AMERICA | In an extraordinary full-circle moment, Tae Butler, a young woman once treated for life-threatening cancer as a child, has earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Tae earned the degree at the the same university hospital where her life was saved at age nine. Her achievement is not only scholarly but deeply symbolic, marking the completion of a journey that began in fear and ended in purpose.
Tae's Story and How She Did It
Tae’s story began long before medical school. In 2006, during a Girl Scout summer camp, she suddenly lost her appetite, energy and returned home with swelling in her neck and bleeding gums. Three days into fourth grade, she developed a severe limp.
Her parents rushed her to the pediatrician, who discovered an alarmingly high white blood cell count. Tae was immediately referred to the UCLA Medical Center Emergency Department, where tests confirmed the devastating diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) — a rare and aggressive blood cancer.
Her father, Mitch, remembers the moment the call came. Her mother, Lisa, remembers telling her little girl, “You have cancer.” Tae’s only question: “Am I going to die?” Her mother answered firmly: “Nope, you’re going to be fine.”
That single promise carried Tae through a long and painful journey.
Tae underwent five rounds of chemotherapy, spending nearly eight months living inside the hospital. Her immune system was wiped out, leaving her isolated except for visits from her immediate family.
Her physician, Dr. Ted Moore, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and a leader in leukemia research, walked beside her family through every stage of treatment.
During her treatment, Moore immediately noticed something extraordinary about Tae. She asked more questions about her disease than most adults and displayed fierce intellectual curiosity.
Also, Moore said Tae was more worried about her parents’ emotions than her own.
Moore saw in her the qualities of a future doctor. To nurture her curiosity, he gave Tae a medical kit, complete with needles to practice blood draws, and even taught her how to listen to a heartbeat with a stethoscope.
Despite the harsh treatment and isolation, Tae thrived intellectually, beating her father in word games and keeping a log of new vocabulary. “Tae was unreal… she carried us through the process,” Mitch said.
By the time she returned to elementary school, the direction of her life was set.
She told her classmates she wanted to become a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, the same type of doctor who saved her life.
Years later, Tae pursued her passion academically. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, United States in 2019.
Her perseverance paid off again when she won a scholarship to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, returning to the very institution that once treated her.
This scholarship played a crucial role in supporting her demanding medical training and allowed her to remain close to the medical team and environment that shaped her childhood.
During her final year of medical school, Tae experienced a surreal moment. On a rotation in the hematology/oncology unit, she looked at the patient list and saw her attending physician’s name: Dr. Moore.
For the first time, she was working beside him, not as a patient, but as a doctor-in-training, a very surreal moment.
Moore described her first patient case presentation as “so thorough, better than many residents and fellows,” confirming that the young girl he once treated had become the physician he always hoped she would be.
Today, Tae is 18 years cancer-free and is halfway through her three-year pediatrics residency, after which she plans to specialize in pediatric hematology/oncology, following the exact path she dreamed of at age nine.
Tae hopes to return to UCLA for her fellowship and possibly continue working alongside Dr. Moore. Despite her demanding schedule, she says she wakes up excited for each shift.
“There is so much power in small moments of connection and kindness — that’s where the healing happens,” she said.
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