Good NewsSan Diego mom, once part of welfare program, becomes ER doctor
When Amanda Lamond was 15, she witnessed a medical helicopter land in a field to save a friend injured in a car crash. She decided then she would be a doctor when she grew up.
When she was 18, she discovered she was pregnant — and subsequently dropped out of college.
This past weekend, 16 years later, Dr. Amanda Lamond-Holden celebrated the end of her residency at UCSD Medical Centre, with her now-15-year-old son, Brayden, cheering from the audience.
"Pretty much my whole life she's been studying to be a doctor and trying to raise me right, and I'm just really proud of her," Brayden told 10News.
When Lamond-Holden dropped out of college, she moved back in with her parents. Her mother took care of the baby so that Lamond-Holden, with the help of welfare program CalWORKs, could take classes at a community college and work 20 hours a week in an outpatient surgery centre.
Lamond-Holden wouldn't settle for a certificate program or just an undergraduate. In the years that followed, she completed her education at the University of California at San Diego and its medical school. Last year, she was named chief resident at UCSD Medical Center.
"There were people that told me, 'Oh, you're not going to make it through medical school, there's no way you can do that with a child,'" Lamond-Holden told 10News. "I said, 'Why can't I have both? Why can't I have my baby and also still become a doctor?'"
She juggled her educational pursuits with family: Lamond-Holden got married and had two more children, Joey, 9, and Benjamin, 1.
"They respect me so much because they see I've pushed hard to give them a good life," she said of her sons. "They kind of cringe and are surprised that I can deal with blood and guts."
Lamond-Holden will start as an emergency department attending physician at the Palomar Medical Center in August. She hopes that with the more regular hours she'll have time to visit local high school and talk to the students.
"I would like to go into high school and say, 'Hey, you guys can better yourselves. Just because you have a child doesn't mean you can't follow your dreams," she told ABC News.
She encourages everyone: "I want them to know that no matter what people tell you, you can make your dreams come true. You can push through as long as you have your eye on your goal. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it."
