WHITE COAT CEREMONY | Angela Tang-Tan

“This digital piece is a visual reflection on two lines of the Hippocratic Oath that my medical school class swore during our White Coat Ceremony in 2021. A doctor administers a vaccine to a baby. Behind them loom a collection of skeletons. Is the doctor holding death at bay? Or are the dead gently guiding the young physician’s hands? Many die before the advent of each lifesaving medical innovation. Before beginning medical school, I was a critical care transport EMT through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. I witnessed my patients suffocate on ventilators before a vaccine was achieved. I carry many deaths with me. “White Coat Ceremony” honors the lives of those who came before me and recognizes how they guide me still.”

 Angela Tang-Tan is a third-year medical student at Keck School of Medicine of USC. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 2020 with a dual degree in Neurobiology and Psychology before becoming an ambulance EMT during the COVID-19 pandemic. She plans to pursue a residency in neurosurgery. She has previously published two poems, “Code OB" and "Pediatric Hemicraniectomy" in the Spring 2024 Intima. Her Field Notes essay, “Top Surgery” appears in the Fall 2024 Intima.

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