MEMBERS
Dr. Bullock on medical mission trip to Uganda
with patient after cardiac surgery
Josh, Smitha and Gus on vacation
Dr. Bullock and Gus
Dr. Bullock on medical mission to
Honduras for pre-op screening
about medicine in a physical sense, and cardiology is very much
physics and mechanics. Even when I was working long hours in
residency and fellowship, I was still interested in learning more
about the field.”
She stayed the course through most physicians’ toughest years,
medical school and into a residency at Cohen Children’s Medical
Center in New York. It wasn’t until she began interviewing for a
fellowship that Dr. Bullock forced an internal reckoning with her
very frazzled self.
“People didn’t talk about burnout then. And you’re young, so
you think you’re invincible. But, I had the classic symptoms. I was
burnt out,” she said. “I applied for fellowship, attended interviews,
went through all of them. I was close to the point where I had to
put in my match, and something didn’t feel right. I was having this
real moment of internal struggle.”
With the support of family and friends, Dr. Bullock stepped
away. Though she still loved medicine and the practice of cardiology
interested her to no end, something didn’t feel right.
“I realized this was what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t the right
time. I finally had the confidence to say, ‘I’m going to take a break’
and deferred my fellowship matching for a year. The decision was
scary, because you don’t know how programs will respond. But, if I
Gus with Dr. Bullock’s parents
Josh, Smitha and Gus at
adoption hearing.
didn’t make that choice, I would have been the worse for it,” she said.
With some time to regroup, Dr. Bullock took a path she’d been
eyeing for several years: medical missions. After careful consider-
ation, she joined her church for a two-week trip to Rwanda. Rather
than return home with the group, she stayed in the country for six
months.
“I’m glad I went to Rwanda. It allowed me to say for certain
‘No, this isn’t right for me now,’” she said. “That’s kind of a theme
in my life. I test myself when I’m uncertain. I find out the answer
and then move forward.”
The year she spent away from her studies was cathartic for Dr.
Bullock. In 2009, she was accepted for a fellowship at Children’s
National Medical Center in Washington DC.
While she had been able to pause her career to focus on centering
herself, Dr. Bullock’s life outside of work would not give her the same
professional courtesy. She met her husband, Josh, during the first
September of her fellowship, and the couple was soon married in DC.
They wanted a change of scenery as Dr. Bullock’s fellowship
concluded, and he threw out Louisville as a possibility. Options
were pursued, an offer was made for Dr. Bullock to join the Uni-
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