DR. WHO
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
LINA MACKELAITE, MD
AUTHOR Aaron Burch
O
ur physicians wear many hats across their professional and
personal lives, and Dr. Lina Mackelaite is no exception.
She is a nephrologist, a mother of three, a wife, a dancer,
a musician and a European immigrant. This month she’s
also Louisville Medicine’s Dr. Who. Dr. Mackelaite would have pursued a career as a cellist, but her
mother encouraged her to be a physician instead. “My mother is a
very strong woman,” Dr. Mackelaite said. “She worried I wouldn’t be
able to sustain myself as a musician and said I should be a doctor.
I said, ‘…Maybe?’”
From her office, nestled in a quiet corner of the Frazier
Medical Center, Dr. Mackelaite shared the story of how
she grew up in Vilnius, the capitol of Lithuania, began a career in
medicine and moved to the United States with her husband, Dr.
Zygimantas Alsauskas. Pre-medicine studies don’t exist in Lithuania as they do in the
States. Instead, when students who are interested in medicine finish
high school, they go directly to a six-year medical school program.
Dr. Mackelaite decided to give the program a chance.
As a child, Dr. Mackelaite and her younger sister, Jurgita, spent
much of their free time on their grandmother and aunt’s farm. “We
had a lot of freedom; nobody felt like they had to entertain us,” Dr.
Mackelaite remembered. “I worked and helped with the animals.
They had a lot of cherry and apple trees, so I picked fruit during
summers until I was 10.”
Dr. Mackelaite enjoyed math and critical thinking from an early
age, perhaps due in part to her father being an engineer and her
mother, an economist. However, her career interests were elsewhere.
She wanted to be a musician and practiced the cello for many years.
“In Lithuania, music schools visit pre-schools and look for any-
one who has pitch or rhythm. They tell the children to sing or tap
something to see if they have potential,” she explained. “I guess I
tapped the right way, because I was invited to join a music school.”
Although she wanted to play the flute, the very young Dr. Mack-
elaite didn’t know what the instrument was called. “They offered me
the cello, and I agreed, not knowing what it was. I really didn’t know
what I was going to play when I walked into class,” she laughed. “But,
I really enjoyed the cello once I got the hang of it. I still have mine
to this day and have tried to start playing again recently.”
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
“The first two years were basic courses,” she explained. “In year
one, you have math, physics and chemistry. In year two, there’s
physiology and anatomy. Then, you begin your clinical work. There
was a lot of anxiety, and a lot of studying through the night. It wasn’t
all bad though; I met my husband in our first year and we started
dating the year after.”
Despite the duress of completing medical school, Dr. Mackelaite’s
interest in nephrology developed quite naturally. “I mentioned that I
love numbers. Part of what I enjoy about medicine is when you can
find concrete facts for diagnosis. When a patient gets kidney failure,
you know it is kidney failure. You see the blood work and know the
physiology, and I think that’s what attracted me to the field. Plus,
people tend to stay in the specialties where their mentors are, and I
had three charming and good nephrology attendings. Those things
combined made me choose the profession fairly easily.”
As their studies concluded, Dr. Mackelaite and Dr. Alsauskas
were married in a castle in Vilnius. They began to look towards their
future and studying in the US seemed promising. Initially, it was Dr.
Alsauskas’ idea to move as he had family here, and the opportunities
seemed much greater than they would be in Lithuania.
“We traveled to America prior to moving here. We visited Chica-
go and Florida and took our skill assessment exam in Philadelphia.”