The student who works as a guard at SMURD. He is the youngest certified paramedic and researcher: “I would be on call 24/7”

She is a student in the twelfth grade and a future student of Medicine. It was clear to him that he wanted to do emergency medicine, but also research, since his first year of high school. He is the youngest certified paramedic and the records don’t stop there.

Bianca Maria Oană is a 12th grade student at the Saint Sava National College in Bucharest, majoring in Natural Sciences. She is enjoying the last vacation of her high school life as it could not be more fitting for her nature: doing guards at SMURD and accumulating specialized knowledge in the BAETC (Basic & Advanced Emergency Training Camp), an important summer camp for medical students, being the youngest participant and the only student accepted.

The first research, in the 9th grade

Bianca says she knew she wanted to be a doctor since grade school, when she had her first encounters, both positive and negative, with the medical system. What is certain is that they motivated her to do everything possible to become a lifesaver. In the 9th grade, he enrolled in the first research program, at the Boston Leadership Institute. It was an intense two weeks, the young woman confesses, and the ones that opened her appetite for research.

“I learned, so to speak, the basics of research. I did a final research project on drug-resistant epilepsy and hemispherectomy, and it’s very interesting that later, as a paramedic, I actually went to a patient with Rasmussen syndrome (the syndrome I focused on, mostly, in my work)” dBianca revealed.

In the first year of high school, he exploited all the opportunities that arose to be in contact with medicine. He attended various courses, became a Red Cross volunteer and even ended up teaching first aid courses at events. Regarding the teaching experience, Bianca says that she had an unexpected surprise when, as a paramedic, she arrived at a medical case, and the patient’s grandson had already started resuscitation based on the concepts he learned during the “Resuscitation Marathon”, manifestation within which she also taught.

“I wanted more, so I signed up for the project at ISUBIF and there I completed the two courses, the initial course and the basic life support course, and later I went to events and did quite a large number of volunteer hours in subunits and also at events”, the student details her journey.

The first student from Romania admitted to the Penn Medicine Summer Program

The vacation between Class X and Class XI provided him with a tremendous opportunity. She was the first student from Romania admitted, with a scholarship, to the summer medicine program at the Perelman School of Medicine (Penn Medicine Summer Program).

“The scholarship allowed me to arrive in the USA, in Pennsylvania. The course was four weeks. There were quite long periods in which I stayed in Intensive Care, in the Emergency Room, and I saw how everything unfolded, I interacted with patients, I learned many basic and specialized skills”, said the student. She was accredited by the American Heart Associasion in first aid, she saw live surgeries, all the experience in the US convinced her that she had chosen the right path.

Things have also evolved in Romania. He accumulated a large number of hours as a volunteer, the progress was also seen as a result of the summer school experience, so his instructors recommended him to take the paramedic course, which he graduated, he says, with the highest average (10 in the theoretical test and 9.50 in the practical test). Thus he became the youngest certified paramedic. The next step was to transfer, also at the suggestion of his instructors, as a paramedic to Târgu-Mureș, the center that represents the basis of emergency medicine in Romania. He did it during the spring break, and since April he is a volunteer at ISU Mureș and works as a guard here.
“It’s quite addictive. Since I started guarding there are periods when I would be on guard non-stop”, says the young woman.

The Bucharest-Târgu Mureș shuttle has become a regular one, and parents support it without reservation. He gets here as often as he can to stand guard. You would say that there is no more room for passions, except that, says Bianca, medicine is her passion, and research has also become a hobby. Everything she achieved in the three years of high school helps her, she is convinced, for what will follow: the Baccalaureate exam and admission to Medicine.

“It is not so difficult for me to learn. I memorize very quickly in general. If I’m paying attention and I’m passionate about a subject, and I usually am, I really retain super well. I’ve always liked mathematics, Physics as well, since primary school, I’ve been an Olympian”, eBianca explains why she believes that this last year of high school will not be difficult to get through.

Author of research to be published in the International Journal of Health Sciences and Research

Although he reserves as much time as possible for SMURD volunteering, he also continued to devote himself to research.

“Research makes me do medicine better. I feel the best when I do these things”says Bianca. The first research experience was in the 9th grade, the last year in which she also went to the Olympics, later realizing that the experience from the various research programs helps her much more. He searched online for such courses, for which he needed a recommendation, wrote an essay and counted the average he graduated with.

In the 10th grade, he approached the field again, carrying out a project during an internship in which young people tried to develop biosensors for measuring blood glucose from sweat. It was another step into the experience that took her completely by surprise. Last November he received the invitation to work under the coordination of professors from Stanford and Harvard. The work done is to be published in the International Journal of Health Sciences and Research, the young woman’s success being an exceptional one.

“Tthese experiences mattered a lot when I applied for the research fellowship—which I was incredibly surprised to receive—to work with a professor at Stanford. This scholarship had somewhere around 6% acceptance rate, so I was surprised. It was just on research. (…) My work is the first meta-analysis focused only on a particular subtype of rare brain cancer (2,606 mutations analyzed from the genetic profiles of patients), because I was interested in the part of neuro brain tumors”, explained Bianca Oană. It is a research on a rare type of brain tumor (sonic hedgehog-activated medulloblastoma), results to be published in IJHSR (International Journal of Health Sciences and Research).

The results of his research can be starting points for other research. Based on these, a recommendation was made to change the way this type of tumor is classified. Another discovery is related to how these cancers might metastasize, involving the cerebrospinal fluid and not the blood, as is currently known. The student worked from November 2023 until March 2024, the period being a demanding one, in which she had to synchronize her schedule with that of the teachers who coordinated her.

The project he would like to see developed on a large scale

Bianca Maria Oană has so much to say that the time allotted for an interview, even if it were hours, is not enough. The young woman also talks excitedly about the “There is a hero in each of you” project, which she would like to see expanded on a large scale. It would be a great chance given to patients that first aid crews are unable to reach in time. The program requires certified first aiders, voluntarily enrolled in the program, to be called if a patient needs emergency intervention and the volunteer is within a 1 km radius. As part of this program, Bianca performed the first resuscitation of her activity as a volunteer, on a patient from Bucharest.

In this regard, he proposed to develop a digital application with the help of which qualified personnel can be alerted in cases of emergency. She has many other ideas that she would like to develop and that she is convinced that she will be able to put into practice. As for the future, he would like to study medicine in the United States of America, because the system there would allow him to approach both research and medicine in parallel. Towards the end of this year, she would find out which university she will be admitted to. He would like to develop professionally abroad, but he would also like to practice in the country, and the most likely option is to work abroad for part of the year, and for a few months in Romania.