Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Shay Taylor-Allen.
Shay Taylor-Allen recently matched as a resident as Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. “For a decade,” says the Washington Post, “Taylor-Allen worked as a janitor there.“

I’ve followed a guy on Instagram for some years who made the journey from janitor to doctor. It took hard work, hope, and a very supportive wife. Today I learn about a woman who is making that same transition. Sydney Page at the Washington Post has the story.

“For about a decade, Shay Taylor-Allen walked the halls of Yale New Haven Hospital pushing a janitor’s cart. She mopped patient rooms, disinfected surfaces and emptied the trash.

“Soon, she’ll walk the halls of the hospital again, this time wearing a white coat.

“Taylor-Allen, 32, recently matched into an anesthesiology residency at Yale New Haven Hospital — where she spent most of her adult life working as part of the cleaning staff. …

“Taylor-Allen’s connection to Yale New Haven Hospital started in October 1993, when she was born in the hospital’s maternity ward. She grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and was raised by a single mother of three. She graduated from Wilbur Cross High School in 2010 and was in the top 10 percent of her class, she said. …

“Taylor-Allen said she had little guidance at school, and since no one in her family had gone to college, she wasn’t sure how to approach applying. … She applied for a few positions at Yale New Haven Hospital and landed a job as a janitor when she was 18.

” ‘It was a lot of busy work,’ she said. But it was also rewarding, she said, because she enjoyed connecting with patients.

“ ‘I think a lot of patients come in with mistrust of doctors and nurses, so they build trust with service workers because they feel like they’re one of us,’ Taylor-Allen said. “Sometimes they just needed somebody to talk to about anything else in the world other than their sickness.’ …

“But she was sure it would not be her long-term career.

“ ‘I knew I wanted to do something other than be a janitor, I just didn’t know what that was,’ Taylor-Allen said.

“She started college in 2013 at Southern Connecticut State University and continued her janitorial job full time. Her mother had become ill, so Taylor-Allen was also helping look after her younger brother.

“Shortly before Taylor-Allen started college, her family home caught on fire, and for years after, her mother had difficulty breathing.

“ ‘She explained that it was like breathing through a straw,’ Taylor-Allen said.

“She repeatedly took her mother to Yale New Haven Hospital, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. ‘They would just write it off as mental illness,’ Taylor-Allen said. ‘This was my first time learning about a health care disparity.’

“She decided to email Marna P. Borgstrom, then the chief executive of Yale New Haven Hospital, as she had cleaned her office before. She knew the chances of getting a response were slim.

“ ‘She emailed me back within that day,’ Taylor-Allen said, adding that Borgstrom arranged several appointments for Taylor-Allen’s mother with a new medical team, and they diagnosed her with vocal cord dysfunction, a condition that obstructs the airway.

“ ‘She advocated for my mom,’ Taylor-Allen said of Borgstrom. ‘Seeing advocacy first-hand truly pushed me to want to do it as well.’

“She decided to apply to medical school. When she told her college adviser her goal of becoming a doctor … “I just don’t see it for you,” ‘ Taylor-Allen recalled him saying.

“Taylor-Allen was undeterred. She got her master’s degree at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University to bolster her science background — all while keeping her job as a janitor.

“When it came time to apply to medical school in 2019, she was initially rejected from the more than 20 schools she applied to. That’s when she connected with Gena Foster, an assistant professor of medicine in hematology at Yale School of Medicine, and Foster became Taylor-Allen’s mentor. …

“Foster helped Taylor-Allen restructure her medical school application.

“ ‘It’s impossible for somebody to get into medical school and become a physician without mentorship,’ Foster said. …

“Taylor-Allen was waitlisted at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., but eventually was accepted and began classes in 2021. …

“During medical school, Taylor-Allen said she always hoped to return to New Haven and complete her residency at Yale. She did a rotation in anesthesia last November, and it solidified her desire to work there. …

“ ‘I still can’t really talk about it without tearing up,’ Foster said. ‘She’s going to be my colleague. It’s so cool. I’m so excited.’ ”

More at WaPo, here.