Doctors inspire man’s medical goal
Lucky to live, he hopes to save lives
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A gunshot victim whose life was saved by Detroit doctors has graduated from medical school and hopes to help others like the surgeons who treated him.
Kevin Morton Jr., 31, graduated this month from Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, The Detroit News reported. One of the surgeons who saved him, Dr. Dharti Sheth-Zelmanski, participated in the ceremony.
Morton was a 22-yearold Oakland University student in July 2007 when someone shot him while he was sitting in his car after work in the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe. The bullet passed through his stomach, diaphragm, pancreas and two main blood vessels.
Morton was taken to Detroit’s St. John Hospital, where surgeons worked for hours to remove the bullet from his abdomen and stop the bleeding. His father was told by one resident doctor that Morton wouldn’t make it through the night.
But he pulled through and survived five surgeries, about six months in the hospital and more than a year of recovery.
Now that he’s becoming a doctor, he plans to specialize in surgery so he can perform life-saving operations on other gunshot victims.
“I want to be there for someone else, and keep paying it forward,” Morton said. “If I am ever in that situation, I hope God gives me the necessary skills, confidence and steady Earlier this month, Kevin Morton Jr. visited one of the doctors who saved his life, Dr. Dharti ShethZelmanski. He brought her a cap and gown to wear when he graduated from Michigan State’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. hands to save someone’s life, like Dr. Sheth did for me.”
Sheth-Zelmanski said she was simply doing her job. She credits Morton with persevering through his injuries and turning the unfortunate event into something positive.
“He’s the hero in this,” she said. “He’s the true inspiration.”