MEMBERS
DR. Who
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT RODICA TURCU, MD
Aaron Burch
One of Louisville’ s leading neonatologists, Dr. Rodica Turcu, called Bucharest, Romania her home for many years. Under the Communist rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu from 1965 to 1989, Romania was a tightly controlled regime subject to mass surveillance, rations of basic supplies and the whims of secret police. The young Dr. Turcu knew no other life.
“ Things were very different in the Communist time,” she recalled.“ Everyone was very concerned about day to day life. No one was thinking about having fun or planning for the future, you just had to make a living.”
As an only child, Dr. Turcu would sit in bed for hours reading state approved history books.“ I’ m sure they were all tweaked a little bit by the regime at the time. We were allowed positive exposure to everything within the Communist Bloc. If you wanted to read about the other side of the wall, you’ d only get the negative parts.”
Her father was an engineer and her mother was a pharmacist, but Dr. Turcu knew from an early age that she would be a physician.“ My mom said,‘ You’ re going to go to medical school. I said,‘ Sure mom.’ It was an easy decision.” Being a doctor would allow for a better life. In an oppressive society such as Communist Romania, that was an important goal.
The decision was easy, but being accepted into medical school was not quite the same in Romania as it is here. At the time, there were five medical schools to choose from. Each would-be student could apply to only one. Then, all candidates took exams in physics, chemistry and biology. The highest averages between the three tests got in. Everyone else fell short.
“ Nobody really worries about hurt feelings. Your name is below the line? Too bad. Study harder. The next chance is next year,” Dr. Turcu said.
Although she had high scores in physics and chemistry, biology brought her average down. Two times in a row, Dr. Turcu didn’ t make the cut. She willed herself to keep studying and took a job as a phlebotomist while she memorized the biology text. There was a silver lining, however. Being a phlebotomist taught her patient care skills which she’ d use for years to come.
Her third try for medical school was the charm. Dr. Turcu was accepted to begin her training in the summer of 1989. A few months later, the Communist regime was overthrown. As she was taking her first steps towards a career in medicine, the previously impossible concept of having“ a normal life” was spreading throughout Romania. The Berlin Wall had fallen, and there were political upheavals taking place throughout Eastern Europe. On a wave of unrest, the violent Romanian Revolution began that winter.
“ The people of Romania thought‘ It’ s our turn,” Dr. Turcu remembered.“ People went out in the street that December to force out the dictator. There were gunshots everywhere. We didn’ t know from whom or why. It was chaos.”
The insurrection came to an end with a new regime and a rejuvenated populace. Dr. Turcu’ s family remained safe as a new chapter began for herself and her country.
Soon she began dating Razvan Turcu, and they married in 1993. He studied finance and engineering as Dr. Turcu continued medical school. After medical school she completed her first pediatric residency, also in Bucharest, at the Marie Curie Children’ s Hospital. It was there she would meet a boy who changed her life and brought her to America.
“ The plot is thick,” Dr. Turcu laughed.“ I’ d just given birth to our son, Adrian. I was in my third year of residency or so when I met this little boy. He was five and would come in every few months with a very strange condition, a recurring pocket of lymph around his lung. No one knew what was causing it, but we attempted to fix it every single time. I put so many tubes in that poor boy. He’ d come for treatment all the time, over Easter and Christmas. He became like my little son.”
The boy’ s mother was fierce and protective. The city they lived in, an hour outside of Bucharest, was visited by a team of American physicians on a mission trip. The mother heard the Americans were
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Editor’ s Note: Welcome to Louisville Medicine’ s member spotlight section, Dr. Who? In the interest of simply getting to know each other as a society of colleagues, we’ ll be highlighting random GLMS physicians on a regular basis. If you would like to recommend any GLMS physician member to the Editorial Board for this section, please e-mail aaron. burch @ glms. org or call him at 736-6338.
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