailey attended private Catholic school and is the oldest of three children. She attended Franklin and Marshall College to study French and also to play volleyball. Bailey adores her family and describes her family as people who dont expect anything from me besides love.Bailey attended Franklin and Marshall with the hopes of becoming a college professor. This brought her to her summer internship at John Hopkins Hospital to do research. Kayleen Bailey with her mother, Mary- Kay Bailey.

Photo Courtesy: Mark Bailey

(more)Hopkins internship that changed everythingBeres, A#3 Bailey, P. 2

Bailey began her Hopkins internship thinking she would get experience in a research setting. During Baileys internship, her mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which had spread throughout her entire body. She was given only six weeks to live. Bailey did not know how to handle her mothers diagnosis. Bailey said she went where she was most comfortable, and went to my books and research. Her mentor, Dr. Susan Carraway, however, had different plans for her.Dr. Carraway pried her away from the books and pushed her out to the oncology hospital floors to work with the patients and the doctors. Dr. Carraway thought that because of her mother, working with patients and families going through similar situations might help Bailey. Bailey met the oncologists and found them to be the nicest people in the world.Finding her calling At first, Bailey was skeptical about working with the patients, thinking it might make things harder for her emotionally. Seeing the patients in the hospital struggling the way her mother did was hard for Bailey. The longer she worked with the patients, however, she saw that it helped her to help those going through similar situations. I began to realize I belonged with the patients and the doctors more than in the lab or in my books doing research, said Bailey.

(more)One patient stood out to Bailey.The patient came in for an appointment with Dr. Carraway and Bailey was asked to assist.The patient had leukemia and was struggling with it. At the end of the visit, she turned to Carraway and said, When I come in to see you I forget I have leukemia. It was a defining moment for Bailey. It changed everything for me. Beres, A#3 Bailey, P. 3

Shortly after, Baileys mother died from cancer. Bailey knew then that she not only wanted to be a doctor, but oncology was her calling. It was my mom that changed everything for me.- Kayleen Bailey

Her mothers influence Just a few short months after her mother died, Bailey had to talk over and over again about the experience and its influence over her in her medical school interviews. It was hard, but also therapeutic. It helped me talk about her and remember her, Bailey said.Slowing down Becoming a doctor has changed Bailey, but not in a way you would expect. You would think becoming a doctor makes you speed up, go faster or get things done, but in fact, it has slowed her down. I always wanted to be the first one with my hand up, the first one to finish something, but becoming a physician forces you to slow down and develop patience, she says.Kayleen Bailey after getting off a long day at work. Photo Courtesy: Kayleen Bailey

(more)I needed to learn to spend the time and ask enough questions, Bailey said. She has translated this into her everyday life and is no longer stressed about a long line in the grocery store.Beres, A#3 Bailey, P. 2

Standing in the middle of the hospital with hurt feet, lack of sleep and chaos all around her, Bailey cant think of anywhere else she would rather be. All of those people and life events picked her up and placed her exactly where she belongs.

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Finding Love in Medical School Kayleen Bailey changes from scrubs to a wedding dress As she walked the streets of New Orleans one warm Sunday afternoon, Kayleen Bailey realized this was where she wanted to go to medical school.Locals were dressed in black and gold for the upcoming Saints game and the city, looking so different from her Baltimore home, looked beautiful to her. Little did she know shed not only get her first choices school, but find her future husband there.Nothing is guaranteed when you are applying to medical school and she interviewed at three schools. In the end, she found her way to the heart of the south to study medicine.The first week of medical school, Bailey ran for secretary of her class, while another student from the northeast, Erik Romanelli, ran for president. They talked only once in passing and they knew very little about each other. They knew so little, in fact, that they didnt vote for each other.Both got elected to their prospective offices, however, and they were forced to get to know each other, something Bailey describes as fate.Within a month they were dating.Five years later, they married.Kayleen and Erik Romanelli at wedding after finding each other at medical school. Photo courtesy: Shawn Hubbard

Romanelli describes them having a great dynamic together in office and were both re-elected all four years of medical school.Likewise, they dated for the same four years and they married on June 7, 2014. It was cool because we both shared ambitions of being a class officer, but would have never guessed in that process that wed meet the person we would eventually marry, said Bailey.(more)

They both now work as physicians at Einstein Medical Center in New York. When they look back at their choices of both medical schools and elected offices, Bailey says, Surviving medical school and elected office together taught us we could survive anything, including marriage.Beres, A#3 Bailey, P. 2

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