“I was only eighteen when my first daughter was born. Her name...

“I was only eighteen when my first daughter was born. Her name was Svetlana. She came down with an infection but there were no antibiotics in the hospital. I begged the doctors and nurses to tell me where to buy them. But none of them would tell me because they were afraid to go to jail. I finally found some American medicine on the black market. But weeks had already passed and it was too late. The antibiotics didn’t work and my daughter passed away. Up until that moment, I had considered becoming an artist or a dancer. But I decided then to become a doctor.”

(Moscow, Russia)