REMEMBER THIS DOG
FROM MATCH DAY?
M
eet Duke, the first dog to take
After adopting him, we nursed him back to full health and along the way
part in College of Medicine realized he had an amazingly gentle and calming spirit. He struggled with
Match Day ceremonies. See those severe separation anxiety from my wife due to his unknown past. So we
two humans with him? They’re decided we should have him registered as a therapy animal for her. That
Chase West, from the Class of way, we could take him more places.
2018, and his wife, Bridgette.
When she’s anxious, he instinctively puts all of his weight on her chest
Duke is Bridgette’s therapy and reminds her to breathe. He sleeps beside her bed and follows her
animal, helping her deal with wherever she goes.
the long-term effects of a traumatic collision that crumpled her family’s life. This is their
story, as told by Chase:
Bridgette, 29 now, was in a head-on collision with her entire family
She started with walking him around malls and shopping centers with
his vest on. Duke took to that as if he’d been born to do it. Eventually we
even started bringing him to my geriatric community events in Tallahassee,
at age 13 when a mother who was trying to
where the elders fell in love with him, and
discipline her children in the backseat ran her volunteer events in the poverty-stricken heart of
SUV into oncoming traffic. Bridgette and her Orlando, where he helped change the views of
father took the brunt of the collision. Her father many who’d had negative impressions of pit bulls.
experienced a traumatic brain injury and was in a He’s our baby boy, and we’ve never met a person
coma for months. who hasn’t fallen in love with him.
My wife dislocated her left hip; fractured her
Now that I’ve matched with Orlando Regional
pelvis, left tibia and four toes on her left foot; Medical Center for internal medicine, Bridgette
and crush-fractured her right ankle. She was in a is enrolling Duke into the Animal Therapy
cast from the waist down for months and had to Program there. He’ll receive formal training and
have years of physical therapy. be certified to work as a therapy animal for their
Unfortunately, due to the hip dislocation, she
patients.
ended up developing a vascular necrosis in the
Chase has quite a story of his own. He and his siblings
left head of the femur and had a total left hip
replacement at 16.
Her father never truly recovered, and her family has dealt with the
were raised by a single mother with bipolar disorder who
struggled with addiction. Despite his rootless childhood and his ADHD, he excelled as
an undergraduate, made it into medical school and become an accomplished leader, even
repercussions ever since. The physical trauma was obvious throughout, but leading the American Geriatric Society chapter to recognition as FSU’s Organization
not the emotional tra uma. Ever since that day, she had dealt with major of the Year.
PTSD and body dysmorphia due to disfiguring scars.
Fast-forward to our first year at the College of Medicine. We had
In his third year, suddenly his life turned upside down when his mother’s mental and
physical health took a nosedive. Swamped by the responsibilities of caring for her, he
already adopted a 10-week-old puppy a year earlier from a rescue shelter even failed one of his clerkships. Yet he is grateful beyond measure to the College of
in Gainesville, but we knew she was in desperate need of a playmate now Medicine. “FSU was always my dream school because of their mission,” he says. “And
that I’d be away so often with school. even with my slightly-below-average MCAT scores, they gave me a chance to prove
fell in love with Duke, a 1.5-year-old, emaciated and abused pit bull who
myself. I have struggled with standardized testing all my life, but I knew that with the
right environment, I could thrive.”
So my wife went to the Tallahassee animal shelter, where she instantly
only wanted to be held. He’s now the second-best man in her life.
Duke, with Bridgette and
Chase West during the
Match Day ceremony.
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