I always wanted to be a doctor - part 1
The story of Zuzana Černá proves that if a person with a clear vision, strong will and a support of close people will always manage to meet their goals at the end, although the ways to it may be tangled and full of obstacles.
Text: Vladimíra Storchová
Was it a difficult decision to become a plastic surgeon? Didn’t it mean giving up on children and family?
Fortunately, I didn’t have to think about such things, because I had a child already at a high school.
Excuse me?
To tell you exactly, our son was born two weeks after my high-school graduation.
Expectant mother – it’s not a typical thing to see at high school. Did you have any troubles?
Oh, not at all. I think troubles had the fourteen-year old freshman boys when they saw me walking around the hallways during a break. It certainly was not typical thirty years ago. Nobody ever even suggested that I should be expelled from school or anything like that, though. My husband had gone to the same high school (five years before me) and so did his sister, so everybody knew us and supported us. The whole class and also the teachers came to our wedding.
To study medicine is not an easy thing to do, let alone with a child!
It might sound trivial, but I always wanted to be a doctor (my father was one, you see). During the holidays I took up temporary jobs in hospitals, maternity hospitals etc. But when I did the entrance exams for medicine with a three-week old baby, I didn’t take things seriously in any way. And then three weeks later the notice of my acceptance came from the faculty and I burst out crying. All of a sudden I had no idea what to do. Desire to study medicine was still very strong, but my husband had to go to the Army and there was the baby…The woman’s values change radically at that time – the nature wisely set it that way. I talked it over with my father and he told me: “Try it. You got the opportunity, so use it. You can always give it up.” And so I tried.
And then?
Really everybody helped, my parents baby-sat, my grandma, my brother. Sometimes I went for a lecture with a pram. I could afford that, because my son – ever since a baby - has been such a smiling sun, satisfied, never crying, never naughty. Such a positive little man. And also thanks to that, I managed to finish the whole six-year program without any break. But I would have never managed without my family.
Did you make your decision to study plastic surgery at the beginning?
Not at all, I went to study the medicine with the idea that I would dedicate myself to midwifery. I consider bringing children to this world to be a beautiful profession. But in the sophomore year I met the associate professor Jan Měšťák. He was our lecturer and won us over with his characteristic kind behavior as well as – and mainly – with his skills. I would say it was him who definitely won me over for the plastic surgery. I was charmed by his subject, not so well known here at the time. In addition it fit well with my aesthetic orientation. I have always loved painting and I even had a small exhibition of my pictures back in Canada.
You received the postgraduate diploma, everything went great for you and then all of a sudden you emigrated. Why?
Because my ex-husband had emigrated to Canada and my son had been missing him terribly.
You left everything behind because your son had been missing his father?!
He was terribly sad, it broke his heart. At the age of twelve a boy might need his dad more than his mum. I still remember – we were sitting on a bench and I drew the worst possible picture of emigration for him. The possibility that I wouldn’t be able to find a job there, not even as a nurse, the fact that we wouldn’t have any money, that we would have to give up many things, that we would only have one for the other, no family, no friends and acquaintances. And he still made the decision to follow his father. He never regretted it and never complained one bit.
And then?
We flew. The old way: to Cuba with a stop-over in Montreal, where we got off the plane and applied for asylum, as many other Czechs had done before us. There – after many formalities – they took us to prison and I was thinking: Oh, my God, where have I brought my son to? They had to check up on many things, which was the usual course of action, but I didn’t know that.
Did the worst picture of emigration beginnings start to take shape?
You can be sure of that! I started with a bucket, rag and broom and I studied at nights.
And a place of living?
During the eight years I lived in Canada I moved nine times. In accordance with my work we started on the cheapest addresses. For example we happened to come to a drug ghetto of the black population, with cockroaches everywhere and injections and needles in the hallways. Just dreadful. As I was slowly getting some better job opportunities (baby-sitting, taking care of old people, lab work), our standard of living was getting better, too. In Canada flat offer is no problem, you just have to have enough money. Another determining factor for your address is your social status. It’s a kind of obligation – a university professor could not afford to live in a housing estate as is quite typical here. It would not be appropriate.
How long did the tough period last?
Two years, with a better grasp of the language and taking up various courses I was moving up the ladder of work opportunities until I got back to the university level. Through further studies at two universities I got back to medicine. At first, after two years of studying at the McGill Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, I gained the Master’s Degree, and then – based on winning a competition – I became a member of a doctor’s studies university team concerned with breast cancer. That was already in Vancouver at the University of British Colombia. I was lucky, I happened to join a team of experienced specialists, I was lecturing and working both at a clinic and on my Doctor’s Degree.
